The Shrimp Tank

[Martinspuddle]

I was planning on moving the 12 neons to my 260 tank, will they be ok with the 5 penguin and 5 redeye tetra already in there? Plenty of room, its only about 75% full.

Should be, I wouldn't of thought the Red eyes or Penguins would take much notice of the Neons shoal especially if you have good cover for them, personally I've never tried this mix before. Red eyed Tetras do have a reputation as a bit of a fin nipper as do Penguins sometimes but you do have a groups so they should keep it among themselves. What else is in you 260?

[jacksdad]

I've got the tetras plus 3 honey gourami, 3 harlequins, 4 zebra danio and 10 mixed Corys.

[Martinspuddle]

I've got the tetras plus 3 honey gourami, 3 harlequins, 4 zebra danio and 10 mixed Corys.

Sorry for the delay, long nights drive.

Just watch your Gouramis, they may not take to kindly to unwelcome attentions from those Red eyed Tetras. I have had larger Tetras in the past try and nip the pelvic fins of Gouramis.

Otherwise all should be OK.

[jacksdad]

I have been watching them: the red eyes especially are getting quite big! The penguins are the trouble causers really, always chasing the danio and harlequins, I even had a danio with its lower jaw bitten off, had to finish it off, I think it was a penguin that attacked it
The male honey gourami spends all his time in his nest, and the 2 females are fine, right now all three are inside the nest, I'm hoping for babies soon!

[plankton]

Fingers crossed.
Honeys are notoriously difficult to raise though......

[Martinspuddle]

I have been watching them: the red eyes especially are getting quite big! The penguins are the trouble causers really, always chasing the danio and harlequins, I even had a danio with its lower jaw bitten off, had to finish it off, I think it was a penguin that attacked it

That Penguin Tetra is some fish, how the hell did it keep up with a Danio?!!

Penguin Tetras can be nippy but I've never know one do that before. You sure you've not got something larger lurking in there you may just forgotten about?!

[Si4geckos]

I have been watching them: the red eyes especially are getting quite big! The penguins are the trouble causers really, always chasing the danio and harlequins, I even had a danio with its lower jaw bitten off, had to finish it off, I think it was a penguin that attacked it
The male honey gourami spends all his time in his nest, and the 2 females are fine, right now all three are inside the nest, I'm hoping for babies soon!

As Plankton said, honeys are hard to raise. I got loads of fry, but all but 2 died off. The 2 that made it to the main tank and were big enough to be set free did fine for 3/4 days, then I went on holiday for a week and they were never seen again I was going to have another go but on of the adults died which made things tricky. Only got females left now. Be interesting to see how you fair if you get fry. I believe it's very much possible.

[jacksdad]

The male honey has stopped building his bubble nest He seems fine and is still in full breeding colours but the bubbles have all gone.
The penguins are the second biggest fish in the tank, the red eyes are just getting a little larger. The former do indeed chase the danio, I've just watched one in particular chasing! Maybe its got a big attitude problem
It doesn't appear to catch them, but I did have one killed, its lower jaw/face area removed completely as if a shark had bit it, never seen such an injury in a fish tank

[jacksdad]

Mr Gourami is back on nest building duty, hopefully I'll see some results this time! Not managed to catch any more neons as yet, I've ordered a small net which should help, I don't want to disturb the shrimp and the babies so not been trying too much, today I spotted 8 babies in one go! Only found 5 before now, but they are growing really quickly, so getting easier to see
And, one mother is still berried, not sure about the other yet, surely she should have given birth by now?

[jacksdad]

Today the small net arrived, so I left the big net on one side of tank and used the small one to steer the neons into the big un...worked a treat
First try I caught two, next time 4 at once, they just swam right in! Only found 11 so one died and was eaten by the snails and shrimps, never found a trace of it.
What a massive change to the shrimp!

Once they had settled after all the disturbance, they basically emerged from hiding en masse. Literally within 15 minutes I've counted all 8 adults...and 15 babies! I added a Capatta leaf a few days ago, it sank to the bottom but was untouched, and now one adult shrimp is on top and 3 babies are underneath, feeding away. It seems pretty obvious that they were all hiding from the neons, BIG MISTAKE BY ME!
I've seen more of the shrimp in the last hour than ever before, right now as I sit opposite the tank, I can see 2 babies swimming around in the open area at the front of the tank, no longer hiding away in the plants.
The neons look great in the 260 tank, they are shoaling together and have loads more room, definitely a good day for all