I have two freshwater shrimps :-D

[hiddenhome]

Our local aquatic centre are selling freshwater shrimps. They said that they're usually used as fishfood for the larger saltwater fish, but they ended up with these somehow and they've done well in coldwater, so are now selling them as pets.

They're small and whitish and look like interesting additions.

I removed the old weed when I was tidying the tank and put it into a bowl in the kitchen window with some pebbles. There are lots of minute snails in it now I don't know whether they've come from the watercress that I popped in there, or the fishtank weed.

I had a couple, they were eaten by the ordinary fresh water fish we had.

Oh dear

I can't see them in the tank at the moment, but there is a lot of weed in there. I hope they don't get eaten.

our fish weren't particularly hungry or agressive. I think they just nibbled bits of the prawns and went too far.

One of the rules of fishkeeping is that if anything is small enough to get eaten then it will get eaten. If you've got small tetras, guppies or anything like that then the shrimp should be OK. They are probably river shrimp, those are the ones normally sold as food. This is a great site for info.

Snails pop up everywhere, they are pretty much an inevitable part of fishkeeping. Don't try to get rid of them, you'll drive yourself nuts. As long as you take care not to overfeed your fish then they shouldn't become a problem. Just give the fish what they can eat in 2-3 mins and scoop out any left overs.