Freshwater Invertebrates

We talk all of the time about fish and plants and water chemistry but
it seems like freshwater invertebrates rarely come up except in the
context of "how do I get rid of these things?" However I have been
keeping a number of invertebrates for a while now and I think they
really do improve the quality of my tanks - both visually and
chemically. I'd like to see what experiences others have in this area
and ask a few specific questions.

We all know pretty much all we need to know about freshwater snails. I
keep three varieties in my tanks - ramshorn, pond, and trumpet. They
aren't picky and proliferate excessively in any water conditions that
don't include copper. So if you have something interesting to add about
these little guys then by all means do so but for now I'll move on to
more interesting specimens.

Lumbriculus variegatus is an interesting choice. These are the
blackworms that many of us use as live food. But try feeding an
excessive amount of them once or twice - your fish won't be able to eat
them all and many will escape into the substrate to live out their
lives. You'll see them poke their tails up above the substrate whenever
predators aren't around in order to get better oxygen flow over their
bodies. If you have them in a fishless tank you'll even get to see them
swim in a very cool double helical pattern. I love these guys because I
have a self sustaining colony of them and they are a huge help when I'm
adding a new fish. During any new arrival's adjustment period they have
a natural live food snack to hunt for while adjusting to my normal
feeding schedule. Also the black worms help break down decaying matter
in the substrate into a form that the plants can use - the perfect
missing link than many aquariums need! They are also a favorite snack
of ghost shrimp.

Which brings us to another great invert. Shrimp. I keep ghost shrimp
and often see the females carrying eggs but alas the babies never grow
to adulthood. I suspect they get eaten by the fish and other shrimp in
the tank. Has anyone had success breeding shrmip in a community tank?
If so what kind of shrimp and how? At any rate these are another
wonderful substrate cleaner - any dropped food or bits of garbage will
quickly be collected and broken down by most shrimp.

The invert that I'm most interested in at the moment would be the
bivalves. I have half a dozen golden clams in my tank but this is
hardly enough to satisfy me. All of my other invert populations are
constantly reproducing except these guys. Has anyone had any success at
all with getting a freshwater bivalve of any type to reproduce in
normal aquarium settings? I'm hesitant to collect local specimens as I
suspect they are used to a much higher oxygen content than I can
provide from cold waters and fast running rivers. I may try it
eventually but for now I'm learning all that I can about them before
giving it a shot. I've kept golden clams for a while now with some
success, they seem happy and I watch them dig and move around
occasionally, mostly they just sit still and filter. Half a dozen of
them aren't enough to make much of a difference in the water quality
but I suspect if I could get a self sustaining colony of bivalves a
population explosion would quickly do some impressive things. Anyone
with bivalve breeding experience please speak up!

And of course there is always the occasional millimeter long worm
inching it's way across the aquarium glass or a tiny hydra attached to
a rock. These are interesting but nearly impossible to keep in any
large quantities since they seem to be prime food for small fish. Of
course I'm not even sure I would want to keep them in large quantities
- I like seeing them occasionaly but I don't think that I would like to
see them bloom.

My quest for the most natural aquarium I can achieve marches on and I
would like to hear the experiences of everyone else who has kept
invertibrates in large numbers. IMHO these guys are improving water
quality and tank interest immensly, they truly are the difference
between a tank full of fish and a tank exploding with natural life.

-Daniel

"dfreas" wrote in message
oups.com...
We talk all of the time about fish and plants and water chemistry but
it seems like freshwater invertebrates rarely come up except in the
context of "how do I get rid of these things?" However I have been
keeping a number of invertebrates for a while now and I think they
really do improve the quality of my tanks - both visually and
chemically. I'd like to see what experiences others have in this area
and ask a few specific questions.

We all know pretty much all we need to know about freshwater snails. I
keep three varieties in my tanks - ramshorn, pond, and trumpet. They
aren't picky and proliferate excessively in any water conditions that
don't include copper. So if you have something interesting to add about
these little guys then by all means do so but for now I'll move on to
more interesting specimens.

Lumbriculus variegatus is an interesting choice. These are the
blackworms that many of us use as live food. But try feeding an
excessive amount of them once or twice - your fish won't be able to eat
them all and many will escape into the substrate to live out their
lives. You'll see them poke their tails up above the substrate whenever
predators aren't around in order to get better oxygen flow over their
bodies. If you have them in a fishless tank you'll even get to see them
swim in a very cool double helical pattern. I love these guys because I
have a self sustaining colony of them and they are a huge help when I'm
adding a new fish. During any new arrival's adjustment period they have
a natural live food snack to hunt for while adjusting to my normal
feeding schedule. Also the black worms help break down decaying matter
in the substrate into a form that the plants can use - the perfect
missing link than many aquariums need! They are also a favorite snack
of ghost shrimp.

Which brings us to another great invert. Shrimp. I keep ghost shrimp
and often see the females carrying eggs but alas the babies never grow
to adulthood. I suspect they get eaten by the fish and other shrimp in
the tank. Has anyone had success breeding shrmip in a community tank?
If so what kind of shrimp and how? At any rate these are another
wonderful substrate cleaner - any dropped food or bits of garbage will
quickly be collected and broken down by most shrimp.

The invert that I'm most interested in at the moment would be the
bivalves. I have half a dozen golden clams in my tank but this is
hardly enough to satisfy me. All of my other invert populations are
constantly reproducing except these guys. Has anyone had any success at
all with getting a freshwater bivalve of any type to reproduce in
normal aquarium settings? I'm hesitant to collect local specimens as I
suspect they are used to a much higher oxygen content than I can
provide from cold waters and fast running rivers. I may try it
eventually but for now I'm learning all that I can about them before
giving it a shot. I've kept golden clams for a while now with some
success, they seem happy and I watch them dig and move around
occasionally, mostly they just sit still and filter. Half a dozen of
them aren't enough to make much of a difference in the water quality
but I suspect if I could get a self sustaining colony of bivalves a
population explosion would quickly do some impressive things. Anyone
with bivalve breeding experience please speak up!

And of course there is always the occasional millimeter long worm
inching it's way across the aquarium glass or a tiny hydra attached to
a rock. These are interesting but nearly impossible to keep in any
large quantities since they seem to be prime food for small fish. Of
course I'm not even sure I would want to keep them in large quantities
- I like seeing them occasionaly but I don't think that I would like to
see them bloom.

My quest for the most natural aquarium I can achieve marches on and I
would like to hear the experiences of everyone else who has kept
invertibrates in large numbers. IMHO these guys are improving water
quality and tank interest immensly, they truly are the difference
between a tank full of fish and a tank exploding with natural life.

-Daniel


I enjoyed your post. I can't add much to your questions, as my level of
experience with bivalves, shrimp and worms is at about the same level as
yourself. However I've found that one of the keys to keeping inverts is
a predator-free (no fish) feeding area.

To this end, I've had some success with Echinodorous tenellus (think of a
miniature chain straight-leaf corkscrew) covering a wide area of the
substrate, so the inverts could wander around with some protection. The
tenellus needs to be thickly planted (which it'll do on its own,
eventually).

Sunset hygro has worked even better, but this one tries to grow
vertically, so you need to push the new growths back into the substrate.
With enough 'training' it's not too difficult to get the hygro to cover
your substrate, and the leaves then form a canopy about 2-1/2" above the
substrate, more than enough room for inverts to wander around unmolested.
It's a pleasant sight to see the fish swimming a few inches above the
invertebrates, almost like getting two aquariums for the price of one
;~). hth
--
www.NetMax.tk

Our school purchased a 55-gallon "natural aquarium ecosystem" ... with
newts, frogs, fish, live plants, etc ... The fish include swordtails, two
types of guppies, kullie loaches, clown loaches, & silver dollars. In
addition to the main tank, there is an attached "swamp" that *should* be
devoid of fish - just plants, invertebrates, protists, etc ... I'm trying
to incorporate the tank into my classes - doing water quality testing
regularly with my chemistry students and encouraging the biology teachers to
use it also!

I took my class to a local river last fall and did some sampling - we added
several invertebrates from the river to the aquarium tank, including a
damselfly nymph that eventually transformed into a full-grown damselfly
within the aquarium! There were about 8 small crayfish ... but lately I see
only one or two large survivors. I assume that when they molt they are
vulnerable to the other crayfish. The swamp is teaming with hydra, some
copepods living tubifex worms, planaria, and daphnia. There are also two
species of snails in there. The back of the aquarium has rocks that are
above water, with live moss and other plants growing there. We've got
crickets and mealworms living above water - although the crickets have a
gift for jumping into the water and drowning where they then decompose or
become food for the newts and frogs.

The guy who builds these and sold us one has got me going with this. We're
now trying to culture the daphnia, along with mealworms and possibly some
algae. I'm thinking of devoting a 2nd 30-gallon tank just to plants and
invertebrates.

Mike

"NetMax" wrote in message
. ..
"dfreas" wrote in message
oups.com...
We talk all of the time about fish and plants and water chemistry but
it seems like freshwater invertebrates rarely come up except in the
context of "how do I get rid of these things?" However I have been
keeping a number of invertebrates for a while now and I think they
really do improve the quality of my tanks - both visually and
chemically. I'd like to see what experiences others have in this area
and ask a few specific questions.

We all know pretty much all we need to know about freshwater snails. I
keep three varieties in my tanks - ramshorn, pond, and trumpet. They
aren't picky and proliferate excessively in any water conditions that
don't include copper. So if you have something interesting to add about
these little guys then by all means do so but for now I'll move on to
more interesting specimens.

Lumbriculus variegatus is an interesting choice. These are the
blackworms that many of us use as live food. But try feeding an
excessive amount of them once or twice - your fish won't be able to eat
them all and many will escape into the substrate to live out their
lives. You'll see them poke their tails up above the substrate whenever
predators aren't around in order to get better oxygen flow over their
bodies. If you have them in a fishless tank you'll even get to see them
swim in a very cool double helical pattern. I love these guys because I
have a self sustaining colony of them and they are a huge help when I'm
adding a new fish. During any new arrival's adjustment period they have
a natural live food snack to hunt for while adjusting to my normal
feeding schedule. Also the black worms help break down decaying matter
in the substrate into a form that the plants can use - the perfect
missing link than many aquariums need! They are also a favorite snack
of ghost shrimp.

Which brings us to another great invert. Shrimp. I keep ghost shrimp
and often see the females carrying eggs but alas the babies never grow
to adulthood. I suspect they get eaten by the fish and other shrimp in
the tank. Has anyone had success breeding shrmip in a community tank?
If so what kind of shrimp and how? At any rate these are another
wonderful substrate cleaner - any dropped food or bits of garbage will
quickly be collected and broken down by most shrimp.

The invert that I'm most interested in at the moment would be the
bivalves. I have half a dozen golden clams in my tank but this is
hardly enough to satisfy me. All of my other invert populations are
constantly reproducing except these guys. Has anyone had any success at
all with getting a freshwater bivalve of any type to reproduce in
normal aquarium settings? I'm hesitant to collect local specimens as I
suspect they are used to a much higher oxygen content than I can
provide from cold waters and fast running rivers. I may try it
eventually but for now I'm learning all that I can about them before
giving it a shot. I've kept golden clams for a while now with some
success, they seem happy and I watch them dig and move around
occasionally, mostly they just sit still and filter. Half a dozen of
them aren't enough to make much of a difference in the water quality
but I suspect if I could get a self sustaining colony of bivalves a
population explosion would quickly do some impressive things. Anyone
with bivalve breeding experience please speak up!

And of course there is always the occasional millimeter long worm
inching it's way across the aquarium glass or a tiny hydra attached to
a rock. These are interesting but nearly impossible to keep in any
large quantities since they seem to be prime food for small fish. Of
course I'm not even sure I would want to keep them in large quantities
- I like seeing them occasionaly but I don't think that I would like to
see them bloom.

My quest for the most natural aquarium I can achieve marches on and I
would like to hear the experiences of everyone else who has kept
invertibrates in large numbers. IMHO these guys are improving water
quality and tank interest immensly, they truly are the difference
between a tank full of fish and a tank exploding with natural life.

-Daniel


I enjoyed your post. I can't add much to your questions, as my level of
experience with bivalves, shrimp and worms is at about the same level as
yourself. However I've found that one of the keys to keeping inverts is a
predator-free (no fish) feeding area.

To this end, I've had some success with Echinodorous tenellus (think of a
miniature chain straight-leaf corkscrew) covering a wide area of the
substrate, so the inverts could wander around with some protection. The
tenellus needs to be thickly planted (which it'll do on its own,
eventually).

Sunset hygro has worked even better, but this one tries to grow
vertically, so you need to push the new growths back into the substrate.
With enough 'training' it's not too difficult to get the hygro to cover
your substrate, and the leaves then form a canopy about 2-1/2" above the
substrate, more than enough room for inverts to wander around unmolested.
It's a pleasant sight to see the fish swimming a few inches above the
invertebrates, almost like getting two aquariums for the price of one ;~).
hth
--
www.NetMax.tk

Thusly "dfreas" Spake Unto All:

We all know pretty much all we need to know about freshwater snails.

Do you? http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/Theodoxus_fluviatilis.htm

Which brings us to another great invert. Shrimp. I keep ghost shrimp
and often see the females carrying eggs but alas the babies never grow
to adulthood. I suspect they get eaten by the fish and other shrimp in
the tank. Has anyone had success breeding shrmip in a community tank?

http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/breeding_yamato.htm

The invert that I'm most interested in at the moment would be the
bivalves. I have half a dozen golden clams in my tank but this is
hardly enough to satisfy me. All of my other invert populations are
constantly reproducing except these guys. Has anyone had any success at
all with getting a freshwater bivalve of any type to reproduce in
normal aquarium settings?

Do you feed them large amounts of phytoplankton?
Because if you're not, they're slowly, over a course of several
months, starving to death, and that's not conducive to reproduction.

For bivalves with parasitic larvae you also need suitable hosts in the
tank. They can't parasitize any old fish, you know.

My quest for the most natural aquarium I can achieve marches on and I
would like to hear the experiences of everyone else who has kept
invertibrates in large numbers. IMHO these guys are improving water
quality and tank interest immensly, they truly are the difference
between a tank full of fish and a tank exploding with natural life.

You'll get a kick out of this one:
http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/specime...d_Dscn8485.jpg
An aquatic slime mold. Possibly the most bizarre creature I've ever
kept. It's usually crawling around on the glass.

Anyway: yeah, invertebrates rule!
I wish freshwater tanks could have as rich and varied invertebrate
fauna as reeftanks do.

-Daniel

Mean_Chlorine wrote:
Do you? http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/Theodoxus_fluviatilis.htm

Interesting little creature - it would not do well in my soft acidic
water but certainly a new snail to keep in mind for my next tank. I'm
not sure I've ever seen them for sale in any of the LFSs around here
though.

You'll get a kick out of this one:

http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/specime...d_Dscn8485.jpg
An aquatic slime mold. Possibly the most bizarre creature I've ever
kept. It's usually crawling around on the glass.

Where can I get one!? Heh, congrats on getting that in your tank. I'd
love to see something like that working its way across the glass one
day.

-Daniel

Thusly "dfreas" Spake Unto All:

I'm
not sure I've ever seen them for sale in any of the LFSs around here
though.

No, not that species, although there's probably similar species in
streams and lakes around where you live. Bigger species like /Neritina
natalensis/ aren't that uncommon at LFS's, and are outstanding
algae-eaters.

You'll get a kick out of this one:

http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/specime...d_Dscn8485.jpg
An aquatic slime mold. Possibly the most bizarre creature I've ever
kept. It's usually crawling around on the glass.

Where can I get one!? Heh, congrats on getting that in your tank. I'd
love to see something like that working its way across the glass one
day.

I often take in sunken wood, leaf litter, plants etc from local
waters, precisely to get interesting inverts. I'm pretty sure the
slime mold came from a piece of sunken wood from a local bog.
The tank it's in has a pH of 4.5, has peat-and-oakleaf substrate. It's
quite interesting to see how different the invert fauna is in that
tank compared to the high-pH tanks. There's *no* crustaceans or snails
in the "bog" tank, instead there's nematodes, protozoans and fungi.
And this critter.

dfreas wrote:
We talk all of the time about fish and plants and water chemistry but
it seems like freshwater invertebrates rarely come up except in the
context of "how do I get rid of these things?" However I have been
keeping a number of invertebrates for a while now and I think they
really do improve the quality of my tanks - both visually and
chemically. I'd like to see what experiences others have in this area
and ask a few specific questions.

We all know pretty much all we need to know about freshwater snails. I
keep three varieties in my tanks - ramshorn, pond, and trumpet. They
aren't picky and proliferate excessively in any water conditions that
don't include copper. So if you have something interesting to add about
these little guys then by all means do so but for now I'll move on to
more interesting specimens.

Lumbriculus variegatus is an interesting choice. These are the
blackworms that many of us use as live food. But try feeding an
excessive amount of them once or twice - your fish won't be able to eat
them all and many will escape into the substrate to live out their
lives. You'll see them poke their tails up above the substrate whenever
predators aren't around in order to get better oxygen flow over their
bodies. If you have them in a fishless tank you'll even get to see them
swim in a very cool double helical pattern. I love these guys because I
have a self sustaining colony of them and they are a huge help when I'm
adding a new fish. During any new arrival's adjustment period they have
a natural live food snack to hunt for while adjusting to my normal
feeding schedule. Also the black worms help break down decaying matter
in the substrate into a form that the plants can use - the perfect
missing link than many aquariums need! They are also a favorite snack
of ghost shrimp.

Which brings us to another great invert. Shrimp. I keep ghost shrimp
and often see the females carrying eggs but alas the babies never grow
to adulthood. I suspect they get eaten by the fish and other shrimp in
the tank. Has anyone had success breeding shrmip in a community tank?
If so what kind of shrimp and how? At any rate these are another
wonderful substrate cleaner - any dropped food or bits of garbage will
quickly be collected and broken down by most shrimp.

The invert that I'm most interested in at the moment would be the
bivalves. I have half a dozen golden clams in my tank but this is
hardly enough to satisfy me. All of my other invert populations are
constantly reproducing except these guys. Has anyone had any success at
all with getting a freshwater bivalve of any type to reproduce in
normal aquarium settings? I'm hesitant to collect local specimens as I
suspect they are used to a much higher oxygen content than I can
provide from cold waters and fast running rivers. I may try it
eventually but for now I'm learning all that I can about them before
giving it a shot. I've kept golden clams for a while now with some
success, they seem happy and I watch them dig and move around
occasionally, mostly they just sit still and filter. Half a dozen of
them aren't enough to make much of a difference in the water quality
but I suspect if I could get a self sustaining colony of bivalves a
population explosion would quickly do some impressive things. Anyone
with bivalve breeding experience please speak up!

And of course there is always the occasional millimeter long worm
inching it's way across the aquarium glass or a tiny hydra attached to
a rock. These are interesting but nearly impossible to keep in any
large quantities since they seem to be prime food for small fish. Of
course I'm not even sure I would want to keep them in large quantities
- I like seeing them occasionaly but I don't think that I would like to
see them bloom.

My quest for the most natural aquarium I can achieve marches on and I
would like to hear the experiences of everyone else who has kept
invertibrates in large numbers. IMHO these guys are improving water
quality and tank interest immensly, they truly are the difference
between a tank full of fish and a tank exploding with natural life.

-Daniel

Great ideas. I've only kept Malaysian burrowing snails in numbers.
They're great for oxygenating the substrate in planted tanks. Loaches
provide a natural control to keep them from getting out of hand.

I've had Lumbriculus variegatus worms in the substrate of my tanks
before, but any that poked its head up became a quick meal for whichever
hungry fish was closest. Never saw them swim. I wonder if they would
be good to decrease detritus and turn the substrate over in planted
tanks, or whether they would just pollute the substrate as they die.

One snail I wish I could find locally are the freshwater/brackish
Nerites snails. They're supposed to eat algae but not plants and only
breed in brackish conditions so they don't take over a freshwater tank.
Breeding them would probably be easy in a small brackish tank with
plenty of algae and I'll probably try if I can ever get some.

I wonder if you wouldn't be able to make use of a refugium for breeding
shrimp? I doubt the young would have much of a chance in a community
aquarium. I don't know about ghost shrimp, but supposedly cherry shrimp
will breed easily in a species or shrimp only tank.

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__

dfreas wrote:

Which brings us to another great invert. Shrimp. I keep ghost shrimp
and often see the females carrying eggs but alas the babies never grow
to adulthood. I suspect they get eaten by the fish and other shrimp in
the tank. Has anyone had success breeding shrmip in a community tank?
If so what kind of shrimp and how? At any rate these are another
wonderful substrate cleaner - any dropped food or bits of garbage will
quickly be collected and broken down by most shrimp.

They are nice additions to the community tank, but you need quite a few
of them, otherwise they hide from the fishes and you won't see them
much.

You may also think of crabs, but they definetly require separate tanks,
with fishes added only for food. No plants either, as they would get
shredded in no time. Couple of medium sized pebbles, so the crab can
build its home from them. And a good, heavy cover, so the beast does not
go on an expedition through your home (to its own disadvantage).


The invert that I'm most interested in at the moment would be the
bivalves. I have half a dozen golden clams in my tank but this is
hardly enough to satisfy me. All of my other invert populations are
constantly reproducing except these guys. Has anyone had any success at
all with getting a freshwater bivalve of any type to reproduce in
normal aquarium settings?

Their larvae grow as parasites in the gills of fishes.


And of course there is always the occasional millimeter long worm
inching it's way across the aquarium glass or a tiny hydra attached to
a rock. These are interesting but nearly impossible to keep in any
large quantities since they seem to be prime food for small fish. Of
course I'm not even sure I would want to keep them in large quantities
- I like seeing them occasionaly but I don't think that I would like to
see them bloom.

Use a jam glas or the like to keep them, it's much easier to observe
them in the smaller volume.


My quest for the most natural aquarium I can achieve marches on and I
would like to hear the experiences of everyone else who has kept
invertibrates in large numbers. IMHO these guys are improving water
quality and tank interest immensly, they truly are the difference
between a tank full of fish and a tank exploding with natural life.

I would not mix tropical fishes with the invertebrates of my northern
home, the requirements are too different. But small tanks with
interesting creatures found can be very interesting and educational.
Have you thought of insect larvae (water beetle, dragonfly)? Sponges?
Salamandres (returning to vertebrates now, of course)?