# Berried Bamboo !



## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I was beginning to think it would never happen but today, just a lucky look at the right moment, showed me one of my smaller females is berried at last. She was fanning her brood with her belly to the glass, or I'd never have known. The eggs are the most amazing shade of deep, dark red/orange and from the way they look, I'd guess there must be a hundred or more of them.

She's not that big, 2 inches or so, so that was interesting. I had guessed they had to be older and larger to breed, but apparently not. Can't see a saddle, the body is too dark for it show, though now I know she's berried I will be watching to see if there are any visible signs that might tell me other females are saddled. Clearly I have at least one active male .

The bummer is, I doubt I can get a salt tank set up quickly enough to try to raise this brood. I've spent so much time, money and effort over the past months just trying to keep a roof over my head, I've had little time for my pets. The shrimp are in a 5 g in my bedroom while my main tank is still in a pal's living room, and I've nowhere to put a salt tank. I hope she carries these successfully and that having berried once, she will do so again at some point. At least it's encouraging to know it does happen, even if not that often.


----------



## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

Wow, that's awesome! I just got my first bamboo in the last week. Just making sure it survives before I get more because they are pretty cool! A nice change from dwarf shrimp and I've heard they do best in small groups.

Do you have fish in your tank? I only have tiny ballon rams in with mine, but even with just those the bamboo is always hiding


----------



## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

Hi Karen, congrats on the berried bamboo...they are very cute and very special. Hope all works out and we'll see you again soon in the future shrimper's meets.


----------



## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Well, assuming I pass the dang drivers test I have to take come the 22nd, I should be out and about more often. Between my landlord, the City and the MOT, this has been a tough spring & summer so far.

The shrimp, near as I can tell, carried to term, but since I could not get a salt tank set up, I hope she berries again. It is pretty crowded in their tank, only a 5 G. At the rate things are going, I may not get my main tanks back up until fall. 

I have always kept fish with these shrimp, btw. Danios of a few types, cherry barbs, rasboras of a couple small types and assorted snails, and other shrimp species. Right now, asolene spixi snails, a few small ramshorns, three very petite purple harlequin rasboras. No room for more fish in the 5. 

Never any issues with fish or any other tank mates. With the bamboos I also have Vampires, a few Amanos and four painted fire cherries. All have their own ways of living their lives, and don't interact that much, except to share fanning space. It has been interesting to note the difference in feeding styles between vamps and bamboos. 

Vamps alternate their fanning legs almost continuously, wiping each one over the mouth very frequently, in a pretty steady pattern. Bamboos keep all fans open for prolonged periods and wipe them randomly over the mouth. Bamboos also stay out mostly, where vamps hide more, though not all the time by any means. The vamps are all very young, so not very big.

Now have a very nice size colony of bamboos, a few are quite close to full size, so I hope breeding may continue, though my guess is they would do better if they had more space, which has to wait for a main tank to get set up again. I have to wait 'til they fix my rad before I can put the big tanks back, they are in no hurry to get this done.

My bamboos have always stayed pretty much out in plain sight, even with lots of fish. Biggest fish I ever had with them was a Pearl danio, but I always had at least six or seven bamboos, plus many other shrimps. Ghosts, Snowballs, and the mini fan species, A.spinipes, also. 

I think the numbers of varied shrimps gives them all confidence with the fish around. I raised a good number of Snowballs and Ghosts in a 29 g community tank, even with all the fish, and I forgot to mention the cories and Kuhli loaches. Even with all that fishy competition, shrimp were out and about. 

I find it helps a lot to give them a pump for constant current, and something to hang onto in the current. Even the smallest interior pump will make enough current for them, and is not too hard to conceal if need be. I also have a fair size flat old sponge, from a Lee's sponge filter, suction cupped to the tank glass, and they love to hang onto it. I hang it smack in front of the pump output, a few inches away. It has remained a fave hangout for the filter feeders, even the Vamps. Sponge has a hole in the middle, shrimp often sit inside this hole and spread out their fans from its shelter, if they are feeling shy. I should try growing moss on the sponge, it would look better.


----------

