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Companions for my Yabby


Masquerade

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Hey guy's. About two weeks ago i purchased a 15cm yabby from my LFS and I was thinking of getting some other fish to put in the tank with him. Now before you freak out and go on and on about how my yabby will eat them by the end of the day just hear me out. Before I had my yabby I had some danios, which died while I was on holiday, and a 7cm bristlenosed catfish who survived. Naturally I was a little bit worried about their cohabitation but they seem to get along just fine. The catfish can often be seen sitting right along side my yabby picking up the food he leaves behind and they seem content to ignore each other even when the BN is sitting mere centimetres away from his claws. Even if he did want fish and chips for dinner, I doubt he would be able to catch my bristle nose because he's very slow and clumsy where as my BN is an agile little fella, so I reckon that top dwelling, fast swimming fish with short fins should be compatible tankmates for him. I have a 65 litre tank which produces a good current, has good aeration, uv lighting, silk plants for cover and there is a heater installed which keeps the tank at a nice, stable 25 degrees celcius.

I was thinking of getting a nice shoal of tiger barbs, but then I remembered how vicious they can be and I would hate for one of my two tenants to loose an eye, so do you people have any suggestions? Please keep in mind that I do not want any kind of feature fish because I want my yabby to be the feature. I would also prefer something reasonably hardy that requires a low to medium level of maintenance because I will be having my first year of uni very soon and may not have as much time as I did before.

And if you think having a yabby in a community tank is a stupid idea and that I should stop right now, please say so.

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Hmm, saw cherry shrimp advertised as 10 for $45, very tempting but so expensive for potential yabby chow. Yan, how much would you be willing to pay for a group of these? I'm not made of money and the only place I've seen them sold is online, so I don't know if that's a good price or a bad price.

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*Matt, I'm so sorry I got your name wrong. I posted that from my iphone and the page wasn't loading properly. I thought it was a bit out of my range, do you know of anywhere in the newcastle area where I can pick up a few for that sort of price? I think Darling might knuckle down for a molt soon so now is the ideal time to get some shrimp established.

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I have a few cherry shrimp that have been going for a while and seem to be "self propagating" despite my neglect. I don't have enough to sell, but I know that the person I got them from sometimes still lurks around these forums. Her name is Cassi (fighters4u). If you go through the members list and send a pm her way, she might be able to tell you if she still has shrimp/still selling/still posting...

It's been ages since she's been around, but she's great, and really is worth getting in touch with just to check.

Edit: Oh yeah... joan is in Melb... she was selling and still might have a few (thanks for reminder Matty)

Edited by paul
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Cherries like colder temps. $4.50 each is way overpriced.

Just put the word out. $1 each is a great "mates rates" price, (I was given mine) but if you are buying from a retail outlet I would expect 10 for $25 max. I was given a dozen or so about three weeks ago and I have two girls berried ATM. So don't buy too many at first.

Good luck in your search. :-).

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Paul, it's crystals that like cold temps, I have had my cherries go over 30 degrees and still be fine. I left a bag of cherries sitting on my desk for four days and they survived, un-killable.

He won't be able to catch them, they react to fast and are to small.

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Ok, I'll have to look around the specialist fish shops to see if they have any first. I tried asking dad if I could buy some more plants from the AOA website I found and he said no and had a grouch about "more thing's I don't need" and "that anything good takes a little effort" (though I would love to see him put real plants in a yabby tank and try to keep it clean!), I don't know how he would react if I bought fish online! He's already convinced himself that Darling is a ferocious hunter (he still insists on calling him bluey <_<) and wouldn't let me buy a second bristlenose to help keep things clean, nevermind that there is already a bristlenose in there whom he gets along fine with.

Sorry about the rant there, I love my Dad a lot but sometimes he gets very annoying very quickly, usually whenever live animals are involved. Even when they are MY animals <_< (in retrospect he probably has just grounds, but I would appreciate it if he held less of an iron fist around my debit card)

EDIT: Ok, I tried to have another *calm* conversation with dad, though it quickly escalated into him shouting across the room, about why he didn't want me to get this stuff. He's saying that the plant's are a waste of time because yabbies don't care about plants, the only thing they need is room to move around.

This is actually a much more valid point than I gave him credit, but I have a few questions about this.

Firstly, I thought that plants would make him more comfortable, providing him with cover. I didn't think that they would stop him from moving around because I bury the "rock bases" in the gravel, so there's only a stem protruding that he can easily bend aside or walk around if he needs too. He also likes to climb them. Would freeing up more space on the gravel do him good? I know that he likes to climb on them, but this argument does make sense as the base of the tank is small and he is a bottom dweller.

Secondly, how much do you think is too much? I was thinking of getting 2 more 6 inch silk plants (green bacopta and Hygrophila) to go at the front and one 12 inch silk plant (moneywort) to go at the back. I would also remove the plastic fern on the left.

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Do you think that would be too cramped? Now I look at it it does seem a little stuffy, so I though that If I removed the clam shell (it's needed replacing for a while anyway) I could replace it with an airstone inside the log ornament. That would look cool and free up some more room, but it might deprive the shrimp I am potential getting of a good hiding space, what do you guys think?

Would shrimp overcrowd him? From a fish per gallon standpoint this tank is big enough for him, but now that I think about it walking space is limited, I don't want to make a bad situation worse.

Edited by Masquerade
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Thanks, I'm going to have a look at bigger tanks anyway though. There's this shop about 15 minutes away that sells these gorgeous corner unit tanks in sizes up to 330 liters. I'm going to go there and write down brands and dimensions as soon as I can con my parents into making the drive for me, with prices downwards from $1300 (that includes the stand, lights and filter) it actually sounds like a pretty good deal!

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