There are a few things we need to look at here. First the lack of proper training at chain pet stores and even many locally owned LFS. It cannot be stressed enough to do your own research from trusted sources if you are uncertain or need help. Forums like www.fishtanx.com, have members and staff willing to help you out, so you can enjoy the hobby without all the headaches. While there are plenty of knowledgeable staff at stores across the country there are more that are not so knowledgeable on fishkeeping and let’s face it they’re there for a paycheck not always a love and passion for aquariums.

Secondly there is still a misconception even with some seasoned hobbyist from simply being misinformed and never knowing differently. It comes from the term “Fighting Fish”, killer whales were once thought to be human killers hence the name. Being housed alone in cups also does not do any justice to let people know they are not aggressive towards most other fish.

Finally let’s take a look at a betta’s behavior as well as possible tank mates and tank threats. Never house more than one male fighting fish together, also a male should only be mixed with a female if breeding. Males will fight to the death and throughout history this has been done for gambling, sport and apparently even solving boredom. It is unethical and one male will come out either dead or badly injured. They are very fierce against their own kind, which is why they will flare their gills and act aggressive towards their own reflections. Courthship between a male and female can be quite aggresive as well – before, during and after. Many times the females can be killed after depositing eggs. Females can also be aggressive towards one another, but are known to be able to be kept together. I would recommend a large community tank with hiding spots if choosing to place multiple females in.

Now that we’re done talking about bettas being mixed with bettas, what about bettas being mixed with other fish. Bettas are generally a peaceful fish if not mixing with one another. They usually stay to their self and are slow moving as well as passive and easy going. Almost any peaceful community fish will be perfect to keep with the betta. The fish I would say to stray away from mixing with the betta are; gouramis as they are from the same family and may fight, guppies would be another fish not to mix with the betta simply because fancy male guppies have long finnage much like a betta and the betta could mistake the guppy for one of its own. The last thing to stray away from are fish that will bother the betta, “Fin Nippers”. There’s a nice handful of fish out there that will nip at long fins. Barbs would be one to watch out for the most in my opinion.

To sum all that up into a simple statement; no more than 1 male betta should ever be house together, a male should not be mixed with a female(s) unless breeding, females can possibly be mixed without problem given a large tank with cover, finally feel free to add 1 male betta to a community tank given proper room and keep an eye out for any possible fin nipping.

Thanks for reading I hope this helps people wondering this question or those who have been misinformed. I would much rather see a “Fighting Fish” living in harmony in a nice community tank versus a small unfiltered filthy vase or cup.

Mazuri offers a “year-round” diet, not season specific. I believe this to be a nice thing, especially for those who may only have small ponds. The ingredients and analysis seem to be in check with other producers. In addition it contains a blend of color enhancers, high levels of vitamin C and also natural vitamin E. Mazuri specializes in Zoo animal foods and there products are produced to strict standards. So I do believe you are getting a real quality product by choosing them. The fish seem to enjoy the food and I would recommend this pond food.

Their products can be found on their website; http://www.mazuri.com/koi.aspx. Thanks for reading, and thanks to MAZURI Exotic Animal Nutrition for being generous and giving me this opportunity.

*Disclosure:
I received product from MAZURI® Exotic Animal Nutrition to try and all opinions given are my own.

Their gel formula is unique and unlike any other food I have given my fish before. It arrives in a large tub filled with 1 kilogram of powdered food mix. The powder is pretty fine, but larger particles as well. My first thought was that I only needed to simply mix the powder with water and feed to fish. However that isn’t how it is advertised to be used, although it might could.

To start making the mixture the directions state to use 75% hot water and 25% gel mix, by weight. Now I believe it could be “eye-balled” out and you could also add more or less powder, but for this review I got my shipping scale out and weighed it out properly per directions. I used a couple of plastic cups for measuring which after being weighed I left marks on the cup to ease making it in future so I do not have to weigh each time. Remember then directions state by weight, not volume therefore measuring spoons or cups would not give the proper ratios. Once I had the water and powder mix weighed out properly I then simply started mixing them into one cup using a fork to stir. It doesn’t totally dissolve in the water like say salt would, but it mixes very easily and comes to a nice uniform consistency quickly. I then poured it in a plastic container with lid, I filled it with the mix until it was about 1/4″ thick. Now it is time for the mixture to be refrigerated so it can set, much like Jello. I first let it cool down out of the fridge for about 5 minutes, then it went into the fridge. Roughly 30 minutes later I checked it and it seemed plenty of firm and properly set. However I left it there for a few hours as I had errands to run. Directions state product is good under refrigeration for up to 7 days and 30 days if frozen.

Now it is feeding time, I took a plastic knife and cut it into strips and cubes for the fish. At the time being I only keep smaller freshwater fish, specifically tetras, platies, German rams, gourami, endlers, betta and danios. Total of 3 different tanks I tested it out on. Upon first insertion in my planted the tetras immediately went into a little feeding frenzy mode, sensing something in the water. However it did take them a few minutes to figure out it was the small cube on the gravel. Once found they then started nibbling on it and not to long it was gone. I could see bigger fish like cichlids eating the whole cubes of food. You might think a product like this would be messy and cloud the tank, however it did not. My only real issue I had with it is my tanks all had a strong odor for hours after user. Water parameters were fine, but it just had a normal aquarium smell, but much much stronger. This odor filled the room unfortunately, not just near the tank. I believe I will use less mix the next time.

I wanted to compile some other thoughts on this food. For the beginner I probably would not recommend this as first primary choice, mainly due to the fact it definitely is not necessary to use and other foods available at any pet store would be fine, as far as ease of making it goes — it is simple. They have on their site a page explaining about adding things to the mixture. What comes to my mind is finicky eaters as well as sick fish, or simply trying to add different nutrition to your fish diet. You could take any type of liquid, powder supplement or medication and easily add it to the mixture. As well you could also put a liquid garlic product in to entice your fish to eat and garlic also provides other properties as well. There is also no reason you couldn’t grind or mash up fresh vegetables to be added. Maybe peas for goldfish with bloat. Basically with Mazuri Gel diets you have the ability to quite easily create your own perfect little blend. Whether it be for sick fish, fish that have trouble eating in captivity, treat food or simply an everyday diet. Don’t forget though all of their diets can be used without adding anything. I could picture medium to large carnivorous fish whether they be freshwater or marine enjoying slices of the food as if it were a small fillet of fish to them.

All in all I like the Mazuri Aquatic Gel Diet. I will play around with the ratios and additives in the future. It is very unique and I could see many different scenarios where it would be a great choice of food.

Their products can be found on their website; http://www.mazuri.com/aquariumfish.aspx. They have many different gel diets to fit your particular needs. In addition they offer many other diets for animals of any sort. I also received some of the Koi nuggets which I will do a separate review for. Thanks for reading, and thanks to MAZURI Exotic Animal Nutrition for being generous and giving me this opportunity.

*Disclosure:
I received product from MAZURI® Exotic Animal Nutrition to try and all opinions given are my own.

It is fairly new, but already has garnered some attention. With some very knowledgeable people willing to help out beginners and chat alongside fellow fish keeping enthusiast.

If you have a minute please visit the forum…even if just to browse, registration is quick and painless though. Anyways there will be more coming to the blog in the future and thank all the people who visit this site for help, education & enjoyment.

On FishTanx.com I am fishD the administrator, hope to see you there!

There will be a review posted here soon on the aquarium kit.

Your first thoughts need to be one of the two; what type of shrimp or what size of tank. We will start with type of shrimp.

The easiest and most recommend starter shrimp are the neocaridina species of shrimp. The Red Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina Heteropoda var. Red) aka RCS falls into this category and can be found at many local pet shops. There are also other variations to this type of shrimp that require the same things and are usually just as easy to care for. To name a few; Yellow Shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda var “yellow”), Blue Pearl Shrimp (Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis var. blue) & Snowball Shrimp (Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis var. white). There are other types of shrimp as well, but generally I would recommend starting out with one of the above as they are cheaper, hardier and more available. Although species like Caridina are not necessarily hard to care for, they are a bit more finicky and not quite as easy to breed. Remember you can mix certain species together, however neocaridina shrimp will interbreed. So a yellow shrimp and RCS could breed, but that is usually not wanted and you should probably avoid. There are also more shrimp out there, but neocaridina and caridina seem to be most popular and easiest to breed as many people want. Some shrimp will require brackish water for larvae.

Now that you know what type of shrimp you want you need to figure out about housing. Freshwater shrimp usually tend to do better in shrimp only tanks due to their small size, we will get into tank mates later on. For now we will continue as if you are in fact doing a shrimp only tank. Yes it is true the age old rule of thumb bigger tank is better, however that is not needed for shrimp. I have seen plenty of people keeping them in unheated — unfiltered vases. I would recommend using a 2 – 10 gallon tank, a larger tank will allow for plenty to be kept as they usually breed quite easily.

You’ve decided on tank size and shrimp type now you need to pick out the equipment. A simple air driven sponge filter will work, as well as an internal or a hang on back power filter. If using a power filter you want to use some sort of mesh or filter padding around the inlet to prevent baby shrimp from being sucked up. Many times when ordering shrimp you will receive small shrimp. I like to keep my shrimp tanks at 75°F, although they can withstand from 68°F-85°F. Pick out any heater rated for your size of tank and keep it around 75-78°F and the shrimp should be happy. Lighting is really for you to enjoy your shrimp and maybe you have live plants. The lighting is totally dependent on plants really. Small LED fixtures would work perfect for just shrimp. Florescent will be better for live plants, I used a simple household lamp with a CFL bulb on my 2.5g.

Decorating the tank can be fun as it makes the tank unique to you. Nearly any aquarium safe substrate is fine. Sand seems to be favored by many shrimp enthusiasts as the shrimp can easily graze throughout it, although gravel would be fine to use as well. There are now some specialty shrimp substrates on the market which I am hearing good things about, however these are not needed and tend to be pricey. Shrimp do enjoy live plants and they can help lead to an overall healthier environment so I would recommend getting live plants. Mosses are very popular as shrimp enjoy grazing upon them and they only need minimal lighting. There are many mosses out there, Java Moss seeming to be the easiest to find. Floaters like duckweed or salvinia are great, but may block the light for plants below if you are using weak lighting. For your hard scape this is up to you and again anything that is aquarium safe should work. The shrimp will enjoy having some rocks or wood in there to hide when they molt.

Feeding is a pretty easy step, but be careful not to overfeed. These shrimp can be fed daily, but not more than what they can consume within a few hours. They can go days without being fed, they are scavengers and will feast on many different algae. From specialty shrimp food, algae wafers or even sinking fish food pellets they will all work fine. I prefer to give mine quality brand name foods. They love algae wafers broken up as usually a whole one is too much food unless if there are many shrimp.

Tank mates can be tricky and in all honesty I recommend just keeping shrimp in a shrimp only tank if breeding is in mind. It is possible in a planted tank to keep and breed them as they will have plenty of hiding spots, shrimplets can stray away from fish and adults are usually big enough not to be eaten by peaceful community fish. However there really isn’t any fish besides maybe an oto that wouldn’t mind scooping up the babies. Even the full grown shrimp are still relatively small and most fish will eat it if it can fit in their mouth, and others will make them fit in their mouth. It is likely that adult shrimp would be fine with small non aggressive fish like cardinal tetras, guppies, danios etc. as they have small mouths, but the babies won’t stand a chance unless if plenty of cover is provided. So if keeping with fish just be cautious, I have heard of them being kept even with dwarf cichlids in densely planted tanks. Snails should be fine with shrimp.

A few other words of advice — They like clean water and are very sensitive even to nitrates. Copper is deadly for all inverts I believe so stray away from any product with copper. Shrimplets(baby shrimp) in the Neocaridina and Caridina family care for their selves as they are miniature versions of adults and the adult shrimp will not harm them. If you see a molting don’t freak, molting is a good thing. Dead shrimp will be pale white, not just a transparent clear cracked up shell. I hear Caridina shrimp can be sensitive to anubias and Cryptocoryne plants, I haven’t seen any problems though with these and neocaridina shrimp. If you overfeed you may start seeing small white specks or little worm like critters that squiggle around, some mistake these as baby shrimp. These are actually nematodes or planaria and although they are usually harmless they can be unsightly, ease up on feeding and they should start disappearing. My last word of advice is what I say is very important and many people jump the gun and see failure or many dead shrimp quickly. Be sure that your tank is fully cycled, and by this I don’t mean running the tank for a few days. A full cycle is needed, let the ammonia spike and the nitrites and nitrates come in. Once the nitrates are low and all others 0 you have a cycled tank. It can take a month+/- to have a tank fully cycled, do not rush.These shrimp even do better when put into a well established tank.

I really hope this helps people out as they venture into the world of Freshwater Ornamental Shrimp. Good Luck!

Later in the day I notice both the male and female hanging around this crevice as if they were guarding something. I look in and see eggs situated and both parents were attending to the eggs and chasing off the glowlight tetras, although the tetras did not seem to notice or care much about the eggs at first.I pondered on what to do as I do not have much experience in breeding. I decided I would just leave the tetras in and see how it plays out as I wasn’t really prepared and the parents seemed to be doing an excellent job. So I left everything as is.

The next day, seemed as the time got later things have changed. The male has fully taken over care of the eggs, he will drive the female away quickly . He has become pretty aggressive and he also chases the tetras away more now than ever. The tetras have noticed the eggs now and try to go in for a snag. However there are still close to the same amount of eggs as originally and the male seems to be doing a really good job at protecting them. Stay tuned to see how things play out for me. I would like to get some fry and raise them, but I realize this could go wrong due to lack of preparation — oh and did I mention I have to move in less than two weeks! Fortunately it seems like it is common for GBRs to do it again and again after doing it once.

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