unclenedsfishfactory.com

Howdy,

I recently (~2 months ago) purchased a used 45 gallon setup. Shortly after getting the tank I decided to ditch the plants/gravel/substrate that came with it. I thought it would be neat to have a forest of twisty bamboo (I believe it's also called "Lucky Bamboo"). So I completely cleaned the tank, replaced the old gravel/substrate mix with straight up gravel and planted the various stalks of bamboo.

I initially had the setup running on a 12/12 light cycle, but after a few weeks I noticed that the tips of the "bloom" part of the bamboo were turning yellow. Sure enough it kept progressing so I decided to slowly add more time to the light cycle bringing it up to 18/6. It's been on 18/6 for about 2 weeks now and they've stopped yellowing and are in fact growing well. pH stays around 7.5ish and the temp is around ~80.

I've tried searching around but I can't dig up anything on this bamboo to see if other people use the same light cycle. My other concern is that all this light might negatively effect my fish. I can't seem to find a *concrete* answer on what the correct light cycle should be - there's conflicting answers everywhere I look.

So far all of my fish seem to be fine with the extra light, the only exception would be a Bamboo Shrimp that I purchased last week. He died out in the open(on his back) about 3 days after he was in the tank. I know there's several things this could be but do you think the light would have anything to do with that? I tested for ammonia and that's all good.

FYI, the tank has:
1 yellow rainbow
1 australian rainbow
1 angel fish
1 silver molly
1 silver dollar
2 true Siamese Algae Eaters
1 butterfly pleco
3 Pristella tetras

Thanks in advance for any input/advice.

never kept bamboo
I've heard there's a hundred types
(some grow so fast they are pests)

didn't know they grew in water
maybe they grow even if they are in water

most plants like 12 hours of light max
maybe northern plants and southern hemisphere plants like longer light

hard to say what killed the shrimp
(any chance bamboo gives off a metal like copper ???)

did you add any copper
(like a fish medicine)
how about copper sulphate in the prepared food pellets you feed?

My understanding of bamboo is that it will eventually die if fully underwater. If this were wikipedia I would say something like 'citation needed' right about now. What I remember hearing about it is that it can live underwater for a while but will eventually die. (like many bog plants sold as 'true aquatics.') Not that you asked for my advice but I would treat it like any other plant that you are trying for the first time... that is, pick off the dead parts and hope for the best (that seems to be what it comes down to in my tanks a lot of the time).

I also just learned that bamboo is a type of grass*


*citation needed.

As for the dead shrimp, isn't 3 days about the time when fish(shrimp) can die from acclimation issues? Acclimation issues have been described to me as two groups that I would call acute and delayed. Like if you were to take a group of people and throw them out into the cold... some could die from exposure (acute), some could die from diseases like pneumonia (delayed) and some may survive (lets hope so!). Also has been described to me like the frog on a hot plate. Even if the heat gets turned up slowly so the frog doesn't jump out, it will still die because frogs weren't meant to live in boiling water (insert joke about the French's love for frog legs here)

That should just about cover my share of non-cited unsolicited information for the day!

Hmmm I haven't added any medicine or anything else that would create excess copper. I'll have to look into getting a copper testing kit I suppose.

Thanks for all the input, AJordan. Like I said for some reason there's not much info on the bamboo around the net. But I have read bits and pieces that describe what you were saying - they'll survive under water for a while but they're not meant to be fully submerged. Can we confirm that 18 hours of light isn't going to negatively affect the fish?

I think the acclimation reason for the shrimps death makes sense as well. I wasn't aware of the acclimation procedure (bringing bag water to same temp as tank water and slowly adding tank water to bag).