I had a similar experience with an Amano shrimp.
Was switching to a new tank, emptied the old tank down to 6 inches of water, removed plants/rocks/wood, caught all the fish, shrimp and a few snails, then emptied out the rest of the water into buckets. Moved my substrate from old tank to new with a big plastic cup (fast food jumbo size).
I'm half way through dumping the eco into the new tank and I see something jumping around, grab it along with a handful of eco and put it in one of the water buckets. One healthy shrimp that's still around to this day
