I have a well established planted aquarium and 4 days ago I added 10 cherry shrimp and the 1st 2 days the were all extremely active and visible. I also noticed 2 were carrying eggs. I noticed last night that I couldn't see any movement and since I only have those shrimp, " no other fish or creature's that could attack them". I'm wondering what is going on. I can't find any sign of them. Besides the obvious, they could be hiding is there anything else I could be missing? Also "yes" my filtration is shrimp proof. I'm just looking for someone smarter than I that can think of I might be missing. I feed every other day and usually they are not shy at feeding time, yet now it's as if I never put them in there. Any help would be appreciated. 2 pics attached for reference.
Any chance this tank was ever treated with copper meds?
Any ferts or CO2?
What susbtrate?
If it's a well cycled tank without other inhabitants, then any feeding of them is over-feeding at this point... and being that you received adults, there's a chance that some or even all may die off as adults don't acclimate to new parameters as well as juvenile shrimp do. It can further complicate matters depending on where these shrimp originally came from and what they were raised in vs what's in your tank...
They could just be hiding, and hopefully that's it.
In that aquadcape 10 shrimp will just disappear, especially when newly added. I added maybe 50 cherries to my fifty five and 5 minutes later I didn't see a single one. Shrimp are remarkably good at camouflage. I have 10 orange shrimp in a 10 gallon and I still can only see 2 or 3 at a time max because of the heavy planting. I'd keep on assuming they are in there and feeding accordingly. They will eventually come for food.
Sorry I'm new to the site, I just found everyone's replies and questions. Thank you by the way.
This is probably my 10th aquascaped aquarium so if I don't answer every tank parameter question, please know the only thing new to me is actually owning the shrimp. It took me 4 months alone to locate a breeder that could meet my demands.
That tank is on its 7th month, all of the carpet plants were grown from seeds and the other plants are clipped and cloned from one of my other tanks. The water is within prime levels from Fire Cherries, that took a couple months to get right. I wanted it to be perfect since only Cherries are going to be living in that tank. Rift to Reef supplied all my products and walked me through the "species specific tank" set up, but over all, it has 7 months worth of cycling and prep for Cherry shrimp. As far as feeding, I only feed them bug bites every other day and even then only a pinch. There's plenty of bio film and algae on the edges of the granite. I was afraid overfeeding would promote hiding or just chilling out in a hidden spot. I wanted them to be actively hunting for food or scavenging and the 1st couple days they did, they were all over, extremely active. It's 8:00 p.m. now and I've been in and out checking out the tank since 7:00 a.m. as I do the light cycle spending sometimes up to half an hour sitting and watching. Today I have yet to see a single one.
The picture I attached is zoomed in quite a bit. He's only half an inch at most. I know they don't live that long maybe a year and I specifically asked for juveniles So I'm hoping there's no reason to believe they're dead. I think the only thing I never bothered to ask is if they dig burrows and hide. However my carpet plants are pretty thick and their root system is visibly thick as well, when seen from the outside glass of the tank. However I know there must be a place they could dig if they wanted to I just don't know if they do. If they had all died overnight I would hope, 1 the problem would be more obvious being a covered tank there shouldn't have been any contamination and 2 shouldn't I be able to find a body if they all died? No sarcasm, these are all questions that come up as you go. As hard I I tried, I couldn't prepare for everything.
Flourish Comprehensive Supplement and Flourish Exel Bioavailable Carbon were the last chemicals used and that was 4 months before the shrimp were added.
The substrate is Carib Sea Eco Complete Planted Black Aquarium Substrate, and the rock was pulled from, but sanitized from another planted tank. It is granite and has been tested, I was afraid of iron and copper but they are free of those 2 metals specifically. 4 anubias plants two of which for the 1st time have started blooming and that's really it.
And thank you for the rock placement compliment.
Carpet planted from seeds.... :hihi::hihi::hihi: I'm done!
Sorry, but those seeds have a seriously bad rap! If the tank still looks great in 6-12 months, I'd be interested in seeing it with those seeds still growing!
"The freaks come out at night" looks like they took a day to chill. I set the lights to the2nd to last stage and saw some crawling out of some cholla wood. I panicked, lol!
I have 12 tanks and have used seeds every time. Some have been running for 3 years on their original seeded carpet. Maybe I just have good luck, but I have never had an issue other than having too much growth and having to constantly trim and net out all the clippings. Even my cholla wood dissapeares if I'm not careful.
What type of seeds are you using and do you fertilize? The other thing I find very helpful is trimming, it stimulates root growth.
9 out of 10 accounted for and a lovely surprise, 2 are holding what appears to be a clutch of yellow eggs. I hope those are eggs at least 😱They won't pose for pics yet but I'm trying to snap a photo to show.
I'll run a water test tomorrow and provide an up to date parameter list. I haven't done one since adding the shrimp. They were the first and only animals going into the tank. So what I had would not be currently accurate. I don't do dip strips and I'm to lazy right now to break out all my gear.
Honestly once I get my tanks set, after the introduction of the animals I'm usually pretty lucky and don't have water problems. I spend months of preparing the setup before adding any animal. Everything in all my tanks are done with the purpose of "everything serves as something beneficial to someone else in the tank, one things trash is another's resource."
For the carpet seed haters, I'll give you this one tank is getting a much needed algae cleaning tomorrow, but the carpet form seeds is a little over a year old and and other than an over active Emerald Cory dislodging a 1/4 of the carpet it's never given me issues. I don't really have a way to prove that I can successfully make seeds grow other than stating that logically most all plants start as a seed at some point. Someone had to start a culture and replant clippings from a starting point which I'm guessing was a seed so...
The problem isn't so much getting plants to grow from seeds, it's that true aquatic plants are very rare to see producing seeds. You can guarantee that nobody is selling glossostigma or HC Cuba seeds for $1 a jar like I see these "carpet plant" seeds listed on every auction site. It's also the spammy nature of these listings that make them look illegitimate. I have seen people selling seeds for rare plants but you are more likely to see them for more than $1 per seed than per jar. Maybe you can get a better picture because I'm not really able to tell from the strange angles and lighting but the plants you've grown from seed look good, but they dont look like very low growing carpet plants. They look more weedy like I said above.
The "carpet" plant from seeds looks like hygrophila polysperma, which would certainly account for "having too much growth" as it's a very weedy plant.
Yes shrimp are very good at hiding in dense plant growth. If you want to see them more often, put a feeding dish near the front and feed only into the dish at a certain time. They will come out at that time if you are regular about it.
The "carpet" plant from seeds looks like hygrophila polysperma, which would certainly account for "having too much growth" as it's a very weedy plant.
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Yep definitely looks like H. Poly which isn't really a carpeting plant although it can be grown that way. And yes it is a weed, so much so it's on the Federal Noxious Weed List. So if that is H. Poly, don't sell or trade it.
I just noticed the ferts and am chiming in to caution the over use of Excel in shrimp tanks. It's really more of an algaecide than a carbon source, if you want to search the forums for some heated debate on it. I use it in planted fish aquariums but will probably never put it in a shrimp tank again. It is great for keeping string and hair algae at bay and certainly has its uses but considering that shrimp eat algae and biofilm, I find it counterproductive to use a plant aid that is pretty much used to kill algae and biofilm. 6 years ago I used the stuff at the first sign of nuisance algae in my aquariums and was often cavalier in my dosing. After paying for that a few times, I've learned that is one product you definitely want to measure.
@Kroger Maybe you are the first to be able to keep this plant living for 1+ years that I've come across? A lot of people say it starts melting around 6 months or so in, destroying water parameters! As mentioned most true aquatic plants do not have seeds... the reason being is that most plants can't pollinate underwater. Some plants may have flowers that thrust up out of the water to achieve this result, while the main plant remains underwater. Some of the plants in this hobby that we keep submerged actually grow on the edges of rivers so they aren't completely submerged, if submerged at all... but they receive a lot of moisture. This includes buce and mosses.
Great news on the shrimp, though!!! Hopefully all are well and you'll get some offspring!
"Do people actually use Excel successfully for an extended amount of time in a shrimp tank? I cant imagine."
This is interesting to me. I just recently added some orange neo shrimp to a tank that had been plant only for 2 months. It has plants in terracotta pots with soil capped with safe-t-sorb. I was using excel at about recommended dosing, 1ml per day for the 10 gal tank, sometimes missing days. I saw enhanced growth of all the plants, (can provide a list of what was in there but about 8 species) and enhanced coloration of the growing tips, more branching. I had never heard or thought that excel would harm shrimp.. should I stop using it? The shrimp are fine, they dont have to rely on biofilm to graze because I do feed them a small amount but also there is no lack of algae on 2 sides of the glass, I only scrape the viewing panels and the tank developed a heavy green algae coating on the glass in the early days of the soil. I might keep using the excel until I see a problem with the shrimp. What exactly is it supposed to do to hurt them?
I've used Excel with Neos for a while and the shrimp seemed fine, however the colony was only expanding by a few babies here and there. I stopped dosing Excel and my population noticeably increased. Babies everywhere, with all other variables the same. I'm not sure what specifically, but something about it they didn't like. I didn't realize Excel was my issue until I saw how well they did without it. I'm sure there may be thriving colonies in Excel dosed tanks but would think they'd be even stronger without it, fwiw. So I'd say if you're happy with your shrimp numbers keep using it. If you find yourself getting frustrated by a slow growing colony (like I was) stop using it and see if it helps
Using Excel at the recommended dosing, or below, in a planted shrimp tank should be fine for most tanks. It's over-using it that may cause greater issues. That said, sometimes if you have a problem tank where the shrimp are dying, it doesn't hurt to stop using any and all products that might be causing problems... and this includes Excel.
I've consistently had negative experiences using Excel in shrimp tanks. Even in small amounts, it can build up. It eats away the film on plants that allow them to absorb things better and shrimp inevitably consume it. Have even had berried shrimp drop all their eggs when it's been used.
Still use it occasionally for spot treating but only when I have time to conduct quick siphoning and a water change.
Guess I shouldnt stop using it then lol. I originally got it because I thought it would help but then didnt use it because of reading things like this. Then had problems with algae so start using it. Been using it twice a week recommended dose. Once with water change and once mid week with the thriveC and phosphates. My 40B has a decently large shrimp colony, have probably 4 or so berried females and youngsters ranging from 1/8" on up (that I can see).
My excel bottle is about empty so may try seeing how the other parameters keep algae at bay, may try going off excel for a month or so and see what happens. Will probably have to cull a bunch of shrimps if I get a explosion like you guys mentioned.
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