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Shrimp + Rescape?

4103 Views 13 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Bell, 
S
Hello!

I just bought 5 cherry shrimp today and put them in my tank about 4hrs ago. Problem is now that I have been sitting down watching them I have realised I am not a fan of my aquascape.....

I was wondering if it would stress the shrimp out too much if I were either fish them out or drain the water down to bout a quarter and rearrange things abit??

Cheers guys!!
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J
i'd leave them in and rearrange things. I do it all the time. Just try to keep an eye on them so you don't smash them, but they are usually smart enough to get out of the way.
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S
Awesome! Cheers for the speedy speedy reply!! I know nothing of time differences and always assume it is night or early morning in america so dont expect quick replies.... Now I can start changing now :icon_smil
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J
welcome.. Try to get your aquascape set how you want it and leave it alone, you don't want to uproot plants anymore than absolutely needed.
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S
Yeah I know and i thought I had but I recently got some new plants and now i dont like it so much, too cluttered. I am gonna get it just right and then let it grow in.
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Jaggedfury
Rescaping it shouldn't be a problem. Just dont uproot too many of your substrate that will alter your water readings. Cherry shrimps are very hardy, I don't see a major problem on this. Go for it. Just don't squish them.
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GitMoe
Im re-scaping my RCS tank today too. Not smashing them or burying them is the only real concern. Enjoy your re-scape.
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S
So I rescaped it and I am MUCH happier with its looks.... but I seemed to have had two casualties :icon_frow. I am not sure whether they died from my rescape or were dead from there move in earlier today?

When I started to clean out one was floating dead in the middle under my wood and 4 were all in the same corner. As I wanted to plant in that corner I gave them a gentle nudge and 3 swam away leaving one dead one. Do you think it was my fault?

I read that the water should only have a maximum ph of 7.5 but i got mine tested at the store where I bought them today and it said 7.6. Could that have been the problem?
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mordalphus
I wouldn't worry a whole lot, if you had bought them today, chances are they were really freaked out from all the moving around.

It's fine to rescape when the shrimp are acclimated and completely adjusted to your tank (about 2 weeks), but right after you bought them, it can be pretty stressful.
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J
pH isn't the issue, but getting them acclimated properly can be. They tend to be very sensitive when first added to a tank. I actually drip acclimate all of my shrimp over a 2 hour period.
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S
OK well I sat the bag in the tank for 5 mins and then slowly added tank water every 10 mins for bout 40 mins and then they had been in the tank for about 4 hours before I moved stuff around?

Maybe I will talk to the lfs, most of the ones around here replace fish if they die within the first couple of days. I have never bought from this shop before tho....
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Bell
Just the thread I was looking for, sorry to be reviving such an old thread. I recently (about 3 weeks ago) added about 15 RCS to my 54 liter (Sorry for the metrics... i'm in Switzerland) aquarium with 6 guppies and 3 otos. I'm a shrimp noob, so then I read that I should probably have more than a couple of anubias and dwarf baby tears in there and I got some plants, and a couple of different types of moss (Stringy moss which I tied to a coconut shell and java moss have just thrown in there to go wild). Then last week I added a another couple of shirakura mineral stones, and now my tank is such a disaster to look at, and I'm just itching to reorganise it all. :icon_roll

Problem is, that a week after I got my shrimps one of the females berried (is that the right term?), and another female looks like she will be ready in another few days... so will rescaping totally stress the berried female out and cause her to drop the eggs or will she be OK? My current thought is that if I'm going to do it at all... I'd better do it before the eggs hatch. Will certainly fish out the otos and guppies before I do anything, but shrimp are so jumpy!

Would really appreciate any tips... :icon_wink

ps. I'm not sure how much success I'd have catching the shrimp in a bottle trap since they enjoy eating fish poop so much that they rarely if ever touch any shrimp food that I give them. :iamwithst
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swissian
Bell,

I move things around all the time in my planted tank. I normally just use my hand to scare the shrimps away for a short time and then move what I want. They are all smart enough to get out of the way. I also leave my fish in the tank while rescaping. As long as you are not changing the substrate or stirring it up too much you should be fine leaving everything in and just lowering the water.
Just make sure your hands are clean before you go about moving things and you should be fine.

Where in Switzerland are you from? My family is from Vallais.
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Bell
Hello Swissian,

Thanks for the input. I rescaped today. I actually fished everything out, cos I figured I would be stirring up a lot of crap... and I did. I also thought it was a good opportunity for me to do a rough headcount. Turns out I had 18 shrimpies instead of 15... :confused: how odd, I only paid for 15. But that tells me that none of them died when I first introduced them to the tank :biggrin: Of course I can't say the same now after today's ordeal!

I removed all plants and deco items and put them aside, then I fished everyone out and put shrimps along with the fishes in a bucket of their own water. Then I went full attack with a small gravel vacuum, not that it helped me stir up any less crap later on when I made a mess of the rest of the water. After I was finished rescaping, I let the heater and filter run for an hour before re-acclimatising them for another hour. Poor stressed otos seem to have regained their composure, and shrimps had their full colour return within the hour, so I guess they're alright. Guppies seem fine no matter what.

All I hope for now is that the berried female births safely, and the other female feels safe enough to breed. I hope I didn't kill any shrimps from the stress. Next time I want to move something I will be a little less extreme I guess

By the way, I'm not Swiss, but I live in Bern. Originally from Malaysia. Valais is beautiful :icon_smil:
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