Where did my shrimp go?

[dman]

I had about 10 good sized ghost shrimp and at least 10 red cherry shrimp in my tank that I bought as real small ones but they grew and a couple weeks ago I saw all kinds of them wandering around the tank. Over the past couple weeks, I hardly see anything. I see maybe one ghost shrimp and 3 red ones. I have only found 2 dead ghost shrimp. There is nothing I have (in my sig) that would eat these are there? The only thing that happened different over the last couple weeks was I added 4 cories and a bristlenose pleco and I started dosing Leaf Zone once a week. Any ideas?

[Lab_Rat]

The fish most certainly could have eaten the RCS and even the ghosties. For shrimp to survive with most fish you need a ton of cover for them to hide in. Right now I have RCS with Endlers and it's working so far but I won't be surprised if the Endler's pick them off.

[Mith]

I have less ghost shrimp in my tank that originally. They WILL eat each other! Having lots of places for them to hide helps AND... I feed my fish enough food that the shrimp have learned to swim up and get some of it. Keeping them well fed helps them from turning on each other.

[dman]

Which of the fish could have eaten them? Everything in there is smaller than the shrimp right now. I actually have been feeding them less the last couple of weeks though. I used to give flakes once or twice a day, and now I give a little bit of pellets once a day and put in a sinking wafter for the cories once a day and an algae pellet every 3 days or so. Am I not feeding enough?

[Lab_Rat]

RCS are small even as adults, so probably any of the fish could have picked them off. I've also had a cannibalistic ghostie who hunted down other ghosties and ate them alive.

One of my fav pics, he literally hunted this guy down and ate him alive:
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[korith]

In addition to the fish, sometimes invertebrates like shrimp don't react to some fertilizers that well. Though it's probably the fish.

Since you got a planted tank, maybe the shrimp are all in hiding? I know when I've taken down a planted tank, I've found a lot more shrimp than I knew existed in that tank.

[Mith]

Oh I almost forgot. Shrimp are nocturnal. Turn on your lights sometime at night and I'll bet ya see more of your sherimp!!!!

[annageckos]

Fish eat shrimp, shrimp eat shrimp. Also, when the shrimp molt thier shell they are vulnerable as their new shell is soft and even the smallest fish can take bites out of them. They could also just be hiding.

[little hawaii]

Poor shrimp and fish, they are probably starveing. try useing some Pro Reef. Its a algae and crustacian mix. Very fine powder, only need like a 1/4 tsp., your shrimp will love it and have something to hunt for all day.

[annageckos]

I highly doubt they are starving. As long as some food makes it too the bottom they are fine. Most people overfeed their fish, they really do not need much food.

[dman]

Yeah I have been trying to feed less after reading stuff on here. I put up a post a few weeks ago about some worms that I saw living in the substrate that would pop their heads up when food fell to the bottom. The advice here was to feed less, and at that time I was picking out 2-3 of them per day. I have only seen one in the last week so maybe that is working.

There are some good hiding places, but before I added the cories and pleco, I saw them out everywhere. Swimming around, on the plants, on the wood, etc. when the lights are on too. I saw them eating the fallen food, and around the wafers too. Maybe I will try to feed twice a day every other day and once a day the rest, and put wafers in more often. I haven't seen any food laying around the bottom so I must not be over feeding.

That makes sense about the ferts probably not having anything to do with it because if that were the case, I would see the dead ones.

[Wild Turkey]

In addition to whats already been suggested, Ghosties are known to hunt down and kill not only eachother but also cherry reds and others, especially in the molting phase. More hiding places will help this

[Hailey]

Just want to add that when all mine went missing, they got sucked up into the filter. Slowly, but eventually most of them got sucked up.

[korith]

Just want to add that when all mine went missing, they got sucked up into the filter. Slowly, but eventually most of them got sucked up.

Best to put a covering over the filter intake, like nylon mesh or something. I use an aquaclear sponge with a slit cut in that goes into the filter intake. Has the added bonus of acting as more media and the shrimp will even scavenge off of it.

[dman]

Just thought I'd update this. I bought these RCS about a month ago and they were very very tiny because they gave me probably 10-15 of so for $5. And I saw them growing up and all over the place in there. I think they may have been hiding, because as someone mentioned, when I turned the lights on, I saw at least 5 pretty large ones. I only saw 3 ghost shrimp, but I know at least 4 of the 10 died so who knows.

Anyways, I cleaned out my canister filter today, and thought I better check the bottom of it to make sure no shrimp are in there. Good thing I did because I pulled 7 RCS alive out of there! I wonder how long they were in there? The thing is, they were not much bigger than the ones I bought, definitely not the size of the full grown ones. Did these things breed already do you think?

[dman]

Oh, I forgot to mention that I did cut up some old nylons and put a piece around the intake now :)

[Hailey]

lol, well thats good! and if the nylon gets too dirty, it will be hard on the filter. The best thing to do is cut a AquaClear filter sponge and rig it on there!

Glad you found some!

[Commodore 64]

I always find RCS in my canisters. I think of it as my gestation chamber.

[dman]

Yeah that nylon looks like its getting clogged up pretty fast. When you say the Aqua Clear sponge, what exactly does that look like? Is it like a square shaped sponge that would go in a HOB filter, and do I just wrap it around there, or what?

[korith]

Yeah that nylon looks like its getting clogged up pretty fast. When you say the Aqua Clear sponge, what exactly does that look like? Is it like a square shaped sponge that would go in a HOB filter, and do I just wrap it around there, or what?


here is a link as an example.
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You could use another sponge of another brand, aquaclear is just an example. Just take a knife and cut a slit on one side of it, the depth of the cut is like 3/4 of the length of the sponge, then jam the intake into it.

[dman]

Oh ok, that makes sense I think. So cutting a slit making it like a sleeve that fits over the intake? Thanks!

[korith]

Oh ok, that makes sense I think. So cutting a slit making it like a sleeve that fits over the intake? Thanks!

yep. also i find once the shrimp tank is set up, the less I mess around with it, the better off the shrimp seem to do.