# Do you gravel vac your shrimp tanks and do you attempt to protect the shrimp?



## Piscesgirl

I had been using a nylon stocking over the gravel vac, but now I'm using cheesecloth. Although, the cheesecloth can not keep baby shrimp from being sucked up, but at least allows some junk to get cleaned up whereas the nylon doesn't. 

Do you cover your gravel vac?


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## John P.

No, I wave my hand over the substrate to get all the poop in the water column, and then drain the water.


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## bharada

I have regular aquarium gravel in the tank that most of my shrimp reside in, so the gunk settles into it pretty quick. I only syphon out water and scoop out leaf debris.

I do, however, take an inordinate amount of time sifting through any Riccia I remove from the tank. One softball sized clump is often good for a dozen baby-juvi Cherries.


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## Piscesgirl

Your shrimp don't get sucked up? I have to shoo my shrimp away whenever I do anything -- they come up, jump on the gravel vac, jump on my arms, overall scared of nothing.


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## trenac

Brave little shrimp you have there, PG.

In my tank that has shrimp I usually just stick the vacuum in the corner slightly below the gravel line. For the most part my shrimp stay away.


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## JanS

I don't cover the end, but I do use a smaller vac and keep a very close eye on the tube and shrimp. I always keep my other hand near the exit side of the hose and if I see one getting in/near the tube, I quickly plug it with my thumb so it gently falls back out again. So far I don't believe I've lost any with that method.


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## MatPat

I have shrimp in all of my tanks and I don't do anything special when vaccuming the gravel. Like Jan, when I notice one in the tube, I pinch off the flow of water and they quickly swim out. I move my tube with quick jerks to stir up the mulm instead of putting both arms in the tank.


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## Piscesgirl

Ok folks -- how do you cut off the flow of water? I usually only pick up the vacuum to do so, which wouldn't be fast enough to dump the shrimp back out. The tube would be too long for me to stop the other end (the end in the bucket).


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## Raul-7

Don't mean to be invasive, but why use a gravel vaccum when mulm makes great/cheap plant fertilizer??? 

But as for your question, you can pinch off the flow by bending the tube enough to cause the flow to stop or a simpler method is to simply stop the siphon by raising the vaccum out of the water completly.


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## baj

I dont gravel vac, I just use a siphon for water change. The shrimp tanbk is low tech planted, so I imagine the gunk is good. For siphoning, I just stick the siphon on the inside of the mattenfilter.....aaaah! the joys of a mattenfilter....


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## Piscesgirl

Well, I know mulm is good -- but is there a point where it's too much of a good thing? 

The only reason I am doing it now is to get the planaria out -- that's why I'm using the cheesecloth. It doesn't absolutely protect the shrimp, but at least just a bit.


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## JanS

Piscesgirl said:


> Well, I know mulm is good -- but is there a point where it's too much of a good thing?


I absolutely think so. I've seen some heavily planted, well maintained tanks that have a horrible build up of mulm (just a little disturbance and it riles it all over the water), and IMO that's not good for the fish or the plants, not to mention being unappealing to the eye.
I'm not saying you have to vac every bit of it up, but it sure doesn't hurt anything to get the excess tidied up with every water change.


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## richy

Raul-7 said:


> Don't mean to be invasive, but why use a gravel vaccum when mulm makes great/cheap plant fertilizer???


while i agree that the mulm is great for plants, i tend to bear in mind that the mulm is building up in an enclosed system where waste matter can't be disposed of by itself, such as in a say a river or creek.

in my shrimp only, low light tank, i keep it bare bottom and use a turkey baster to suction the gunk out. i inspect the contents of the baster before i shoot the water off into a bucket. it is a tedious task, but it gives me peace of mind.

in the planted tank where i keep my amanos, i use a gravel vac. the shrimp know to swim or react when they feel the flow of water pulling them closer to the mouth of the vac. i don't worry about sucking up baby shrimp since i move them to a separate growout tank.


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## Piscesgirl

Richy are you saying you have baby Amanos? *perks up*


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## richy

sorry, that was misleading... i only have one baby shrimp (it should read "_a_ baby shrimp"), and i have absolutely no idea what species it is. i recently bought some tiger shrimp and put them into their own tank. prior to adding the tigers, tho, i had a female amano that released baby shrimp into that same tank. so i'm hoping that somehow the baby is an amano. otherwise, it's a baby tiger than somehow managed to survive the transfer. i do, however, have a few pregnant tigers that i'm hoping will yield a lively brood.


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## Piscesgirl

Ah...one can always be surprised, although my guess is that it is a tiger. Still nice shrimp! Would be nice to get a hold of some of the blue tiger shrimp.


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## richy

unfortunately i don't have the means of knowing what type it is, since it's been MIA since it's first sighting. i attest that to the fact that there's so much java moss in there. i just hope it's still alive.


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## Plattykins

Well I tried something tonight when I vac'd my tanks. One is a planted 10 gallon grow out tank with 3 juvie Leopard Danios, 6 Ghost shrimp and numerous Ramshorn snails. You are probably familiar with the netting for a bag of onions? I cut a piece of that and folded it over the top of a small vac intake which was attached to my Lee, Python-like hose. The holes in the folded netting were small enough to keep shrimp out and big enough to let debris in. The shrimp usually move out of the way of the hose anyway, but the net gives me some comfort. 

This also worked well in my community tank where I have a few Green Swordtail fry. As for staying ready for close calls, I keep my finger on the valve in case I have to shut it down fast. When I changed the water in my 2 gallon snail tank, I stuck the end of the small vac in a fine net as I suctioned the water out. This protected the small Ramshorn's and especially the little Pond Snails.


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## JanS

That's a good idea with the netting Plattykins. I bet Ehfifix (the easter grass looking stuff) would work well stuffed into the end of the tube too. I have a big box of it and have found lots of handy uses for it, aside from filter media.


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## Plattykins

Filter media from Easter basket grass... good idea! I wonder how many other creative ideas folks have for unconventional items use in their tanks... we'll have to start another thread! ;-)


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## gnatster

> I bet Ehfifix (the easter grass looking stuff) would work well


Ehfifix is not easter grass, it looks like it.

Ehfifix By Eheim is a medium mechanical filter material which is to be placed between EHFIMECH on the bottom and the subsequent biological or chemical filter layers. It traps debris which has passed through the previous layer and acts as a divider.


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## Plattykins

oops! Thanks for the tidbit!


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