# [Wet Thumb Forum]-DISSAPPEARING SHRIMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!



## sk8r_turned_aquarist (Mar 21, 2004)

Yesterday I bought four Amono shrimp and at first they were all doing well and hung out on the bottom and on some plants. I fed them a shrimp pellet (cannibals!) and they seemed to enjoy that a lot, but then in about fifteen minutes they had all gathered on the back side of my trickle filter and up near the corners of the tank. This morning I could only find three shrimp, so after a lot of looking I thought maybe he got into the filter. Sure enough I pulled the filter pad out and out popped a very white, cooked-looking amano. He couldn't have gotten sucked up into the filter because the screening on the intake is too small. I think he climbed into where the tube goes into the filter. Now I'm missing one of the remaining three shrimp. What the hell is going on?!?!?!?!? I've got a 30gal tall, 1wpg, three java ferns and a moneywort (this is my low tech tank) fauna include: one fire gourami, seven zebra danios, one neon tetra (the others died of ich), four cories, three? amanos, and some snails (about 10, I keep their population limited). Filtration inculdes:tetra HOB #2 trickle filter, under gravel filter powered by air stones. If they are just climbing into the trickle filter should I lower the water level and are they just being intimidated by the other fish near the bottom? I noticed at the store, they had them in planted tanks with them as the only animals and they were happily seated on the bottom.


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## sk8r_turned_aquarist (Mar 21, 2004)

Yesterday I bought four Amono shrimp and at first they were all doing well and hung out on the bottom and on some plants. I fed them a shrimp pellet (cannibals!) and they seemed to enjoy that a lot, but then in about fifteen minutes they had all gathered on the back side of my trickle filter and up near the corners of the tank. This morning I could only find three shrimp, so after a lot of looking I thought maybe he got into the filter. Sure enough I pulled the filter pad out and out popped a very white, cooked-looking amano. He couldn't have gotten sucked up into the filter because the screening on the intake is too small. I think he climbed into where the tube goes into the filter. Now I'm missing one of the remaining three shrimp. What the hell is going on?!?!?!?!? I've got a 30gal tall, 1wpg, three java ferns and a moneywort (this is my low tech tank) fauna include: one fire gourami, seven zebra danios, one neon tetra (the others died of ich), four cories, three? amanos, and some snails (about 10, I keep their population limited). Filtration inculdes:tetra HOB #2 trickle filter, under gravel filter powered by air stones. If they are just climbing into the trickle filter should I lower the water level and are they just being intimidated by the other fish near the bottom? I noticed at the store, they had them in planted tanks with them as the only animals and they were happily seated on the bottom.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

They may not feel secure because you have few plants and the other fish may be picking at them so they are escaping to the filter for protection. I would add some dense cluster of plants with some rocks for them to get under in a corner of the tank. This will help them feel secure and they will be able to hide from the other fish.


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## sk8r_turned_aquarist (Mar 21, 2004)

Thanks for your input, what kinds of plants should I put in? I was thinking anubias would be good and I have some rocks (what the java fern is attached to). The problem with the fish freaking them is exactly what I was thinking but was too frantic and pissed to mention that when I first posted this morning. I lowered the water level so they can't get into the filter but they still hang out on top of the towers for the under-gravel filter. I'll try putting some more plants in the tank but I think that once I have my ten gal. stabilized I'll put 'em in there.

Going into detail on the 10 gal, I'm just setting it up with flourite (forgot to rinse it so I stirred up the "dust" and siphoned it out (that took like four hours to get remotely clean) and DIY CO2 with soon to be 3wpg. I'm on a high school budget so I'm getting plants bit by bit, all I have in there now is one _Anubias_ nana and two cool lookin' bunch plants (like moneywort only with heart-shaped leaves). The lighting now is only 1.5 wpg but I'm getting another light tomorrow to up it to 3wpg, the CO2 is bubbling nicely (one bubble every 1.5 sec.) into a home made tetra-cup-style diffuser. So once that is heavily planted I'm going to add 10-12 neons and some shrimp. Any suggestions on that would be greatly appreciated.


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## anonapersona (Mar 11, 2004)

It seems to me that Amanos often try to go back to where they were before if they find themselves in a different and somewhat uncomfortable place; different water, salinity, temperature, CO2 levels, etc. 

In that little shrimpy brain they are thinking, it was better BEFORE... I know, let's go BACK, all together now, UPSTREAM, UPSTREAM I say, that's where it was better, UPSTREAM... and so up the filter outlet they go, with a scout sent up first. When the scout didn't return the rest turned back and they sent the next one up the heater cord, so you'll find him either under the tank or if he was a really brave shrimp, some 4 or 6 feet away, crisp.


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## Shane A smith (Jun 15, 2003)

LOL


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## sk8r_turned_aquarist (Mar 21, 2004)

Well right after I last posted I started looking for shrimp-flavored carpet jerky and thankfully found none. Since the 30 gal that the shrimp are in gets a little sun I don't have a heater in that tank. Frequently I have to put ice cubes in it to cool down during the summer (when it gets really bad, like 84 deg. F) so that wasn't an option for the shrimp. No I found the third missing amano happily eating algae on the back of a rock that I could barely see. All shrimp seem to be used to the busy fish and the water parameters and are hanging out on some rocks eating more algae than you could scrape in a year. Well thank you for listening to all my rants and worries about the missing shrimp. See ya!


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