Have 8-year Old Ecosystem Shrimp - Not sure what to do

[SuperProofer]

Apparently, I lied. My shrimps showed up today! The stupid mailman didn't ring the bell to let me know I had a package though. Grrr.

So I unboxed them. Their water was a bit chilly so I have them sitting in the room where to tanks are getting acclimated to the room temperature. I'll check back on them this evening and probably put one shrimp in each jar just to make sure they are OK before putting them all in. I know I'm just being paranoid, but... Safety first!

[Noraelle]

Oh how exciting! That's exactly what I did. I moved just one guy (it was sooooo stressful for both of us to capture him though) to the new home and I'm going to wait a few days before moving the rest. However, in hindsight I wonder if I should wait for green algae growth because it only has brown algae now, but I couldn't wait much longer. Keep me posted!

[SuperProofer]

To move them, I put them all in a wide-rimmed shallow bowl (a large ramekin really) and used a 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon to scoop them up and deposit them into the jars. It took a couple of tries, but was relatively easy. You could give that a try. The rest I left in the ramekin for tonight.

If the 2 are still OK in the AM, I'll transfer the rest tomorrow (probably after work). Then I'll give it about a week or so and if all is good, I'll transfer Trooper.

Once I do that, I was toying with the idea of saving his water to seed a new tank in the future. Anyone know if the water is safe to save for a long period of time or will it "go bad" after a certain amount of time?

[SuperProofer]

Morning check in: 2 shrimps alive and well. Going to go home at lunch and transfer the rest.

[SuperProofer]

Transfer complete. The ramekin and measuring spoon method worked well! Been 24 hours and everyone is doing fine. Getting red after their long journey.

[Noraelle]

Yay! Congrats!! Does that mean you can no longer tell trooper apart?

Zippy, the pioneer of my new tank and famously named for his skill in escaping my ladle, is red and doing well. I may try your transfer method for the others but for now, I'm still trying to figure out how I can keep the other jar as a "hospital/emergency" tank, and if that means leaving a couple of shrimps in there. I hope someone answers your question about the snails as I'm wondering if I can leave snails in the back-up tank with no shrimps. Maybe we can split an order of 10 snails... but the chance of us living within driving distance is probably very slim.

[SuperProofer]

Not unless you live near Las Vegas! But depending on distance, it might not be worth the cost in gas than to just buy the 10 snails and just figure out accommodations for them. LOL

I haven't added Trooper yet as I'm waiting to make sure the ecosystem stays stable now that the shrimps are in. Probably at the start of the new year I'll port him over. But yeah, once I do, I won't be able to tell him apart. For some reason, I just assumed that I would get all adult shrimps (which would have made him probably smaller than most), but I got a good mix of large, medium and *super* tiny shrimps. So, yeah, he'll disappear into the fold. Sad for me, but happy for him. As long as 10 shrimp remain in the tank, I'll know he's alive in there somewhere.

I'll save the Mustafa water for now in a container, but yeah, I'd like to know how long it will stay viable.

[Noraelle]

We are in the same time zone but I'm in CA! That's good that you got different size shrimps though, with a juvenile, you can estimate that they'll have more years to live wheres with an adult shrimp it'd be harder to gauge how old it is.

Hopefully, someone can answer our question about what is the "minimum" requirement for water to stay viable and how long it can stay viable with no snails/shrimps.

[SuperProofer]

So far, so good. Shrimps are shrimpin'. They're starting to turn brighter red from the pale they were when they arrived. They are making much quicker work of the algae than I expected. The glass is cleaning up nicely.

They are so much more active than Trooper. I feel bad for him having to wait to transfer him over, but I just want to make sure... Better safe than sorry. Just a couple more weeks, little guy!

[SuperProofer]

Mission accomplished! Trooper has landed!

I transferred Trooper over about 2 hours ago ago. So far, so good. He's swimming around, checking out his new place and roommates. He even picked up a piece of sand and carried it around for a bit.

Surprisingly, it turns out, I can tell him apart from the others. He has a large white patch on his belly (kinda looks like a Santa beard), so when he's on the glass, I can see him. Also, the black spot on his back is shaped differently - it looks like an ice cream cone. I just never noticed since there were no others to compare him to. So, for now, I can keep an eye on him.

There was a bit of a kurfuffle at first when it looked like one of the other shrimps was picking on him a bit, but I can't tell if that's just normal behavior. It was a bit more aggressive looking than what I've observed of them normally. But it seems to have died down now.

Now, I can't wait till we get moved and I can look into bigger tank options. I want to get a 1 or 2 gallon and about 20-30 shrimp.

For those interested on the transfer process: His "ecosphere" was really a glass jar with it's lid glued in place (which I had popped open a couple months ago). It was really crowded with fake plants, a sea fan and a shell. And, apparently, the gravel and rock that the fake plant was attached to was glue in place to the bottom of the jar and i couldn't take it out! So, I removed what I could, making sure that Trooper was stuck to the side of the glass and not hiding in the plant as he liked to do. Every time I'd see him free swimming, I'd remove a piece. Eventually, I got enough out to have room to try to scoop him up. I tried the turkey baster method to hopefully suck him up and get him into the ramekin to then scoop him with the teaspoon, but that didn't work. I ended up taking about half the water out of his jar to try to confine him a little better. Then I just went in with the teaspoon into the jar. With a little patience (and some luck) I managed to scoop him up with the teaspoon and deposit him in his new home. The whole process only took about 10 minutes. Much easier than I expected.

[MrsT]

SuperProofer, looks like your Trooper is a miracle given to you by Santa . I like how you described his belly, "Santa Beard" . Congrats to you, everything seemed smooth so far. Looking forward for more good news from you in future.

[SuperProofer]

Thanks!

[Noraelle]

Thanks for the update! I'm glad that Trooper made it to his new home and you can still keep track of him! My ecosystem shrimps are happy in their new home too although I noticed that they tend to be more white when the light is on and redder when light's off. Not sure if it's a lighting issue, a substrate issue (new set up is white sand, old was black gravel and shows their color better), or just them still acclimating. Regardless, they are in a much bigger home and I might invest in a snail much later if I noticed too much debris/waste.

[Mustafa]

Hopefully, someone can answer our question about what is the "minimum" requirement for water to stay viable and how long it can stay viable with no snails/shrimps.

You should be able to let the tank stand indefinitely. No problem at all.

[SuperProofer]

Yay!! Maybe I will order some snails afterall!