Supershrimp activity

[Harry]

I had my newly acquired shrimp in two small plastic candy jars, about 4 inches high. I finally found a glass container suitable for display. It is about 8 inches high by 6 inches in diameter and shaped a bit like a brandy snifter. It's much larger than an ecosphere and I estimate that it contains a bit more than a half-gallon water. With substrate on the bottom and some air on top, the shrimp now have a water height of about 6 inches. This is much larger than the candy jars, which offered only 3 inches in water height. There was not a lot of activity in the candy jars, although the shrimp were constantly feeding off the gravel surface and other surfaces. Now that they are in the larger container, they are taking advantage of the extra space and they are incredibly active (super active!) There are 16 shrimp in the container (I guess Mustafa gives everyone an extra shrimp). At least eight of them are now constantly swimming between midway and the top of the tank. They do backflips, attach to the glass and never stop moving. Three or four are usually seen moving along the gravel. Those on the bottom are constantly swimming to the top as others take their place on the bottom. The rest would be hiding somewhere, as there are plenty of hiding places. But I am amazed at their level of activity. I get up at sunrise and they are already swimming all over the place. After twelve hours of light, they continue to swim after the lights go out. Who would think that micro-algae and micro organisms would contain that much energy. The shrimp in my freshwater tank don't even come close to this level of activity.

[KenCotigirl]

Great. The red color of the shrimp and their horizontal and vertical movement adds interest and seems to multiply their numbers as compared to freshwater shrimp. How long have they been in their new digs. Their activity may decrease once they are settled in.

Ken

[Harry]

They've only been in the new tank for two days. And they have finally settled down this morning and are doing more grazing on the substrate. But there has been a real improvement in color after arriving in the larger tank. Many of them are now pink and some have a good red going on. They received a tiny food flake upon arrival in the new tank, which they devoured quickly. They won't get another for two weeks. Snails seem to be doing well too.

[LeShrimp]

There activity probably isn't because they are happier even though it might look like that! Supershrimp usually get really active when anything exciting happens to them or any changes are made to their environments. For example, whenever I add water too my tank they all get very excited and swim around a lot. Eventually they will probably get settled in.

[Harry]

Yes, they are definitely more settled in now and less active. And they are coming up pink and red, which is good.