In need of advice!!

[Cakelake]

Hello!

After receiving an ecosphere for Christmas I read up on them and found out the horrible truth about them. I've set up a new tank for the shrimp and am waiting for it to finish cycling. Its only been cycling for three days but one of my shrimp has gotten really small and inactive and I worry that if I don't take him out ASAP he will die. If I leave them in the ecosphere with it opened do you think they would be ok for the next two weeks?

[Varanus]

I would try opening it so there is some air exchange. It can't hurt at least. I would normally say waiting for the tank to cycle should be no problem as supershrimp often survive for some time in the ecospheres, but for that one shrimp in your case I don't know. You could try adding a TINY bit of food but in such a small container as an ecosphere that may do more harm than help.

[Cakelake]

Yayyyy the ecosphere is open! Hopefully the little guy can hold on just a little bit longer until his new tank is ready

[Ace]

It is important that you allow the new space to sit for a month or so to allow it to not only cycle but to start growing algea. When you start to see green, you can move the shrimp into it. To encourage algae to grow, try and expose it to direct sunlight and you could have some lamps shining on it 24 hours a day as well. It will take almost a month for you to start to see green. In the meantime, it would be good if you do not do anything with the shrimp in the exosphere. The only thing that you may want to do is provide more light for it so that algae can grow inside of it. Give it 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. The shrimp will eat the algae.

[Cakelake]

So unfortunately the fourth shrimp died (( The other three however are much more active now that the ecosphere is open.

[Varanus]

Good to hear about the other three, as for the one that died there was probably nothing that could be done by the time you realized there was a problem. From what I've read, once shrimp start to go downhill they seem to not have as much capacity to recover as some other creatures.

[Ace]

I am sorry about the shrimpy.

This should be your last shrimp death!