New Tank:Shrimp Only Eating at the Top

[Kval1015]

Hello!

I puchased and added 10 shrimp to my tank on Thursday of last week. They seem to be acclimating pretty well but I have noticed they are only eating algae/biofilm from the top of the tank all weekend. They will swim in circles a bit but arent venturing far below the surface to other areas of the tank, which I find a little strange.

They have all turned red in color and seem pretty healthy so I'm not sure if this is really anything to worry about.

I think we might have lost one little shrimp, but it might just be an exo Skelton at the bottom of the tank. Has anyone ever seen this behavior before? Should i be concerned? If the shrimp have turned red after a few days is that a good sign that they are doing well in their new environment?

Thanks!

[Mustafa]

That's absolutely normal. There is just a lot of food literally growing on the water surface. The shrimp will venture around eventually

[Kval1015]

Thanks for your reply Mustafa!

We purchased some snails a little while ago but they all died in less than a week.

We have 20 shrimp now, they all seem to be fine, but we never removed the snails. Since it all seems fine, should we leave it as is?

Also, if a shrimp passes away should we remove it? If in the wild, it wouldn't be removed, what danger does it pose in the tank? Our tank is approximately 9 gallons.

Thanks!

[Varanus]

All the snails died? That's unusual, were they Mustafa's?

Ideally you want to remove dead things from the tank when possible, especially since there are no filters in these tanks. Course I'd wager in many cases the shrimp will clean up any dead bodies quickly enough that rotting won't cause an issue. Some of my snails have died of old age but by the time I notice they are dead their shells have already been cleaned out.

[Mustafa]

Yes, i'm very surprised about the snails dying too. Are you sure they are dead? And if so...what did you observe before they died? Any unusual behaviors? As for removing dead animals...unless there are mass deaths there is no need to remove anything. It'll just become food.

[Kval1015]

They seemed fine upon the initial addition to the tank, I didnt notice anything out of the ordinary before they passed. Just noticed one day they werent as active and the next they were still in the same area.

I am debating ordering more and giving them another shot. The tank had cycled for 3 months before I added them and I had checked all my levels before adding them.

Needless to say the massacre has left me very senstive for my shrimps!

[Mustafa]

A few months have passed....do you observe any snails? My theory is that some may have actually dug themselves in the substrate and grew and reproduces. If you are absolutely certain that the snails all died then by now your water should be good enough for them to be ok. If not, you need to do a very large (80+ percent) water change. That usually fixes the problem. Sometimes it can happen that something your water/setup affects the snails more than the shrimp.