My beginner Opa Ulae experience

[redhotshrimp]

These guys really change color fast. The shrimp were much redder when I woke up this morning. Then the LED light went on and they became distinctly less red after like 3 minutes. Later in the morning they regained some of their red color.

Then I took out the green yarn that had been in their shipping bag and readjusted the ornaments. Boom -- they mostly lost their red color and became very pale or clear or yellow. I'm going to just leave them alone.

They pretty much gather around the macroalgae. It's like their security blanket / major hangout area.

[redhotshrimp]

I freaked out. Two nights ago the shrimp were all gathered on the glass near the top of the jar. Then yesterday morning they were all at the very top of the jar just below the water surface, upside down. I then saw two entangled shrimp slowly float down to the bottom of the jar, sort of sluggish. Figuring something was majorly wrong, I quickly changed 75% of the water. (Then the shrimp were freaked out).

Now tonight the shrimp look fine, pretty good red colors, sitting on the rock and macroalgae like nothing was wrong.

What happened? Is it OK for shrimp to all huddle upside down just below the water surface? Is that a bad sign?
Note: During the first 5 weeks of cycling I had a fake plant in there from a pet store that specialized in fish. The plant was plastic but had wires inside (I found out because I had trimmed the fake plant to fit it in the jar). Anyway, I had removed the fake plant about a week before introducing the shrimp, sort of worried that the wires might leach unwanted metals into the water.

[Varanus]

The water change probably fixed things if there were contaminants. Hanging out near the surface in and of itself shouldn't be a problem, I think usually it just means the shrimp are feeding on surface film (i.e. organics that land or grow on the water surface).

[Super Jess]

I agree with Varanus. Emergency water change couldn't have hurt, and it's a normal behavior for them to feed upside down at the surface. Glad everyone is looking ok again.

[redhotshrimp]

My other 2.5 gallon tank has been cycling for 3 weeks -- no algae yet but I felt bad for the 2 shrimp in my teeny vase to be stuck in their tiny place .

I ended up just putting the entire little vase into the 2.5 gallon tank. Hopefully the contents of the vase will help cycle the bigger tank, and will be enough to provide "life support" for the 2 shrimp until the bigger tank is fully cycled. Also I added two shrimp over from my 1 gallon jar (which is doing great, except that the 20 shrimp ate all the visible algae)

Funny it's been 15 min and the shrimp in the teeny vase still have not left their little vase! Swim free guys! C'mon! Think outside the box!

[pelletube]

Redhotshrimp, what’s new? How are your shrimp doing?

[redhotshrimp]

The shrimp are overall doing great! These shrimp are so low maintenance. I pretty much don't do anything except give a small flake of food every 2 weeks or so, and add deionized water when the water level gets noticeably lower. The shrimp are active and fun to watch.

In my 2.5 gallon tank, there have been no shrimp deaths. It is funny, but the shrimp love to be inside the old little glass vase that is in the 2.5 gallon tank. Oddly, some type of algae grows in there, but does not seem to visibly grow along the walls of the larger acrylic tank, or anywhere else in the tank. The tank is spotless aside from that little vase. Also, the shrimp all seem bigger and redder in the 2.5 gallon tank than the shrimp in my other 1 gallon jar, even though I had initially put the scrawnier shrimp in the 2.5 gallon tank. Maybe they like the larger space / larger surface area of the water, or maybe the little glass vase in the 2.5 gallon tank provides more algae / food. I also notice that the shrimp start off the day being pretty red, but become kind of tan / much less colorful as the day goes on. Must be related to the bright LED light that shines on them.

In the 1 gallon jar, a couple of shrimp died . One died after I went away for 2 days and my family decided turned off the LED lights for both tanks for those days. I'm not sure the death is related. I'm also not sure how / when the other shrimp died, but I just no longer can count more than 9 in there so it must have bought the farm. That 1 gallon jar is also spotless without any visible algae. This is despite my using pretty good LED lights for both the 1 gallon jar and the 2.5 gallon acrylic tank. Probably there is little margin for error in terms of food / algae growth for the 1 gallon jar.

I'm thinking to start feeding weekly rather than every other week -- hopefully some visible algae will grow on the walls of the tanks or on some ornaments so that the shrimp will have more to munch on.

Still no berried shrimp though. I see black or white saddles on several shrimp. Maybe they'll be happier in the next few months if I feed them weekly?

[pelletube]

Redhotshrimp, thanks for the update. We started this journey about the same time

I’m now encountering some rapid algae growth (which I think no real harm (?) except that it’s not as pleasant to look at (?)...

See my posts, you can probably give some insights!

[Mustafa]

I'm thinking to start feeding weekly rather than every other week -- hopefully some visible algae will grow on the walls of the tanks or on some ornaments so that the shrimp will have more to munch on.

Just give it some time. I would not feed too often until you start seeing some algae growth. It does not take much for algae to start growing at some point. How is the macroalgae doing? Did it increase in size? If so, then you do not have any nutrient issues in your tank at all.

Do you have any updated pictures of both tanks?