cleaning the tank with delicate shrimp

Shanna · Post by **Shanna** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 8:12 pm

Sorry for the many posts....... I need help.

The floor of one of my shrimp only tanks is getting a little yucky, but I am afraid to vaccum it with such tiny delicate shrimp fry around. I don't want to suck up the little babies!!

Any ideas??

snakeskin · Post by **snakeskin** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:37 pm

If you put nylon around your vacuum it could work without trapping your young shrimp-I've heard this experiment used with small fancy guppy fry

imisky · Post by **imisky** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:56 pm

baby shrimps are alot smaller then guppy fries im not sure if itll work, maybe look at the holes and compare it to the baby shrimps

csmike · Post by **csmike** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:10 pm

I don't know if this is bad but I just vaccum it carefully. If they ain't run fast enough, you can always pick them up from the bucket where the water goes. It may cost more time to look for the shrimps (got sucked out) but so far I have never found more than 5 babies got sucked out (they are all fine, I can assure you about this) in my tank where I have alot of shrimps in it. It is too hard to do a good cleaning when you are so hesitated about sucking them out. As long as you're not aiming at them and do it slowly, I think it is fine.

IME, I seldom see babies (first month or so) wondering on the floor of the tank if you have moss in it, they are more likely to be there instead.