Where'd they go?

[PhilCherry]

I had purchased 10 red cherry shrimp from your site mid December. They were all doing real well the first week or so. about 2 1/2 weeks in I could only
count 4. Now it seems there may only be 2 or 3 left. all females. they
look great. very bright red. and they tripled in size.

My water condition had remained constant. ph, gh, kh, temp, amnonia,
nitrate, nitrite. all at proper levels. i put a net on the filter intake.
no fish. lots of plants.

any other reason for thier vanishing? i couldn't even find evidence of
dead ones.

thanks phil

[alexperez]

They might still be around, its that you just can't see them. They can hide really good if they want good. When I first started keeping shrimp I had the same concern but soon realized that whatever number of shrimp I can see they are probably 3 or 4 times as many hiding around the tank somewhere.

I have been trying to move all the cherry shrimp in my 6 gallon to make room for some snowball shrimp and every time I think I got them all. I see a few more the next day.

Regards,
Alex

[Mustafa]

Hi Phil,

The fact that you see some of them running around in what appears to be a very healthy state means that your conditions now are right for them. However, that does not mean that something went wrong in the past that might have killed off some of your shrimp, if they are in fact dead at all. As Alex said, they might just be hiding out really well. You indicated that your tank is very heavily planted, so that's not out of the question. However, the fact that it's heavily planted will also prevent dead shrimp from being discovered and removed from the tank. Dead shrimp deteriorate the water tremendously and the effect is obviously worse in smaller tanks.

Why don't you give us some more details on your tank so we can go from there. How large is your tank? What's the Ph and KH? GH values would be nice too, but secondary to ph and kh for this species. How often do you change the water and how large are your water changes? Have you read the following article yet?

Why are my shrimp dying?

[PhilCherry]

I'll check the metal content. I do use a chem thats supposed to take out metals as well as chlorine.

off the top of my head...

PH 7.5 KH 7 Temp 68-72 (after the light has been on all day)

55gallon

water changes once per 10 days 1/3 of the tank.

thanks for all of your replies.

Phil

Hi Phil,

The fact that you see some of them running around in what appears to be a very healthy state means that your conditions now are right for them. However, that does not mean that something went wrong in the past that might have killed off some of your shrimp, if they are in fact dead at all. As Alex said, they might just be hiding out really well. You indicated that your tank is very heavily planted, so that's not out of the question. However, the fact that it's heavily planted will also prevent dead shrimp from being discovered and removed from the tank. Dead shrimp deteriorate the water tremendously and the effect is obviously worse in smaller tanks.

Why don't you give us some more details on your tank so we can go from there. How large is your tank? What's the Ph and KH? GH values would be nice too, but secondary to ph and kh for this species. How often do you change the water and how large are your water changes? Have you read the following article yet?

Why are my shrimp dying?

[Mustafa]

Hmm...I am more and more leaning towards Alex's theory that you just can't see your shrimp. Finding 10 shrimp in a heavily planted 55 gallon tanks is almost like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. You won't see all that many shrimp around until your shrimp reproduce and there are 50-100 shrimp in your tank.

[PhilCherry]

well maybe not completly planted. it's heavy on one side the other is pretty open right now. and the 3 or 4 that i see seem to be the same 3 or 4. 3 females and 1 male. for the past week I've only seen 1 female. they're pretty large too close to an inch. i seen more when they were 1/2"

anyway for now i'll hope i'm just not seeing them and check the copper content.

thanks again