Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

I appear to have lost a bamboo shrimp in my 10G It's been missing a few days, I've looked everywhere I can without disturbing the tank too much! I even pulled everything out and looked behind in case it had climbed out of the tank, but no success, did find a shrivelled up amano though!

How can a 3 1/2 inch shrimp go missing in a 10G? The other inhabitants include a bristlenose, 2 dps and some amano shrimp, could one of these be responsible? though surely there would be some trace!!!

touie wrote:I even pulled everything out and looked behind in case it had climbed out of the tank, but no success
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How can a 3 1/2 inch shrimp go missing in a 10G?

My first thought is that it was clinging to something you pulled out and jumped off when it was out of water. They can cling to things for ages when outside water and have a very strong grip. If it tried to crawl back to water, it could be a few feet away from wherever the decor was taken.

Bamboo shrimp can fit into small spaces and you need to check any tiny gap in the decor. They can squeeze down so don't ignore spaces much smaller than the shrimp. If you can, shine a torch to see better. They can blend in so well and fit so snugly you need a clear view to see them.

One thing to try is turning off the room lights early and drop some food near the front of the tank. After a few hours, turn on the room lights and see if it's walking about inspecting the food. You might see it dart back into hiding. Using a small torch is better as you're less likely to scare it. I do this occassionally if my african filter feeders disappear. You can still have a PC or TV on as long as the tank is dark. Putting a towel over the glass helps.

Good luck.

thanks I'll try that, the only thing I took right out was the filter so I hope it wasn't on that!

mine seems to have dissapeared to... its a consericy!

yep not found mine yet, it's been missing for days now!!!

Two possibilities:

1. Your tank has a lot of hiding spaces and your shrimp is hiding really well.

2. Your shrimp left the tank


Shrimp and fish try to leave their tanks when the water quality is not to their liking. Either way, if your shrimp is not sitting in some current filtering all day, then somerthing is wrong.

nothing wrong with the water in that tank, just tested it again!!! I had 2 bamboo shrimps in the 10G are they territorial? also the remaining bamboo shrimp would it be happier in my 20G or is 10G enough space? I've only had the shrimp about 4 or 5 weeks!

10 gallon is definitely too small. Even if the water is alright, they would feel claustrophobic.

By the way, shrimp are senstive to water parameters caused by overfeeding that cannot be measured with the test kits on the market. So even if the your test kits shows "nothing" it does not mean that your water is necessarily ok for shrimp. Those test kits were made with fish in mind after all and fish are a lot hardier than shrimp.

My bamboo shrimp has disappeared as well. And I've done a thorough search, maybe my Ph(7. wasn't to its liking. My question is Mustafa, how far can this shrimp get out of my tank? I'd like to get an idea of the parameters.

No need to answer my question, I found him, out of the tank and fallen behind the dresser.

Was he alive?

TKD

He was dying, and covered in dust bunnies, I euthanized him.

Constantine24-
Was this a male by any chance? I have 3 females in my 10 gallon tank and they are happy as clams. The only time they hide is when they molt. I've had these since around November. I've tried 2 males and both have left the tank.

Mustafa- you said you kept these at one time and they got to the point that they were carrying eggs. How big was your tank?

badflash wrote:Mustafa- you said you kept these at one time and they got to the point that they were carrying eggs. How big was your tank?

I had them in my 55 gallon tank. You can see the photo of one of the females carrying eggs in the species description for this shrimp. The eggs are barely visible (i.e. they don't stick out of the body visibly like with red cherry shrimp for example) and low in number (although still numbering hundreds or thousands) in relation to the size of the shrimp.

Some of my shrimp went missing once. I have an "off-the-back" type hanging filter, and I guess my water level was too high, because somehow my amanos managed to climb up the outflow and into the filter to get at all the goodies trapped on it. I couldn't find them for days, but then I finally looked in the filter and found all three of them alive, happily picking at the filter cartrige. It scared me to lose track of them though, so I keep my water level a little lower so they can't climb up there anymore. Be sure to check your filter if you happen to have that kind, because your missing shrimp might just be in there.