Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hey guys, I have a ten gallon tank with two bamboo shrimp, one ghost shrimp, and three "algae eater" (wild-type red cherry) shrimp. I have witnessed all my shrimp "itching" at their uropods on a regualr basis--they bend their tails under themselves and pick at their swimmerettes and uropods. Are my shrimp being bothered by some sort of parasite, or is this normal shrimp behavior? If it is a problem, how can I fix it? My tank is currently at about pH 7.6 and 77 degrees Fahrenheight, and I use Seachem Prime to treat any water additions, which are made regularly. Any idea what is going on here?

that's normal. they simply clean their shells.

u should watch my macro rosenbergi im sure badflash whould back me up on this one there clean it once then 2x more i thought i was anal about house cleaning lol its totally normal all shrimp are very clean animals in my mind

It's usually normal behavior to see a shrimp scratch himself/herself once in a while. However, if this happens very frequently and the whole population (or most of the population) is displaying the same behavior, then something might be wrong with the water parameters.