Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

I am planning on getting a bamboo shrimp for my 29 gal. I used to have a small juvenile (1.5") in a 10 gal, but he died fter jumping out. I think he may have jumped out because of lack of food. I didn't supplement him but had a high fish load and algae, so probably lots of suspended particles for him to eat.

My question for the future shrimp is: how do I know if it needs to be fed supplementary food? I keep my tank very clean by weekly or even twice weekly water changes, for the sake of my fishes so I'm worried that it won't get enough to eat and will jump out again. I've read that bamboos will pick up food particles that are on the substrate, but I never saw my old one do that.

A happy shrimp will find a perch under high water flow in the tank. You'll see them filtering and eating all the time. If they start cleaning the gravel on a regular basis they are not getting enough to eat. I take algae flake and grind it into a powder and feed a pinch each night after lights out.

You should be able to see floaties in the water. If there are none, the shrimp may have a hard time.

What do you mean by floaties?

Thanks.

decapsulated brine shrimp egg, golden pearl, dry rotifer work well also.

So you DO supplement/feed your bamboo shrimp nightly. I thought it was bad to overfeed shrimp in general, and that trying to feed bamboo shrimp would result in water fouling. I plan on buying some plankton (zoo- and phyto-) to drop in the filter stream for the shrimpy. Do you think this would work? Would every other day be OK?

Baby_Girl wrote: I think he may have jumped out because of lack of food.

Shrimp don't leave their tanks due to lack of food. Your shrimp did not like something about your water parameters. This is especially critical in the first few days after introduction to your tank as the water they came from (in the store) is most likely different from your tank water. Also, even if they have been in your tank for a while, your water parameters can deteriorate to such a degree that the shrimp start looking for a new home.

It was probably water quality, then. I used to be bad about water changes (50% a month) so the nitrates were probably too high. I have since reformed, though, and am meticulous about tank water quality (at least one water change a week). He had lived for about a year, so it wasn't an acclimation issue.

By the way, what's the best way to acclimate inverts? I just do them the same as fish: a little bit of tank water into the bag every few minutes until temperature is the same and release (draining foreign water into another container) by net after an hour or so.

Make sure you have enough water current to carry the food particles towards the bamboo shrimp.

yup, my old shrimp always used to sit right in the stream of the filter outflow. i made sure my current filter has a "bamboo shrimp platform" (actually a tall decoration) right under it so the new shrimpy will also have a throne