Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hi my shrimp friends,

I hope this question isn't too stupid.

I enjoy watching my shrimps swim, however, it seems that they don't swim much. They tend to walk or sit. Is there any way I can make them swim more? Is it unnatural or unhealthy if they swim too much?

I too enjoy watching my shrimp swim, it looks like they are flying In my experience, I find my shrimp swim more just after a water change and also during attempts to breed. I also here that they swim more when they are stressed and are trying to get away from poor conditions such as bad water parameters. Naturally, I think that they have a balance between swimming and not swimming when they are healthy. I just let them do their own routine and when they are swimming I am lucky enough to see

I find my cherry shrimp are all lazy and only swim when they have to.
My tiger females tend to walk around but the males like swimming.

I, too, find that my male RCS consistently swim around a lot more than the females. I mean, a lot more.

Do you think it is a form of mating ritual/dance?

I believe it is sex attractant pheremone secreted by ready females stimulating the males to swim. Whenever I come home and see my males zipping and gliding around the tank, there is almost always a fresh molt by one of my larger breeding females that seems to have stimulated it. My females rarely jet around like this, and never consistently.for any lenghth of time.

Once you build up a tank so that there are 10-20 adult females, the action is pretty constant. Some female is always ready and the males are always tuned in. Just hang in there and you'll see. I enjoy watching the ladies in waiting fanning their eggs more than the males zooming about just hoping. Seeing lots of tiny little ones never gets old.

fishguy_1955 wrote:I believe it is sex attractant pheremone secreted by ready females stimulating the males to swim. Whenever I come home and see my males zipping and gliding around the tank, there is almost always a fresh molt by one of my larger breeding females that seems to have stimulated it. My females rarely jet around like this, and never consistently.for any lenghth of time.

You could be onto something there.....my tigers are berried but my new cherries haven't started reproducing yet. Perhaps the cherry males will start swimming around when the females are ready for fun.

Observations from my tank; started out with 10 RCS, were zooming around like crazy first 2-3 days, then settled down, munching on the "stuff" in the plants and substrate. Female with eggs didn't swim around much, just stayed fanning the eggs and eating.

Got 10 more 4 days ago, and the tank still looks like O'Hare airport at rush hour! Mostly males, saddled females tend to do short little hops.

Got one male that did 7 laps of the tank the other night before I got dizzy from watching him!

When you first get shrimp they tend to swim around because they are not used to your water parameters. They swim around because they are looking for a way to get away actually. They will settle down after a while once they are used to your water. You just have to make sure that your tank is covered and/or your water level is not too close to your tank's edge as this is the time when shrimp tend to climb out of the water. You can't really do much about this. You'll just have to give them time to get used to your water.

The same thing happens if you change your water without adding a dechlorinator. Shrimp try to get away and swim around like crazy. So, generally swimming around excessively is not a good thing, which makes sense as it just uses up energy unnecessarily.

The only times it's really a "good" thing to see your shrimp swim around is when males swim around to look for a newly molted female to mate with.

Hi Mustafa,

Your analysis really makes sense. Thanks for telling me

Yep-makes sense...

Day or so later and most are sitting in the plants busy grazing.

I tend to get a flurry of motion when I dump in a pinch of powdered food, they love to swim upsidedown at the surface to grab at it.

Ecir

Yes yes, exactly ! I've seen that. It's funny

how about shrimps chasing one shrimp carrying a food pellet.. I must say he must be quite strong for a lil guy.