Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

I brought home a total of 9 shrimp a few weeks back that had been doing well in my 10 gal snail tank. I set up a 2 gal eclipse tank by seeding it to make sure it was ready for the shrimp. I covered the intake with a fine mesh material since the cherries were soooo tiny. Everything has gone well up until this last week when I have found a dead shrimp in the filter 3 days in a row! I don't know if anyone is familiar with the 2 gal eclipse type where the filter is inside, the lid completely covers the tank, this is what it is. I have been checking water parameters and all is well----ammonia=0 nitrites=0 nitrates=5-10 (depending on whether I had just done a water change or not) water changes have been small and weekly, just a few cupfuls at a time, refilled with dechlorinated tap water. I realize shrimp can climb/jump out if they so desire, but it seems that if a shrimp had climbed up the filter intake tube into the filter area it would be able to climb back out. The only other thing I can figure is that they somehow managed to climb into the area where the water flows back in and once they were in there the biowheel caught and flipped them right into the filter pad and that was too much for their delicate selves. Is this possible? For right now I have the water level lowered to just below the water flow back into the tank but I told hubby if I lose 1 more of my shrimp back into the 10 gal they go! Until I can get more, and they are not found often locally, I actually brought these little guys home from 2 hours away, they were totally lost in the 10 gal! But I am also sick of losing these guys. I bought 2 crystal reds, 3 cherry and 4 amano, although 2 of the amano have some strange coloring, but that is for another post.
Any thoughts on this? Am I destined to be a horrible shrimp killer?

Welcome to the forum.

A first suggestion is to go read the articles. There is a lot of good material there, and it is required reading to post in the forum. This rule is ruthlessly enforced, so read the rules too. I'm not saying this to be rude or snippy, but just telling you the facts. I'm sure once you do you'll find some answers.

In my opinion a 10 gallon tank is the absolute minimum tank size. You should also avoid any sort of filter that has a suction that can suck in shrimp. I do not know how an eclipse works. Most of us use sponge filters. I use under gravel filters powered by an HOB. This assures that the shrimp can't be harmed by the filter system.

I don't know what water conditioner you are using, but if it isn't Prime or Amquel+, go get some before your next water change.

I had a problem with my old filter.....no matter what I did the shrimp would find their way inside.

I now use a sponge filter which they all love to crawl and nibble on and it's so much easier to clean.

I use Aquaclears on my shrimp tanks and what I do put and an aquaclear refilable mesh bag over top of the intake, with an alastic holding it in place.

TKD

I have read thru the articles many times as I have been looking for shrimp for awhile now, they just seemed so lost in my 10 gal, but I have a feeling that my little "experiment" with this smaller tank is not going to cut it. I guess it will make a nice snail breeding tank for my puffers or a betta tank.
I do have the intake covered with mesh, and cannot see any way that they can get sucked up. In the 10 gal I have a sponge filter and a submersible fluval that I covered in filter material so that noone would get sucked in and the output is pretty strong so they couldn't climb in there, I just pointed it towards the wall of the aquarium so it didn't throw the babies around. The water flow back into the tank on the 2 gal though is more of a waterfall type flow, not very fast and I have found in another of the eclipse tanks with a betta, not even too much for a betta.
As for the dechlorinator, I use stresscoat. I have been using it since I started with fish and have been very pleased with it. It takes care of chlorine, chloramines, and neutralizes heavy metals. I realize prime was suggested, but as it does the same as my stresscoat other than it detoxifies the nitrites and ammonia, those have not been a problem in this tank. As I stated, I seeded this tank quite well and have been watching water parameters and do not have any spikes. I suppose an ammonia amount so small that it wouldn't be detected could have been there and made the shrimp unhappy.
Since noone seems to know if they could have climbed up thru the flow of the output and been killed that way, I will just go with better to be safe than sorry and put them back into my 10 gal. Snails must be bred around here constantly for my puffers so an empty tank with extra snails growing is always a plus
Thanks for all of the replies.

If the outflow lip of an HOB reaches the water, they can and will climb into the filter, especially if they are unhappy with the water conditions. Reduce the water level so there is ~1" below the lip. We had one member losing shrimp as they climbed into his HOB and the house gecko got them. The lizzard waited for them.

Please listen. Stresscoat is for fish, not shrimp. You don't need the extra stuff that is in it, and it may actually harm your shrimp. Amquel+ and Prime are proven shrimp safe when used as directed. Others have reported problems when using stresscoat.

Small tanks just don't hold a cycle as well and the water parameters can change so fast. In a 10 gallon, if they like what you are doing for them, the population will quickly grow and they won't looks so isolated.

and I don't even know if stresscoat really does anything for fish either. Fish produce their own slime layer on their skin and a bottle of aloe vera gel really is no substitute.

Just stick with Prime and you'll have all your bases covered for chlorine/chloraminie/heavy metal treatment.

Doesn't Stress Coat do it's own R&D to see if their claims are true? Being such a known product and the company's scare of losing the customer's trust should be enough to make them know better!

Thanks for all of the replies . Let's see if I can respond to everything and get myself straightened out.
The filter isn't a HOB so to speak, but everything is under the hood and it does function just like a HOB with a biowheel. Apparently just covering the intake was not enough as for 3 days in a row I found a dead shrimp on the filter pad and couldn't figure out how the heck it was getting there. Finally on Friday I came up with the only solution that made even the smallest of sense, they were climbing into the flow coming from the biowheel. Not having any other options as to what to do at the time I did lower the water level and have not found a dead shrimp since .
As for the water conditioner, as I said, I have always used stresscoat with great success and the statement " I highly recommend Seachem Prime for this purpose although similar products might do the job, too. I am personally using Seachem Prime and it works like a charm" was considered, and I chose to continue to use the product that has "worked like a charm" for me all along....kind of "if it isn't broken, don't fix it". The stresscoat does everything the prime does except detoxify ammonia and nitrite from what I could understand. Please don't take this as me being argumentative, I am just trying to explain why I continued to use it. Can anyone explain what the difference in stresscoat and prime is as for use on shrimp vs fish? I had the shrimp for 2 weeks before losing any, and stresscoat is what I was using for dechlorinating.
As for small tanks being less stable, thanks for the reminder, I am very aware of that from making my fair share of mistakes in the early days of the aquatic hobby. Now, 9 tanks later I am much more informed and make alot fewer mistakes. This is why I watch my smaller tanks much closer than my larger ones with so much more filtration. The plan is to go ahead and put them back into the 10g ASAP (had some other issues and it got put off today) and do something else with the little tank. Hopefully I will get shrimp breeding in there and soon have a full tank . We are also hoping to take the trip again that we took early March when I found my shrimp and maybe I will just get some more. I will also pick up some prime for my shrimp tank and see how it works for me. I guess the tried and true that is working for those that have tanks of shrimp breeding away.

If your new tank fails, re-consider Prime or Amquel+.

Best of luck.