Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hello all!
I'm new to this forum and have a question about my RCS's behavior. i have a ten gallon heavily planted tank with a fluorescent hood light and an undersized in-tank power filter. temp stays close to 78 F, and I do a weekly dose of flourish excel and liquid potassium and iron supplement. the tank ran for a few months with just plants, and a month ago I added 11 RCS. they've been healthy, actively browsing the whole time and have started to berry just this week. the last few days I've noticed when I turn the lights on that 6 or so of the shrimp are always at the top of the tank sitting in the penny wort and water sprite fronds. after the light's on they make their way down and resume their normal activities. they didn't used to do this. there's been no changes in the tank's schedule all this time. has anyone else seen this or have thoughts on possible reasons?

As long as your shrimp act normally and continue picking around for food, it does not really matter where they hang out part of the day. If they stop picking, and you possibly start seeing deaths, then you have to start worrying. Having said that, most people who keep shrimp report problems with Flourish Excel...fertilizing in general is not recommended for shrimp tanks. If you want to run a plant tank with shrimp in it, you have to settle for a low tech, non-fertilized tank in the long run. In the short run your shrimp may seem ok, but problems with shrimp are always the sneaking kind: everything seems ok until "suddenly" a shrimp dies...then two...then three..for apparently "no reason."