Are my shrimp gonna beach themselves?

[vince82]

I have this area at the top of the tank where I put some emersed plants, with the roots surrounded by rocks, and my shrimps (new addition) love to chill there.
I am afraid that if I now do a water change the shrimps will get stuck in the roots and die when they become exposed to the air... And that usually lasts a few minutes while I clean and cut-replant...

Is this likely to be an issue? Would they escape in time?
Maybe I can get a smaller tube and siphon the water out at a slower pace? What would you do?

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Have a go and find out? I mean, they'll either move as the water recedes or you just gently coax them into the water with your hand or the back end of a net if they don't go by themselves

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Lovely tank by the way

 

[vince82]

Lovely tank by the way

except by the ridiculous blotch of cyanoacrilate on that wood, uh? I promise I'll cover it as soon as the java moss has grown enough to make a new portion from it

 

[vince82]

Have a go and find out? I mean, they'll either move as the water recedes or you just gently coax them into the water with your hand or the back end of a net if they don't go by themselves

Some areas behind that peace lily are properly unreachable/impossible to make sure

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Shrimp can tolerate being out of water for a few minutes, I'd say as long as you don't take an hour filling the tank back up again they'll be OK. I once found a dead shrimp curled up in the corner of a room that was the other side of the house to where the tank was. Somehow it had jumped out of the open top (one of the reasons I don't have a hoodless tank today) and made its way 20 meters or so to a completely different part of the house! It must have taken him more than a few minutes to get there, so I'm sure as long as you don't faff they'll be alright hiding in the plants for a bit

 

[Liam]

Yes they will be fine, they will go back in the water, sometimes you can see them leave the water to graze on damp wood or plants above the water, while their bodies are wet they can still breathe.

 

[vince82]

One problem is that my setup is fast at emptying (a 5/8 hose with quick connects onto the filter intake) and slow to fill (a 1/4 hose connected to a pump that pumps from a rain water barrel full of RO water)...
It's purposely slow to fill because I don't heat the water change before hand, it's usually at about 16C, basement room temperature.. By putting it in slowly the heater starts to work and the temperature in the tank changes very little.
A 25% water change (15 gallons) usually takes 1 minute to empty and ~20 minutes to fill