Bamboo Shrimp... Bad Or Good Sign?

[cjpf]

Hey guys, I have a bamboo shrimp in a 55 Gallon tank. I have had him for about 2 weeks now but today I noticed him picking at the gravel. is this a bad sign? I read i could supplement the water with powder algae but my LFS doesn't carry that. Any ideas on why the shrimp is doing this, and if its bad, how to fix it? The aquarium is moderately planted, and I initially bought two shrimps but the other one died a few days after I bought them. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[thereverendturtle]

Sounds like he's hungry. You can add algae flakes, that have been crushed into a fine powder, in his general area, every day or two, to give him something a little more natural.

 

[MBOU]

Get some frozen food blocks from your LFS, if you look for Cyclops or better still, Rotifers... failing that... Daphnia or Artemia/Brineshrimp will suffice. Half a cube every other day will make a big difference!

Also, if you can find it, some suppliers therefore some shops can get hold of lobster eggs in blister packs, these are awesome and make the bamboos colour up bright red!!

Alternate each day, one day do half a block of frozen food and the other day get a pot of Spirulina flakes and crush it into a powder and mix it into the water.

Make sure the shrimp has somewhere to sit in the direct flow from the filter as thats how he needs to get his food.

 

[cjpf]

Thank you for your reply. Yesterday I left an algae wafer in a cup of water, and when i got home I dropped the water in the aquarium. Hopefully that does help. The LFS doest have Rotifers or Daphnia but I just placed an order online for those. I had been meaning to get some frozen food so I just added that to the order. Do you think the algae wafers diluted in water first will be good in the mean time? And once I get the food, should I just let the cube thaw and drop the water and all in the aquarium or should I rinse it and ran it through the net?

As for the shrimp having a place in the current he usually climbs up the air tube and sits there towards the top or sometimes like right now, he sits on a piece of driftwood that has some anubias on it. It is located right next to the intake tube of the filter and air bubbles from an airstone also go right next to it. Do you think these spots are good? or should i rearrange a bit?

 

[MBOU]

Sounds good for him! Just get that extra food into him and he will do well. I would only use the crumbled algae wafer as an emergency food because it will end up making one heck of a mess in your tank!

As for the frozen foods, rotifers will go straight through even the finest net and into the water so i'd just put the cube in (if you have loads of tetras etc) or half a cube in if its just for the shrimp and drop it in, as it defrosts, the shrimp gets more food the daphnia you might be able to defrost in a net but again, you risk losing it down the sink or something, better just chuck it in really, or hold it in front of the filter so it goes right to the shrimp.

I would still get some algae flakes so some form of spirulina or something like Tetra ProVeg. It will be good for most fish and the shrimp and a lot less messy!