What Killed My Shrimp

[STEWARDSONS]

i have

cardinals,
scissor tails
popendetta furcata
golden rams
denisoni barbs (about 8cm in size)
emperor tetras
plecs
african dwarf frogs.

i introduced a large amano shrimp on thursday night, about 2.5 inches big

this morning all that is left of him is his head, what ate him? he was untouched for the first couple of days

 

[STEWARDSONS]

false alarm!

we have just found him, he has shed his skin (didnt know they did that) he is a bit smaller now.

 

[maisy12345]

My amano shrimp has just shed his skin ,and he` much bigger!

 

[Althamon]

You will find that if they feed well they will shed their shells regularly, I have 6 Japonicus (algae shrimp) and they are forever shedding their shells and normally they are meant to hide once the shell has been shed to allow the new one to toughen up a bit hence why you couldn't find your amano but my shrimp are different as they go and play so they must be happy and not worried about their tank mates, I only know this as 2 shed their shell last night and all 6 were roaming the tank this morning.

 

[Caprichoso]

false alarm!

we have just found him, he has shed his skin (didnt know they did that) he is a bit smaller now.

It's very normal for a new shrimp to shed. Stress causes them to shed. Normal shedding will take place about every 2 weeks. If it's more than that, you are over feeding or they are very stressed out. Smaller shrimp shed more but adults should only be every 2 weeks. He may look smaller because when they are getting ready to shed, they take water into their shells and it helps them to create pressure to make the shell come off. You can safely add more than 1 to your tank. It's not like counting them as a fish for bio-load on the tank. You can have many shrimps in a tank without having to worry about ammonia spikes. Shrimp don't produce a lot of waste and are great scavengers.

 

[waterdrop]

I'm curious, does anyone have a feel for where shrimp most like to hide, then next most, etc.? WD

 

[Caprichoso]

My Cherry shrimp used to love hiding underneath and behind my drift wood and in the java moss. That was when I had tetras and corydoras in the tank with them. They don't hide at all now. I also caught them hiding under the canopy of a leaf on occasion too.