Where Are My Cherry Shrimps?

[stoneagedinosaur]

Okay - I've had these guys a year or so now. 6 happy shrimp and now none. They've been gone a good month now. No shed exoskeletons, no 'bits' of shrimp floating around. I know they disappear sometimes and then reappear abit later, but this is longer than normal... My Amanos are fine and there's no copper in the tank - water treated with dechlorinator that gets rid of ALL heavy metals...

Would like some more as they're fab little buds... but don't want to insert live food if that's where they're going or something else is going on?

Tank mates = 13 Harlequin Rasbora - 2 Neon Tetra - 2 Pepper Corys - 3 Bristlenose Plec plus fry - Some Amano shrimp Some cherry shrimp (who knows?)- 6 Cory Sterbei - 3 Pearl Gourami - 3 glowlight Tetras - Some Golden/ Blue Apple snails - a squillion MTS and 6 assassin snails

for those who can't see my signature line

 

[ZoddyZod]

the only possible predator candidate I can see there is the pearl gouramis. Have they been in the tank long?

Have you change your filter recently. Does the new filter have a larger intake and hence they might have been sucked up?

 

[stoneagedinosaur]

Hey ZOddy (Only just remembered Zardoz BTW - Cool) Gouramis been in about 6 months ish I guess. I've only ever found one cherry up in the filter. Two of the pearls are getting pretty big now - I thought the shrimps woud be quick enough to escape them? Hey ho

 

[ZoddyZod]

Hey ZOddy (Only just remembered Zardoz BTW - Cool) Gouramis been in about 6 months ish I guess. I've only ever found one cherry up in the filter. Two of the pearls are getting pretty big now - I thought the shrimps woud be quick enough to escape them? Hey ho

if the pearls were young and small when you got them, they may very well be the reason the shrimp have gone missing recently.

what or who is Zardoz???

 

[stoneagedinosaur]

My bad - I saw Zod and misplaced for Zed! ZARDOZ a very bad 70s sci fi film!

 

[ZoddyZod]

My bad - I saw Zod and misplaced for Zed! ZARDOZ a very bad 70s sci fi film!

I only know about that film due to the ludicrous costume Sean Connery wears!

 

[stoneagedinosaur]

It is hugely disturbing!

 

[Primous]

Hmm

I would blame the harleguin rasbora. Unlikely I know but bare with me...

In my community I have lemon tetras and tiger, bee, and cherry shrimp. All was peaceful for months and then the lemons got into breeding mode. The males would compete for dominance and it was during this time that they started to attack the shrimp. The larger shrimp had a defensive stance but the smaller shrimp and shrimplets would be eaten. Now remember, the shrimp were never attacked beforehand. But as the males started to compete and chase each other they began showing off.

Once they had a small shrimp in their mouth they would swim around and sort of display it to the other lemons and whip them into a frenzy. My other stock, some much larger than the lemons never payed the two males any attention. Only the females would lemons would!

 

[stoneagedinosaur]

Really? That seems very odd... Rasbora mouths aren't very big and these were full grown shrimps. I'm not discounting it as anything seems possible to happen with fish! Has anyone else noticed this?