sarah Posted March 18, 2015 Report Share Posted March 18, 2015 I'm new to shrimp. I have a 10gallon species-only tank of red cherry shrimp. Started out with 10 and now have ~50 of various ages a few months later, plus a few berried females. They all look healthy and seem active, but I almost never see them swimming. All the videos I have been watching (of a variety of species of shrimps) show frequent swimming activity. My Amano shrimp (in a different tank) swim a lot. Should I be concerned that my cherries never do this? Also... when I feed them, only maybe 50% of them come over to feed immediately. Does this mean they are happy eating the biofilm in the tank (loads of moss and plants), or is this a sign of a problem? I have been feeding 2x/week, usually one Hikari mini algae wafer, a Ken's veggie calcium stick, or a small cube of homemade snail jello. fishcrazy and Ekbergtog 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted March 18, 2015 Report Share Posted March 18, 2015 Hi Sarah. Sounds like your biofilm is good. Some foods the shrimp just wander over to, and others they attack. Just depends on your colony. As far as swimming, usually shrimp only go crazy swimming after a water change or when a female molts. fishcrazy and sarah 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah Posted March 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
35ppt Posted March 20, 2015 Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 Shrimps can be a bit finicky on what food they like. It may be that they just don't care for the one you use. Today. Tomorrow they might change their minds Also, what is your setup? Is there a strong current/airflow? This may inhibit free swimming. But generally, I don't think you have anything to worry about. sarah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Shrimp Depot Posted March 20, 2015 Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 People notice shrimp swimming after water changes and assume this is because they are thrilled with the water changes. Some call it "dancing". In fact, this wild swimming behavior is a flight response. If you give them the water change using a very slow flow -- as in through an airline you won't see this behavior. Contented shrimp don't swim wildly around except males when there is a female ready to mate. If you see females with this behavior you know they are not really "dancing" as people like to say - but trying to flee - but are in a glass prison - so they swim from side to side. Many people don't match the pH in the water they are adding to their tank, just temp and TDS. I keep my water in a sump when preparing for water changes (like all the time) and in the sump I have a filter bags of the same active substrate that is in my aquaria - so in addition to the treatments I add to the RO/DI the water is buffered to the right pH. Just the same I still do slow additions to shrimp tanks. Happy shrimp just wander around chewing biofilm. If the biofilm is over grazed then you'll also see shrimp "stampede" to food when they are fed. This is something else that people misinterpret as a good thing. Stampeding to processed foods is an indication of overgrazing of the biofilm. These explanations for shrimp behavior are not well accepted by long time shrimp keepers without a biological science background - but biologists will confirm this. Shrimple minded, mosspearl and sarah 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyeGuy411 Posted March 20, 2015 Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 As desert said, I always prepare my remineralized RO water a day ahead of time and drip it back into the tank and never see my shrimp swimming around while or after doing water changes. That means there is no big difference between the old water and the new and the shrimp are not stressed. My shrimp rarely swim, sometimes they swim short distances from one object to another while grazing. When a female is ready to breed the males absolutely freak out and swim circles. sarah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roborep1 Posted March 20, 2015 Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 People notice shrimp swimming after water changes and assume this is because they are thrilled with the water changes. Some call it "dancing". In fact, this wild swimming behavior is a flight response. If you give them the water change using a very slow flow -- as in through an airline you won't see this behavior. Contented shrimp don't swim wildly around except males when there is a female ready to mate. If you see females with this behavior you know they are not really "dancing" as people like to say - but trying to flee - but are in a glass prison - so they swim from side to side. Many people don't match the pH in the water they are adding to their tank, just temp and TDS. I keep my water in a sump when preparing for water changes (like all the time) and in the sump I have a filter bags of the same active substrate that is in my aquaria - so in addition to the treatments I add to the RO/DI the water is buffered to the right pH. Just the same I still do slow additions to shrimp tanks. Happy shrimp just wander around chewing biofilm. If the biofilm is over grazed then you'll also see shrimp "stampede" to food when they are fed. This is something else that people misinterpret as a good thing. Stampeding to processed foods is an indication of overgrazing of the biofilm. These explanations for shrimp behavior are not well accepted by long time shrimp keepers without a biological science background - but biologists will confirm this. This is excellent info and I agree wholeheartedly with all of it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk sarah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah Posted March 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2015 Happy shrimp just wander around chewing biofilm. If the biofilm is over grazed then you'll also see shrimp "stampede" to food when they are fed. This is something else that people misinterpret as a good thing. Stampeding to processed foods is an indication of overgrazing of the biofilm. So I guess I can take my shrimp's non-swimming and non-stampeding behaviors as good signs. Very happy to hear. Thank you all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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