Tropical Fish Forums

[tlbnielsen]

Hi,

I recently thought adding some shrimp to my tank would be a good idea. I purchased 7 amano and 6 red cherry shrimp to add to my 20 gallon tank. For the first couple days, the amano shrimp were relatively easily visible. The cherry shrimp were less visible, but could be seen on the plants and gravel on occasion. A month later, and I've seen two cherry shrimp two weeks ago right after a water change, and I saw one amano shrimp last week after a water change. Is it likely that the shrimp are still in the tank but hiding, or might they have died/become fish food? I also have 5 albino tiger barbs, 4 bleeding heart tetras, 3 corydoras, 1 rainbow shark, 1 SAE, 1 vampire shrimp and various snails (zebras, yellow antennas, misc small snails). In my opinion, the tank is heavily planted with Bacopa, Anubias and Cryptocoryne (at least, that's what I think the plants are, they were all second hand). Being heavily planted, there are a lot of hiding spots, but I'm surprised that I have seen so few shrimp in the tank. The tank had been running for a bit more than a year at the time I tried adding the shrimp. I keep the lights on a timer, and they are on for 5 hours, twice a day. Temperature is kept around 78-80F, but I use an adhesive temperature strip, so that may not be accurate. The water is aerated, and my filter is a Fluval U2. Water parameters are as follows:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Rises to about 20-50ppm towards the end of the week before my 30% water change is done
pH: 7.5-8

Where I live, the water is very hard, but the pet store says the shrimp they sell are acclimated to our hard water, so I'm not sure if that's the problem or not. If anyone has any ideas, or would like me to give some more information, I'd love to hear from you. My family really likes the idea of shrimp in the tank (the vampire shrimp is a big hit), but I'm curious if there's something I'm overlooking.

Thanks!

[diademhill]

Have you never fed shrimp to your fish?

[tlbnielsen]

I was feeding Wardley's sinking shrimp pellets to the cories and the shark, but since realizing they contain copper sulfate I've stopped using those pellets in case the copper is the reason for the disappearing shrimp. Other than that, I've fed the fish frozen brine shrimp a couple times, but they seem mostly uninterested.

[diademhill]

You may have a shrimp surviving but with those fish you have probably fed them an expensive meal.

You should really be looking for a tank upgrade. You should have at least a 40 gallon for that stocking.

[tlbnielsen]

Is there a particular fish in my tank that isn't compatible with the shrimp? When we bought the shrimp, we talked with people at the store who said we wouldn't have any problems (but they also said we had plenty of space for the fish we have). I don't know if a tank upgrade is in the near future, so maybe we'll try giving some fish away.

[RadicalFanatical]

the most likely culprit is the rainbow shark, but if the tiger barbs and the bleeding hearts are full size I could see them trying to pick of smaller shrimp