Shrimp are Hardy

[GoofyGarra]

Just wanted to share this story from my fishroom.

A month ago I redid my 4 gallon shrimp tank, there were aspects of the tank I didn't like that I wanted to change. One of these things was the substrate, I had a fine sand substrate that was always dirty and just a pain to work with. I redid the tank and removed the dirty sand, it has sat in a sealed bag with a small amount of water in it until today.

Today i decided I should probably clean out the sand so I could potentially re-use it in the future. I took it outside and started hosing it down when i noticed something swimming around in the bucket. 1 month, no food, no attention, no aeration source, and tiny amounts of water and a cherry shrimp was still alive and swimming around like nothing had happened. (possible future point of study, anaerobic bacteria in the sand helping with water quality)

I am genuinely impressed that this little guy managed to survive for so long. This definitely reminds me of stories people have about Kuhli Loaches doing similar things.

[Guppysnail]

I find shrimp in every plant clip bucket or container I have months later.  If a tank is really overrun with shrimp I gravel vac and just let the bucket sit for a few weeks until the tiny shrimplettes are big enough to catch. 
Contrary to the internet belief of shrimp being delicate I have found them to be the best indestructible cockroaches of the aquarium world. The crazy thing folks do like not changing water no flow and serious overfeeding is what usually kills them unless they are from a source that has already severely weakened them. 

[KoiAngels]

cool

[EricksonAquatics]

On 6/24/2024 at 9:43 AM, Guppysnail said:

the best indestructible cockroaches of the aquarium world

I’m glad to hear this! Been wanting to try them but I am a little scared… there’s a 7g rimless tank on FB I’ve been eyeing just for this… thanks for sharing @GoofyGarra!

[GoofyGarra]

On 6/24/2024 at 11:43 AM, Guppysnail said:

Contrary to the internet belief of shrimp being delicate I have found them to be the best indestructible cockroaches of the aquarium world

When you really think about it shrimp in the wild are not very high up on the food chain, if they were really as delicate as some people claim, entire ecosystems would fall apart pretty quickly.

[JettsPapa]

On 6/24/2024 at 11:12 AM, EricksonAquatics said:

I’m glad to hear this! Been wanting to try them but I am a little scared… there’s a 7g rimless tank on FB I’ve been eyeing just for this… thanks for sharing @GoofyGarra!

There's nothing to be afraid of, especially if you're looking at neocaridinas.  What's your water like?

[Matt B]

I lifted some water hyacinths out of our 20gal wine barrel pond the other day. And to my surprise,  there were 3, very large, very red, Cherry shrimp in the roots!! . This little 'pond' is not heated, has a small fountain pump running and has a lot of mosquito fish in it. The temps are often down below 50 at night!  They are tuff little shrimp for sure! 😎

[EricksonAquatics]

On 6/26/2024 at 9:53 AM, JettsPapa said:

What's your water like?

Pretty soft, but I remineralize with seachem equilibrium. Super high pH - like 8.2 +

[JettsPapa]

On 6/26/2024 at 2:00 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

Pretty soft, but I remineralize with seachem equilibrium. Super high pH - like 8.2 +

If you will re-mineralize then neos would be a good option (they do well for me, and my pH is the same).

On 6/26/2024 at 12:56 PM, Matt B said:

I lifted some water hyacinths out of our 20gal wine barrel pond the other day. And to my surprise,  there were 3, very large, very red, Cherry shrimp in the roots!! . This little 'pond' is not heated, has a small fountain pump running and has a lot of mosquito fish in it. The temps are often down below 50 at night!  They are tuff little shrimp for sure! 😎

Mine stay outside in tubs year-round, even with a thin layer of ice over the top for a day or two.

[Lonkley]

On 6/24/2024 at 8:43 AM, Guppysnail said:

The crazy thing folks do like not changing water no flow and serious overfeeding is what usually kills them unless

I'm partially crazy. I keep a sponge and feed them 2 or 3 times a week. But I've changed their  water like 3 times in 6 months. I don't see the need. They can't possibly have that much of a bioload. I've gone from 15 to 100(or a thousand, I have no idea). I periodically wipe down their glass, when I do change their water I attach a hob with poly for a day and just flutter everything into the column. I've tried to clean their sponge but it was practically new and I just ended up pouring it back because there 20 babies thatt swished off it before I started squeezing in the bucket. They all seem quite happy cleaning their plants and munching on the algae I let grow on the dragon stone. 

 

So yeah. I'm going to go with extremely hardy.

Edited June 27 by Lonkley

[Matt B]

While doing a little maintenance on a 20 gal wine barrel pond,  I pulled up some mats of algae and found shrimp in it !!  

[Ravelle]

I completely cleaned out a tank,  drained it, removed the substrate after the tank sat a week with a few inches of icky water,  dried that tank and it sat a few days completely dry.  

Started to set up the tank again with new substrate and filled it with water,   suddenly a shrimp was swimming around in that tank,

The litter bugger must have lived in a few inches of residue in the internal filter cabinet and have been torpedo's out when I turned everything back on.

 

[NOLANANO]

On 6/24/2024 at 10:43 AM, Guppysnail said:

The crazy thing folks do like not changing water

FACTS! I killed a colony of around 150 shrimp because I didn't change the water.  There were no Nitrates or anything so I thought it was ok. I didn't realize at the time that I wasn't replenishing nutrients in the water that things like shrimp and plants need.  PSA: Change your water folks.

Edited July 12 by NOLANANO

[Tanked]

I know that a lot of fish are hardier than we give them credit for, but my first experience with Amanos did not go well, so I'm really hesitant to try shrimp again.  After reading these posts, I might have to reconsider.

[Lennie]

I had issues with two of my bristlenose plecos. So I setup a quarantine tank with antibiotics and a bit of salt. After qt ended, I moved my bristlenoses back, to their main tank. I turned the filter off there. Basically a barebottom tank with a couple piece of dried leaves ( for tannins and make bn feel slightly comfier while treating)

 

I was super lazy to take the qt tank down, it was on floor level, so didnt bother lazy me for like two months. The tank was next to my planted isopod tank, so I kept giving them a daily LED light.

I was like, Lennie, it is time to move and clean the tank. I saw two shrimps raised themself in that tank. No food ever added. No water change. Water evaporated heavily with salt and antibiotics concentrating. No filter. They were living there feeding on some diatom/algae growth due to light and probably got oxygen that way. Probably two super tiny shrimplettes jumped to the net when I moved my BN plecos to qt and lived there all the time. Suprising? Surely. Are neocaridinas hardy? Extremely.

 

I don't say these as anything good or as a recommendation ofcourse. We should treat our animals very well, and this was an unknown scenario that is going on. But seriously, shrimp can survive conditions that are waaaaaaaay less than optimal. That's why, when I see people having issues with keeping neocaridinas, it always surprise me.

Kuhli loaches are not that hardy by any means, in my experience tho.