Amano Shrimp do not have stealth technology....

[Doug_E]

I started with 3 Amano shrimp and they did great for a few weeks so I got 3 more. The next morning I found 3 of the 6. Then a few days later just 1. Then none. OK, I hear they are good at hiding. A week goes by...none to be found. Now I'm concerned and curious. I look under every rock in the tank. Nothing. Maybe they have some sort of stealth technology that lets them go invisible? 

THe more I look into it, the more I read about them climbing out and looking for other water. Uh, oh. I look all over the floor, and sure enough I find one crispy Amano shrimp. Dang it. I then look all over for more. No more to find. Maybe when they die with the cloaking mode on they stay invisible?

A few days later after Christmas (and a short...Jesus it would be cool if... prayer...) I see one climbing on my HOB filter! A Christmas miracle! No more to be found, in the tank or out. 

This past weekend I was at the LFS and of course I can't resist and get 3 more. The next day...gone! Now I feel bad for these shrimp I keep sentencing to a short life of crawling across dusty hardwood floors. So another prayer (what can I say...I believe it works) and back to work. 

Yesterday I was getting my new 40g tank ready and I took the HOB filter to the bathroom to pull the media for the new tank/filter. It is a Tidal 55 so it has the handy bucker like thing you pull out with the media in it. As I am draining that I see movement in the bucket. What is that? Well I'll be...an Amano shrimp. I take the media out and...two more are sitting in the bottom! I then look into the filter body (main black part) and sure enough, 3 more are sitting there together looking at me with an expression of, "What? All the food we could want and privacy. What did you expect?"

Mystery solved. Amano shrimp are remarkably clever, good climbers, very social, and if they can find a hiding spot...they will go there and you will never see them. No stealth cloaking tech...just well honed instincts. 

[Alesha]

Great story! So glad you found (most of) them!

I had a tank with a built in partition that housed the filter, heater, pump etc. My neocardinia shrimp kept escaping to hide behind there. It was so annoying to keep pulling everything out to scoop them up and put them back in the front part of the tank. Eventually, I covered all openings with sponge filter. But a couple of them still climbed all the way up to the top of the partition and over the wall they went. I finally combined all my tanks into one and put those tanks into storage. It was just way too much work to keep finding the shrimp who decided to go walk about!!! 

[Fonske]

1 hour ago, Doug_E said:

they will go there and you will never see them.

Unless there is an intake sponge on the HOB which they consider to be Shrimptopia :)

[Tanked]

If my two Amanos decide to grace me with their presence, they are on the back of the HOB, or on the heater.  I consider myself lucky if they show up once a week. 

I thought my Nerrites had stealth tech for a long time.  One or more would disappear for a week or longer.  The mystery was solved when I noticed one crawling out of the UGF.  More recently I found one crawling into the HOB.

[Doug_E]

1 hour ago, Fonske said:

Unless there is an intake sponge on the HOB which they consider to be Shrimptopia 🙂

I had one. Even that didn’t keep them fron shrimpvana inside. 

[Andy's Fish Den]

I have a rack with three levels with four ten gallon tanks on each shelf. I put some bloody mary shrimp in one end tank. I now have shrimp in all four tanks on that shelf. I am guessing that they climb up the airline going to the sponge filter and wander over to the next tank. 

[Doug_E]

Just now, Andy's Fish Den said:

I have a rack with three levels with four ten gallon tanks on each shelf. I put some bloody mary shrimp in one end tank. I now have shrimp in all four tanks on that shelf. I am guessing that they climb up the airline going to the sponge filter and wander over to the next tank. 

The shop I got them at said they find them all over the floor and in other tanks. The reason is they are native to marshes and they will go for a stroll to find new waters.

[PDX Dave]

I have the same issue - vanishing amano shrimp. I have a 30 gallon planted (not heavily) community tank. Fifteen neon tetras, 2 Corys, one pleco.  I added 10 amanos about 3 weeks ago and for the first few days, I could find 5 or 6 but sightings declined and now I haven't seen any of them on the last week. I've looked everywhere, including the filter, even though I have a sponge filter on the intake.

 I've read on other forums that they can climb out of the tank but I don't see any carcasses. Anyone have ideas on where they went?

[MAC]

I had an Amano shrimp crawl from one tank into the adjacent tank with two red eye puffers in it. Crazy fella. He has lived in their for months now. I've only seen him a couple of times but find a molt here and there so I guess he's surviving. 

[Doug_E]

In my case they climbed in the outflow part. Have you taken it all apart and checked in and around media?

I found one dried up on the floor but never found a second. So 7 of the 9 are happily living in the 40g I moved to. 

[Shmaty]

12 hours ago, Doug_E said:

In my case they climbed in the outflow part.

I have watched this happen time and time again. When I have this happening, I try to keep the outlet above the waterline so they cant reach it. Amanos are very clever and equally driven. 

[Eric R]

I always find cherry shrimp in my canister filter when I clean it. I just pour the dirty water through a mesh sieve and toss them back in the tank. They're always alive and doing well.

[Ryan F]

After I got my first 9 shrimp (AH shorted me one) I NEVER saw them. After I used a wondershell or about 2months, they are full grown and very hungry. I see them all the time now. I think I've lost two...they care for their own so if something dies in the tank, they clean it up plant or animal.