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Why are shrimp so chill?


Clockwork-crow
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I have celestial pearl danios, dwarf corydoras, and shrimp in my tank, and one thing that has struck me is how little the shrimp are bothered by my prescence. As soon as I put my hand in the tank the corydoras and CPD's swim as far away as fast as possible, meanwhile I have to do everything short of actually touching them in order for my shrimp to move. I initially figured this was a result of their exoskeleton, but the corydoras are literally armoured catfish. Do neocaridinia simply lack much in the way of natural predators?

 

 

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I don’t think they’e staying still out of fear though. Two nights ago I was trying to help one of the amanos find the last pellet on the feeding plate. (He had checked the plate multiple times before I realized the pellet had fallen off the edge, and was very distressed that his two mates had gotten pellets but not him.)

I put the pellet back on the plate since he wasn’t finding it on the ground, then used a pair of scaping tweezers to try to herd him back to the plate. He begrudgingly moved in various directions as I poked him over and over. Eventually I decided this wasn’t working. I picked up the pellet and offered it to him directly. He took it IMMEDIATELY. Right from the object that had been harassing him seconds before!

I wonder if they rely more on other senses like chemical signals more than other creatures. That and they seem to learn petty fast. Amazing considering how few neurons they must have.

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Yeah, if they've been tank-raised, they've been used to active fishes swimming around, stealing their food, knocking them off plants and whatnot since the day they were born, and without any predators in the tank, they haven't needed to worry about movement meaning danger for many generations. Why move if you don't have to?

Hah, thinking about food-stealing fishes, it could actually be beneficial to stand your ground as a shrimp. If you ran away from your lunch every time a cory swam by, there's a good chance you'd starve.

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33 minutes ago, Kirsten said:

 

7 minutes ago, Kirsten said:

Yeah, if they've been tank-raised, they've been used to active fishes swimming around, stealing their food, knocking them off plants and whatnot since the day they were born, and without any predators in the tank, they haven't needed to worry about movement meaning danger for many generations. Why move if you don't have to?

Hah, thinking about food-stealing fishes, it could actually be beneficial to stand your ground as a shrimp. If you ran away from your lunch every time a cory swam by, there's a good chance you'd starve.

Haha, I'm pretty sure I have a video on my phone where I was filming a shrimp eating, and a cory comes out of nowhere bowling him out of the way

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