About ready to give up on shrimp

[julielynn47]

I know that ghost shrimp are notorious for not living very long, due to poor handling, before you ever get them home. But I had such high hopes for them. I can only find 3 left out of the 15 I bought a month ago. There may be more, but that is all I see. The tank is pretty heavily planted and they are hard to see. I also had a baby cherry shrimp, which is still in there and an orange shrimp.

I lost the orange one tonight because it would not stay out of the filter. I don't know how it was getting in it, but it was. I tried to cover the intake tube with some nylon hosiery but that prevented the cleaning of the tank water. So I had to take it off. I don't know if the shrimp was getting in the filter through the intake tube or some other way. But I was just so disappointed when I found the little guy in there again and this time deceased.

I thought about using a sponge filter, and I actually have one, but it is soooo big for this 10 gallon tank, Honestly I don't want to look at that sponge filter all the time. I have no place to hide it. So I have not used it.

How does a person keep shrimp out of the filter and, at the same time, keep the gunk flowing into the filter?

 

[BettaBettas]

how big is the tank btw, also you can use stainless steel mesh

 

[julielynn47]

The water parameters are fine, I know that is not what is hurting them. The little cherry shrimp and the orange one were doing great. The orange still would be if it would have just stayed out of the filter

 

[julielynn47]

The tank is 10 gallons. I have never heard of stainless steel mesh. Where does one get that?

 

[thrujenseyes]

I have the same issue (6gallon tank) and as of right now I still have a make shift fix...
I cut a media bag and tied a piece of it around the intake.

It's a pain in the butt to keep removing to rinse (which I do every four days because it gets gunked up).

Media bags have bigger holes than say pantyhose ... it works quite well actually and doesn't slow down water flow but most media bags are white. I've only found two on Amazon that are black.

I've been trying to research rubber bands made from silicone and black in color to see if they're safe to use in an aquarium but am not finding a solid answer.

A black media bag cut to size and a black band to hold in place sounds like a decent fix.

You can see my white eyesore if you enlarge the image:

 

[NickAu]

I have never heard of stainless steel mesh. Where does one get that?

Try this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aquarium-Fi...trainer-Fish-Shrimp-Safety-12mm-/390842304133

 

[julielynn47]

I think your "eye sore" looks a lot better than the big black sponge thing I have would look. LOL Very nice tank btw.

Thanks on the link to the strainer. That is an idea that I think I will try. It won't help this batch of shrimp but it might be just what a new batch would need!

 

[thrujenseyes]

I'm going to try that strainer thingy also

 

[NickAu]

Try this

 

[thrujenseyes]

Try this

Excellent!

 

[julielynn47]

This is what I have ended up doing. It is a media pad that came with the AquaClear filter. It was a pretty good sized pad, so I cut it in half. Half of it is in the filter housing. I took half of it and started snipping away at it from the top down inside with a pair a scissors. I didn't cut it away, just snipped down through it, I just kept pushing the scissors further down inside and snipping as I went. I could then put the intake tube down inside and just kinda twisted it into the pad. So none of the pad was cut away inside at all. After I had the intake tub down inside the pad, I cut the end of the pad off close to the tip of the intake tube. I held it up to a light so I could see where I was cutting better because the light filtered through it. I didn't want to cut it too close to the tube. I only had the one piece of foam block. Then I trimmed the foam all around the tube.

It may not be good enough for baby shrimp, I have no idea on that. But I don't have baby shrimp at this point. I am just trying to save the big shrimp I have right now, not future shrimp. But I think it would work for smaller shrimp too. It looks like it will.

 

[julielynn47]

Sure wish I had thought of this before my little orange shrimp got in the filter for the last time......

 

[thrujenseyes]

This is what I have ended up doing. It is a media pad that came with the AquaClear filter. It was a pretty good sized pad, so I cut it in half. Half of it is in the filter housing. I took half of it and started snipping away at it from the top down inside with a pair a scissors. I didn't cut it away, just snipped down through it, I just kept pushing the scissors further down inside and snipping as I went. I could then put the intake tube down inside and just kinda twisted it into the pad. So none of the pad was cut away inside at all. After I had the intake tub down inside the pad, I cut the end of the pad off close to the tip of the intake tube. I held it up to a light so I could see where I was cutting better because the light filtered through it. I didn't want to cut it too close to the tube. I only had the one piece of foam block. Then I trimmed the foam all around the tube.

It may not be good enough for baby shrimp, I have no idea on that. But I don't have baby shrimp at this point. I am just trying to save the big shrimp I have right now, not future shrimp. But I think it would work for smaller shrimp too. It looks like it will.

View attachment 81641

OMG! Great job! I'm going to do this exact thing! That sponge material looks perfect and just the right amount of porous to suck up water but not shrimp and not get gunked up!

The things we do and become (crafty chemists) for our fish!

So that's an Aqua Clear Filter pad?!

Poor little orange shrimp. I just got one (orange sunkist) and it's so tiny and adorable and I'd be super sad if I lost him!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[julielynn47]

You are welcome! Yeah, that is a pad that came with the AquaClear filter. It was about an inch, maybe a little more thick. I just cut it in half. Half is in the filter and that is what is left of the other half.

 

[thrujenseyes]

You are welcome! Yeah, that is a pad that came with the AquaClear filter. It was about an inch, maybe a little more thick. I just cut it in half. Half is in the filter and that is what is left of the other half.

Cool thanks!