Homemade Shelters For Rcs

[sbenbow]

Hi All,
 
I recently got some RCS (5 of them).  They are in a tank with 3 Danio's.
 
The RCS seem to like hiding under a big rock that I have - but that makes it almost impossible to see them and it also looks like they are squeezing under there. 
 
It also makes it hard to count them, and I'm sure i only have 4 now (even though I haven't seen any dead shrimp or carcasses (that aren't from the natural growing & shedding process).
 
I'd like to make some home-made shelter for them, and was wondering what other people have done themselves?
 
I was going to use some "mini trunking" that I had from B&Q (link here to show what it looks like) and cut it into a few strips about 1 inch to 1.5 inches long - but I am definitely open to other more "natural" ideas.
 
Quite worried about going from potentially going from 5 to 4, hence the need to find a temporary home-made alternative relatively quickly.  Longer term, a more "blended" solution that match the tank will hopefully follow, but I don't want to panic spend a lot of money now only to find out it doesn't "fit" with the tank setup.
 

 

[Lillefishy]

I have a shrimp hide but none of them use it, get some moss, shrimp love hiding in it & feeding on on it. You can attach it to wood or rocks with superglue or fishing line.

 

[Baccus]

The shrimp are most likely hiding from the danios, since danios will eat them and if not able to eat them entirely they will nip at and bite the shrimp into bite size pieces. Moss will help the shrimp feel safer, as will other plants such as parrots feather, milfoil and elodea.
A good cave for many shrimp and fish are coconut shells cut in half with an opening made in the side to allow access. To make it double appealing you could attach java fern, moss or Anubis to the outer sides of the coconut.

 

[ech0o]

What I do is get some nice small slate rock pieces, and make little lean-to's with them.   Then you can bury the back and sides of them with substrate, and they are like little natural caves with only a front entrance that you can see into.

 

[sbenbow]

Thanks all - some good ideas!  I already have some plants in there that they like and use when out for a feed (mostly early morning) - but they prefer hiding under the rock for most of the day. 

 

[DaveIOW]

Would suggest getting creative with some slate & superglue.

 

[Ellieabbott4]

I made my own bamboo shelter. I tied three small pieces of bamboo cane together and attached some moss on top. My RCS love hiding in it

 

[sbenbow]

I'm at my folks this weekend and I'll see if I can nab some of their spare bamboo canes they use for the garden!  (I'm hoping that cleaning, scrubbing, and then boiling them will do the trick to make them safe to use!).
 
In the meantime, i used some of the spare conduit trunking I had at home - they do seem to use that sometimes, although I think it is a bit too bright and they still prefer hiding under the rock where it is dark.
 
I also managed to count all 5 shrimps the other morning, so all is well and good (phew!).  I had got worried as for a few days I had only been able to count 3.  They really are good hiders!

 

[Tim95]

If the shrimp get big enough, they get fearless, I had a large Ghost Shrimp that would skim accross the surface of my tank whenever I would feed them (He hid in the plants closest to the surface waiting) and he would attack my Dwarf Gourami, and the Danios to get at the flakes, he is probably an 1 1/2'' long. I have since decided to make a shrimp only tank. The same shrimp killed 6+ Neons, and 3 Dwarf African Frogs

 

[ech0o]

Tim95 take a close look at them, you may have yourself some young macrobrachium shrimp, they look an awful lot like ghosts early on, and are more known for taking out fish.

 

[Tim95]

I've tried to distinguish them, I've read they have larger claws, and grow a bit faster, mine is almost 2 years old at 1 1/2'', and no claws, so I'm sure they are normal Ghost Shrimp

 

[Ch4rlie]

I hope you are right,
 
Just double checking here that you are sure?
 
Macro picture here....                                                                             Ghost Shrimp pic here.........
 

 

 
As you can see, very, very similar, the only real noticeable exception is the extended claw leg on the macro shrimp.
 
Macro are real predators and will catch and eat small fish where ghosts won't although there has been debates about this, more likely ghost will nibble on dead or nearly dead fish. Thats as far as I know, I've not kept ghost shrimp so am certainly no expert.
 
Hope the pics helps you to be certain your shrimp is a ghost. 

 

[Tim95]

Mine don't have the claws, atleast not noticeable ones