My Algae Eating Shrimp Has Vanished?

[gypsyriddler]

Hello

I bought an algae eating shrimp yesterday and put him into my tank, he seemed to be settling in well, along with the neon tetras that I bought him with.

I looked to check the tank this morning and no shrimp, thought he may be hiding some where. But I just got back from work and have check again, even moved the ornament I thought he may be under and still no sight of shrimp?!

Would any or my tank occupants have eaten him? At present I have 7 Guppies (4F/3M), 4 Small Neon Tetras, 2 High Finned Platys and 3 Zebra Danos.

Thanks in advance

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How long has the tank been set up and how many gallons is it? The fish in your tank should havn't killed and eaten the shrimp, none of them have the equipment or temperment to do so. So, the shrimp is mostly likely;
a. Escaped from the tank- shrimp have not been unknown to do this. If the tank doesn't have a hood and or all its posible escape routes covered up, the shrimp could have got out of the tank.
b. The shrimp is still in there- they can be very good at hiding. Check in the filter, behind the heater, in the planting etc etc very thoroughly.

Even if it died, it would take quite a few days to be eaten or rot away at the minimum, so at the least there should be a body somewhere. Algae eating shrimp is just a name given to a whole group of shrimp that eat algae, there are many types of algae eating shrimp so you need to be careful with what exactly you are buying especially as petshops in general are not very good at ID'ing their shrimp (at the worst you don't want to be sold a predatory/long arm shrimp).

 

[Chuka1212]

I once bought some ghost shrimp, which are probably what you are talking about, and put them in a tank with some swordtails and also experienced a mysterious disappearance. My guess is that your Platies did the eating, upon furthur observation I saw my swordtails nipping one and also a corpse was stuck to the filter intake, wheter it just got stuck there or partially eaten and then got stuck there, I am not sure. But I'm pretty sure larger livebeares have a liking to shrimp... at least in my experience. They are best kept with tetras, I've never seen them bother shrimp.

 

[gypsyriddler]

How long has the tank been set up and how many gallons is it? The fish in your tank should havn't killed and eaten the shrimp, none of them have the equipment or temperment to do so. So, the shrimp is mostly likely;
a. Escaped from the tank- shrimp have not been unknown to do this. If the tank doesn't have a hood and or all its posible escape routes covered up, the shrimp could have got out of the tank.
b. The shrimp is still in there- they can be very good at hiding. Check in the filter, behind the heater, in the planting etc etc very thoroughly.

Even if it died, it would take quite a few days to be eaten or rot away at the minimum, so at the least there should be a body somewhere. Algae eating shrimp is just a name given to a whole group of shrimp that eat algae, there are many types of algae eating shrimp so you need to be careful with what exactly you are buying especially as petshops in general are not very good at ID'ing their shrimp (at the worst you don't want to be sold a predatory/long arm shrimp).

thanks - we just discovered him hiding behind a bush!

We don't know what he is, the shop just said algae eating shrimp - he's see through with black dots down each side, and seems to get on fine with the other occupants! Any idea what he is? I will try and take a picture!

 

[three-fingers]

Sounds like an amano shrimp from the description, but a pic would be best .

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yeah i agree with three-fingers, it is probably an amano shrimp. Here is some pics of them though just to make sure;

http/www.franksaquarium.com/images/Caridina_japonica.jpg

http/www.aquahobby.com/gallery/img/Caridina_japonica_2.jpg

They also go by the name of bamboo and japonica shrimp as well and do best in groups of 3-4 or more .

 

[lordotterby]

They do this all the time, they are very good at hiding. When I've cleaned the tank out they hide and you start to wonder if you have sucked them up, but given them a few hours and they appear again.

A easy way to get them out from hiding is to break up an algae wafer into quaters, this brings them out quicker and is a treat for them.

 

[gypsyriddler]

Thanks for all the informationa nd help, just glad we found him. Just hoped for his sake he wasnt anyones dinner.

He does look just like the one on the tope link so we may now know what he is.

Thanks again