My Dwarf Puffers..and Me On Holiday

[treelo]

so, had a short break planned from monday to friday, my dwarf puffers have been living happily in there tank for a few months now, they have had one oto living with them for about a month and all is calm and peaceful in the tank, noone bothers the oto and its a very placid fish and just stays still for most of the time........yes, you knew there was a but.....

so 2 weeks ago, i decide to visit my LFS for some bloodworm and i enquire about an amano shrimp that they have for sale, gets back to the house and starts reading up a bit and find that these have lived peacefully with DPs in the past and can be good for the tank.....back to LFS

i purchase one Amano Shrimp, put it in the tank and for a week it is fine, with the DPs just completely ignoring it and going about there everyday business

getting ready to go away, so on monday befor ei set off i make sure to dump a bag of bloodworm in the tank as my father in law was coming round to feed them on wednesday only, again with live bloodworm

get back on friday, and my shrimp has totally disappeared...not even a shred of dead shrimp in the tank

so i now have 2 theories:

1. my DPs just got too damn hungry being used to getting fed each day and decided it was lunch

2. my father in law has pinched my amano shrimp


lesson learnt, dont keep shrimp with puffers unless they are getting fed everyday, although the oto was completely unharmed

 

[connorsbala]

Yeah,it could've eaten it if its small or it can be hiding..theyre very very good hidders...you may notice it walking round the tank at some point

 

[treelo]

Yeah,it could've eaten it if its small or it can be hiding..theyre very very good hidders...you may notice it walking round the tank at some point

TBH mate, it was all over the place and you always saw it, and i thought that my water change today may have unearthed it, but nothing....

no sign of even the slight remains of a carcus(sp?)

and it wasnt small, it was easily double the size of the puffers

 

[Puffdaddy]

The shrimp likely got eaten. Dp's are natural preditors and most are wild cought. I toss a hand full of Ghost shrimp in with my Dp's every week to two weeks, depending on how fast they catch and eat them.

 

[iSnail]

When I went away for 2 weeks last year, my DPs & Amano shrimps were only fed once during that time. I came back to some hungry puffs and partially nipped shrimps. The shrimps seemed unharmed apart from the odd nipped legs and antennae which have already grown back. It's only natural for the hungry puffs to have a go at anything moving but I'll be very surprised for them to eat the shrimps clean though

Amanos are very good at hiding. They can completely out of sight for months and then re-appear. Don't be surprised that they are still hidden underneath your bogwood. Hope that's the case anyway.

 

[Orbit887]

I've got an amano in with my 3 dp's, and even after being left for 4 days without food they don't seem to bother the shrimp at all. It is an adult amano, so is much bigger than the dp's.

The shrimp may've shed it's skin, which could easily have been eaten by the dp's. after shedding the amano's always hide for a good few days till their new skin hardens up a bit. I always panic when i can't see my amano's in all my tanks, but they usually reappear after a few days.

Keep an eye out for it, never know, might turn up again!

 

[connorsbala]

Any luck yet?

 

[treelo]

nah, i think its gonner

the only place it could be hiding is in my filter, and when the last fish got stuck in there the filter made a horrific sound, so i doubt its there

i do have a pic of one of my otos showing off big time though

 

[treelo]

right, here is the update:

i was doing my routine saturday waterchange, scrubbing rocks and wood and cleaning algae and i even made myself a little riccia mat, checked the filter completely to see if the shrimp was stuck in there, but alas, no joy

turned the filter back on and as i thought, found the shrimp floating round the tank, although it didnt really look like it had been munched at or anything, so guessed it was in poor condition when i got it as it was very very hyperactive

removed said shrimp from my tank and went out for the day shopping

just sat down and was taking a few photos, and low and behold, who is walking across the bottom of my tank

yup, a virtually unrecognisable shrimp from the one i previously had

do shrimps shed skin when they grow?

because if they dont, its some sort of phenom




im absolutely amazed TBH, i havent put anything new in the tank and this shrimp bears no resemblence at all to my previous one

anyone help?

 

[DarkEntity]

The picture is an Amano Shrimp and they will continue to shed their skin until fully grown. Mine have shed at least a dozen times.

 

[treelo]

The picture is an Amano Shrimp and they will continue to shed their skin until fully grown. Mine have shed at least a dozen times.

that will explain a lot then mate

do they go into hiding while they are shedding?

 

[iSnail]

They do tend to hide after shedding because their new skin is still very soft, hence very vulnerable to being attacked even by their own kind. If there is enough food going around, they shed their skin every few weeks during active growth.

 

[treelo]

They do tend to hide after shedding because their new skin is still very soft, hence very vulnerable to being attacked even by their own kind. If there is enough food going around, they shed their skin every few weeks during active growth.

cheers

the tank is fed twice a day so probably normal behaviour then

couldnt believe my eyes when i saw it walking along the bottom of the tank TBH, thought it was well gone when i found the skin with no obvious bite marks

LOL

its now just come out and pinched a bloodworm off the puffers, a few of which didnt seem best pleased about and were closely monitoring it

 

[Orbit887]

Had a feeling it was gonna turn up for you! That skin looks quite new on it, mine tend to get darker and less 'clear' as they get old before the shed them.

 

[treelo]

Had a feeling it was gonna turn up for you! That skin looks quite new on it, mine tend to get darker and less 'clear' as they get old before the shed them.

you called it right on the button

thing is, since its shed its skin and done a little walkabout to show me its still alive, its completely disappeared again

the common name "ghost shrimp" is very apt