My New Shrimp Isnt Moving Or Eating...

[ATK!!!]

i just got some more shrimp for my tank, the water quality is fine apart from a highish pH of 8.2 but my new shrimp arent doing anything, one has just sat there all day and night whilst the other one hasnt come out for quite a while, my two platies are not being agressive and have got on quite well with them so what is the matter?

 

[twodoctors]

Is it dead?

Just wondering!

Adrian

 

[ATK!!!]

hahaha no, its still alive, it moves around occasionally but not much

 

[elisew]

i just got some more shrimp for my tank, the water quality is fine apart from a highish pH of 8.2 but my new shrimp arent doing anything, one has just sat there all day and night whilst the other one hasnt come out for quite a while, my two platies are not being agressive and have got on quite well with them so what is the matter?

What size is your tank? What type of shrimp do you have? Are there plenty of hiding places?

I know you say the water quality is fine but do you test it yourself? IF so what are the results?

 

[Gilli]

Shrimp are very sensitive to water quality so if you have tested your water and know your stats are good it could just be that they are getting used to the change from the fish shops water to yours and their new environment.

Its easy to tell if they are dead - they will a turn pale pink or white colour!

 

[BigC]

Are you 100% sure that this isn't just the shed carapace of your shrimp. Shrimps shed their outer carapace's frequently and leave behind their old skin which can look for all intent and purposes like a dead shrimp, most of the time they may just be laid low for a couple of days until their new outer shell hardens. They will come back to feed on the old skin.
This may or may not be the case here.
Regards
C

 

[ATK!!!]

to answer your question, no it is not just the carapace as it does occasionally move over to another frond of my camboda plant, the water results are as follows, (using liquid test kit) ammonia= 0.02ppm pH= 8.2 nitrite= 0.25 temperature 24.8/25.4C

 

[ATK!!!]

also there are plenty of hiding places, so many infact that i cant find them at all most of the time, the size of the tank is 35l tall, it is a biube which is a cydlinder shape with a bubble tube in the middle for all who dont know, the tank has been running since novemberish and the two resident platy have been in there since the beggining, my tetras arent bothering them at all. im sorry to say that i do not know exactly which species they are, they told me that they where crystal reds but they obviously werent, im 99% sure they are cherries but i'll take some pics to show you tommorow anyway

until then, thanks for all the help

 

[ATK!!!]

heres some pics i took when i first introdued them to the tank (saturday morning 10am)

sry about the quality but didnt have much time

 

[elisew]

Could well be cherrys shrimp but definately not crystal reds though

You have a slight reading of both ammonia and nitrites in your results and you need to be doing a water change to get those levels to 0 asap. Cherry shrimps are probably one of the hardiest shrimps but even they will not tolerate ammonia let alone ammonia and nitrites, they`re probably not happy at all which is why they`re inactive.
Most tetras will enjoy shrimp for lunch so please do not be surprised if they begin to disappear completely

 

[ATK!!!]

!!!!!!!!! i thought tetra dont harm shrimp, the shrimp are about the same size as them... i'll start doing more water changes soon then, thanks for the advice

 

[elisew]

There`s no guarantee that they will get eaten and I don`t want to panic you but it would depend on what tetras you have? Can you post a pic or do you know what they are?

 

[Gilli]

As advised theres your problem - your nitrite reading! shrimp are very sensitive to bad water quality. You need to do a 50% water change daily until your reading is consistantly 0.

 

[Torchwood~Mindfreak]

They look like male cherrys to me.

 

[Mogs26]

I might be totally wrong, but when I had a biube, I was advised not to have bottom feeding fish, etc, as all the rubbish collects in the bottom of the tank and they don't want to be eating all that-essentially a biube has an under gravel filter. Are shrimps bottom feeders? Sorry I don't know, as I have never kept them, but I would think they are.
Just a thought-hope you get things sorted
Carole x