Shrimp - Excited by water flow - is this normal?

[On_a_dishy]

I went to my LFS to get some plants and, as you do, I came back with 3 shrimp and wonderment as to why I've never kept shrimp before because they're completely brilliant.
Anyway, my new tank, which is intended for a betta, is at the end of some fishless cycling which has gone weirdly well thanks to a combination of serendipity (ammonia produced by a dying plant) and a variety of different bacteria from different bottles. Parameters are currently (34L tank):
GH 180 (I can't seem to get this down)
KH 120 (down from 180)
PH 7 / 7.5
Nitrite 1 (I know this needs to be 0 and it will be in the next few days but I don't want to do a massive water change and potentially affect the cycling)
Nitrate 40
Ammonia 0
Anyway, my shrimp can't get enough of the water flow produced by the pump and I'm wondering if this is caused by stress rather than joy. They try to swim up against the flow as it slops back down into the water in a corner of the tank (I have the exit pipes pointing against the glass but might have to change it as I'm worried they'll get hurt). I've never kept shrimp before...other than to feed betta...
Attached are photos of my 3 new friends, because they're just great!

 

[connorlindeman]

I can't comment on the flow, but I will say this.
It looks like you have 3 Neocaridina davidi in 3 different colors. If you have male and female, then these will reproduce and result in the natural color form. Which will not be colorful.

 

[On_a_dishy]

Oh.

 

[Essjay]

All the various colours have been developed by selectively breeding for a specific colour. Since they are all the same species they can breed together and the colour genes will be mixed in the offspring.

 

[GaryE]

I'm more interested in the OP's question. So I will bump it up.

 

[Essjay]

I have never noticed my shrimps swimming in the filter outflow. If they caught by it, they are 'blown away' by it and swim out of the current straight away.
I do wonder if it is a reaction to the nitrite in the water. Shrimps are sensitive to poor water conditions, and it is not usually advised to add them to an immature tank - that is, a newly set up tank - as the tank really needs to have been running for a few months.

GH 180 (I can't seem to get this down)

That won't be the problem for shrimps.

The only way to lower GH is to mix pure water with tap water. Pure water is RO, distilled, even rainwater if it can be guaranteed free from contamination.

 

[sharkweek178]

A water change won't affect the cycle. The bacteria live on the surfaces in the tank and filter, not in the water.

 

[On_a_dishy]

I’m changing the water once or twice a day (around 30%) and the nitrite this morning was definitely on the right side of 1. The thing that I’m a bit bemused by is that I’ve had no ammonia spike to speak of. Something right has definitely happened as I have signs of nitrite and nitrate. A plant was dying early on, so this might have fed the bacteria and I just missed the spike.
LOVE the rainwater idea. Just a bucket outside to catch it? I’m in the UK so there will be no shortage!
Interestingly, my three little shrimps are much more relaxed this morning and not chasing the bubbles at all. They are lovely. I can’t believe I’ve never had them before.

 

[Essjay]

Glad to hear the shrimps are settling down. I know that salt can help with nitrite (it stops nitrite attaching to blood) but I don't know if shrimps can cope with it. So keep the nitrite level as near zero as possible with water changes.

Don't forget that if you start using rainwater, you can never go back to all tap water so you would need to have rainwater available at all times. Most people use a water butt to collect rainwater from the roof to make sure there's always enough in the middle of a heatwave. But there must be no air pollution - and that includes crop spraying as well as cars etc - and the roof must be made of something non-contaminating. And if it's like our roof with crows and herring gulls using the roof as a toilet, I wouldn't risk that either.


You say your GH is 180 ppm, how is that measured? Some strip testers only go as high as 180 so anything higher still reads as 180. To confirm, look on your water company's website, make a note of the unit of measurement as well as the number as UK water companies often use strange units and we need to convert.

If it is 180 ppm, unless you want to keep fish which must have soft water that 180 ppm doesn't need to be lowered. Do you intend getting a betta? Warning - many bettas see shrimps as food. One of mine did, I got up one morning to find bits of shrimp on the tank floor. Though I also had a betta which ignored adults shrimp and just ate the babies, and another which ignored even baby shrimps.

 

[On_a_dishy]

Yes, my GH looks like it’s ‘off the strip scale’ - it’s even darker than the 180. I’ve kept and even bred bettas in it in the past, but I do remember thinking then that I needed to invest in some RO water.
Thanks for the advice about rainwater - not going to start down that route!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

A water change won't affect the cycle.

Sorry but this is not the case. The cycle is driven by ammonia. If you want to cycle a tank without fish to 3 ppm of ammonia and you add it and then you change 50% of the water, only half the ammonia remains and this will get the tank cycled to 1.5 ppm not 3. The same applies to the nitrite.

When water is changed during a cycle it reduces the concentrations of ammonia and nitrite and that slows the cycle. And this applies to both a fishless and a fish-in cycle. The difference is fish-in is way slower as the level of ammonia cannot be very elevate or it will likely harm the fish.

Unfortunately, there is little one can do to detoxify ammonia that also wont slow the cycle despite what the sellers of dechlor like to state. it wont stop the cycle but it will slow it.

Fortunately, there is no need to change water to keep fish safe from nitrite, Chloride in the water will do this without affecting the level of nitrite. Unless your nitrite exceed 16 ppm on an API (or similar Total Ion test kit) which will stall a cycle, there is no reason th change water to protect fish from nitrite.

Please read here to discover how to deal with nitrite with a small amount of plain old salt: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il.433778/

The amount of salt needed to block nitrate is quite small. I am not so sure it would be harmful to shrimp or any inverts. There a few reasons I am inclined to thing the shrimp would be safe. First, there is the consideration of the level of nitrite. Low levels mean very little salt would be needed. Next, if the cycle is progressing as described, then the amount of time nitrite will be present is fairly short. Changing water will extend that time. As long as there is nitrite in the water at any level and there is no chloride to block it, the nitrite will enter the fish.

Lastly, you can monitor how the shrimp are reacting when you add the small amount of salt. If they appear to be in
distress, you can still change water to reduce/eliminate the salt. However, my feeling is this will not be necessary in this case.

One last observation re shrimp. When I got my first amanos I got a lot of them. One day I noticed most of them were madly dashing around the tank. I did not know why. So I contacted a good friend who is an expert on this stuff and she explained to me that the shrimp are acting this way because they are hungry and cannot find food. That taught me to feed them when I noticed this behavior.

I wonder if your shrimp were active because they were hungry as well as bothered by nitrite? Perhaps the nitrite went down some over night and the shrimp also found things to eat? And then there is the fact that the tank was new to them and they were going through the normal adjustment to new surroundings. It could have been a combination of things......

For your next tank, please consider going fishless in terms of making the tank safe from the nitrogen complex.