Upsizing help wanted

[earhtmother]

Any tips for moving the Neocardinia from my 30g to a 55g. New substrate, a new Spiderwood tree and a few new peices of cholla and then the 2 Spiderwood trees from the old tank, 1/2 dz pieces of cholla and lots of moss balls and Subwassertang. I have a clear 40L bin to use as a temporary holding area if needed. I am the most worried of hitchhikers on the old *trees* or cholla *jumping ship* between the move from IN the old tank to IN the new tank. I'm *hoping* to get set up over the next couple of days and do the actual move Wed or Thursday on my days off. I figure once everyone is moved it will still be at least a week of watching the old tank for stragglers before I can say mission complete

[libertybelle]

If it were me I think I would not feed the tank for a few days and build a snailtrap type thing to draw most of them out. Like the bottom half of a one to two liter water bottle or something with their favorite food in the bottom. Could even keep the top half to cover it while bringing to the surface in case any get startled.

I would also increase water changes on the old tank so it will be close to source water parameters so you don’t have to drip acclimate between tanks. One last 50% water change before move day and think of it like an in-tank re-acclimation in case your tank has drifted from source water parameters.

Keep an eye on the old tank and no feeding and then a while later do it again to catch the stragglers. Repeat until you’re confidant you’ve got everyone. When I did it I actually left the tank running for weeks and some more appeared, probably too small for me to see on move day.

[earhtmother]

Yeah Liberty I figure it will be about a month before I can dismantle or repurpose tank. As for matching parameters I use a 50/50 well water/distilled mix ao matching isn't a huge hassle. Haven't been feeding the tank as I just treated for a Planaria outbreak and I want any stragglers that might be left to come out food hunting so I knew if I had to re-treat.

[libertybelle]

Once you move most of the shrimp you can give the substrate a good vac which will help get rid of the food source for the planarian. Gravel vac-ing can be so tough in a shrimp tank!

Unless, I think I saw in another thread the substrate was going into a fish tank? In which case no big deal, just another snack!

As far as matching, I just meant the tank (the wood/substrate effect this in particular ) can be different parameters than your source water. So plopping shrimp from one tank to another might be more of a shock than you’d expect. At a minimum I would check ph and nitrate of old tank and new tank and make sure they’re close

[Autumnsky]

Good advice above! The water changes to get the water as similar as possible is a good option. When you can, anything you can do to get it as close as possible in all ways of course is best.

Really the issues might be about the new substrate not matured. What substrate is this? Is there a chance of leaching ammonia?

I would take the old filter before cleaning rinse gently into the new tank. Add info edit: Because it helps seed a little BB into the substrate.

Otherwise since the Planaria treatment, I would normally recommend adding the old substrate to a filter bag and let it sit into the new tank for a month or 2.

Since the Planaria issue you could do another treatment with the substrate in the old tank, and then gently soak it / rinse it out with treated water extra Prime. Use in the new tank.

BB would assist in the transition.

You said you would be adding over to the new tank A couple of the primary plant structures. Spiderwood and Cholla which would be really helpful and likely enough. Still maturity in a tank improves success. Especially with shrimplets if you have them on the way.

Food for thought.

Mostly you do not have a biofilm rich environment for the shrimp. Since there was a Planaria treatment which can kill snails, I would wonder that the treatment might kill aufwuchs and make biofilm dead or not nutritious any more. Since I am not learned in the deep scientific aspects of this it is a thought/guess.