**MISSING** Clean Up Crew

[HiJaC]

Bizzare,

Very Bizzare.

Came home today and, as always, checked the tank for 10 minutes.

Everyone is happy, plants coming along nicely, bba still present but looking better after the weekly trim and waterchange yesterday.

Looking around a bit more i notice something odd.

No Amano Shrimps.

Thinking my small army of binmen have found a nice group t-break spot I hunt around a bit.

In the Amazon Sword - nothing

Behind the CO2 tower - nothing,

Behind the upright tree - nothing,

Starting to get a little worried i systematically searched every visible spot (and a few no so visible using mirrors), alas they were not to be found.

So **MISSING** 9 to 11 Amano Shrimps age 0 to 2 years.

Existing in mature tank

PH 6.4 to 6.6
NO3 - around 10ppm
Temp - 26 C

Very heavy planting.

Popn -


1 CA Cich Ellioti
2 Blue RAMS
7 Neon Tetre
8 Rummie Nose Tetre
4 Black Widow Tetra
3 Cherry Barbs
1 Silver Tip Tetra
1 Small Plec
3 Cory Julii
8 Oto's

Best Regards,

John

p.s Any explanation happily received.

 

[JDogg]

i know my rams love to eat shimp, am sure the ellioti does too

 

[Jchillin]

I cannot imagine any of your current stock being able to scarf down all of those shrimp in the time frame given and leave no evidence behind (no shell fragments, etc.). I would have thought the same thing regarding them finding a "secret club". Take another look around.

 

[HiJaC]

Hi,

No bits, No bodies.

Pretty sure I last saw them two days minimum ago. And a good number of them then.

Some of these guys are monsters. Old stock.

Just had another look - nothing.

The shrimp and the RAMS and C.Elliotii have been existing happily for a few months now.

Plenty of places to hide (sorry for the camera phone pic).

Wierd eh?

John

 

[dapellegrini]

How big is your tank? You can hide a lot of things in a heavily planted tank...

 

[HiJaC]

How big is your tank? You can hide a lot of things in a heavily planted tank...

Hi,

My soon to be updated tank log is here.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=98706

About 46G

Best Regards,

John

 

[Jchillin]

Indeed, you would see at least one or more of your fish appearing a bit...constipated and/or bloated. This will seem odd but could they have escaped?

 

[HiJaC]

Indeed, you would see at least one or more of your fish appearing a bit...constipated and/or bloated. This will seem odd but could they have escaped?

As a form of mass suicide?

I think not. The lid is closed except at feeding and cleaning times. There is a small whole for the cables/co2 feed to come in but the shirmp would have had to climb 2 inches out of the water and through a small gap that the biggest wouldnt fit.

John

 

[newfound77951]

No idea....my guess is they;re hiding somewhere. Maybe they all molted at the same time? I know my SW cleaner shrimp hides after he molts.

Beautiful tank, BTW!

 

[spittinfly]

I really can't help with the shrimp but I really like your tank.

What kind of plants are along the front of your tank? The little stems with the single leaves on top thingys.

 

[plecoperson]

I keep thinking my 3 Amanos are dead. Then, weeks later, I see one of the little idiots picking away at the driftwood.

I think yours are probly having a secret meeting somewhere....I bet you find them!

 

[Lance M.]

What a coincidence, the same thing happend to me. About 3 or 4 days ago all of my amanos dissappeared. I had about 5 big females and 3 males. I can see all my ghost shrimp crawling around eating stuff and my two vampires are out and my bamboo shrimp is out. kinda weird.

My tank is a 54gallon planted and I've got lots of driftwood so maybe they are all huddled together hiding or something? But I do have an adult (6'') spotted raphael catfish and a 4 inch striped raphael (that cut my hand! but that's a different story) but they don't even bother the ghost shrimp which would be so easy to swallow.

 

[HiJaC]

Hi,

I'm gonna rip out the back bit of driftwood and hunt around later today for them. At an off chance im going to dismantle the filter and see if they have crawled down the access tubes and into the canister for a mass feeding session.

Best Regards,

John

 

[7Enigma]

Definitely odd that you can't find even ONE! I had a funny story with an Oto a while ago. My tank goes from moderately to heavily planted depending on how lazy I get with trimming...water changes are always done 50% each week, but its so difficult for me to THEN spend 30-40min trimming and replanting So anyways, being heavily planted with medium lighting I have had fish deaths and never seen a nitrogen spike. So after going MONTHS (2-3) without seeing my last oto, I was sure he had bit the big one and was eaten by the snails/fish.

Don't you know it a couple weeks ago I was looking at my anubias leaves for holes from my BN pleco and in the back of the tank on a java fern leaf was the oto. Plump and happy just relaxing on a leaf. I assume he comes out at night because I only have a 20gallon tank, and look at it several times a day for a couple minutes. Not to mention all the trimming and PWC's I would have expected him to dart out.

So keep looking, they are probably all hiding somewhere, but as mentioned, be careful when moving heavy objects. The last thing you want to do is find their hiding spot, AFTER crushing 1/2 of them.....

 

[HiJaC]

Hi,

Is it unheard of for a group of 10 ish Amano Shrimp all to goto hiding longterm for some reason?

I changed the water on Monday so was thinking maybe they didnt like something and they have all holed up.

The big upright peice of driftwood has quite a porus underside so there is potential they all hid inside the log.

But for 3 days now would be a touch freaky and wierd.

John

 

[Lance M.]

Funny (yet sad) story from when I had my 20 gallon setup-

I had a whisper power filter on it. Well one day I was counting my amanos and couldn't help but notice one male was missing. Well I ket looking and couldn't find it.

The next day I counted them all again and still one missing. Then I happened to look in the power filter and there he was! Just sitting in there on the filter cartridge. Well my dad happened to be right there so I told him the amano was in the filter and he looked. Well my dad has bad vision so he asked me were it was. So I pointed at the shrimp and I guess I scared it cause it darted sideways... straight into the impeller... ripped it to shreds. I just stood there amazed.

Now looking back on it (happened like 3 yrs ago) I laugh but when it happened I was like o m g.

 

[HiJaC]

Hi,

Latest from the crime scene.

Still no sign of any of the army of shrimp. Pulled apart the back of the tank and the filter and looked everywhere - nothing.

The guys at the LFS thought it might have been the Elliotti, but he seems the same size as normal, and even though he is my centre peice fish the sum mass of all 10 shrimp would have been about 1.5 times his body mass.

Plus there would have been some peices of shell and bits left over on the base of the tank, of which i've found none.

My second theory is relating to some small bits rock i used to attached some Anubias Nana to a week and a half ago (about 5 days before the shrimp went missing).

There were 12 plants so I took an old bit of aquarium rock (an ignious/metamorphic rock, plenty of mica/silicates, dark grey) and smashed it into little bits to attach the Nana too.

They are about pebble size (a dim or penny size) and one of each plants. There could have been copper residues inside the rock I smashed which are now leeching into the tank.

I've read copper kills shrimp, so it could be that.

But.

1. There are 0 bodies and 0 body bits.
2. There are only 12 small fragments of rock with potentially very trace amounts of copper in a 46 G tank.

So i'm a bit suspect.

I'm working on some ways of reducing my BBA atm, so I am going to wait until I've done some excel dosing before re-introducing shrimp. So i'll come back to the rock issue in a month or so.

Best Regards,

John

edit - just thinking about this more. Copper is also used to treat BBA yes? But that shows no sign of getting better. Surely the BBA would be effected first, then the shrimp? Or are the shrimp more fragile?

 

[7Enigma]

The shrimp are most likely more fragile than the BBA. But as you mentioned copper would just kill them, not remove the bodies as well. You sure you really had shrimp in this tank?

 

[Purrbox]

Have you checked around the outside of the tank? Amanos can be quite the escape artists. They'll climb up a powercord and squeeze through the tiniest of openings if they decide that it's time to relocate.

 

[HiJaC]

Have you checked around the outside of the tank? Amanos can be quite the escape artists. They'll climb up a powercord and squeeze through the tiniest of openings if they decide that it's time to relocate.

I had another check under and behind the tank. Nothing. Unless they can survive for a while out of the water and made it into the floor, then down the drains or have set up in some underground puddle i fear the worst.

**MISSING** 10 Amano Shrimp **PRESUMED DEAD**

rip