cleaning sand with ghost shrimps.

[Kady]

I have a 10 gallon tank with six guppies and 5 ghost shrimps. it has a filter, 15 live plants planted along the back, a half tube type thing in the middle with plants growing off of it as well, a rock with an arch in the corner, and a water heater. My question is, how do I vacuum the sand without sucking up any ghost shrimps? there is a little waste from the guppies on the sand, and I think the ghost shrimps just fill up on guppy food. tia -Kady

 

[emilygupps]

Ghost shrimp don't eat fish poop, also my shrimp get out of my way. They can be very fast when they want. I have 9(!) baby shrimps that have survived two vacuums. (I keep finding more as they grow)

 

[Mebbid]

Are they ghost shrimp or Neocaridina sp.? I bought some wild type neocaradina shrimp when I entered the hobby thinking they were ghost shrimp. The neocaradina are much smaller than ghost shrimp and you have to worry about sucking them up while ghost shrimp are much larger and it shouldn't be a worry.

There are two things you can do that I've found works pretty well.

1. Rubber band a filter media bag onto the siphon with the bag inside the siphon. (Not the best description but the best I can come up with)

2. Use a turkey baster to blow the waste up into the water column where it can then be siphoned out with some decent aiming.