Shrimps,,, and how they sleep...

[r00onmac]

ok so today i added a peppermint and a fire shrimp after getting my tank water tested at Petco (cuz my test kit wont be here till like 2 weeks,,, damn ebay) and i was just wondering how they generally sleep...

the guy said they should be fine with a simple "bag in water" technique that u generally use for fish... and then let them loose after temp equalizes...

did this and they went on their merry way eating and walking on rocks, etc...

BUT i leave for a few hours and come back now and i see the fire is laying in back behind a rock on his side... is he dead? or sleeping? how do they generally sleep? im very confused... and if hes dead i really wanna get him out ASAP so he doesnt decay and cause an amonia spike... im just generally confused.. because as much research as one can do nowhere does it say "this is how the shrimp sleep (insert pic here)"

and the peppermint i dont even see anywhere,, but doesnt mean hes not there... my tank isnt setup the best for finding things .. i left lots of areas to hide because i figured it would work out better for the fishes and stuff.... idk... let me know if im crazy...

 

[r00onmac]

ok so i just saw the peppermint under a rock with his feelers moving.. so hes alive.. and if thats how shrimps sleep then im screwed with the fire shrimp.. he is definately in the corner laying on his side... not moving any of his tentacles....

 

[mikeguerrero]

Sorry,

But the fire shrimp is dead. If they are not properly acclimated into your new tank and the water parameters in your tank are not stable he will die immediately.

Your LFS shouldn't sell you critters for cycling tanks; never. I hope your peppermint makes it.

Mike

 

[sadielynn]

I agree with Mike the shrimp did not make it :sad: your tank is too new for live stock yet
slow down on your tank you will get there just slowly
in this hoby patients is a vertue , I know that when I first came here
and still do at times see the tanks that others had , I wanted so bad to skip
the cycling time .....and have instant tanks like the others but after reading realize
that their tanks took months and months even years .... the other thing is that the pet store doesnt sound to knowledable all your fish, corals, live stock with the exception to live rock and sand neet to be dirp acclimated before adding to your tank . Believe me I had my share of failure till I learned to do it right . You will get there I promise .

 

[r00onmac]

thanks guys.. the fire was still dead this morning just in a different spot.... only reason i bought them was because the tests all read zero except nitrate... he said nitrate was at the first tiny tick above zero but he said it was perfect... i know a week is a little short for cycling time, but i figured if the sand and rock were good then it was a possibility... i had very little die off (not much debris falling into the sand and no odor from the rocks)...if they ask when i return it today ill lie and said i had it setup for a month so i can get the replacement shrimp... and with this one ill do my best to drip acclimate and hope he makes it with the peppermint..

 

[sadielynn]

see about a refund or a credit
tell them you want to make sure that there is not a spike in ammonia before adding again . to drip take airline tube tie a knot and drip after your h20 doubles empty 1/2 your water continue this for about 1 hour or more . (this is my method others may say diffrently ) also cover your container so he doesnt jump out .
once you have aclimated him properly place him in your tank . Replenish via drip the water lost to drip acclimation . good luck

 

[dragon79]

thanks guys.. the fire was still dead this morning just in a different spot.... only reason i bought them was because the tests all read zero except nitrate... he said nitrate was at the first tiny tick above zero but he said it was perfect... i know a week is a little short for cycling time, but i figured if the sand and rock were good then it was a possibility... i had very little die off (not much debris falling into the sand and no odor from the rocks)...if they ask when i return it today ill lie and said i had it setup for a month so i can get the replacement shrimp... and with this one ill do my best to drip acclimate and hope he makes it with the peppermint..

what does your salinity measure out to be? If that's off, it could have croaked that way too.

 

[hooterhead]

it was probably your acclimation technique. inverts need a lot more time to acclimate than fish do. that float way is too harsh on them. i always do a drip acclimation on all my tank members. it's more gradual and much easier on the animals. just get an airhose and crimp it (you'll need to adjust for the drip speed you want). put the animal in a cup, jar, bucket, whatever they fit into and drip tankwater into there until you've at least tripled the water volume. pour most of the water out and do it again. this proces should take at least 2 hours. once you have filled the container twice, net the critter out and place it in your tank. DO NOT pour the water in the container into your tank. especially if it came from a place like petco... you'll lose a lot less this way and your fish,inverts,corals sill be a lot happier

 

[incysor]

Your first problem is going to petco. ;-)

I am sympathetic, that you lost the shrimp. It's a hit in the wallet, and they're very cool inverts. However you should NEVER listen to anything anyone at petco tells you about saltwater. Ever. Petco, and Petsmart, are one very small step up from Walmart when it comes to their knowledge about fishkeeping, and the health of their livestock. They've got horrible reps on the boards for a good reason.

I use them for supplies from time to time, and I've even bought some livestock from them, both successfully, and unsuccessfully. The longer I was in the hobby, the more knowledgeable I was, and the better I was at being able to spot the unhealthy specimans.

I will still buy from them if I see a good deal, but I do so knowing that I'm taking a risk.

Floating a bag to let the temps equalize is a fine way to acclimate SOME freshwater fish.

It is never a good idea to acclimate ANYTHING saltwater related this way.

In saltwater your new purchase needs to be acclimated to temp/salinity/pH/etc...
There simply isn't any way to acclimate them to these other variables by floating them in a bag for 20mins.

The best way to acclimate things is to use a dripline to drip tank water into the container holding your newest inhabitant.

There have been lots of posts about this. If you do a search for acclimate, acclimation, dripline, etc... you'll find a bunch of info.

I'd take the shrimp back, and try to get a refund/replacement, and talk to a manager about the fact that you were given incorrect information about what you needed to do to introduce them to the tank.

Like the other folks have said, I wouldn't be putting anything in the tank yet, since it's probably still cycling.

I think you had the right idea having them test the water, but it's just a sad fact in this hobby that a lot of LFS employees don't know squat. Until you've been in the hobby long enough to be able to get a feel for which LFS employees know their stuff in your area, you can not trust that they have any idea what they're doing.

B

 

[r00onmac]

awesome thanks for hte drip technique..

i went back and they were like "we dont replace saltwater, cuz they are harder to keep" but i bitched and they replaced him... hes in a cup now with a drip going..... hopefully hell make it...

 

[incysor]

Good job. Congrats on getting the replacement. Hopefully the tank is cycled enough that they'll both do ok.

B

 

[r00onmac]

i mean... i know in cycling they go through spikes... but if the tests read zero, doesnt that mean its either done or really close to done? id assume in spikes that the test would read at least a little of each... that strip was practically white except faint pink on nitrate and the color for ph....

hehe he doesnt seem to like the glass cup,,, hes sliding around the bottom... i dropped a flake or two in for him... hopefully itll relax him a little...

as a note on the peppermint.. hes doing great as far as i can see... hes eating.. climbing on the rocks... etc.. he looks good...

 

[incysor]

If your tank is fully cycled and you haven't placed any critters in it yet, your readings should all be at zero. Having a small reading on the nitrates, could mean that you are at the end of your cycle, or it could be that the guy at petco doesn't know what he's doing when it comes to the tests. Since he told you to just float your shrimp then dump them in, it doesn't instill confidence.

I've had people mis-read tests at LFS that I normally trust. Either because the person was busy, confused, new, stoned, whatever. Thats why even if a store has a good rep, you need to figure out which employees in the store know their stuff when it comes to saltwater. Most LFS do both fresh and salt, and the person helping you may not know anything about the saltwater side of things. If it's a good shop, and they don't know they'll tell you so, and try to get you someone that can answer your questions, but at all too many of them, they'll just give you an answer whether they really know what they're talking about or not.

B

 

[hooterhead]

no it's not good to have everything at zero. you should have a little nitrate in there. 1st is the ammonia spike, then the nitrIte, and then nitrAte steps in. nitrAtes will only go away if there is nothing to feed on, with water changes and with macro algeas. if everything is at 0 then you might have another small spike. i wouldn't add any fish or anything until you have some nitrAtes. 10 ppm or less is ok for inverts. but no higher. good luck

 

[r00onmac]

well il leave it at what i have for now until my test kit comes next week... not that ill be adding anything but some coral from here on out... but maybe a snail or two if i can find one or two of the ones that clean the sand (N----- something, right?)

 

[sadielynn]

Dont add any thing more right now
let your stuff balance . I know that you added a damsel and now the shrimp, the system is shocked and needs time to rebalance . I think that you are moving a little to fast for sucess , slow down let the benificial bacteria have time to grow, you should wait a month or so to allow these things to equalize for your system . You may end up with more casualties if you continue with the speed you are going , as Incysor said hopefully your tank has cycled enough to keep your critters healthy

 

[r00onmac]

well the new fire is in the drip acclimating cup now... and not looking so hot... he was jumping and swimming a little after i half-emptied the cup after the first fill-up... he ate a flake or two and pooped in the cup.. but now hes kinda sitting very still and only really moving hte little tiny arms by his mouth...

amazing that the fire shrimp is being soo picky compared to the fish and the peppermint shrimp...

thisll be the last bit of money i spend for a looong time... if he dies its 25 bucks down the hole and they wont replace him again cuz they werent supposed to replace him the first time...

 

[r00onmac]

well at this point hes been in the cup since like 1230 and it has filled 2 times... he looked a little dead but i dropped him in anyway thinking the cup water might be too cold (its coming from my 76-78 degree tank but my room is REALLY cold so i think it was cooling on its way down the tube...

he landed on his back and stayed there for a min or two but now hes flipped imself over and is slowly moving more of his legs... so im thinking it was too cold.. hopefully he will warm up and recover... if not im spent...

 

[dragon79]

well at this point hes been in the cup since like 1230 and it has filled 2 times... he looked a little dead but i dropped him in anyway thinking the cup water might be too cold (its coming from my 76-78 degree tank but my room is REALLY cold so i think it was cooling on its way down the tube...

he landed on his back and stayed there for a min or two but now hes flipped imself over and is slowly moving more of his legs... so im thinking it was too cold.. hopefully he will warm up and recover... if not im spent...

interesting. It's hard to say, but hopefully it recovers. Weird it landed on it's back, usually they flutter around and glide on down. Sounds pretty weakened, so it may die again. If it pulls around and starts to walk again you are in luck, if not sorry

 

[hooterhead]

the snails you are thinking of are nassarius. very good snails. i'd get some ceriths too as they are also good at cleaning your sand bed.