Shrimp stay put at one corner

[Garydes]

My shrimps always stays at one corner of the tank and especially standing at the inlet pipe...Mine is a 2ft tank, is so spacious and yet the shrimp will hardly swim around. Can anyone share or have the same experience.

My nitrate today is about 4.0, how to bring the nitrate down. Is 4.0 dangerous for bee shrimps?

Thanks

[xuan87]

I think you meant that your nitrate is at 40ppm. 40ppm is quite high for bee shrimps and I will advise to keep it at 20ppm or lower. Quickest way to bring down nitrate is to do water change. For bee shrimps, about 20% or less at a time. To maintain low nitrate, you can either use nitrate reducing pads, or plants, since plants take in nitrate as nutrients.

Your shrimps may crowd at the inlet pipes due to the biofilm that form on the pipes. I have two pipes in my tanks and I see alot of shrimplets crowding on the pipes feeding on the biofilms. You said your tank is spacious, is it because you don't have any moss or plants?

[Garydes]

Hi Xuan, i tested with API nitrate test kit and the colour seems orangy, i read as 4.0, i guess is 40ppm. currently i plant my tank with HC and rocks, i made my tank like iwagumi style.
You mention about nitrate reducing pads, where can i get this item? and how to use it? initially i put Mosura Bioplus, and it produce alot of bioflim, then i stop...cos is making my tank floated with lots of bioflim. I just feel tat my shrimp is not swimming around the tank, but stay put at one corner especially the standing at the inlet pipes...

[Garydes]

i wonder if HC is a wrong choice of plants for shrimp keeping... cos it need CO2 and lightings..if so then i may have to rescape my whole tank to just soil and moss.

[xuan87]

Hi Garydes, photos of your entire tank and the the corner where your shrimps gather will help.

I can't help you much with plants as I don't do aquascaping and I have next to zreo knowledge about then. However, if you're planning to have just moss alone, there is no need for soil. You can attach moss to a variety of things, I have moss attached to a big driftwood, 2 wood pieces and a lavarock. People have mixed opinions of nitrate reducing pads, some say it works, some say it doesn't, I personally have not used it before, but they may be useful for shrimps which have a much lower bioload as compared to fishes. YMMV. However, I feel that natural ways to reduce nitrate are better than chemical means.

One of the most effective ways to remove nitrate biologically is using a algae scrubber, I've still looking to see if i can set up one as the conventional method cant be used for my setup, my tank is too small.

The point of mosura bioplus is to set up biofilm, which is the main source of food for shrimp fry. Of course, adult shrimps feed on biofilm, but they can eat other food like algae wafer and moss. If you don't have shrimp fry, you can switch to other food.

Lastly, what filter do you use? Also, hope more veteran shrimpsters can chip in, i'm relatively new to the hobby too.

[xuan87]

Ok, just to add in some additional personal experience over the last couple weeks:

I recently bought the mosura bioplus because I wanted to try to cultivate more bacteria and also because I have quite alot of shrimplets. One night after I added, I encountered what the TS described as "shrimps crowding together", except they were crowded around the external temp probe, just right under the water surface, 10 or more of them crowded around the small space. What I think happen is after I've put in the bioplus, some of it remains on the surface, float over to the external temp probe and was deposit there, breeding alot of bacteria. I did it again a few days later and the same thing happened immediately overnight. Another thing I noticed was that the shrimplets appear and start sticking to everything. Normally I can see only a handful, suddenly, I can count 30 or more of them easily.

So to conclude, the crowding issue is due to mosura bioplus

[cheetf]

My shrimps always stays at one corner of the tank and especially standing at the inlet pipe...Mine is a 2ft tank, is so spacious and yet the shrimp will hardly swim around. Can anyone share or have the same experience.

My nitrate today is about 4.0, how to bring the nitrate down. Is 4.0 dangerous for bee shrimps?

Thanks

Do you have any other fauna in the tank?