BACKGROUND:
ok, so ever since I have started keeping shrimp (which was in march) a total of 3 female neocaridina's all about the size of 1 inch (that's around full-grown right?) and all gotten around the same time, have perished in my 2.5 gallon tank
(the blue thing in the back is filter media covered in algae that my shrimp love to pick off-then i reuse it!
)
Big Bertha:
The first death, i attribute to the stress of transport to LFS, acclimating to the LFS for about a week or more, then capture, then transport home, then acclimating to new water parameters in my tank.. I named her Big Bertha and she died within 24 hrs.. she had no appearance of a saddle.. and i looked into the tank probably right when she died because my Ghost Shrimp Spaz (Yes, a REAL Ghost shrimp.. NOT a macrobrachium specie) wasn't even near her at the time.
Geezerd:
2nd death about 2-3 weeks ago, I named her Geezerd for her coloration, She was a wild color neo, and she became berried after like a month in my tank (she had no saddle when i first got her.. i assume from stress) and when she was close to hatching, I separated her into a 1gallon until the eggs hatched (so my colony wouldn't get diluted).. once they hatched, i put her back into my 2.5g and i noticed she became really lethargic.. i assumed she was readying to molt, and when i came home the next night from work, my ghost shrimp Spaz, was munching on her corpse.
Wilma:
3rd Death last night, Wilma was from a different store/source and every shrimp in that store was super healthy and she was too. She was saddled when i got her and became berried in my tank shortly after, but i did notice that she was much more shy about coming out during daylight hours than the other smaller females.. i assumed it was because she was berried most of the time, as i noticed my other females, while berried, don't come out too often either.
she had 2 successful hatchings and was a baby making machine. Shortly after her 2nd egg hatching, saddled and all, i saw her looking lethargic most of the time.. similar to Geezerd, I assume she was readying to molt, but when i looked into the tank last night, i saw Spaz munching on her freshly dead corpse
QUESTIONS:
So what do you think guys?.. from your experience, do you think that although my Ghost shrimp CANNOT grab and eat anything alive and able with his tiny weakling claws, was able to grab and munch on these females while they were about to molt? I know bigger shrimps need more time to molt and all so the possibility is there.
However, I could just be paranoid and they both had died before Spaz started munching on them, just like in the case of Big Bertha... Those 3 females were the biggest in my tank @ 1 inch and no other shrimp is close to that size so maybe old age could've played a factor?
I keep Spaz in there to clean up any left overs and/or dead shrimp so they don't decompose and he is a little over 1 inch. Should i replace him with like a .5 inch ghost shrimp to do that instead?
ok, so ever since I have started keeping shrimp (which was in march) a total of 3 female neocaridina's all about the size of 1 inch (that's around full-grown right?) and all gotten around the same time, have perished in my 2.5 gallon tank
(the blue thing in the back is filter media covered in algae that my shrimp love to pick off-then i reuse it!
)Big Bertha:
The first death, i attribute to the stress of transport to LFS, acclimating to the LFS for about a week or more, then capture, then transport home, then acclimating to new water parameters in my tank.. I named her Big Bertha and she died within 24 hrs.. she had no appearance of a saddle.. and i looked into the tank probably right when she died because my Ghost Shrimp Spaz (Yes, a REAL Ghost shrimp.. NOT a macrobrachium specie) wasn't even near her at the time.
Geezerd:
2nd death about 2-3 weeks ago, I named her Geezerd for her coloration, She was a wild color neo, and she became berried after like a month in my tank (she had no saddle when i first got her.. i assume from stress) and when she was close to hatching, I separated her into a 1gallon until the eggs hatched (so my colony wouldn't get diluted).. once they hatched, i put her back into my 2.5g and i noticed she became really lethargic.. i assumed she was readying to molt, and when i came home the next night from work, my ghost shrimp Spaz, was munching on her corpse.
Wilma:
3rd Death last night, Wilma was from a different store/source and every shrimp in that store was super healthy and she was too. She was saddled when i got her and became berried in my tank shortly after, but i did notice that she was much more shy about coming out during daylight hours than the other smaller females.. i assumed it was because she was berried most of the time, as i noticed my other females, while berried, don't come out too often either.
she had 2 successful hatchings and was a baby making machine. Shortly after her 2nd egg hatching, saddled and all, i saw her looking lethargic most of the time.. similar to Geezerd, I assume she was readying to molt, but when i looked into the tank last night, i saw Spaz munching on her freshly dead corpse
QUESTIONS:
So what do you think guys?.. from your experience, do you think that although my Ghost shrimp CANNOT grab and eat anything alive and able with his tiny weakling claws, was able to grab and munch on these females while they were about to molt? I know bigger shrimps need more time to molt and all so the possibility is there.
However, I could just be paranoid and they both had died before Spaz started munching on them, just like in the case of Big Bertha... Those 3 females were the biggest in my tank @ 1 inch and no other shrimp is close to that size so maybe old age could've played a factor?
I keep Spaz in there to clean up any left overs and/or dead shrimp so they don't decompose and he is a little over 1 inch. Should i replace him with like a .5 inch ghost shrimp to do that instead?
