Cherry Shrimp in Overflow

[whitecatbite]

Hello!
I recently purchased a 20 gallon aquarium off of Craigslist and it still had a little bit of water in the gravel when I took it home. I soon discovered that there were tons of baby cherry hiding in the gravel!
I got a spoon and scooped out as many as I could and put them in my 7 gallon with my betta.
The tank is an aqueon evolve 8, so there is a built in overflow.
Soon after I put in the 20+ cherry shrimp, they disappeared.
I have seen one swimming around since then, but not any little shrimp recently.
I have the filter intake blocked off with filter media, but they could have easily hopped over and hidden in the compartment, although I am not positive that they are still in the tank. I found a dried up one next to the tank a few days ago.
I am really new with keeping shrimp so I am not really sure what to do--
have any of you had this happen before?
I'm not sure how to find them, but If I do, I will relocate them into my other 7 gallon that has a much more shrimp-friendly filter.
Is there any trick to luring shrimp out of small spaces and then catching them?
Perhaps a small net?

 

[ZorroNet]

Does your betta look full? You just served him an all you can eat buffet! Bettas will eat the RCS, so if you can separate them, please do. They will hide as best they can, but eventually he will find and eat any RCS he finds. To keep them out of your filter try covering the inlet with some nylon hosiery. Ladies nylon knee socks make awesome prefilters. Just stretch them over the opening and secure them with a rubber band or a zip tie. Remember, shrimp are at the bottom of the food chain, and they know it! They hide from even potential predators, and ya can't blame them. If my RCS only knew what happens when it's all can eat night, they would never come out when I am in the room


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[XanAvaloni]

I would move the betta out to a temporary incarceration facility and wait a day or 2. Then get a piece of food-I would use a little bitty spirulina stick because I have some on hand but anything will do, bit of lettuce or zucchini or the like, other sinking food as you have available. Not much, because the fastest way to kill shrimp is overfeeding. But see if, once the predator is out of the picture, they will gather around this and hold a major feast of thanksgiving. Then search that overflow and filter internals for the possible remaining fugitives.

I had a couple of pumpkin shrimp (close relatives of cherries) that got left behind when I moved the rest of them to a shrimp-only tank. They were in a 29g with a herd of male guppies and I was assured by several that the shrimp were DOOOOOOMED, stood no chance etc.

and sure enough a couple of months later there were no longer 2 pumpkin shrimp in the tank. There were 17. So you never know. Especially if you have plants, those are imho a necessity for keeping shrimp. Just about any plants will do, stems, grasses, mosses, whatever. I like riccia, you stuff it in a bit of fine mesh (hair squishies are good, they are huge once you unravel them and you only need a few inches), tie off both ends and hold it down with a rock. The riccia grows out the holes in the mesh and looks like a nice little bush. The shrimp live off the biofilm on the plants and need no external feeding whatsoever.

Agreed with Zorro above about the importance of keeping a mesh or sponge over the filter intake.

 

[jpappy789]

I've found "brine shrimp" nets are small enough both in mesh size and overall size to at least catch adult RCS...generally easier to maneuver near places where the shrimp may be hiding compared to some of the larger nets designed for fish.

Alternatively, there are DIY shrimp traps but I've never tried any myself...

 

[XanAvaloni]

Brine shrimp net would be good for teeny babies but once they're even half grown a regular net works fine. Secret, I found out after much failure, is to move VERY SLOWLY. Best to wait until they are on a wall (back wall is easiest of there are no obstacles) and move the net down to about 2-3 in below the shrimp and put the edge right up against the glass. Then start scraping it--very very slowly-- up the wall. When it gets to the edge of the shrimp itself stop. most of the time the beastie will climb right up on it and even inside to check for food. DO NOT yank at this point, just keep moving slowly and calmly upwards until you are at the waterline and it is safely secured.

Predators move fast. Do not act like a predator and they're fairly easy to catch.

 

[ZorroNet]

I forgot to mention my trick for catching them. Net size doesn't really matter though I would not suggest a cast net or the one from your bass boat. As said above, move slowly and gently. Also shrimp move faster backwards than they swim forward. If you sneak up behind one and touch it, it is possible that it might jump right into your net. I just moved all of mine (that I could find) into a bigger tank, so I got pretty adept at catching them after a few minutes. I have a 3" net and a 5" net... Both worked fine. It's the hands and eyes on the handle end that matter most!


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[jpappy789]

Apparently I just have really bad hand-eye coordination LOL

 

[ZorroNet]

Apparently I just have really bad hand-eye coordination LOL

You just need to brush up on your pong skills, jpappy. Those shrimp are jumpy little buggers!


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[whitecatbite]

Oh this is all super good advice!! Thank you!! I have not had any recent sightings and I am sort of worried that they are just all gone-- but hopefully they are just hiding from the betta and they are sneaking around! At the moment I have zero aquariums that do not house a betta so If I did catch them, I don't know where I would put them
I feel bad for the little guys, but the tank they are in at the moment is the most thickly planted so maybe they are just better off in this tank for now? Maybe one day I will try out some other fish or do a tiny animal tank!!