Here's a little story about a little Tiger shrimp. And yes...this is a true story.
We'll start the story by actually backing up a few days. We were recently out of town and had someone come in and house sit for us and take care of the animals and fishies. Even though explicit feeding instructions were left, all the tanks were severely over fed. Very bad. I have been slowly performing maintenance on them to get them back in shape. Don't want to cause any massive swings.
Now you're caught up. So yesterday, it was time to work on Yakimora's tank. Yaky is a beautiful blue betta that the wife rescued. Has his own planted 10g tank with Flourite substrate. Doing the water change, gravel vac'ing and then rearranging some plants. While looking at the scape, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I looked closer and discovered it to be an adult Tiger shrimp!
My first reaction was..."No way". Then my second reaction was "No WAY!!". Well, I netted him out and placed him in the tank with the other tigers.
Afterwards...I really got to thinking....just how in the world did he get there in the first place?? I used to keep the Tigers in the tank next door. There is ~ a one inch gap between tanks. I have not moved any plants from one tank to the other. I did not use the net or even place the net near the 10g after transferring the Tigers to their new tank. And...being a betta...I definately never placed any shrimp in this tank.
Being that he is adult size, Mr. Tiger was in that tank for quite a spell. I am sooooo surprised he managed to survive without getting picked off. I'm thinking that he kind of blended in with the substrate and plants for survival. Either that or Yaky must be blind(ish). Very lucky none the less.
We'll start the story by actually backing up a few days. We were recently out of town and had someone come in and house sit for us and take care of the animals and fishies. Even though explicit feeding instructions were left, all the tanks were severely over fed. Very bad. I have been slowly performing maintenance on them to get them back in shape. Don't want to cause any massive swings.
Now you're caught up. So yesterday, it was time to work on Yakimora's tank. Yaky is a beautiful blue betta that the wife rescued. Has his own planted 10g tank with Flourite substrate. Doing the water change, gravel vac'ing and then rearranging some plants. While looking at the scape, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I looked closer and discovered it to be an adult Tiger shrimp!
My first reaction was..."No way". Then my second reaction was "No WAY!!". Well, I netted him out and placed him in the tank with the other tigers.
Afterwards...I really got to thinking....just how in the world did he get there in the first place?? I used to keep the Tigers in the tank next door. There is ~ a one inch gap between tanks. I have not moved any plants from one tank to the other. I did not use the net or even place the net near the 10g after transferring the Tigers to their new tank. And...being a betta...I definately never placed any shrimp in this tank.
Being that he is adult size, Mr. Tiger was in that tank for quite a spell. I am sooooo surprised he managed to survive without getting picked off. I'm thinking that he kind of blended in with the substrate and plants for survival. Either that or Yaky must be blind(ish). Very lucky none the less.
