# Baby Cherry Red Shrimp getting sucked up during water change



## jlroar (Aug 19, 2007)

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to prevent baby cherry red shrimp from being sucked up when you do a water change. I had 5 that I had to try and fish out of a bucket of dirty water. I have no idea if I lost any more but tried to get all that I could see.

The tank tends to collect all the poo in one spot and the shrimp love to go their. I tried to scare them off but somehow sucked up several real small ones. I need to get the poo out but don't want to suck out all the shrimp too.

Was wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

James


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## territhemayor (Aug 12, 2007)

One of my black rasboras got sucked up today, but I lucky pulled the vacuum out of the tank quickly and it flowed back in, but I was thinking just put a mesh thing over it, with some rubber bands around it to secure.


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## AlGee (Sep 7, 2006)

Cherries are really prolific so I think you can spare the few that get sucked up by the hose monster.

Maybe you can lure them away with some food.


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## fishymatty (Feb 25, 2007)

When I change the water in my shrimp tanks I always syphon the water into a bucket and I check the bucket with a flash light before dumping it. If I see any I scoop them out.


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## BlueRam (Sep 21, 2004)

A sponge over the tube works fine for smallish fish. Less effective at removing dirt though.


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## eklikewhoa (Aug 29, 2006)

Pantyhose on the intake


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## Color Me Blue (Nov 10, 2005)

eklikewhoa said:


> Pantyhose on the intake


Ditto on the pantyhose!  Works like a charm.


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## zackish (Jun 12, 2007)

Let them eat the poo and suck the water from a different part of the tank?


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## jlroar (Aug 19, 2007)

eklikewhoa said:


> Pantyhose on the intake


Pantyhose allows the poo to flow through it and not the shrimp? :thumbsup: 



fishymatty said:


> When I change the water in my shrimp tanks I always syphon the water into a bucket and I check the bucket with a flash light before dumping it. If I see any I scoop them out.


I do that too right now but, was wondering if their was a better way to prevent them from being sucked up in the first place fishymatty.



AlGee said:


> Cherries are really prolific so I think you can spare the few that get sucked up by the hose monster.
> 
> Maybe you can lure them away with some food.


I can't just not care and throw them away AlGee. It's not in me to kill something due to my stupidness even if they are constantly having babies. Possibly with the food but their food seams to also for some reason go to the area with the poo. I guess the water current just kinda stops their or something.



territhemayor said:


> One of my black rasboras got sucked up today, but I lucky pulled the vacuum out of the tank quickly and it flowed back in, but I was thinking just put a mesh thing over it, with some rubber bands around it to secure.


This has happened to me before as well territhemayor. I also have done the same as you by pulling the vacume out of the tank and the fish flowed back in. But baby cherry shrimp are almost impossible to see (at least to me they are).

Thank you all for your help but I'm still looking if their are anyothers that may have some idea. As of now Pantyhose seams to be the best way to go but I'm not sure if it will allow the poo to be sucked up.

Thanks again everyone,
James


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## Landon (Aug 22, 2007)

Try the panty hose on the outflow end if you are worried about it stopping the nasties from getting out of the tank.


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## Color Me Blue (Nov 10, 2005)

James: the pantyhose trick will suck out the waste matter, but you will find that it gets stuck to the pantyhose. You may want to try and feed your shrimp on one side of the tank, then siphon (w/o pantyhose) the opposite side. It's pretty much a give and take situation. Use pantyhose-saves baby shrimp, but poop is a little more difficult to remove efficiently. W/O pantyhose-you risk sucking up babies. Try it out and see if it works for you. 

Landon: The only problem I see with putting the pantyhose on the outflow end is the chance of getting shrimp stuck inside the tubing when you stop the suction process.


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## bulrush (May 7, 2007)

In my dirty water bucket I would balance a brine shrimp net and let the water flow into that. Of course it catches the poo too. But then I got so many RCS I just toss them out with the water.


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## ringram (Jan 19, 2005)

I don't vacuum the gravel in my shrimp tank too often (every 2-3 months), but when I do I don't really worry too much about sucking up babies. Afterall, they reproduce like locuss, so if you suck up 1, 2 or even 5, it's no biggie. Putting panty hose on the vacuum hose will prevent sucking any up, but it also won't allow you to suck the large pieces of plant matter, etc that need to get out of the tank. The bucket is always so murky after siphoning, It would be tough to see any RCS in there anyways.


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## Landon (Aug 22, 2007)

Color Me Blue said:


> Landon: The only problem I see with putting the pantyhose on the outflow end is the chance of getting shrimp stuck inside the tubing when you stop the suction process.


 
Once you lift the siphoning end (the end in the tank), all the water from it empties into the bucket via gravity. As long as the panty hose is still in place, all the water should still pass through it.

Its essentially the same thing bulrush is decribing, so youd have to look through the poo to get out the shrimp


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