# cut in half shrimp!



## shrimptina (Oct 27, 2017)

Hi everyone!
This is my first post on here. 

I've had a fully planted shrimp tank for a few years now. I have times of total chaos, when shrimp are dying left and right, and times of relative calm, where they are fine for months at a time. 

Recently I added a Azoo Mignon Filter 60 to my low tech tank for stability (I had two tiny fish in the tank but they were mucking the water up too much so I moved them out). Things were going okay, I lost one shrimp three days ago. But today I found my largest, saddled female CUT IN TWO PIECES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TANK! Whaaaaat is that? Has anyone seen this?

Levels are fine! Plants are thriving.
HELP TANK FRIENDS!


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## KayakJimW (Aug 12, 2016)

Weirdness, never heard of that. Do you have a cat with a wet paw? You sure it's not just a molt? Was it clear or pink?


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## shrimptina (Oct 27, 2017)

KayakJimW said:


> Weirdness, never heard of that. Do you have a cat with a wet paw? You sure it's not just a molt? Was it clear or pink?


Yeah, it was definitely a whole shrimp. I always remove them and there is no question about it, pink little shrimpy. 
No animals besides a dog in the house. 

Thanks for the input!


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## SueD (Nov 20, 2010)

Did you add a prefilter on the Azoo?


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## shrimptina (Oct 27, 2017)

SueD said:


> Did you add a prefilter on the Azoo?


 Is that the black sponge on the end of the filer so the babies don't get sucked up? If so, than yes!


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## ChrisX (May 28, 2017)

Maybe you cut it in half while trimming plants?


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

What kind of pre-filter? I have the same filter on my 1.5g and I had shrimp in it for a while until I moved them, but even with a pre-filter a few somehow managed to get into the filter and I found them in there in pieces. Yours probably got in there and made it back into the tank.


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## KayakJimW (Aug 12, 2016)

Getting sucked up in the filter sounds like the most likely scenario. However, my inner conspiracy theorist says How can your largest saddled female fit through the intake, get cleanly halved just once, and not just get stuck in the filter media inside the filter? 

Those intakes are pretty small. Even without a prefilter my Mignon 60 catches single pieces of duckweed. I guess, if the shrimp was actively trying to squeeze in there... Mine also gets its coarse filter media (threw the fine white one away) pretty clogged and water flows over the top if it needs cleaning. -I just shot holes in my own conspiracy, but it must've been the perfect storm of events to happen like that.

I agree on the filter being the most probable case, but here's one more "what if": Have you vacuumed the substrate lately? Sometimes when I gravel vac, my shrimp are really inquisitive. I could see a scenario where I was vacuuming between plants or in the back not seeing the end of the siphon, accidentally chomp a curious shrimp in half and lift the tube in a way that causes the inside half not to get siphoned up. Then both halves later drift around to the front of tank?

Sounds like an episode of NCIShrimp

I also think @ChrisX theory holds up. If she was hanging out behind a plant that got snipped, got snipped herself, then drifted to the front later on...


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

Yep any of those are possibilities. I remember being amazed how some of my shrimp got into the filter even with the sponge on. I was scratching my head. But there they were. One half there and the other here. I was even wondering if they somehow jumped into the outflow and the intake with the impeller wasn't seated properly. 

It's weird.


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