# amano shrimp huddling/hiding together



## aubie98 (Apr 22, 2017)

All of a sudden, all my amano shrimp have begun hanging out together on the back side of some driftwood in my 10 gallon tank. This is quit different from their previous behavior whereas they were all over the tank and really seemed indifferent towards one another.

I was worried about water parameters, but everything looks good and there aren't any deviations from my normal values: 0 for ammonia and nitrite, ~10-20 for nitrate, ph ~7.5-7.6, kh ~4-5, gh ~-8-9. 

I keep seeing some of the amano hunching their backs so I thought maybe they were preparing to molt, but they've been acting this way for a couple of days now.

The RCS and bloody mary shrimp I've also got in the tank aren't acting any differently. Actually, they seem more active and adventurous in the past week than ever before. I had actually thought the BMS was dead b/c I hadn't seem it in 1-2 weeks.

I'm guessing a water change won't hurt just to make sure everything's copacetic? I did a ~40% change on Friday.

Edit: one thing I just noticed is that a couple of them seem to be rhythmically beating their swimmerets while stationary on the driftwood.


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## jellopuddinpop (Dec 12, 2016)

Shrimp can be a little sensitive to large water changes. If you have no other reason to change the water, I would be in favor of smaller, more frequent water changes.


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## aubie98 (Apr 22, 2017)

jellopuddinpop said:


> Shrimp can be a little sensitive to large water changes. If you have no other reason to change the water, I would be in favor of smaller, more frequent water changes.


Maybe I'll start doing a couple of smaller changes a week. Up till now (I've had the shrimp for ~1 month), I've been doing the large change on Friday and it hasn't seemed to upset them.


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## dkraft12 (Sep 26, 2016)

Mine do this too, i have 6 in a 20 long with a bunch of otos and CPDs. I think its normal as they all still seem healthy and moulting regularly. Maybe they just feel secure there away from the fish. They often will come out at feeding time.


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## aubie98 (Apr 22, 2017)

dkraft12 said:


> Mine do this too, i have 6 in a 20 long with a bunch of otos and CPDs. I think its normal as they all still seem healthy and moulting regularly. Maybe they just feel secure there away from the fish. They often will come out at feeding time.


good to know, thanks. i guess the weirdest thing about it is that they seem healthy and are still eating, but now just chill behind the driftwood whereas before they were all over the tank and didn't pay the cardinal tetras any mind at all.


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## Riekk (Apr 3, 2017)

I have one in my 5 gallon and I haven't seen it in a few days after seeing it all over the tank for the first week and a half. Like yours, my neos are more active than they ever were before. 

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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

If you can't find your amano, it might have jumped ship.... and you might end up finding a dead amano somewhere far away from the tank....


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## Riekk (Apr 3, 2017)

Zoidburg said:


> If you can't find your amano, it might have jumped ship.... and you might end up finding a dead amano somewhere far away from the tank....


I thought that might happened but how far can they get? My tank is on the kitchen counter and I haven't seen any corpses. It did somehow manage to crawl into the filter section of my spec v the other day and I watched it fail to climb back to the other side because the water was weighing it down so much. 

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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

I've heard reports of over 20 feet away from the tank...


Amanos, in the wild, live in streams. When the babies are born, they are washed out to sea, and live in saltwater (or possibly brackish) until they transform into miniature adults. Once they are miniature adults, they must travel back up stream. I've read where shrimp like these (not necessarily amano, but those that live in freshwater streams but offspring live in the ocean before turning into adults themselves) will climb up the side of a dam that's overflowing with water to get back home... they can be tough shrimp!


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## aubie98 (Apr 22, 2017)

So, it seems that they're all molting. I caught one in the act (which was cool, had never seen it actually happen before) and see at least two empty exoskeletons. 3 shrimp are back at it, swimming around the tank and gorging on algae and assorted detritus, while two are still hiding behind the driftwood.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Was thinking it might be molting time but wasn't sure! Glad they're fine!


Males might go nuts when females molt! (if you have some of both sex)


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## BrynnaCC (Jan 5, 2014)

Yeah, I can confirm, I have one female and several males, and whenever she's molting, they start trying to pile on her. She usually gets annoyed and hides behind my filter while they cluster up on the front of it.


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## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

Amano shrimp do not bat an eye at large water changes.


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