# I would know if there were dead shrimp in my tank, right?



## hurley0816 (Sep 18, 2005)

you would be amazed how well shrimp can hide i would say if you dont see bodies they are not dead. but you never know. if you consider them dead and you end up seeing them later it will just make you happier


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## Manda99 (Apr 30, 2008)

hurley0816 said:


> you would be amazed how well shrimp can hide i would say if you dont see bodies they are not dead. but you never know. if you consider them dead and you end up seeing them later it will just make you happier


I'm mostly just worried about them being dead somewhere and screwing up my water quality. Is that a valid concern? I don't want some hidden dead shrimp to cause me to lose other fish/shrimp.


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## hurley0816 (Sep 18, 2005)

i dont know for sure ,but i would say one or two dead shrimp would be scavenged before they could effect water qaulity. maybe someone with more experience will chime in let you know for sure.


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## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

Manda99 said:


> I'm mostly just worried about them being dead somewhere and screwing up my water quality. Is that a valid concern? I don't want some hidden dead shrimp to cause me to lose other fish/shrimp.


1 or 2 dead amanos are not going to mess up your water quality, but its still better to try to find it and take it out, either now or later if you ever happen to see it. 

What you can do is look closely near the substrate or put some water flow, dead shrimps float around if there's enough flow and you can see it easier. Also, if it died, the fish might have eaten it as well. What I do is put my hand into the water and do a flicking motion with my fingers. Pushes up water a little, enough to move any dead bodies.

Shrimps are pretty good hiders, I have 40 cherry shrimps in my 10 gallon and I can only count about 20 one day...and 30 something the next.


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## volatile (Feb 13, 2007)

You don't mention if you have an open top tank. Have you looked around for jumpers? Once when I filled the water of my open tank to the very top, I had a cherry shrimp that crawled out and got a couple feet away and died. I've also seen a cherry shrimp killed by a dwarf puffer, and the rest of the shrimp started eating his remains, so if your shrimp died, they could have been eaten by the other amanos by now.


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## customdrumfinishes (Apr 4, 2008)

if im think there could be a dead one i swish my hand near the substrate. the alive shrimp always stick to the rocks or plants. a dead shrimp will blow up like a leaf.

im sure other shrimp could eat a dead one in a few days time or faster


i often look for shrimp and there right in front of me and dont see them for a minute or 2, they hide pretty well. there always where you dont think they would be lol


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## Manda99 (Apr 30, 2008)

No, I don't have an open top tank. I have a Biocube and I did rummage around in the chambers in the back to make sure none had drifted back there. I still only ever see 3 shrimp. I did fish out a molted shell yesterday just to make sure it was actually a shell and not a dead shrimp. I really don't honestly believe that there are two other shrimp - alive or dead - in my tank. I guess I'm just assuming they died and were eaten by other fish or shrimp. My tank really doesn't have many places to hide. The 3 shrimp that are noticeable are pretty obviously there. 

I am really enjoying have those 3 little guys in my tank though. Very interesting to watch and between them and the Bristlenose, they are awesome at cleaning up any food that makes it to the substrate. My four year old is absolutely amazed by them. I just need to get him some for his tank now.


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## tundragirl (Feb 15, 2006)

In the begining I had my cherries in a 5 gallon tank -loosely planted. I decided to move them to a 15 gallon so I started catching them as I moved them had 78 shrimp in there -only thought I had 20 or so:icon_eek:


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## jasa73 (Jun 3, 2007)

Yes shrimp can hide quite well. When i first put my amanos in my 55g they all hid in the plants. It took a couple of days for them to come out and scavenge. I will say, if you have any snails any bodies will likely get scavenged fairly quickly. I have spyxi snails and when my cardinals died off because of a heater malfunction i didnt notice thier bodies because the snails were cleaning up the bodies pretty quickly. Oh and dont mistake a shed carapace as a body..which initally caused panic for me until i realized what it was.


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## matsuko (Feb 11, 2016)

*Amano shrimp disappearing act*

I just got a pair of amano shrimp a few weeks ago. I have a 10 gallon tank, and it's been established for a while. I couldn't find them for a couple of days of them being introduced, and my danios looked FAT, and I was concerned they were eaten. (Obviously this didn't make much sense, as the shrimp weren't much smaller than the fish and danios aren't particularly ravenous, but it was the only solution I could think of...) A day or two after I had lost hope for their lives, I woke up, turned on their tank light, and there he was, on the back of the tank scraping up some algae. I haven't found him since, but my roomie notices new spots devoid of algae that weren't there before from time to time. He has earned his moniker of "Houdini". A day or two after finding him, I still counldn't find the other one, and I noticed my danios had really red gills, and wasn't sure why, so I put some wide range treatment in (and took Houdini out of) the tank, just in case. I removed the carbon filter, as the instructions on the med box say, and found the littler one in there, stuck on the filter. He was too small, and got sucked into the filter. 

TL;DR:
If they were dead, your tanks ammonia level would be high enough that your could see your fishes' gills get a bit brighter red. Amano shrimp--being mostly transparent--are REALLY good at hiding. Like seriously, the one that survived is named Houdini now. I don't think you have to worry much.

Good luck, and godspeed in your endeavors,
matsuko


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