# New shrimp won't come out play



## marley_kitty (May 16, 2009)

I purchased some new crystal red shrimp today from my lfs. I brought them home and acclimatized them, and they've been in my tank for about an hour now. They are all hiding under the driftwood, and won't come out and start doing their shrimpy thing. I'm excited to see them so I keep looking at the tank every five minutes, only be disappointed that they haven't come out yet. I can see them and they are hanging out, scrounging around in the substrate, they look ok just hidden. When can I expect them to come out and play with me? Cause I want them to come out RIGHT NOW! :icon_frow


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## aluka (Feb 2, 2013)

it takes them a while to get comfortable.

I think it took almost a week before i saw more than 1 crs at a time. I thought they all died =< then a week later they all came out to eat, lol.


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## mcclure91 (Aug 7, 2011)

mine were the same way took them about two weeks to come out from hiding in all the plants


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## marley_kitty (May 16, 2009)

*0_0*

A week!?! 2 weeks!?! I can't wait that long! 

I mean I've been setting this damn tank up for like a year. Getting all the equipment, finding plants, and getting the scape how I like it. I did all the damn research, and spent months testing parameters and screwing with RO water. 

And now you're telling me they're shy???

Stupid shrimp, don't they know how much time and effort I put into their damn house, why I outta *mumbles, grumble, muttering*

Ok, I've got that outta my system. I'll just be patient...I guess.

Thanks a bunch


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## Jadenlea (Sep 15, 2011)

They won't stay shy though. and if you are lucky, soon you will have so many that there will always be some to see!


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

I'm having the same issue with my new Blue Diamonds. It is frustrating because we have these beautiful shrimp and we can even look at them. Check the tank when the lights are off. I bet you'll see them all out. That at least gives me some comfort knowing they are all right and active, even if it's not when I want them to be.


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## aluka (Feb 2, 2013)

Lol don't worry soon they will annoy you like they annoy me, I stick my squeezers in to grab a fallen leaf my crs hops on and try to go for a ride


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## chou (Feb 23, 2012)

have some patience man. imagine how scared they are from the ride home and being placed into a random place not knowing if there is fish or not in the tank. they are the lowest in the food chain.


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## marley_kitty (May 16, 2009)

**



chou said:


> have some patience man. imagine how scared they are from the ride home and being placed into a random place not knowing if there is fish or not in the tank. they are the lowest in the food chain.


Well now I feel like an awful person :icon_sad:

You're absolutely right you know, and I should really be more respectful of the poor scared shrimpies. I did try to take a look at them at night, but I'm pretty sure my footsteps caused desk vibrations that scared them away, but I did see them scurry away so that's something. Maybe I'll try again tonight and just move really slow and lightly. :red_mouth

Hopefully they will feel comfortable enough to come out soon.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

Congrats on getting some dwarf shrimp? Could you describe what other things live in the tank?


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## marley_kitty (May 16, 2009)

*shrimp and snails*

The only other inhabitants in my tank are snails, and they aren't really there by choice :icon_roll I think I'm going to try and pick out some of the snails but I can't kill them. I feel to guilty about it...I don't know what I'm going to do.

I also got some hitch hikers with the shrimp. I now have scuds and hydra. The scuds don't really bother me, but if I want to reduce baby shrimp losses I've read I'll have to get rid of the hydra. The shrimp aren't even coming out from under the driftwood yet, so I don't think I have to worry about that for a little while.

This is my first shrimp only tank. I had some shrimp before in a community tank that I had to sell when we moved. Before I had ghost shrimp, and Atyopsis moluccensis (Bamboo Shrimp) and they were so cool. I also had this other shrimp, that looked like an Amano but was 2-3 inches long, and I caught it eating my rummynose tetras. I still to this day don't know what kind of shrimp it was, but I gave it away on a classified website with the title "A**hole shrimp ate my tetras, come take him away!"


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## pinoyghost2 (Feb 13, 2012)

Marley Kitty....the ONLY thing shrimps teach you is PATIENCE!!!!

I had purchased several orange eyed black tigers a while back and NEVER saw one of them for 4 months :icon_frow thought they had all died and
been eaten.

One day I was watching a baby CRS on the dragon lace rock (has lots of holes in it and babies like to hide in there) and there was a BTOE just sitting there. I saw a few more as the weeks went on, but they were hiding quite a bit. 

So leave them alone, put their food at the front of the tank in a little clay dish (you get them at plant stores for around $1 each) once they learn where the food is, they will come for it and then you will be able to see them more often.

Sounds like you might be overfeeding (one of the reasons you get hydra) so before your shrimps start to have babies, you need to get rid of the hydra, because Hydra kill babies. 

I use a paper towel and slide it over the hydra and pull it straight up and out of the tank, I learned this trick by reading about it on a lot of forums, and it works good. 

If you have any crayfish/plecos, pick out the pond snails (others are fine to keep and a good cleanup crew) and put them in with the crays/plecos, then you can squish one periodically for the crays to eat (good protein for them, great for growing up the babies) I keep pond snails in all my cray tanks just for that purpose, steady stream of food:icon_wink

I would also suggest you read up some more on keeping shrimps of different types...ie: neos and crystals/tigers etc, to help you understand them better, as they are much different from amanos and filter shrimps like Bamboo. 

A good forum for Cdns is gtaaquaria.com lots of people in your area keep these and can help you out, and if you are in the GTA area you can attend some of the meetings held in 2 different areas usually once a month.


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## marley_kitty (May 16, 2009)

*Stupid hydra*



pinoyghost2 said:


> Sounds like you might be overfeeding (one of the reasons you get hydra) so before your shrimps start to have babies, you need to get rid of the hydra, because Hydra kill babies.


I haven't actually fed my shrimp yet. I just put them in the tank on Sunday, and thought I'd let them settle before I start adding pollution sources. I'm pretty sure they came with the shrimp because I didn't have them before I added them and now I have tons. I'll probably try the Fenbendazole route to get rid of them, just because I can't really navigate my hands around too well in my tiny tank and I'd never get rid of them all that way anyway.


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