Ornamental Shrimp

[travisurfer]

I drip acclimated my cleaner and he was fine(although I never aclimate very long). I dumped my peppermint in, and he's also fine. From what I have heard and experienced, acclimation doesn't really seem to help the situation though.

[CGNano]

never acclimated anything, never lost anything.

[Tangman1218]

Yes, but you said "had" not "have."

 

I just wanna know what happened to them is all

 

Tang

[CGNano]

you're thinking too hard about what I said.

 

they're still around.

[Tangman1218]

you're thinking too hard about what I said.

 

they're still around.

 

That's me, always thinking to hard. And I thought allergies were my problem to my infrequent headaches.

 

Are they all in a nano? I mean...cause you said theyre still around.

 

Tang

[a1rabbit]

Well, here's my shrimps story.

 

 

My Skunk cleaner shrimp, it had an exiteing acclimation... (got it at an LFS) I was doing the normal drip method (I do it about 45-60min removing 50% of the water whenever the water doubles) when I got clumsy and kicked over the darn container it was in... The shrimp ended up carpet surfing right under my tanks stand, I could not see it. I got a flash light and looked under and saw it lying there, not moving... I went to reach for it and could not feel it, I guess it saw my hand and moved into a 90 degree elbow PVC pipe I used to level the stand on carpet. I looked under again and and saw it's feelers sticking out of the pipe. I pushed the stand forward, pulled out the pipe and frantically dumped the shrimp back into the container I had it acclimating in as there was still ample water. It must have been out of the tank for a good 4-6+ min.

 

It lived! it's been happy and healthy looking for 2 months now, it's also molted two times since.

 

I thought for sure it was a gonner, I think the only thing that saved it was getting into that PVC elbow, I don't know how I could have pulled it out of there with my bare hands without killing it... I also had no idea they could move on land that well.

 

 

So I don't know what to say, maybe I just have a really hardy shrimp.

 

I think if he had been bagged for days and shipped that he may have died. I tend to think anything that's been shipped for days upon days is more likely to die than something that you got from an LFS or fellow reefer that was only bagged for an hour or so.

 

My thought process is that it gets stressed when it's first bagged, then it's shipped, knocked about and pretty much stressed the entire trip and is just getting use to this abuse and crappy water when.... you get it and open the bag and start messing with it which suddenly makes the stress level sky rocket again.

 

Then take people who get it from an LFS, it's stressed by being plucked into a bag, it's there for an hour or two and is introduced to a knew system. It all happens pretty quick and the stress is not prolonged.

 

I'd like to know if more shrimp are lost that are shipped for picked up localy.

[formerly icyuodd/icyoud2]

i always drip acclimate my shrimp and all other critters.

 

i have 4 lfs here in town that i visit. depending on the day/time/location

the specific gravity of the aquariums in the 4 lfs range from 1.019-1.027.

 

i tend to keep my sg at 1.025-6. 1.019 to 1.026 is a pretty big sg swing for a shrimp.

 

but the bigger problem is this.

 

one of lfs has a flat worm problem,another has a isopod problem. just the other day i pulled a rusty butter knife out of a display tank in yet another lfs.

so i think to myself whats going on behind the scenes when i'm not there?

 

i dont ever put lfs water into my aquarium. EVER! none of the minimum wage employees get paid enough to worry about my $4000 investment, and i dont ever take chances. i drip for 2-3 hours and then remove the critter from the bucket with the aid of a net (to keep the lfs water out of the system) its the primary reason i drip acclimate all my critters.

 

now i have 2 lfs that i visit the most. one drip acclimates all thier critters, the other just dumps them in.

 

i've purchased the same critters from both lfs. pipefish,anemone shrimps,scooter blennies,dart fish, and the list goes on.

 

now all the critters listed above that i purchased from the lfs that drip acclimates thier fish, are all still alive in my systems. the same critters, in the same system purchased from the lfs that doesnt drip acclimate thier fish are all dead. none died right away, but they didnt last long in the aquarium. (few weeks to a few months)

 

i think drip acclimation is easier on the critters in question. although you might not see a difference when first introducing the critter, i seriously think drip acclimation will extend its life.

also if your aquariums not perfect in the way of water quality, the drip acclimation will increase the chances of survival.

ever taken a trip to another country? a simple climate change can often play havok on our bodies, and i'm sure the same is true for our salt water friends.

[CGNano]

Are they all in a nano? I mean...cause you said theyre still around.

 

i have nine different tanks, why are you grilling me on this?

[Tangman1218]

i have nine different tanks, why are you grilling me on this?

 

[CGNano]

k.

[Ryan_H]

well the biggest issue in acclimating shrimp and other inverts is salinity shock. if the sg the shrimp came in is the same or with .002 of your tank, it should be fine. rapid salinity swings causes osmotic shock and can actually cause the organs of a crustacean to impload or explode, depending on whether it entered a higher or lower sg. this usually only happens with a greater than .005 difference in sg, and even then i've only seen it happen (and by "seen" it happen i mean had an animal die rapidly) a couple of times. the reason the fire shrimp died was probably too long of an acclimation period. 2 hours is enough time for the acclimation water to cool faster than the drip from your tank can keep it warm, and the shrimp probably died from teperature shock. at my store and for my tank i float everything for 15 minutes, do a slow drip (about 1 drop/second) for 30 minutes and then loosen the knot in the drip line to allow water to flow freely until the water volume in the acclimation container is 4x greater than the original water volume. total acclimation time should never exceed an hour, and 45 minutes is typical. since we've adopted this method of acclimation at my store first day casualties are now 0 on fish and VERY low on inverts, and the inverts that usually die are hermits and other small crustaceans that have been crammed in a bag for so long. but we lose less of them through acclimation than through dumping them in.

 

now we don't acclimate sessile inverts or anemones other than float acclimation, and have never had a problem with them at all.

[lgreen]

i think drip acclimation is easier on the critters in question. although you might not see a difference when first introducing the critter, i seriously think drip acclimation will extend its life.

also if your aquariums not perfect in the way of water quality, the drip acclimation will increase the chances of survival.

 

Interesting perspective.

 

I guess after reading everyones experiences and what not I'm left sort of back at my original way of thinking, which is to recommend around a 10 minute drip acclimation. I usually don't acclimate stuff, but again, I'm a bit more risky and I don't recommend people generally do as I do given I work at the store where I buy stuff so I have a better idea of what is going on in my situation.

 

I'm still debating whether or not I even really want a pair of cleaner shrimp in my tank or not. I really enjoy the macroinverts and they do such a better job cleaning the tank than any hermit crab or snail. Cleaner shrimp could definitely put a major dent in their populations.