I Was a Shrimp Mom... For Like 2 Seconds

My Shrimp-Keeping Journey

Okay it wasn't two seconds, but it sure felt like it.

I follow an account on Instagram and she's such a successful shrimp mom, I thought I'd try my hand at it.

I don't know if she does anymore, but at the time she was keeping her shrimp and betta fish together. Her betta was so peaceful and gentle with them, there were tons of videos up of the betta joining the shrimp when they were eating and they were all living in harmony.

My first attempt was nothing like this.

I decided to buy shrimp not only because I thought they were so cute, but also because I had gotten a "new" ten gallon tank and was cycling it. I say "new" because my sister had gotten it for free on offer up and it was a good home for a couple of months, but after that I trashed it and got a brand new rimless ten gallon tank (which is where Burt lives now). I thought this was perfect because the betta I had planned to put in there (Burt) had not been in there so he didn't consider the territory his yet. I also had high hopes because Burt has a nerite snail as a roommate and has never attacked or nipped at him. I let the tank cycle for a little over two weeks, and then I gave my local fish store a visit. I left with four shrimp. I had only planned on getting three but the baby snuck in there and the owner let me keep him for free. He had also written out a list of different kinds of shrimp he could order if I ever wanted any different ones.

I acclimated them to the tank and then released them. I let them stay in there by themselves for the day. Filled with excitement, I watched them swim around and explore. The next day I acclimated Burt and then put him in. He didn't really notice them until a few minutes in. After he noticed them, he would slowly swim up to the one he saw and just watch it. He got a little too close every time he did that and the shrimp would quickly jump out of the way. After about an hour of him being in the tank, I noticed he was chasing them around. But I knew the shrimp had a good amount of hides and from what I had seen, they were much faster than Burt. I turned off the light and went to bed. The next day, all of the shrimp were nowhere to be seen. I thought they were hiding and didn't think anything of it. A little later, I noticed Burt looked pretty plump. "Did you eat them!?" I scolded him. He didn't care. He was happy to have live food, also he's a fish so he didn't understand I was scolding him. I remained hopeful that they would show up and they were just hiding. But they never reappeared, he ate them.

Round Two

I was pretty bummed out about the shrimp, but it didn't discourage me.

I took a look at the list the owner had written out for me and remembered "king kong shrimp" had stood out to me, so I texted him and asked if he could get three of them for me. This time I had planned on putting them in Fitzgerald's tank because he's very peaceful and partially blind. I had only wanted to put them in the ten gallon with Burt so they could have more room to explore, but that (obviously) didn't work out. It took a couple of weeks for him to get the shrimp, but the owner let me know when they came. I went, loved them, and came home with three new shrimp.

I acclimated them then added them into their new home. A month had passed since I had put them in and they were active and curious as ever. There were days I wouldn't see them all day (which stressed me out because of what happened the first time) but it was because they liked to be on the sponge filter and it's in the back of the tank, a little out of sight. I felt confident in my shrimp-keeping skills and was happy I decided to give them another chance. Because of this, I was planning on making a trip to a different fish store that's about an hour away from where I am but SO worth the drive because they have amazing fish and supplies. They also have such cute shrimp and I was wanting to add more color into the tank with different colored shrimp. Almost another month had passed and I noticed I hadn't seen all of the shrimp together for a couple of days. There was only one that was visible in the tank so I checked the sponge filter expecting to see the other two, but I didn't. I searched all over the tank and couldn't find them. I removed the big things in the tank (driftwood and Fitzgeralds rock hide) and still couldn't find them. Fitzgerald's tank has a grey wall on the left side that's meant to house the motor/filter, but I pulled those things out so it's just a big empty space.

Here's a photo if you're unfamiliar with how my tank looks. There is also a small circular hole towards the top of the wall (where the spout for the water outflow used to be) that you can't see in the picture. You guessed it, they were on the other side of that wall. I don't know how they got in there. There's only two ways they could have:

1. They swam through the hole (because let's face it, they're pretty small) or

2. They jumped over the wall onto the other side.

Either way, my heart sunk as soon as I saw them. They both weren't moving. I had to remove them with a long plastic spoon because the shape of the opening is pretty awkward so neither of my nets could fit in. When I was finally able to scoop them out I confirmed that they were 100% dead. I'm still not sure how they died because the water parameters were normal (Fitz and the surviving shrimp were fine) and I don't think shrimp can starve to death in two days. I was pretty hurt by the loss but because I had already planned a trip to go to the fish store over the weekend, I still planned on going.

Round 3

Third times a charm right? Wrong.

The weekend came and I went to my (at the moment) favorite fish store.

I left with five shrimp. Again, I only intended on buying three, but two babies snuck in and I got them for free.

Here they are, look closely, the babies are also in the picture.

This time I drip acclimated them to have a higher survival rate. After this, I added them into the tank with the surviving king kong shrimp and Fitz. Everyone looked happy and the king kong shrimp immediately started following the other striped fellow around. The next day, the orange one passed away. Then a few hours later my king kong shrimp started acting weird (leaning on his side, not upright, and not really moving), so I took him out and put him in a hospital tank. He seemed to be getting better and started being active again so I thought I'd be able to put him back in the tank the next day. A few hours after he was doing fine, he died. Then the blue shrimps (the babies were blue) all disappeared? I'm not sure if they too were slowing down and because of this Fitz ate them? I'm honestly not sure, but I never found their bodies. The last survivor I had was the red and white striped fellow. He was very active and seemed fine despite being alone. Two days went by before he also passed away. All of those deaths have completely baffled me.

There is no moral of the story, that's just how my shrimp-keeping journey went. I'm not sure if I'll ever try shrimp-keeping again, but never say never.