Are Crystal Red escape artists?

[vinnymac]

I was just curious if anyone else has issues with their Crystal Reds escaping from their tanks.

I have, well had, 10 in a 5g tank with covered top and this morning I found one on top of the cover completely dried up. I guess it managed to crawl out of the tank and escape. I'm hoping no more manage to do that. I lowered the water level to hopefully prevent this from happening again. :cry:

[Walter]

Shrimps don't usually want to get out of the tank that they do that.

There must be factors in your tank they stressed them out so badly. Some of the factors I know are for eg. fishes in your tank. They may chase your shrimps to a corner that they were forced to leap out of the water.

However, I think the most common case is that your water is not aerated enough. Signs of this is that the shrimps will be too actively swimming near to surface, shrimps don't do that, the most they swim short distances from plant to plant at the lower levels.

Hope this help. :)

[vinnymac]

Shrimps don't usually want to get out of the tank that they do that.

There must be factors in your tank they stressed them out so badly. Some of the factors I know are for eg. fishes in your tank. They may chase your shrimps to a corner that they were forced to leap out of the water.

However, I think the most common case is that your water is not aerated enough. Signs of this is that the shrimps will be too actively swimming near to surface, shrimps don't do that, the most they swim short distances from plant to plant at the lower levels.

Hope this help. :)

Thanks for the input. I'm still trying to figure out what the deal is. The remaining shrimp in the tank seemed fine this morning. They were on the bottom looking for food. I just introduced them in the new tank last night so it may have just been a fluke one of them escaped. It's a shame to lose nice stock that way but I've learned my lesson.

[Walter]

I see. Glad the rest of them are fine. :) Oh ya CO2 poisoning can also result in them trying to get out of the tank. But of course yours don't seem to be this case as it will wipe out the entire shrimp population in your tank. Just to share.. :D

[vinnymac]

I see. Glad the rest of them are fine. :) Oh ya CO2 poisoning can also result in them trying to get out of the tank. But of course yours don't seem to be this case as it will wipe out the entire shrimp population in your tank. Just to share.. :D


Yeah, the tank is just a standard 5g with a spong filter and some riccia, weeping moss, and java fern. It should have pleny of aeration. I'll monitor the shrimp over the next few days and see if I need to make any adjustments.

[retardo]

Thanks for the input. I'm still trying to figure out what the deal is. The remaining shrimp in the tank seemed fine this morning. They were on the bottom looking for food. I just introduced them in the new tank last night so it may have just been a fluke one of them escaped. It's a shame to lose nice stock that way but I've learned my lesson.

My observation is that when shrimp are newly introduced into a tank, they tend to try to escape until they've adjusted, irrespective of species. I've noticed this in several occasions, but only once was an amano successful. I didn't realize he had even escaped until a few days later when I was cleaning and found what I thought was a dead roach (brown colored). On closer inspection, it was one of my amanos that had managed to climb out of my tank using some airline tubing, drop onto the stand, drop onto the floor, and crawl another 6 feet before finally dying due to lack of oxygen and water.

[retardo]

However, I think the most common case is that your water is not aerated enough. Signs of this is that the shrimps will be too actively swimming near to surface, shrimps don't do that, the most they swim short distances from plant to plant at the lower levels.


This is a great observation. At any time, if the shrimp are at the surface trying to escape, it's time to do a water change.

[simcb]

I have the same problem with air pump and sponge filters too today.

I notice at some point of time when the temp is close to 27-28 degrees and the water level in my tank is low. My diamonds tend to panick, trying to climb out of the tank. So i added more water to the usual water level and on aircon in the room after 10mins they cooled down and went back to normal.

So i added another airstone(fine bubbles) in my tank to increase the aeration.

I guess its most probably low oxygen content in the water. The ability of water to hold gases at high temperatures is low. Panicking Problem solved.

[shalu]

My tank has open top, I have not had any crystal reds getting out of the tank. BUT, I had on multiple occasions, crystal reds climbing into the HOB filter from the filter outlet lip! They play/scanvenge in the filter a little, and get back into the tank by themselves the next day, very interesting behavior.

I aerate my tank with air stone, but I don't like bubbles disturbing the water too much in the tank, so I put the airstones in the HOB filter. Same effect, no eye sore.

[gigahertz]

My tank has open top, I have not had any crystal reds getting out of the tank. BUT, I had on multiple occasions, crystal reds climbing into the HOB filter from the filter outlet lip! They play/scanvenge in the filter a little, and get back into the tank by themselves the next day, very interesting behavior.

I aerate my tank with air stone, but I don't like bubbles disturbing the water too much in the tank, so I put the airstones in the HOB filter. Same effect, no eye sore.

I see that alot with my shrimps too. I used to have an Eclipse 20G tank and I had to make a screen to stop my tiger shrimps to get into the filter outlet. Right now I'm using a hanging filter on my 20G tank and my Cherrys are going in and out through the filter lip all the time.