So. I had a ROUGH couple of weeks, and my 5g shrimp swamp went on quite a bit neglected, no added food, no cleanup, water went down two inches due to evaporation. I am not proud of it. Totally not.
But when i finally had strength for tank maintenance today - i was greeted by a surprise. I saw more shrimp then i remember having, i saw them more outgoing and overall VERY fine. They were extatic when i added some food granules, and i see them EVERYWHERE now. A TON of them.
Tank looked like ass - a THICC layer of duckweed (i removed a full cup and light still didnt enter tank after that, so i kept going), uprooted half-dead foxtail plants, random burst of pearlweed, and, after i attempted to remove duckweed - roots from it flooded the entire tank.... But WOW shrimp seemed happy - active, in numbers bigger than i remember, no dead in sight (i guess i wouldn't see them even if there were any, but still), grazing on rocks and plants, swimming around, and i even got a stable number of snails without extra bursts.
Almost makes me think that total neglect of tank with automated lights, adding food and water MAYBE once a week is the perfect way to keep shrimp. (i guess half-dead plant helped to keep up with nutrients for longer period then that?)
And as far as i can see shrimp are VERY happy with somewhat overgrown terrain, they inhabit moss clump that became noticeably bigger and fluffier, hide in pearlweed and were seen hanging out upside down on thicc floater carpet. Makes me think that giving up on scape is the perfect way for these shrimp to be happy in my tank (not that i had some strict scape, but i tried to maintain a vision that i had).
Do you have stories about tank neglect? How did it end up - beneficially, disastrously, or maybe nothing happened?