Sorry for the poor video, it seems to happen infrequently and not for long so it was difficult to capture. I think its the same shrimp every time, they kind of curl up into a stereotypical cooked shrimp shape. They also only do it while clinging onto a rock.
What does this behavior mean? Is it anything to be concerned about?
EDIT: Now I've seen that multiple shrimp are doing this behavior!
Having just gotten my tank started how do I tell when my shrimp are happy or stressed? I know they tend to turn more translucent when stressed but they can also just be whiter naturally?
Basically, what are happy shrimp behaviors and what are stressed shrimp behaviors?
Finally received my shrimp from u/GotSnails (thank you so much!) and they're exploring their new home. I'm so excited to have my shrimp tank!!
I also got some brackish Malaysian trumpet snails from them which will hopefully keep the tank clean.
It's a 2 gallon glass jar with aragonite sand and black lava rock. I bought a big chunk from my LFS and it was difficult to break off any more chunks so I decided since I don't have a coral sea fan to just put the big rock straight in.
Still on the list is some Chaetomorpha but my LFS is currently restocking so I'll just wait to add it.
Hi all I've never kept fish or shrimp before but after doing a bunch of research I'm excited to start here. In lieu of any megathreads or guide posts, I figured I'd list out my plan here and see what y'all think. Let me know if I'm missing anything!
I'll make sure to clean it out very well and ensure there's no soap residue before filling it up.
I'm planning on heading over to my local fish store to get aragonite sand (does coarse or oolite matter?), lava rocks, marine salt, a refractometer, and brackish chaetomorpha algae. It seems like there a few different kinds of chaetomorpha that looks very similar so hopefully they have the ones suited for brachish water. Maybe dried spirulina powder as well to start feeding the shrimp before biofilm starts building, maybe a dried sea fan or some other decoration?
Once I have everything, I'll use RO water mixed with the marine salt and measure with the refractometer until it reaches 1.010 SG, +- .002.
After assembling the tank with the algae, I'll leave it to sit for a few weeks to cycle. It seems there are conflicting opinions on this for opae ula specifically, and I think if I don't have the algae in the tank letting it sit won't do anything. What do y'all think?
I'll acquire maybe 10 shrimp (maybe from u/GotSnails, it seems PetShrimp.com is very expensive and other websites harvest them in the wild even though they're endangered :/ ), then acclimate them to my tank by floating the bag for 15 min, then slowly adding tank water to their bag, then eventually slowly pouring them in.
I'm also not sure if I should get any snails to add to the tank. Some people have said they compete for food with the shrimp so if the biofilm hasn't built up yet it's better to wait, but they can help clean the glass which makes the tank look nicer.
Anything I'm missing here? I really want to do things the right way the first time. I'm super excited to start my tank!