# Encouraging Amano shrimp to explore the rest of the tank



## fishbro (1 Nov 2018)

Hi guys, never had Amano shrimp before but recently got a group of 5 from the lfs. Very carefully acclimated them and they have all been fine for the past week and a bit. The only thing is they all seem to hang about together on the spray bar (which is just under the water) all day. Haven't seen any sign of them trying to actually escape or get out of the water, but they generally don't seem to move far from that area. The tank is heavily planted and has lots of hiding spots, so I am not sure what else I can do to encourage them to explore. My water parameters are always pretty stable (and fairly comparable to the lfs water) and I do a 50% change weekly. Has anyone else experienced this with Amanos?


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## goldscapes (1 Nov 2018)

Do you use CO2? Fish or shrimp heading towards the surface can be a sign they are getting too much.

PS I rarely see my Amano, they spend all their time hiding!


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## fishbro (2 Nov 2018)

Hey, yeah I do have co2 injection which I started about a month ago. The Amanos were added after I got it all stable though, not had a problem with the fish so far. Strangely enough the Amanos hang about on the spray bar right where the co2 bubbles surface. Even if I push them away from that area they head back. Weird!


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## BubblingUnder (2 Nov 2018)

They can take a while to settle in, mine used to hide behind my internal filter before venturing out further into the tank as a group to forage (it was about a month before I saw them). If you over feed the tank you are likely to see them less as they have less reason to move around the tank to look for algae.


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## zozo (2 Nov 2018)

The ones i had i experienced them exploring a bit to much, found them at the other end of the room.  I kinda lost count over time but a guess, the amount i found on the floor and i had in the tank is about 50/50.. SInce i love open top tanks, i stopped loving putting amano shrimps in it..


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## fishbro (5 Nov 2018)

Lol I guess I am glad these ones have shown no sign of wanting to escape  I have a lid on the tank which helps but there are cut outs in the back for the filter etc.

I notice they do tend to scuttle off at night and if I give them a bit of a push they will move from that area, but always gravitate back there. I might leave the spray bar off for a couple of days just to see what they do (it needs a good clean anyway)


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## zozo (5 Nov 2018)

I never seen 'm do it, but found them at the strangest places.. Also inside the hang on the back filter. Somehow it managed to crawl up the glass, in streaming water into the filter, traveled over the sponges emersed part into the part where the pump is right on top of the impeler that creates an eddy. It loved it in there almost swirling around in it..  Found it in there several  times, each time taking off the complete filter to get that crazy shrimp back into the tank. 2 days later it was in again.

The mice dance on the table when the cat aint home.. I guess the same goes for Amano shrimps.. Always performing crazy stunts when you aint around. 

But if yuo have boys and girls, than wait for the racing time.. The time when the girls are ready to mate.. Than the boys go nuts, chasing the girls and showing off, hence it is called racing time.


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## fishbro (6 Nov 2018)

Lol yeah they are probably up to trouble when I'm not looking. I took the spray bar off yesterday to clean it and to observe the flow in the tank without it (may leave it off permanently) and the shrimp are hiding in the plants now. Hopefully they will start working on eating the algae now


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## fishbro (18 Nov 2018)

Well only 2 of the 5 are now hanging around on the spray bar but the others are nowhere to be seen. I’ve just done a thorough trim and tidy of the tank today and had a good look in all the little hiding places and they are nowhere to be found. I can only assumed they have been eaten or maybe sucked into the filter  I don’t think they would have escaped, it’s not an open top tank


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## fishbro (19 Nov 2018)

Well today a 3rd one appeared lol, still 2 down but hey


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## fishbro (19 Feb 2019)

Just thought I would touch back on this topic as it's been a while. I have slowly added more amanos and they now seem to be thriving since I changed my filter and removed the spray bar. They have plenty of places they like to hang out in gourds, but I often see them out and about exploring and eating away at algae now. I think they were hanging on the spray bar just as a place to congregate, like they do on the rocks now, but as it was so far away from the plants etc they weren't finding an easy path to and from.


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## Zeus. (19 Feb 2019)

I have 60+ amanos in my 500l tank and sometimes I cant see any! See most if I turn lights on early morning or when I stick an algae pellet in


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## fishbro (21 Feb 2019)

Zeus. said:


> I have 60+ amanos in my 500l tank and sometimes I cant see any! See most if I turn lights on early morning or when I stick an algae pellet in



Wow that’s quite incredible  I have a 200L tank and should have about 20-30 amanos (I think my mollies ate a few little ones) and I can usually see maybe one or two during the day but if I look really closely the others are often scurrying around in the plants and such. They seem to be holding their own against the fish, even put up a fight sometimes!


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## Mihai Varban (25 Feb 2019)

I have witnessed my amanos being shy for weeks. I have a dozen of them and they were first in my tank. Then I added tetras and corys. All fine. Then I added gouramis. Still fine but more shy. I think it's when I added some swordtails that i stopped seeing them. Also about that time I used big doses of potassium. 

Since then, I have changed the stock over to rcs, endlers and left the corys there. 

There is also a chance that a big water change induced a molt on fertile females. This makes them huddle together and breed for a while and they will come back out in a few days. They will not even feed when they do this. 

At some point they stopped feeding and exploring due to a high nitrate spike that lasted for a few days. This was fixed with tetra nitrate minus short term and with introduction of floaters and dosing phosphates and potassium so the plants can uptake nutrates. Feeding switched to every two days or every other day. 
Hope this helps.


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