# Aquascaper Complete Plant Food and Shrimps Behaviour



## Onoma1 (11 Sep 2018)

Just in case you don't pick this up from the content of the question - this is from a novice aquascaper and novice with shrimps!

My amano shrimps seems to be doing really well at the moment and one of my females has lots of eggs. They have, however, been quite reclusive spending most of the time rooting around in the denser areas of planting. I have just started dosing Aquascaper Complete Plant Food (three days in) and as soon as  I dose (2ml) the shrimps suddenly appear and start darting around and going into overdrive. It's like I am drugging them or they have had a few cans of red bull for shrimps each.  

They settle down after a few hours and return to their reclusive nature either rooting around at the back of the tank of possibly collapse under one of the rocks in a drug induced catatonic stupor. 

There seems to be a direct causal link between the use of the plant food and the change in shrimp behaviour. Is this normal? Has anyone else experienced this when using this (or any other) plant food. 

I haven't tested my water chemistry and have rely on lots of frequent weekly water changes. 

The 60 x 30 x 45 tank is lightly planted, 6 hours of light, ADA substrate, three pieces of large lava rock (bought from TGM)  Co2 injection at 1 bubble a minute (on two hours before the lights go on).


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## Lee iley (11 Sep 2018)

I use this plant food and have for about 7 weeks now I also have cherry shrimp and amano shrimp I have never noticed this before. I add 16ml per day and all seems fine. Maybe you have a funny batch cheers Lee.


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## chka (11 Sep 2018)

This might be just a coincident. When female amano shrimp moulds it produces some pheromones and this forces males amano swim like crazy all around.   And possibly forst time adding those plant food caused change in water which triggered female moulding.


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## Onoma1 (16 Sep 2018)

I needed to work away for a couple of days and arrived back to find two of my shrimp dead and one waving its feet around in a kind of drunken manner. The only thing that I have changed in the tank is the fertilizer. I immediately did a 50% water change. Anything else I should do?


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## alto (16 Sep 2018)

Sorry for your losses

How long have you had the shrimp?
How long has tank been set up?
Have shrimp been growing/moulting?
Are they definitely Amano shrimp & not one of the several “substitute” species that seem to be shipping recently?

Any chance of photos 


Do you add the fertilizer “neat” or dilute before adding ... I’ve lost shrimp (& otocinclus) that have insisted upon swimming directly into whatever I’m dosing - I switched over to diluting anything before adding to tank (even Prime)

It’s always possible that one receives an “off” product, I’d exchange this bottle of fertilizer for a replacement


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## Onoma1 (16 Sep 2018)

Alto - thanks for the reply. I have a old battered braced tank which I have set up to learn with. It's a 60X30X45. It was cycled for five weeks (or so) without plants, then planted up for a month or so and then I added the shrimps. I have had the shrimps about six weeks. The shrimps seem to have been healthy up until now. The female has berried up and I have been feeding them very small amounts of dried shrimp food on a daily basis (bought from a local fish shop). The shrimps looked like Amano and were bought as Amano from my local fish shop, however, I am not an expert...

The substrate is ADA - Malaysia 
JBL CristalProfi E701 Greenline External Filter ( 700 l/h)
Glass Lily Pipe 
The light is a 39W 117 PC Led 5800 Lumen , 8000k 'ADA' style
Injected Co2 (fire extinguisher) at 2 bubbles per second
Glass skimmer inflow
Lights are on for 6 hours and the Co2 for 8 (two hours before the Co2 comes on)

Regular (daily if I can) small water changes and larger changes every week 

Fertilizing direct from the syringe 2 ml per day. 

The tank is lightly planted with stems and MC. The rock used is lava rock bought from The Green Machine.

I haven't put fish in as I wanted to get this one working before I moved on to a larger tank and fish!


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## Onoma1 (17 Sep 2018)

Looks like only two survived. They look like Amano shrimp, however, wondered if anyone could confirm....


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (17 Sep 2018)

It does look like an Amano. Could you take a picture side-on to be sure?


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## Lee iley (17 Sep 2018)

Yes looks like amano shrimp.


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## alto (17 Sep 2018)

The pseudo-Amano shrimp also look like Amano 
- especially some species appear very closely related


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## Mihai Varban (6 Oct 2018)

My amanos stopped coming out after I dosed EasyLife Fosfo. Females also have eggs now. They stay behind a rock and do nothing but groom themselves. Will do a water change today and let you know more but I'm also worried. Hopefully this is breeding behaviour.


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## Mihai Varban (8 Oct 2018)

Mihai Varban said:


> My amanos stopped coming out after I dosed EasyLife Fosfo. Females also have eggs now. They stay behind a rock and do nothing but groom themselves. Will do a water change today and let you know more but I'm also worried. Hopefully this is breeding behaviour.


 As promised. 

Just did a water change, unclogged the filters, trimmed some plants, threw away a square foot of frogbit and tested the water. Phosphates are down and shrimp are mostly coming out. Still hiding a lot tho. Haven't been able to properly count them for a while.


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## Onoma1 (15 Oct 2018)

Onoma1 said:


> Looks like only two survived. They look like Amano shrimp, however, wondered if anyone could confirm....View attachment 117956


 The last photo of the shrimp.  RIP.

I need to rethink and restart.  I can see the difference of not having shrimps in the tank.  I have followed a similar approach to Mihai. Lots of water changes, cleaned my pump and will try again with some more in a week or so.


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