# HELP !!!! Amano shrimp eating plants



## O'Neil

Hey Guys I've recently started a new tank and I've just hit my first hurdle, I came home today to fins that the Amano shrimp have completely decimated my Alternanthera Reinekii,
Is this normal?
Is there anything I can do to prevent this?
Will I have to change this plant for something else?


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## MARKCOUSINS

Very strange is it possible the plant was not doing well i have seen amano shrimp feeding on dying/suffering leaves of plants before.Cheers mark


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## AndrewH

Sorry to hear that mate, but its dfinitely not normal.
I have 10 very large Amanos and alot of Reinekii and they have never touched it yet.

Are you sure of the shrimp species. Are they definitely Caridina Multidentata?


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## O'Neil

Will uploading a picture of them help at all?


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## Nathaniel Whiteside

Id say the leaf would need to be damaged on the edge prior to them eating it?

Are you sure they are eating leaf matter itself or the biofilm/algae on the leaf.


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## O'Neil

The plants were very healthy they were Tropica 1-2 Grow plants

This is how they were





This is them now




And these are the shrimp


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## O'Neil

I suppose it is perfectly reasonable for them to have damaged the plant while trying to feed off the biofilm


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## AndrewH

Its the Tropica 1-2-Grow reineckii that i have too and the shrimp havent bothered it so not sure.

Did you make sure to wash off all the gel that the plants came in before planting?
Im wondering if thats what the shrimp are after?

...p.s. they do look like Amano 'multidentata'.


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## AndrewH

Pps - when did you plant the reineckii?


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## O'Neil

Yeah mate washed it all off was very careful in doing so, really took my time preparing and planting.

I'm glad that they look like Amanos otherwise Pets at Home would have a very irate customer they already sold me whitespot in the form of 4 Otos that completely decimated my 200 ktr tank.


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## O'Neil

3 days ago


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## AndrewH

Porksword said:


> 3 days ago


Ahhh ok, if its only three days then no worries.
Expect them to double in size  in the next week. Mine are really bushing up now.


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## O'Neil

Did you lose leaves in the beginning? some of mine are just stalks now.


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## AndrewH

No i have to say that I didnt mate.
Ive only had the tank set up 10 days now, but the Alternanthera is without doubt the fastest thing in there at the mo - even beating the Mattengrosse and the Hygrophilia!
The only thing it did at the start was that my loaches kept uprooting it, but constant replacing and it eventually seems to have taken hold.


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## AndrewH

Im not very knowledgable so not sure at all, and dont want to advise anything incase Im wrong, but I wonder if Alternanthera suffers like that in wrong water parameters?
Eg, too warm/cold, too soft/hard, wrong pH?

I have 25c temp, very hard water and 6.8pH (if it helps!?)


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## O'Neil

I'm a noob myself, I know bit's about everything but not an expert on any of it.

My water parameters are simlar to yours, temp 25c, PH 7.4 ( I know thats quite a big difference, Log scale an all that ) and my water is moderately hard.
I wonder if I should up the lighting, 48w is never going to be alot by any standard.


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## AndrewH

Possibly yeah, but I have less than 2wpg over mine so I wouldnt rush to throw more light on.
If the other plants are ping ok, then I would just wait.

If, as Nate says, the shrimp were actually only harvesting the already damaged leaves then the plants might just need a week to recover?
Good luck chum.


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## O'Neil

I'll just have to wait it out and see what happens, thank for you help tonight tho, it's greatly appreciated.


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## MARKCOUSINS

Could be the leaves they had a feed on was emersed growth.Cheers mark


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## O'Neil

Aha been sitting watching them and it appears that tyhe plant is not doing well and when the Amanos are trying to feed off the biofilm, they are accidenatlly pulling the leaves off.

Didn't spot it sooner as it all collected behind the spray bar so wasn't floating around the tank.

Just need to work out why the plant is doing bad and put that right.

Thanks to all of you for your help.


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## O'Neil

Quick update, I've Increased the lighting and started dosing early but in very small amounts, Co2 is at sitting at a nice lime green colour.

Will increase the frequency of water changes a bit and see how things go, it may recover so fingers crossed and I'll post updates in my journal.


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## Ady34

Hi there mate,
Maybe increasing the lighting isn't the best idea until the plant has settled. If it is failing and dropping leaves this is most likely a co2 issue which more light will just exaggerate. Id reduce the lighting back down and look at co2 and distribution.....maybe if you feel that flow is good to the plant, try tweaking co2 up a little and monitor the shrimp for any stress symptoms. 
Do you mean increased the lighting intensity or lighting duration?...either way I'd wait for the plant to show good health before increasing either, but especially don't increase intensity 
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## O'Neil

Hey Ady i've increased the lighting intensity as i'm not sure i had enough to begin with. 
Ideally i want the absolute minimum light i can get away with. 
I did however reduce the photoperiod from 6 hours to 5.5 hours, do you think this was a wise decision? 
The co2 is also as high as i dare go, i will follow your advice tho and take another look at circulation, perhaps remove the spray bar. 
Quite new to keeping shrimp tho, so not really sure what to look for, they seem happy tho.


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## Ady34

Porksword said:


> Hey Ady i've increased the lighting intensity as i'm not sure i had enough to begin with.
> Ideally i want the absolute minimum light i can get away with.
> I did however reduce the photoperiod from 6 hours to 5.5 hours, do you think this was a wise decision?
> The co2 is also as high as i dare go, i will follow your advice tho and take another look at circulation, perhaps remove the spray bar.
> Quite new to keeping shrimp tho, so not really sure what to look for, they seem happy tho.


Hi,
the spraybar solution is probably the best in all honesty. Im guessing its on the rear glass facing forwards to the front pane and is full length there or there abouts? From your journal i can see its a 1400lph filter, so even with a little loss it should be good for a 98l tank, and should provide unobstructed flow to the alterathera plant in the centre.
Lighting though, i think what your saying from looking between the journal and here is that you have doubled lighting from originally 24w to 48w currently? Is this t5 lighting with reflectors, height adjustable or fixed?
personally if you cant raise the lighting unit i would revert back to the 1x 24w with a reflector (if its a t5) if possible and keep the 6 hr photoperiod. if they are not t5 you could run the two without reflectors, or perhaps position the reflectors slightly on the underside of the bulbs to deflect light away and reduce lighting intensity slightly.
Its unlikely to be too little light, it could be transition, but until you see healthy growth i would aire on the side of caution with regards the lighting.....how are the rest of the plants doing?

with regards the shrimp, the first signs of stress will be to stop constantly feeding with their little claws, then they may begin swimming irratically around the tank and if its really bad change colour....anything unusual really.


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## O'Neil

The standard spray bar is 't quite long enough to span the full length of the tank, although that is what i was wanting to do at the start. I have it on the left hand side of the tank facing to the right and only very slightly pointing upwards to the surface to minimise gas exchange. 

Thats right mate i have doubled the t5 lighting to 48w as the "medium difficulty" tropica plants are growing but have not gone crazy like the low light plants these have more than tripled in size over the last week. The T5s do have small reflectors that claim 20% more light and the height is fixed.

The shrimp are constantly feeding and their colouration is brighter than they were in store and i thought they were pretty good then. 

I have had the drop checkers all over the tank at different heights on different days to ensure lime green in all areas and it's possible there may still be flat spots.


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## O'Neil

Followed Your advice Ady and reverted back to the single T5 and original photoperiod, will wait and see what happens.

I will also be paying attention to flow in the tank and think of ways to improve it, in the meantime I have started dosing easy carbo according to the bottle instructions and will keep on top of water changes.

I'll also be watching the shrimp more closely.

Thanks Ady


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