Re-scape issues

[Conort2]

Hi guys

looking to rescape my tank soon however I have a bit of an issue. The tank is full of shrimp, tangerine tiger and orange sakuras of all different sizes. The fish won’t be an issue to catch and store in a container but what can I do about the shrimp, I can catch the bigger ones but there are literally hundreds, many of which are tiny. The tank already has aqua soil but with a load of sand underneath that it mixed with, I was looking at syphoning this out and saving the soil and then adding another bag of soil.

Do you think this would be possible doing this with some water remaining? otherwise I fear there will be a shrimp massacre. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for an alternative way of doing this. I would literally be there for a week trying to catch them all if that’s the only option.

cheers

Conor

 

[Oldguy]

any suggestions

Is it worth baiting the small shrimp in a trap. You could make one by taking a small (say 500ml) plastic bottle, cut it off at the shoulder and push it back in the other way round with the cap removed so that it is now a bottle with a funnel neck. Bait with food and remove and re-set daily. You could also make very small hole in the base with a hot needle. You will not get them all but you could get most.

Happy hunting and I hope all goes well with your project.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

It's a sad fact of heavy populated tanks that you will lose some. I always drain to a few inches, remove plants and hardscape, let the dust settle then catch as many as you can.
Repeat the settle and catch process a few times which takes a while then siphon of the last of the water sucking up the last babies you can see.
Once fully drained you can often get a few more wiggling around on the substrate...

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Sammy Islam]

I had to do this once, i found the best way is is putting a tiny bit of shrimp food in a bottle for them to crawl into. Or the same method but just laying a net in the tank with a bit of food so they all crawl in there. Can easily do it in a couple hours if they swarm to the food.

 

[alto]

You might check the syphoned soil etc for shrimplets over the following week or so

Also check filter for shrimp - or keep it running during the rescape

 

[Conort2]

Thanks for the answers everyone. Took the plunge and done the rescape yesterday. Bar one or two casualties nearly all of them made it. Some that I managed to miss survived for a couple of hours in damp plants, tougher than they look those tiny shrimp lol. However it is something I won’t be doing in a hurry again with a fully stocked tank, too time consuming and then having to ensure everything is back within the day. Far too much stress!

cheers

Conor