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how hazardous is stirring up the substrate to shrimp?

ElleDee

ElleDee

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12 Mar 2022
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Southeastern US
I need to break down a dirted neocaridina shrimp tank and I'll try to remove as many as possible before I start yanking plants, but it seems inevitable that some stragglers will end up exposed to muddy water. Is this going to seriously harm them or are they going to be ok if I catch and move them into an established tank as I find them? The entire nano tank is wall-to-wall crypts at this point and I just don't think I can find and catch everybody before I get started (though I bet I can get the majority with broccoli as bait), nor can I pull those crypts without making a huge mess. Am I overthinking this, or do I need to prepare for loses? I have never actually broken a tank down, so I'm not totally sure what I'm in for.
 
I've no experience with neocaridina but I can say that with Amano's I saw no ill effects from them being in the tank during a thorough rearrange that left the water visibly brown and mucky. Only one that had any issue was one I didn't spot going up the siphon because of how mucky the water was.
 
Never had any issues in the past with dirted or planted tanks when have a large shrimp colony in there.
TBh i have left shrimp in the filthiest water while i rest for few hours while scaping and planting up wood with no ill effects. I do always tend to leave an air stone running when doing a tear down and reset.
 
One never knows, esp. when speaking from distance. In any case, the environment within the substrate differs significantly from water column. Unlike the water column, where redox is positive, in the sediment the redox is negative. That means that reduced compounds prevail, and many of them are potentially dangerous to organisms living in the water column. Ammonia is merely one of many, some of them even more toxic.

Therefore, I suggest you catch as many as you can with your broccoli bait (or any other method I don't know of).
 
They'll probably be fine if it isn't for a long time, or better if you have some sort of turnover in the water in my opinion.

The really annoying thing though is trying to remove shrimp once you start ripping stuff out, as it will be nigh on impossible.

Would definitely recommend catching them all over the course of a day or two, just to make sure, even keep them in a spare tub with an airstone and tank water as per Gills suggestion
 
I’ve worried about this in the past since I’ve shut down a number of small tanks and rehomed the shrimp. You’ll never manage to catch all of them, but in my experience those which you miss do remarkably well at surviving! Once you’ve pulled the crypts out the soil will settle over the course of a few hours, even if there is a period when it looks like oxtail soup. Then you can have a go at catching some more…
 
I had this issue recently in a tank which broke. I got them all simply by patience and always letting the water settle. It shouldn't stay cloudy. Allow 3 days. The way to catch the last few is once the date is down to an inch or two. They are quite tough creatures about sediment, assuming the sediment is just "mud" and debris.
 
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