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Help!! cuttlefish harrassed by baby shrimp.

spinycheek

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Mar 20, 2009
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A couple months ago while I was weaning my new bandensis onto frozen food, I was feeding live grass shrimp. Well, some of those shrimp were gravid and subsequently hatched eggs in the tank. Now I have a population of baby grass shrimp that is out of control. They swarm all over my cuttle like annoying bugs, and the cuttle is obviously getting irritated. They're too small for her to eat and I can't think of a way to get rid of them. All the fish that would gladly munch on baby shrimp would be a nice meal for the cuttlefish. Any suggested on how to get rid of these troublesome shrimp?

and no, they are not amphipods, copepods or isopods. I've had all of them and they are most definitely shrimp.
 
Not sure what to tell you.
I know that a Coral Banded Shrimp will eat smaller shrimp but it may harass the cuttlefish too.
Sorry, hopefully you find an answer soon!
 
How long since the shrimp hatched? I have only seen one shrimp spawn (peppermint) and my pipe fish and mandarin ate them almost as soon as they hatched. I have never seen live shore shrimp in spite of having many gravid shrimp in my various tanks so I have always thought that they do no survive long. Can you isolate the cuttles in a net and borrow a fish (from a friend, fish store or another tank) that would clean up the tank but be easily removed? I know a mandarin would chow down on them but then getting it back out might be problematic.
 
dwhatley;139607 said:
How long since the shrimp hatched? I have only seen one shrimp spawn (peppermint) and my pipe fish and mandarin ate them almost as soon as they hatched. I have never seen live shore shrimp in spite of having many gravid shrimp in my various tanks so I have always thought that they do no survive long. Can you isolate the cuttles in a net and borrow a fish (from a friend, fish store or another tank) that would clean up the tank but be easily removed? I know a mandarin would chow down on them but then getting it back out might be problematic.

I noticed the shrimp a few weeks ago. It has crossed my mind that they may actually be just a very small species of shrimp breeding in there, but either way, they need to go. I've also thought about doing exactly what you suggested, putting my cuttle in a breeder net and buying a mandarin to chow down. I just wasn't sure what to do with the mandarin afterwards. I suppose I could just re-sell it or trade it for something. Luckily, my tank has minimal live rock for it to hide in, so recatching should only be really hard as opposed to impossible:biggrin2:
 
At night, use a flashlight to see if the shrimp are attracted to light. IF they are, they should be easy to siphon out.
 
I made a quick shrimp trap using a lidded tupperware with a hole in it, then baiting it with krill. I caught about 7 shrimp before I had to pull it out (it was going rotten fast). So tonight I'm going to try using my trap, but baiting it with a glowstick instead. Hopefully they'll like the light......
 
Well, it doesn't appear they're attracted to light. I'm going to try one more time using food pellets, so it doesn't foul the water. Also going to refine my trap a bit to make it more efficient. Darn shrimp, wish I had a troop of baby cuttles to feed them to. I really want to avoid buying a fish, so that will be a last resort.
 
Could you scoop most of them out using a fine net (maybe the "pantyhose net" and put them into another tank. You'd have an excellent source of food if you could keep them.

Nancy
 
I don't think I could do a very good job of netting them. Too much stuff in the way, and they're extremely fast. I know, people pay a lot for this many live shrimp as feeders, and I can't get rid of them. LOL
 

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