Hello folks, 

Posting a semi-update / question regarding my tank.  Overall I would say that it is doing well, and I haven't seen any signs of the tiny bugs inside molted shells. But, as I've complained about before, there seems to be an age demographics problem.  It kind of resembles a third-world nation with a vast majority of young shrimps and only a few village elders.  Just using very basic statistics, if I assume that the shrimp are only dying of old age, and that shrimp reach full size at about the half-way point in their life, then about half my shrimp should be full size, right?

Something seems to be taking out lots of the shrimp along the way.  I can only track a few of the shrimp since otherwise they're rather indistinct.  But there was this one group of 6 Golden bee that I started tracking since early 2024 which I referred to as the "Big 6".  After reaching full size, they started going one by one, before the 1.5yr life expectancy.  One day they would be fine - very active and at the prime of their life, and then suddenly they sit down and start talking about C-beams at Tannhauser Gate.  (Blade Runner reference)  Sometimes they still had stuff in their digestive tract when they suddenly shut down.  (Not the one week's worth of staring off into the sunset like some of the other old shrimps)  This went on until the last few months, where it's now only been the Big 2.  And out of all the other younger Golden Bee, none have managed to make it to "big" size.  

I wonder if something is happening, like a shrimp will get randomly poisoned by something in the substrate, or if it's because the tank is overpopulated and shrimp get attacked and eaten when molting.

Random bonus content:  Here's a rare distinct shrimp that I tracked from birth all the way into old age.  Easy to tell because she had a clear transparent head.  (I called her "Clear Head blue bolt"  This gal lived for around 1.5 years, so I suppose one of the few that made it all the way.

 

Edited June 3, 20251 yr by beanbag

It's always fun getting a new or different shrimp, but it probably means it hasn't come from pure genes so it may through out more different types, which is fine unless you want a single type tank! She has eggs in photo 2 so it will be interesting to see what others you get? It actually looks nearer a varient of lower quality blue steel than blue bolt and these are not an original pure taiwan bee, but taitibee, so crossbred, not pure gene.

When you buy shrimp you won't know how old they are and once full size they will probably only live a year at best. Do the shrimp rush to the food when you add it, if so maybe you need to feed a little more. If they don't rush to the food thn they must be finding enough in the tank, I assume? As the population grows they will need more feeding but they only eat dead shrimp or molts, they don't kill others. Shrimp that have been born and only lived in the tank should do better than newly added shrimps from somewhere else! As you managed to trace the clear headed one to a normal lifespan, that is a good sign and should offer some reassurance, together with getting good numbers of babies.

Today I saw a small / medium size shrimp getting rapidly eaten up, so that guy definitely went before his time.  Yes, the shrimp rush the food, so maybe I do need to feed more.  I've read that you should feed enough so that the shrimp finish the food after a certain amount of time.  The problem is that I've also seen advice ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hrs. 

Just looked at my Shrimp King Complete bottle and it said "5mm stick per 20 shrimp".  And I think there's around 80 in this little 5 gallon tank.  It's overpopulated.

On the other hand, I keep reading about how you shouldn't overfeed shrimp and that they can "live off the biofilm".

There is no "right" answer when it comes to amount of food to feed your shrimp.

If you are seeing your shrimp cannibalise other shrimp, it's time to feed them some meat. And I don't mean beef, or chicken or pork. Feed them more frozen bloodworms, or raw fish pieces, or pieces of raw prawns. 

The shrimp can eat biofilm, but when you have 80+ in a 5gallon, the biofilm is long gone after a week.

 

The idea behind "don't over feed your shrimp" is not for the shrimp's benefit, it is to avoid fouling the water and killing the shrimp in it. This very much applies to processed foods only. 

But if you feed a variety of foods, you can have many types of food in the tank at the same time.

Let me give you an example of what is in my tank. I have some Snow flakes (soy bean husks) floating around the bottom. I also have a nasturtium flower in the tank at the moment. I feed the shrimp every 2-3 days with processed foods from Shrimp King or Algae Wafers or my own homemade foods.

And there is a couple of Indian Almond Catappa leaves on the substrate as well. 

My shrimp will eat the old Catappa leaves, the graze on the Snow Flakes, and devour the nasturtium flower. These are in the tank all the time so they are never hungry. I supplement with processed foods, and once every week they get frozen bloodworms or a small piece of raw prawn or fish, if that so happens to be on the humans menu that week. 

The trick is vary their diet and have foods that can be left in the tank for long periods without it fouling the water. 

Edited June 12, 2025Jun 12 by jayc

It is very difficult to know how much food to feed as it will depend on various variable facters. The smaller the tank the less biofilm there will be. I think you are already using Bacter AE, that should help with biofilm, and leaves are good as food and for biofilm to grow on the surface. The more shrimp there are the less biofilm there will be as it doesn't get as long to grow before a shrimp gets to it.

I use the shrimp king foods but smash the pellets up so they are smaller pieces and spread out more in the tank. I don't remove food after a set time, you would need a feeding dish to do that. I use a variety of different foods, I smash them all in a mortar and pestle and mix them together in a tin ready to use.

It can be a fatal problem to overfeed as the food rots etc (can cause an Ammonia spike) so if you are going to increase feeding do it by small increments until the shrimp are more relaxed at feeding time as they arent hungry and rushing for the added food. Start from the dosage recommended by the manufacturer.