pH 7.6

DH 12

Tankmates: 3 Panda Cories, 6 Neon Tetras, 1 shy Honey Gourami

The pandas are 1 inch each, neons... two are 1.5 inches and others about 0.75-1 inch. Honey Gourami adult size, 2 inches. It's really shy and doesn't have any aggression toward anything or anyfish.

Ammonia, Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 10 ppm

No shrimp has ever died of copper or calcium lack.

What happened: So I have 5 Red Cherry Shrimp (RCS from now on) and I can only see one at a time. Thing is, I have a gut feeling they're dead... Either they were eaten and killed, died and eaten, hiding, or dead. But I really want to know what happened... I have seen 2 at a time very recently though.

Here's a pic of my tank to show what hiding places there are:

The Hornwort floating is much more thick due to rapid growth so keep that in mind.

Questions:

1. Are the RCS most likely alive or dead?

2. Can any of the tankmates possibly have eaten them?

3. Are they hiding?

Any input or opinion will be taken gratefully!

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If life gives you lemons, squeeze them into people's eyes and run away!

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However, I think there may be a culprit at hand.

Cheese.

He's big enough to eat those shrimp.  Now, I don't think he'd go after live ones.  Unless it went right in front of his nose and he gulped it in, it's unlikely he's been preying on your shrimp..he's just not that kind of predator.  But a dead one?  Oh, that's fair game.  He'll just scoop it up whole or tear it up bit by bit - they're really fragile critters.  I don't think he'd have any problems scooping up cherry shrimp that have died of other reasons and making a meal out of them.  So my thoughts on the subject?  You might just have a guilty gourami.

I DID see two but now I only see one in the Hornwort... I was really hoping for them to breed I wanted some sort of shrimp selling or an overloaded tank with them...

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If life gives you lemons, squeeze them into people's eyes and run away!

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So... I think these little RCS know when to come out. I was going to prune the Hornwort, turned the light on and... I saw at least 4 of them. One in the moss, two in the floating Hornwort (HW from now on) and one last on in the planted HW. Their color is not as vibrant during night as I have observed... not even the neons.

Here's the best part... I think I saw a RCS egg! I couldn't find a pregnant/egg-laden one so I figured the fry died or got eaten. But I saw this tiny round ball stuck to the Hornwort with a little black dot in it. It was in full sight right in the front pieces of HW! COOL!!!!

My Hornwort looks like it got a really bad haircut... it is a fast growing plant. In the picture above, the left plant isn't reaching the top. But, today it's flowing in the current touching the top. Who knew? This is my first experience with a fast growing low-light plant! YAY!!!!

BTW, the picture is REALLY outdated. The cotton stuck on the intake tube is brown. The HW is completely covering the top. I have a styrofoam cup (the outer layer) as a feeding "net" to prevent food from being caught by the Hornwort. I added a flower pot on the left and the Amazon Swords are yellow on the tips... I dunno why. Should I prune those parts? I was also wondering about their roots so I pulled the biggest one and... the roots were as long as the plant! COOL AGAIN! Next, I took out my CO2 bell, airstone, and silicone tubing (just out of the tank). I added RCS and took out ghost shrimp... Lastly, the brown tips are pruned.

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If life gives you lemons, squeeze them into people's eyes and run away!

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At least I thing I read that some where.

JOHN CHAMPAGNE

55gallon/4wpg t05/pressurized Co2/moderately planted (with the intent of heavily planted) 10goldbarbs,10 olive nerite snails,6 ottos, 2 mollies,three guppies

If life gives you lemons, squeeze them into people's eyes and run away!

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