Largest amano less active/eating less than others

hi everyone! two days ago i drip acclimated 6 amano shrimp and added them to my 30L aquarium. everything went well except for one really nervewracking moment — while trying to transfer the shrimp from the acclimation bag to a net the biggest female jumped out onto the floor! i quickly rescued her and she seemed completely fine when i immediately got her in, but now she’s acting a little odd.

she doesn’t seem to be eating nearly as much as the others and is moving around the tank less; she seems to sit in one spot for quite a while, then move a bit to another spot and sit there for a while, and often isn’t grazing when i look in at her. meanwhile the others are pretty much always moving, and if they’re sitting in one spot it’s because they’re eating rapidly. she has no visible injuries, and if another shrimp annoys her (by climbing near her or getting in her face, etc) she pushes them away so it’s not as if she’s completely listless or unreactive at all; but she also doesn’t have a dark vein in her back like the others which worries me about her not eating. last night near the end of the night she started moving around more/grazing so i was relieved, but when i checked on her this morning she still doesn’t have a vein.

my water parameters are normal, 0 ammonia/nitrites and my nitrates are always around 5 (my tap water has ~10ppm but my plants keep it down). i haven’t fed them anything because i let algae build up in the tank during the ~7 weeks of cycling so they’d have something to eat. is there anything i can do to prompt her to eat, or should i not worry about it? she’s also easily twice the size of all the others — is it possible older/more fully grown amanos are just naturally less active than the little guys who are still growing? here’s a photo of her vs one of the ones that’s acting normally.

these aren’t just my first shrimp, theyre my first aquatic pets ever, so i’m just kind of nervous :’)

 

an add on because i was watching her and noticed this.... it’s hard to get a clear photo but this white stringy piece seems to be poop hanging from her. all the other shrimp are dropping neat little pellets near-constantly.




if it’s some kind of constipation issue i imagine there’s nothing i can do but wait to see if it sorts itself out, right? i have some veggies around the house i could boil and feed if that would help, but 1. i don’t know if they’re organic or not and 2. i’m worried that since she’s not showing interest in grazing she might not eat any anyway

 

an add on because i was watching her and noticed this.... it’s hard to get a clear photo but this white stringy piece seems to be poop hanging from her. all the other shrimp are dropping neat little pellets near-constantly.

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if it’s some kind of constipation issue i imagine there’s nothing i can do but wait to see if it sorts itself out, right? i have some veggies around the house i could boil and feed if that would help, but 1. i don’t know if they’re organic or not and 2. i’m worried that since she’s not showing interest in grazing she might not eat any anyway

How are the shrimp doing?

I wouldn’t worry about the long poop. Amanos are eating machines and sometimes if mine get a pellet, they’ll sit there eating until it’s gone. Some have pellet shaped poops. Couple have long strings that seem to cling for awhile. Longest one I’ve seen was about 3” long and my wife thought I was nuts because I was so impressed and took a picture lol.

 

shes doing fine now! in fact, she’s a total bully when i give them blanched veggies, i have to break smaller pieces off and put them directly in front of the smaller shrimp or there’s no way they could get any with her guard-dogging everything. it seems like she was just settling in. everyone seems to have had a successful first molt, too!

 

shes doing fine now! in fact, she’s a total bully when i give them blanched veggies, i have to break smaller pieces off and put them directly in front of the smaller shrimp or there’s no way they could get any with her guard-dogging everything. it seems like she was just settling in. everyone seems to have had a successful first molt, too!

Glad to hear it!