Red Rili Shrimp Fanning but No Eggs, and Acting Erratic!

[willowb]

Hello! I have noticed the past 2 days my red rili shrimp has been acting strange. She (I believe she is female, big belly and saddle!) has been fanning her swimmerets almost everywhere she goes and has been swimming fast around the tank, stopping every few seconds to crawl around on leaves or the substrate. She doesn't seem stressed, more like she runs places rather than walks (the only way I can explain it lol). She seems to nosedive into things, kind of like she aims at a direction to swim and then full sends at full speed towards it. But she does climb around on leaves and rocks, it is more when she swims she zooms. She doesn't exactly walk around on the substrate, more like glides over it.

I have a 2.5 gallon planted tank with Fluval Stratum and white sand substrate, a sponge filter with an air pump and a heater, and a total of 3 shrimp. My red rili (female), a red cherry shrimp (I think female?), and a yellow golden back cherry shrimp (I think male, still pretty small).
I checked the parameters:
The temperature is always around 24C, 75F.
Nitrate is almost 0, but my plants are growing? lol.
Nitrite is at 0
pH is about 6.5-7
kH is about 40kH (2.2 dkH)
gH is about 180gH (10 dgH), which is very hard. Not sure if this is causing stress, they seem to molt perfectly fine and were good before with this gH, but I am tempted to try and lower it.

2 days ago I redesigned their tank, adding new plants and the white sand. I washed everything beforehand, and only did about a 15% water change.
At first my red rili didn't come out of her hiding place, but now is acting like this. I have never heard of a female shrimp fanning her swimmerets while also being very active, others usually say they hide while they fan. I also cannot see any eggs under her legs, and she has a bright yellow saddle. But, there is a fresh molt in the tank, not sure if it is hers. Probably triggered from the water change?

Could it be that she is trying to spread her pheromones for males and is just very active? Did I do a water change at the wrong time where she's reacting to it while also fanning? I am very confused. I just want her to be okay, and have been very paranoid since my yellow shrimp seems to be acting weird but in a different way. My red cherry is perfectly fine, so I am very confused as to what is going on. Thank you if you have any information that can help!

 

[Chiz]

It is my understanding that they grow eggs, then molt which exposes the eggs and they are fertilized by a male. Then her shell sort of hardens around those now live eggs while she fans them until they are ready to drop. Maybe there is no male available for her? And yes, I've heard that water changes can also trigger a molt but I think that is more about stress or a sharp water parameter change.

 

[Cherryshrimp420]

Probably due to the redesign. Cherries are very sensitive to change, I wouldn't mess with the tank too much especially since KH is a bit low. GH should be fine

 

[willowb]

Probably due to the redesign. Cherries are very sensitive to change, I wouldn't mess with the tank too much especially since KH is a bit low. GH should be fine

Yeah, I think she might just be reacting to the change in plants and water parameters, but I am still not sure why she is fanning. Everywhere I've read says when a female fans she usually hides and isn't active, but she is my most active shrimp. It could be just the timing of the change and her molting, not sure. I'm just letting my tank sit and adjust to the new parameters. She is still acting about the same but slightly less swimming around luckily. I also took out my semi-aquatic Lucky Bamboo because I got paranoid about it's plastic pot possibly hurting the water lol

It is my understanding that they grow eggs, then molt which exposes the eggs and they are fertilized by a male. Then her shell sort of hardens around those now live eggs while she fans them until they are ready to drop. Maybe there is no male available for her? And yes, I've heard that water changes can also trigger a molt but I think that is more about stress or a sharp water parameter change.

I am not sure if my yellow shrimp is a male or female, it is pretty small compared to my red rili. If she is fanning to spread her pheromones and my yellow shrimp is a male, he is not reacting at all lol! It also could be that she did get fertilized by my yellow shrimp, and is now just fanning her eggs for them to drop. Her saddle is a very very bright yellow, not sure if that means anything.

 

[willowb]

UPDATE: She seems to be doing better? Still fanning but seems to be more chill, less swimming around erratically.

 

[willowb]

ANOTHER UPDATE: She seems to be back to normal, still fanning occasionally but other than that seems happy and healthy. Also, she definitely does not have access to a male because I did some investigating and my two other shrimp (now one, one died but she was apparently pretty old) are both females!