Hello friends. I have a 6-gallon tank that was previously home to one of my first bettas. He passed away a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been pretty heartbroken. The tank now only houses neocaridina shrimp and snails.
I did my weekly water change a few days ago late at night after getting back from the holidays, and I must have been exhausted because I realized today that I forgot to plug in the sponge filter and heater. I checked the tank immediately and all of the shrimp – including the babies – appear healthy. I tested the water with my API liquid test kit and both ammonia and nitrite are at 0. The temperature was 74.2°F when I checked, though it likely dropped lower overnight since it gets cold at night.
My question is: could this be enough to crash my cycle and put my shrimp at risk? The tank has been established for over two years. I feel like a complete idiot.
Posted by Ilovemybf_3990
9 Comments
I don’t even use a heater, and the house is kept at 72F; the shrimp do fine. If they’re alive, the absence of a filter likely didn’t harm anything, either. The plants probably did all the heavy lifting in its absence.
No, the sponge is still in the tank and while not the maximum amount of flow, it’s still maintaining a cycle. It’s got lots of plants and a low bioload it is going to be just fine.
Keep an eye on it if it makes you feel more at ease. You could also ditch the heater assuming your house is room temperature. Heater are a main point of failure (they can break and stay on essentially cooking your tank) so something to consider if it is a few years old.
Not a problem at all with sponge filters.
Shrimp will be fine down into the 60s. Just dont “shock” anything by trying to make water condition changes too rapidly. I.e. slowly warm it up with the heater, dont just dump in warm water. Lol
Neos breed like crazy around 72-74 in my experience
I wouldn’t be worried with all those plants
If shrimps were doing their shrimp stuff then they are fine. Concern can be if shrimps were sitting at the top or absolutely still, then can be too low oxygen level, and shrimps some of them can randomly pass away.
Don’t worry, just plug them back in 🙂 I’ve also forgotten to plug my heater + filter in for like 3 days before and only noticed because my fish were sluggish (they were cold🥲). Of course it’s a stupid mistake but it happens to most hobbyists at least once so don’t sweat it. Your shrimp will be fine!
It would takes months for your cycle to fade in those conditions. You are 100% fine.