Peppermint Shrimp on the Floor

[tygger]

To my surprise, I came home yesterday to find one of my peppermint shrimps on the floor of my room! I had two in my tank and they were both very bold. They would actively compete for food and come up to the surface of the water, but I would've never imagined a shrimp could climb out of my tank. Has this ever happened to anyone else? I even have egg crate covering the entire top of my tank! Strange...

[treesprite]

Is it alive? For some reason I thought they would die out of water.

[tygger]

Whoops.... forgot to mention the most important part! It was dead... :(

[chucelli]

they most likely got startled and jumped out like some fish do.

They would not climb out of the water.

Edited October 29, 2008 by chucelli

[tygger]

That's the thing... I have "egg crates" covering the entire top of my tank. I dont think it would be possible for it to jump out and fit in between the small square openings. I think it had to climb out.

[Sharkb8]

I've seen these shrimp jump around on the floor if accidentally dropped. So, perhaps it is possible that with a first jump it got stuck in the egg crate, then took a second or third hop and made it out onto the floor, and maybe even one or two more hops from there. I don't think they can "walk" out of the water. Just bad luck and took a bad hop is my guess. Alternatively, could it have made it into your sump or fuge or some other reservoir and jumped from there?

[L8 2 RISE]

It sounds to me like it could have used the egg crate to climb out if it could reach it from the tank.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

I wouldn't be surprised if it jumped through the egg crate hole. Those shrimp are pretty small and those holes are pretty big.

[tygger]

Yea, but my guy was at least 1.5" long... It's just hard for me to picture it jumping through the 1 centimeter opening. :(