Cleaning Dilemma

[Jollibean]

Hi! Newbie here.

I tried searching for moss balls, but I didn't get quite what I was looking for.

My Red Cherry Shrimp tank has about a dozen adult shrimps. It has moss ball, as well as hornworts and taiwan moss. The thing is, I can already see baby shrimps around. About 1mm in size, and last count was 10 of them.

I'm planning to split up the moss ball, as well as the taiwan moss, to be tied up to a stone or something.

This is where the problem lies. If I'm gonna split up the moss ball, there might be teeny weeny shrimps there that I would miss, and might die when i take the ball out of the water... not to mention when I clean it up by squeezing, and tearing it apart to have mini moss balls. Same goes for taiwan moss.

Has anybody gone through this before? I really don't know how to do this, when I do not want any babies to die.

And to think water change might be another problem. =X

Lotsa thanks in advance!

[BiffMalawi]

I have often removed mosses from tanks with babies and had no issues. I would do the tearing under water and give what ever you are removing from the tank a good shake and remove it from the water slowly. You would be surprised how mobile the babies are. Once they know what is happening they will bail out.

As far as water changes goes, I cover the end of my python/syphon with fine mess, mines from a small fish net held on with an elastic band. Pick a spot up against the glass so you can watch and just be careful. Again the shrimp are surprisingly strong swimmers.

[Jollibean]

Hm, that sounds good, though a lil challenging.

But will try anyway. =)

Thanks for the reply!