# Possible causes of cherry shrimp deaths



## Westyggx (8 Jul 2011)

skeletonw00t said:
			
		

> Hi all,
> 
> A lot of my shrimp seem to have died off recently and i was wondering if any of these changes i have made recently could be the causes:
> 
> ...



Hi Tom.

I think it could only be B) but A) may also come into it but someone will clarify. Were your fish gasping for air with regards to Co2? When my Co2 levels were too high i had shrimp and fish all at the top of the tank.

With regards to C) Depends how much you are disturbing it i suppose, and D) no i use tapwater allways.


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## SuperWen (8 Jul 2011)

have you check ammonia levels?
what fishes in your tank?


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## spyder (8 Jul 2011)

Shrimp are considered more sensitive to water conditions than fish so while the fish are fine with co2 level it could be too much for the shrimp.

Untreated tap water is going to carry copper too. Use a decent dechlorinator which will handle copper. I use the API brand which is very economical compared to others. Also claims to neutralize copper.

Disturbing substrate can cause ammonia spikes. If you disturb it do it before a water change.

Any combination of the above factors could be the cause. I've been losing some cherries recently buy it's like 1 a week and can't really pinpoint the problem.


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## dw1305 (8 Jul 2011)

Hi all,


> I have since stopped co2, ferts & lighting so i am just going to run the tank withiut any of those for a week or two - along with an air pump. I can still see about 10 shrimp, do you think they will recover? I've removed all fish too so that they are as peaceful as possible!


 I think you have done the right thing, and 10 shrimps should be enough to re-establish your colony. My suspicion would be that it is the CO2 as well, but it may be something in the water. I'd probably do a fairly complete water change (~ 50%a day for 3 days) and use a water conditioner like "Prime" or "Amquel" that contains EDTA, and will neutralise chloramine. 





> Untreated tap water is going to carry copper too


 I think you can actually now discount copper (Cu) or lead (Pb) in tap water as a cause of shrimp death, the EU limits are now so tight all the water companies are routinely adding ortho-phosphates to precipitate lead and copper out as insoluble compounds (this is "PIMS - Phosphate Induced Metal Stabilisation" <http://www.pimsnw.com/papers/apatite2/>) and an alkali (usually by sodium hydroxide (NaOH) injection) to keep the pH above pH7.

The same EU regulations may be the problem however, as they are very tight on bacterial contamination, and this means that if there is any chance at all that the integrity of the water supply is threatened (by leaking water mains etc) they whack a large dose of chloramine in as a disinfectant, and even in the planted tank you may get some ammonia/ammonium (NH3/NH4+). If your pH is above pH7 (like it now is in nearly all tap water) you get NH3 and this is much more toxic than the ammonium ion (NH4+)

I'm staff for the "Plecoplanet" forum, and we had an absolute spate of unexplained "L. number" deaths in the winter, a lot of which we eventually traced back to water mains that had been damaged by the frost and the water companies response of adding chloramine, often for quite long time periods (several weeks) before the mains could be repaired. The deaths were often just of the Loricariids in community tanks, and I think this is similar to what you are seeing with the shrimps.

cheers Darrel


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## Radik (8 Jul 2011)

I also learned one thing if you want to keep shrimps do minimal changes to your tank including replanting etc... so substrate disruption can be also cause.


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## Garuf (8 Jul 2011)

All of the things mentioned are possible causes. Another possible one is shrimp come from waters very low in bacterial growth, almost sterile, a tank is like a hospital ward and infections are highly likely.


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## PeteA (8 Jul 2011)

skeletonw00t said:
			
		

> Thanks for all the advice guys, ill go and buy some chlorine remover and do the water change as suggested & hopefully the colony will grow again!



Does that mean that you're using tap water straight from the tap?  If so then this is most likely the issue as the chlorine/chloramine will be killing off the bacteria in the tank, which means that your tank is actually uncycled.  All shrimp are quite fragile and won't be happy with high ammonia or nitrite levels.  You


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## Garuf (8 Jul 2011)

PeteA said:
			
		

> skeletonw00t said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Most people on here don't use dechlorinator, I hadn't for years till I got shrimp, the tank won't actually be uncycled however, the levels of chlorine simply aren't high enough and the bacteria simply aren't that wimpy.


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## gmartins (26 Jul 2011)

Each tank is different and I speak only from my experience.

I have an unheated 10l tank and red cherry reproducing. I use tap water straight from tap when doing wc (no treatment). Sometimes I even change 80% of the water.

In the past, I have raised my ferts concentration to very high levels (NO3 > 100 ppm) to get rid of cyanobacteria and I had no mortality whatsoever. I'm also using 0.5 ml of Exel per day with no visible effect.

The only time I caused some mortality was when regulating CO2 injection rates. Be very careful with CO2 regulation then.

GM


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