# The Great Cherry Red Shrimp Die Off



## Mike Edwardes (22 Jun 2013)

Three weeks ago I bought 5 cherry red shrimp. I brought them home and acclimatised them in the aquatic section of a large, mature paludarium. They seemed to do well at first, but over the last week they've disappeared and I've found two dead.
This is a large, heavily planted enclosure, running at around 40 ppm CaCO3, 22C. It does contain a fair amount of mulm but it also contains a single Amano shrimp which has been in there for years!
So the question is - why did they die? Is it reasonable to blame the treatment they received before I brought them home? Could the problem be related to moulting - how often do cherry red shrimp moult?
Am I a shrimp killer?


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## NanoJames (22 Jun 2013)

Do you have any fish in the tank? I used to have 4 guppies in my tank and couldn't keep shrimp alive for more than a couple of days. I now have micro rasboras and there is no problem at all.


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## Mike Edwardes (22 Jun 2013)

No, no fish, just stuffed with plants - Anubias, Java fern and Java moss.
I'm curious to know whether cherry shrimp are more or less hardy than Amano shrimp, because I can keep the latter alive with no problems.


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## NanoJames (22 Jun 2013)

Hmmm, that does seem quite odd! I'd say that Amanos are probably a little hardier than RCS but not enough that RCS would be dying off and they would be absolutely fine. Do you have water parameters with you? Sorry if that's too much hassle!


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## Mike Edwardes (22 Jun 2013)

I haven't done any testing, don't routinely, but as I say the Amano shrimp is fine - it's abut 3 years old now!


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## Michael W (22 Jun 2013)

Its worth looking into the possibility of a bacteria bloom killing the shrimps off. Due to the recent change in temperature bacterial blooms could occur causing difficulties to molt etc. Water Changes could help prevent this and Genchem Beta-G. Perhaps your Ammo shrimp has grown accustomed to this event occurring in your tank therefore developed immunities against it. Some people who are able to keep shrimps such as Red Cherries alive in their tanks may consider adding new ones in to improve their bloodlines also experience die offs of their new shrimps because they simply come from different waters and the initial change may prove too much. Therefore its usually advised that online shrimp stores etc sell younger shrimps as their shells could still adapt to the new environment as they molt, much better than older shrimps.

Michael.


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## Mike Edwardes (22 Jun 2013)

Thanks. This is a very large enclosure and it's pretty stable, so my working theory is that the new shrimps were stressed in some way, either before I got them (local fish shop, not a specialist supplier), or by the move. Is three weeks  plausible in that context though?


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## Michael W (22 Jun 2013)

In my opinion if they survived for three weeks they're pretty much ok with your parameters but like I said it could be the bacterial bloom which may have caused the deaths and not strictly speaking your water quality. This thread may be of interest regarding this topic:  Spring/summer bacterial blooms - Practical Fishkeeping Forum


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## sa80mark (22 Jun 2013)

Imo opinion when people talk about cherry shrimp being hardy they are right to an extent unfortunately similar to the good old guppy and goldfish they have been interbred so much the hardiness simply vanishes, the fact you bought them from a lfs would suggest that they may well be cheap inports that have been bred and bred, I think when it comes to any shrimp its most important to buy them from either a specialist shop or a breeder.
It is strange that your cherrys have died but your amano are fine


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## Mike Edwardes (22 Jun 2013)

Yes, thanks. I think that may be the lesson I've learned from this. Looking on the bright side, I've killed (not deliberately) much more expensive livestock than this in the past!


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## Mike Edwardes (22 Jun 2013)

Breaking news!
After a week of looking, I've just found two still alive, and seemingly healthy (feeding). That leaves one unaccounted for.
Hmm, this changes things, I suspect the two casualties make have been weak individuals or in some way compromised.


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## MirandaB (22 Jun 2013)

How long did you acclimatise them for?


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## Mike Edwardes (22 Jun 2013)

Drip acclimatisation over about an hour.


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## MirandaB (22 Jun 2013)

That possibly wasn't long enough as I'm guessing the difference between conditions in your paludarium and the water they came from would be greatly different.
I usually drip for a minimum of 3-5 hours depending on the water they were previously in.
I know it seems excessive but from past experience it does make a massive difference to shrimp survival rates


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## windyboona (22 Jun 2013)

I've had the same problem over the last 3 weeks ,I brought 12 Cheryl's from a specialist dealer and 4 from my Lfs , I now have 2 left !
And have had amanos (6) of them in there for months and they are just fine .
I have also lost 4 crs  in another tank over the past month, which is very low tech,no ferts ,no co2 .


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## MirandaB (22 Jun 2013)

Always worth having one or two catappa leaves in the tank too as they seem to have anti-fungal/bacterial properties with the added bonus that the shrimp love to feed on them as the leaves break down


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## Michael W (22 Jun 2013)

MirandaB said:


> Always worth having one or two catappa leaves in the tank too as they seem to have anti-fungal/bacterial properties with the added bonus that the shrimp love to feed on them as the leaves break down


 

Catappa leaves are indeed very helpful and also Alder Cones, the shrimps will thank you for adding either in their tank.


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## Mike Edwardes (22 Jun 2013)

Thanks, as a shrimp noob, well, cherry shrimp noob anyway, this is useful.


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## Mike Edwardes (22 Jun 2013)

Good old Google (well, apart from the tax cheat bit)!
Catappa = Indian Almond. Got some of those - just been up to the loft and fished them out - added one to tank. Thanks.


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## tim (22 Jun 2013)

Ime a tds meter is invaluable when it comes to shrimp match up the tds of tank to shop water then tank to water change water and you'll see your losses drop, unfortunately bacteria infections still occur triggered by higher temps is my suspicion smaller tanks being particularly prone to these ( just lost a few blue jellies  )


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## Alastair (22 Jun 2013)

tim said:


> Ime a tds meter is invaluable when it comes to shrimp match up the tds of tank to shop water then tank to water change water and you'll see your losses drop, unfortunately bacteria infections still occur triggered by higher temps is my suspicion smaller tanks being particularly prone to these ( just lost a few blue jellies  )



Ouch sorry for the blue jelly losses tim. 

On the acclimatisation process too, getting shrimp from fish shops ive found that the tds of the bag the shrimp are in is quite high (my water is very soft) in comparison to the tank which means I couldn't just drip into the bag for an hour or two then release as the tds in the bag wont have been reduced. I slowly take out water from the shrimp bag whilst water is dripping into it

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2


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## MirandaB (22 Jun 2013)

tim said:


> Ime a tds meter is invaluable when it comes to shrimp match up the tds of tank to shop water then tank to water change water and you'll see your losses drop, unfortunately bacteria infections still occur triggered by higher temps is my suspicion smaller tanks being particularly prone to these ( just lost a few blue jellies  )


 

With regards to tds I recently bought some shrimp from a local breeder (snowballs and blue pearls) who had them in remineralised RO with a tds of 90.
My treated tapwater is in excess of 200 and I "dripped" them for 5 hours with no losses whatsoever 3 months on.
While I realise that for the more "delicate" CRS my water isn't suitable I believe the longer you acclimatise the shrimp the better chance you have of minimising losses.
I have to agree with smaller tanks being more prone to these bacteria infections as I have never had any losses in my 90lt running CO2 and EI ferts but last summer had a few in my 28lt low tech tank.


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