# Cherry shrimp and Co2



## Matnez (6 Mar 2013)

I was just wondering if anyone here has any experience with keeping cherry shrimp in a Co2 injected tank.

I have a FE set up on my tank and it has been running for just over a month now. I have had no issues and all the shrimp have been breeding like crazy. In the last week a number of the shrimp have become inactive, only really becoming active when I feed them. Once they have eaten they then just stop moving.

Nothing in the tank has changed so was wondering if the Co2 has become too much for them. I'm going to not run the Co2 tomorrow and see if this changes their behaviour.

Thanks 

Matt


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## John S (6 Mar 2013)

Very doubtful its the Co2 if it its been OK for a month. What water changes are you doing? How long have the shrimp been in?


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## Matnez (6 Mar 2013)

I was thinking that as I'm not running the co2 to the max, the drop checker is dark green rather than light green.

The tank has been running since december, the shrimp have been in about a month and a half and I do about 25% water change weekly.


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## sciencefiction (7 Mar 2013)

There's so much scientific info on inverts and fish not tolerating high amounts of CO2 levels and other stuff that I sometimes wonder how are they surviving in aquariums.
They don't like high TDS and nitrates over 10ppm too which in a planted CO2 injected tank are rarely within these limits.
From personal experience with liquid carbon(easylife) I dosed up the shrimp tank in the first month and I stopped it because I saw signs of stress. I've dosed occassionally another tank that had shrimp in no issues, but I wouldn't dare daily doses of it anymore. I recently moved two shrimp in a breeder box in a tank that got double dose of liquid carbon and the poor things were trying to get out of the box. They were stressed from something visually so I isolated them from the tank's water and they went back to normal rather quickly.
The other possibility is copper build up. If you dose ferts at the moment, I presume more than before you added the FE, and the plants can't utilize all the amount, then some will build up no matter what. There are also other metals that in excessive amounts can be harmful.
.


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## Nealeg (15 Mar 2013)

Hi Guys I can't be much help with as I have just started with the hobby but I often read of members quoting  FE and TDS what do they mean?


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## Lindy (15 Mar 2013)

FE - Fire extinguisher(pressurised CO2) TDS - total disolved solids


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## tim (15 Mar 2013)

Fe is also the symbol for iron


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## Lindy (15 Mar 2013)

> Fe is also the symbol for iron


Smarty pants! I was going by the context it was used in here


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## Nealeg (15 Mar 2013)

Thanks, but typically what would TDS be?


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## Lindy (15 Mar 2013)

TDS can be different depending where you are. Mine in south west coast of scotland is only around 45. Some folk on here have TDS of 300-400


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## Nealeg (15 Mar 2013)

Ok I guess I would need a meter to measure the TDS in the water.Thanks for you assistance now we should get back to Matnez's issue sorry for the interruption.


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## Nealeg (15 Mar 2013)

Could Matnez's problem be, too much Co2 and not enough oxygen?


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## Iain Sutherland (15 Mar 2013)

Its highly unlikely that the problems are from TDS, RCS will be fine in most tanks.. my big tank has a TDS of over 400 and a healthy population, aside from the barbs snacking that is.  CO2 is a possibility if its too high, on the assumption that your DC has all the correct fluids then id suggest it is on the low side at dark green but remember that its just a guide.  Again my big tank is heavily injected with co2  and overdosed with EI (Ive never heard of copper build up from ferts) without issue, also shrimp tend to climb out if co2 is too high or at least they try to.
If they are simply static and dont move around i have always found this to be too much food, personally ive never fed mine in over a year.  In high energy tanks the plants create more waste and as such provide more food in the way of biofilm for the shrimp, i would advise as a first point of call that you stop feeding shrimp all together and reduce the feeding of fish if you have any, do a series of large (50% +) water changes and monitor it from there. 

Low oxygen is a possibility, if he has fish they will show this also.


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## basil (15 Mar 2013)

Hi - what's your ph and temp please?


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## Matnez (15 Mar 2013)

Hey Nealeg, don't worry about dropping in on my thread, we are all here to learn 

Thanks for everyones input.



basil said:


> Hi - what's your ph and temp please?


My temperature is 25c and my PH is around 8.

It is strange because since my last post they all seem to be pretty much back to normal - a lot of activity, berried shrimp and babes. I have not change anything except upgrading the stock lighting.

I will cut down on the amount I feed them as I was on average feeding every other day so I will see if that makes a difference to..


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## Nealeg (15 Mar 2013)

Matnez my friend,as you are aware I'm no expert but as part of my learning/research I recently visited The Green Machine in Wrexham. One of the questions that I asked them about was the need for Co2 in an aquarium especially an aquarium this is stocked with only shrimp. There advice was that Co2 is excellent for he plants but may not, in all circumstances suit the livestock irrespective of what it is, fish or shrimp or mixed. They said its "all about getting the balance right" for "your" particular aquarium. As no other aquarium will be exactly the same as yours you probably won't find the answer easy to find from other sources. An example that they gave was, a typical regular simple mistake is that there is a balance that needs to be found between carbon dioxide and oxygen. In my case, only keeping a small amount of shrimp 10/15 shrimp in a reasonably heavily planted 30L aquarium would not require a great deal of Co2 as the balance here is that the plants are absorbing the Co2 and are releasing O2 (oxygen) the shrimp are inhaling O2 and exhaling Co2.
The balance therefore being,  we introduce the Co2 to the aquarium + what the fish are exhaling Co2 = the oxygen that the plants are omitting for the fish to breath. The conclusion here is that we are introducing too much Co2 which is probably starving the shrimp of oxygen (or is it!) but at least it's food for thought and maybe cutting back on the Co2 just might make a difference.
Good luck


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## thelats1981 (15 Mar 2013)

Hi Nealag, a fair point, but (I'm clearly no expert!) wouldn't increasing the CO2 increase the rate of O2 the plants produce? I'm starting to get my head round the fact that increasing CO2 doesn't decrease oxygen, it just increases Co2. If we can get the balance right, the water would be saturated (or close) with both Co2 and oxygen. more plants + more CO2 = more oxygen. then i guess there is the question of what happens at lights off time!


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## Nealeg (15 Mar 2013)

It's finding the balance and the only way to do that is to play around and tweak things gradually to see if you can see a difference that effects either plants of the fish.


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