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Major shrimp deaths, feeling like giving them up :(

Nick potts

Nick potts

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Joined
25 Sep 2014
Messages
1,045
Location
Torbay
Hi all.

I am having an absolute nightmare with my shrimps in one of my tanks.

The tank is fully cycled and mature. I add Bacter ae every other day, JBL crusta mineral weekly and water changes I have dropped to around 5% daily. The tank has catappa leaves and alder cones.

For the past week or so my shrimp population has slowly (well not slowly) dwindled off, i am finding a new dead shrimp daily and now down to maybe 2-4.

I have done the usual tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH, KH and GH, TDS at 164

I am at a loss as to what to do and it is really starting to make me feel crappy now, to the point i just want to rip the tank apart and give up on shrimps altogether 🙁

Oh, and the shrimps in questions are red and blue cherries.

Thanks
 
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Hi nick bacter ae every other day sounds like a lot to me are you leaving the filter off for a good hour to let the film settle over all.the hardscape when adding do you know what the water parameters where from who you brought the shrimp have you seen any molts in the tank how long have you had them
 
Thanks Jayefc1

I only add a very very tiny amount of the bacter ae. I do turn the filter off briefly so it's not sucked up by the surface skimmer but leave the sponge filter running.

I have noticed moults, though not many.

I don't know of the parameters of the breeder other than 22/24 degrees, TDS 200/220, they arrived on the 16th June for the blues, the reds i got maybe a month before that from a different supplier.
 
Hi @Nick potts

Are you using tap water? If so, which tap water conditioner did you use? Any plants? Plant fertilizers? CO2? What is your filtration system? What is the tank water temperature?

JPC
 
Tap water, which comes out of the tap at 130-140 tds.

Temp 24c (can get higher on hot days)

I am using Reeflowers effective conditioner

Aquascaper complete ferts at 0.2ml daily.

No CO2

Filtration via a large HOB filer with sponges and ceramic rings, I also have a sponge filter running in the tank for better surface agitation and a place for the shrimp to feed etc.

The tank is full of Windelov java fern, Moss Rotundifolia, and lots of Salvinia auriculata
 
The bacter Ae I'd add once a week when you turn your filter off and leave it off for a good while so it can settle over everything any kind of filter running will just suck the fine granules straight out of the system I'd defo turn off all filters how many shrimp are left and how many did you start with and check your tap conditioner not all remove copper from water and that is really bad for shrimps
 
Jayefc1 said:
The bacter Ae I'd add once a week when you turn your filter off and leave it off for a good while so it can settle over everything any kind of filter running will just suck the fine granules straight out of the system I'd defo turn off all filters how many shrimp are left and how many did you start with and check your tap conditioner not all remove copper from water and that is really bad for shrimps
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Thanks.

Will start leaving filters off longer and cut my bacter feeding, as to be fair there is a good bio film in there with all the redmoor wood

Started with 20 shrimp, now down to maybe 3-4 (very hard to see/count as the tank is rather full with plants.

The water conditioner says it removed heavy metals, copper etc.

I have been considering an RO unit, but it was of my main hates of saltwater tanks.
 
Shouldn't need to go RO mate there hard little things something must be off have you tried to vary there diet at all mine like some crushed cooked peas and even frozen blood worm blanched kale is good to get calcium in to them to help with molting even a a pinch of fish food or a alge wafer bee polen is another great food you can get it pretty cheap at health food shops I would bet there having failed.molts that is killing them can you see a line between the head and body
 
Thanks again.

Supplemental feeding consists of marks shrimp nettle mix, fresh nettles, Hikari shrimp and crab cuisine and whatever fish foods they can scavenge.

Moults was my first thought, I have been adding the JBL minerals to help with moulting. The shrimp themselves look perfect (except dead of course 🙁 ), no visible lines or loss of colour etc.

There are some ember tetra in the tank and they are doing fine.
 
jaypeecee said:
Hi @Nick potts


Without knowing the exact proportions of nutrients in this fertilizer, it is not possible to know how much copper it contains. That would be worth pursuing with Aquarium Gardens. I see that @Jayefc1 has also homed in on copper.

JPC
Click to expand...

Yes, I have looked but can't see a breakdown of the nutrients, just that it says safe for inverts, maybe a copper test kit is needed, though not sure how accurate these are.
 
Nick potts said:
...maybe a copper test kit is needed, though not sure how accurate these are.
Click to expand...

I have the API copper test kit, which I rarely use. Instead, I prefer John's Copper Check from Sensafe/ITS (Industrial Test Systems). Part Number 480042. It can measure down to 0.05ppm and is supplied as test strips. You should be able to get it from Amazon.

JPC
 
jaypeecee said:
I have the API copper test kit, which I rarely use. Instead, I prefer John's Copper Check from Sensafe/ITS (Industrial Test Systems). Part Number 480042. It can measure down to 0.05ppm and is supplied as test strips. You should be able to get it from Amazon.

JPC
Click to expand...

That one is out of stock, but i have ordered a salifert kit, they always served me well before.
 
The red ones should be well settled by now and should even be having shrimplets I would try some different foods for a week or two mate do you actually see them eating or did you when you could find them are you target feeding in a bowl or just free feeding
 
OK, more deaths again today.

Found anonter shrimp on the substrate and am unable to find any of the others at the minute 😭😭:banghead:

Images attached

20200708-234419.jpg 20200708-234343.jpg
 
Nick potts said:
red and blue cherries.
Click to expand...
Not sure about blue but red should be easier than that to keep.

I have at least 500 reds in my display tank but have tried multiple times with blue, yellow, CRS, snow white etc with all of them dying pretty quickly on me.

What you are describing sounds like a disease.

Also if you are starting with shrimp, best to keep them in a tank that's minimum 100L for stability.
 
I cannot offer a solution just, perhaps, share that I have experienced the same issues. I have one tank with a thriving colony of yellow shrimp however failed miserably in my attempts to build a colony of blue shrimp in a separate tank ...despite buying from a great source. The only factor that I could isolate in terms if the difference between the two tanks is that the substrate used in the second tank has an ADA Africa cap which reduces the PH and doesn't buffer against spikes in acidity. My water is already is already soft and quite acidic.

Is it worth checking your PH before and after you turn the lights on? As CO2 increases in the water it may increase the acidity of the water creating a marginally more toxic environment for a shorter period? This may be a wild goose chase...just a thought.
 
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