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Pregnant Cherry Shrimp Death

L

Lemsip

Member
Joined
9 Nov 2011
Messages
63
Had cherry shrimp for a few months now which are happily breeding.

However I've had two deaths over a month, both females late into pregnancy and strongest in colouration. Searching around on other forums this does seem to happen to others - anyone have any idea why it may specifically happen to the pregnant females? (prone to stress etc?) Or is it just coincidence?

Water params are safe, only concern is I dose easycarbo very lightly.
 
Bumping as another heavily pregnant death today - anyone have any experience of this? This is after stopping Easycarbo dosage, not sure what it could be.
 
Yes weekly 30% water changes, but these were not just before deaths - there has been no other change to the water other than those.
 
Have you tested GH lately?

Its sounds growth related. As the shrimp has been carrying eggs for 4 weeks she would not have molted, i suspect a calcium deficiency but this is just a guess without knowing more. Any chance of posting your water parameters?
 
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 60
PH - 7.2
GH - 18
KH - 11

I'm assuming the GH/KH values are very high - I was not fully expecting to be able to breed shrimp in it. (Definitely not CRS without RO water).

Could this be the cause? All the other shrimp/shrimplets seem to be fine. Thanks for help so far.
 
I doubt it Lemsip. My GH and KH are even higher than yours and my rcs are breeding fine.

Viv
 
Agree with Viv, parameters don't matter with cherries. The nitrates are sky high, that's a big issue. You need to be aiming for a max of 5 for nitrate, even thats too high.

High nitrates lower the immune system of shrimp, preganant shrimp are always more sensitive anyway. Lower your nitrates, i'm 99.9% sure thats your issue.
 
Ahhh - my tap water has nitrates of 80 (according to the API test which I've heard is a bit fiddly when it comes to measuring nitrates, unless I am doing it wrong). Is there much else I can do without using distilled/RO water?
 
Lemsip said:
Ahhh - my tap water has nitrates of 80 (according to the API test which I've heard is a bit fiddly when it comes to measuring nitrates, unless I am doing it wrong). Is there much else I can do without using distilled/RO water?
Click to expand...

Yes, get your local water supplier to check that out! Legal limit is 50 out of the tap.
 
http://www.thameswater.co.uk/water-qual ... entral.pdf

Redid the nitrate tests, a bit tricky since the difference on the API kit between 40-80 is quite small. But it is definitely higher than 40 from the tap.

Anyone else use this kit? Do you hold it straight against the card, or up against some paper/backlight etc?

Thanks for the input - not too worried but wanted to check just in case it was something serious as the best females are being taken out.
 
I've got the API master kit. I hold the tube against the card with daylight shining onto it to get a reading. I'd give your water authority a ring and see what they say about it. It sounds like they are pushing the legal limit for nitrates if not breaking it!!

Viv
 
Themuleous said:
I doubt our hobby test kits are all that accurate, if the water quality report says lower than 50ppm, I'b believe that over my test kit (whatever the brand).

Sam
Click to expand...

I'd not necessarily take the water report at face value, it's not going to be redone regularly and isn't reflective of what's out of your tap. It's possible there's a seepage of industrial fertiliser or something between the reservoir and your house.

@Lemsip: That report has a range of 20ppm~34ppm, so you should be able to detect that with the API master kit. However it might be you get an ambiguous or incorrect result (they aren't that accurate). Personally I'd take a tap water sample into a LFS and get them to check it. If it's also high with their test kit, contact the water board and get them to come out and test it out of your tap as there could be a genuine issue.
 
Agreed, you can't trust the test kits. Different brands have given me fundamentally different results on the same sample of water. London tap water is pretty full of nitrates though (and all sorts of other nasties) so I've switched to just RO.
 
Just noticed another death, this time a female with eggs developing in the saddle. Is this possibly an infection? None of the males/young are dying (well from what I can notice but I can see alot of the tank).

Have contacted water board so will see what they say.
 
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