Why did my shrimp die. :(

I set up a 20 long tank. I stocked it with gravel, substrate, driftwood, plants, cholla wood . . . there was algae and biofilm, I actually had the cholla wood in my 10 gallon for quite some time.

I used fritz fishless fuel and turbo start. I tested and tested, it got to where 3ppm nh3 was gone the next day. Can't remember offhand exactly what the nitrates were but they never got high, I guess the plants used it.

I went off to the store and got 15 neons and 15 ghost shrimp. They were in the same tank at the store, although they had another tank with more shrimp.

I slowly acclimated them, not only putting the bag in the water, but kept adding small amounts of the water too.

I released them. I was so amazed at how active the shrimp were!! Everyone seemed to love their new home.

I think the next day there was 1 dead shrimp, I expected to lose something. But they were settling down and hanging out in the little places I had for them. I had a sponge filter and a screen for my aquaclear. They were so active, swimming with their little foot paddles, eating with their little mitten hands . . .

And each day I woke up to more and more dead, shrimp that looked health and happy the previous day - dead.

The neons are fine, and I never saw them acknowledging the shrimp, many of them were the same size and larger. Plus I have so many books and hidy holes.

The tests didn't show any parameter spikes but out of caution I did a 4 gallon water change, vaccines the gravel, moved the decor (except for the 2 swords that are planted). I'd have to look at my records but I did more than one change.

This all took place in a little over a week. I think I have two shrimp left.

My spouse, who was against the tank to begin with loved them and wants more. I really wanted cherries and/or blue dreams and there is a Petco an hour away that actually gets shrimp other than ghosts in. Spouse seems to not even care, just wants to get the cheap feeders cause they were so cute.

I don't know why they are dying and don't want to tear the tank apart a few times a week in search of bodies.

I thought shrimp weren't that hard?!? I picked easy shrimp. The neons remain fine and it's interesting watching them behave in a group.

I had special shrimp food I dropped in when I saw them group and have a cuddle bone piece.

Here are some pics of my tank, it reeks of care and love. And apparently shrimp death.

Mcostas said:

I set up a 20 long tank. I stocked it with gravel, substrate, driftwood, plants, cholla wood . . . there was algae and biofilm, I actually had the cholla wood in my 10 gallon for quite some time.

I used fritz fishless fuel and turbo start. I tested and tested, it got to where 3ppm nh3 was gone the next day. Can't remember offhand exactly what the nitrates were but they never got high, I guess the plants used it.

I went off to the store and got 15 neons and 15 ghost shrimp. They were in the same tank at the store, although they had another tank with more shrimp.

I slowly acclimated them, not only putting the bag in the water, but kept adding small amounts of the water too.

I released them. I was so amazed at how active the shrimp were!! Everyone seemed to love their new home.

I think the next day there was 1 dead shrimp, I expected to lose something. But they were settling down and hanging out in the little places I had for them. I had a sponge filter and a screen for my aquaclear. They were so active, swimming with their little foot paddles, eating with their little mitten hands . . .

And each day I woke up to more and more dead, shrimp that looked health and happy the previous day - dead.

The neons are fine, and I never saw them acknowledging the shrimp, many of them were the same size and larger. Plus I have so many books and hidy holes.

The tests didn't show any parameter spikes but out of caution I did a 4 gallon water change, vaccines the gravel, moved the decor (except for the 2 swords that are planted). I'd have to look at my records but I did more than one change.

This all took place in a little over a week. I think I have two shrimp left.

My spouse, who was against the tank to begin with loved them and wants more. I really wanted cherries and/or blue dreams and there is a Petco an hour away that actually gets shrimp other than ghosts in. Spouse seems to not even care, just wants to get the cheap feeders cause they were so cute.

I don't know why they are dying and don't want to tear the tank apart a few times a week in search of bodies.

I thought shrimp weren't that hard?!? I picked easy shrimp. The neons remain fine and it's interesting watching them behave in a group.

I had special shrimp food I dropped in when I saw them group and have a cuddle bone piece.

Here are some pics of my tank, it reeks of care and love. And apparently shrimp death. View attachment 148454

Click to expand...

Vacuum the gravel, not vaccine the gravel.

Here is a shot of the whole tank, the light was dim so the color is off but you can see how it was stocked.

You can't see them very well but I have hornwort and another stem plant. After the tank cleaning I put all the cholla wood in one side, like a pile.

You also can't tell but there is some java Fern babies on the one dragon stone.

I've since taken the sponge filter out and all but one cholla.

Ouch.

Shrimp are nowhere near as easy as some are led to believe.
They require an established tank, with relatively stable water parameters and they can be very sensitive to any changes in the water chemistry.
(Given where shrimp live in the wild, I found this hard to accept, but I've learned that they might be more sensitive, having been farmed and selectively bred for their colours, rather than hardiness. I've also learned that where they live in the wild doesn't experience such sharp changes as found in a significantly smaller tank).

Shrimp seem to do well when the tank is established well enough to provide a good supply of biofilm, (bacteria and microorganisms), for them to feed on. Mine did well in an established tank and I've since been adding dead leaves to supplement the biofilm. (I'd also added extra doses of bottled bacteria).

As @Bruce Leyland-Jones says shrimp can be pretty sensitive, more so than quite a few of the common fish you might get. They also need a well established tank to do well in. Ideally well planted as well.

If you bought feeder shrimp that may also be part of the problem. Generally they are inbred and not well cared for before you get them as they are intended to just be food.

Leaf litter can help as well as it gives a good natural food source for shrimp.

If I was you (and if it is possible/fits with what you want), I would get a few more plants, maybe a bit of leaf litter and a little more wood and leave it a couple of months to mature. Then try again with maybe some Cherry shrimp.

edit: Your tank looks lovely by the way. great job!

I'll try that.

I actually had leaf litter and the cholla wood had visible biofilm as did most of the driftwood. I thought that would be good enough.

Welp, off to see if I need to fish out the remaining bodies.

Maybe if my Betta ever dies I'll try to turn my 10 gallon into a shrimp tank.

Still see one living. Don't see any bodies.

One reason I wanted shrimp is I need a cleaner upper. The nerite snail sticks more eggs on everything than she's worth. The mystery snail is active and entertaining (he's in a different tank) but does a poor job of cleaning.

I researched various catfish types but I don't have sand and I don't think my gravel is belly friendly and my water isn't soft.

Now I have so many neons I think adding another little shoaling fish would put it over the edge. I put the ones in my other tank in the 20 so now I have 19. 2 of them are glo tetras which was my first non-betta fish. All died but the two who are active and healthy. I think it was a problem where I purchased them, I've had no problems with fishies purchased elsewhere. I went somewhere else and got the neons as a replacement, giving me 6 tetras in all.

I was expecting a neon die off when I stocked my 20 which didn't happen.

My goal is to provide kind of an "ecosystem" with a single specie of small shoaling fish and a cleaner upper. I really wanted cardinals but nobody seems to have them anymore, the neons are nice though.

It's interesting to see how a shoaling fish behaves when kept in the numbers it likes. I thought the neons and shrimp were going to be the perfect combo. The shrimp were so darn cute. My new goal is shrimp but I guess it's going to be awhile, I'll have to live vicariously through other shrimp keepers and pick up tips I guess.

The other two kinda nailed the advice on the head for ya. Ph, and hardness of water do tend to play into shrimp keeping more as well. So, if your water changes cause those numbers to fluctuate it could cause shrimps to die, especially the weaker immuned feeders.

So I’ll just throw in, when getting your colored neo’s stick to one color if you want them to stay colorful. Although you’ll get some cool looking mixes for a few generations, eventually they’ll breed out the color and return to their natural wild coloration, a more clearish-brown (as far as I can tell).