Having Difficulty Keeping My Shrimp Alive.

[FishBeast]

Hi guys,

I have lossed alot of shrimp and I had pretty much put it down to too much co2 or too little dissolved oxygen in the water although now I that neither of those are a problem anymore I am completely stumped on why my shrimp continue to die. My co2 cuts out 2 hrs before the lights turn off and my drop checker is not showing greater than 30ppm at any time after the lights go out.

The stats:

6x1.5x2 foot planted tank.

Ammonia, nitrite and nitrates all on 0

co2 less than 30ppm

There is no airstone and air pump. I am creating what I beleive to be a good strong surface ripple from the outlet of my pressurised filter.
My co2 feeds directly into the filter inlet and I am getting 11 cycles of the water per hour.

What I find strange is that they die in the same spot pretty much all the time. I have seen a few die in other spots by about 90% of them are dying the this one spot closest to my filter inlet (which has protection over it so that my shrimp can't get damaged when the come in contact with it) closest to where I put my fish food in and my ferts.

I read time and time again that the ferts in the EI method are non toxic to the inhabitants in my tank but I do think that it seems coincidental that they don't die on a regular basis, only the day after I dose my ferts.

I am currently dosing 1.5 tablespoons of KNO3
1.5 tablespoons of mono potassium phosphate
.5 tablespoon of traces.

The other fish in the tank are all fine and are not dying and are not showing any signs of stress either....

Thanks for reading guys!

 

[Floyds mum]

I had a similar thing, my cherry shrimp kept dieing off so i gave them to my dad and they are fine
I tried putting a few back in my tank and they still die off wierd lol. Hope you get it sorted out.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

What I find strange is that they die in the same spot pretty much all the time. I have seen a few die in other spots by about 90% of them are dying the this one spot closest to my filter inlet (which has protection over it so that my shrimp can't get damaged when the come in contact with it) closest to where I put my fish food in and my ferts.

I do think that it seems coincidental that they don't die on a regular basis, only the day after I dose my ferts.

I am currently dosing 1.5 tablespoons of KNO3
1.5 tablespoons of mono potassium phosphate
.5 tablespoon of traces.

The other fish in the tank are all fine and are not dying and are not showing any signs of stress either....

It's obviously the fertilizer then. I know snails can't cope with copper; I thought this was the same for shrimp as well. Maybe they can't cope with other irons in the fertilizer...

 

[beechey]

what do they eat?

 

[iffles]

as said by dipsydoodlenoodle, most inverts can't tolerate a tiny trace of copper or heavy metals. I have apple snails and a shrimp, and i was looking for ich treatment a while ago, but nearly all of them have copper in them. Moving the snails and shrimp out while treating was not an option because the most copper "glazes" the tank walls almost permanently so if you've used copper treatments there may be some traces. Also do you use hot tap water to do water changes because lots of boilers are copper and there will be copper in the water.
Its probably the fertilizer so check the ingredients (if possible) and look out for any heavy metals. also what type of shrimps are they and what brand (if any) is the fertilizer?

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

what do they eat?

ha I asked this question ages ago and I gout "shouted" at.

Shrimp are scavengers; they'll eat anything that has been left over in the tank - they will also eat dead fish (one of the reasons I don't think I want shrimp).

 

[Schmill]

Where did you get the info for your fertaliser measurements?

How often are you dosing?
If that is a daily dose in TABLESPOONS it seems VERY high?
If you are dosing that amount once per week or something, then perhaps try dosing less, more often.
Are you disolving the ferts into water before adding them, or just adding the salts directly to the tank? Many of the salts take quite a bit of agitation to fully disolve in the water, and if you are adding the salts in the same place as you add food, perhaps the shrimp are coming over and eating the salts directly, (which would of course be very bad in the case of the copper in the Trace mix!)

 

[beechey]

sorry didnt know ive only owned shrimps for about 20 seconds as my discus ate them all lol

ive now set up a tank just for shrimps so trying to learn about them

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

sorry didnt know ive only owned shrimps for about 20 seconds as my discus ate them all lol

ive now set up a tank just for shrimps so trying to learn about them

Oh I wasn't meaning it in a nasty way; it was meant to be funny. I searched and searched google as to what they ate but I couldn't find much. I think your shrimps will eat left over food; algae, as I said basically anything that you put in the tank.

I don't own shrimp but I don't know if I want to or not. I find them quite "freaky" to be honest; but I also don't want to see them munching on a dead fish (when it happends) - I don't want a belived little pet to be eaten! I was actually going to buy some ghost shrimp the other week but they were in a tank with goldfish and one was trying to rest near the bottom and the shrimp kept going over to it and bothering it - my fish rest on the bottom occasionally and I'd like them to be able to rest without being bothered.

Let me know how you get on with your shrimps.

I actually want to know how fast to they breed, and would they take over my tank quickly?

 

[Bungy]

sorry didnt know ive only owned shrimps for about 20 seconds as my discus ate them all lol

ive now set up a tank just for shrimps so trying to learn about them

Mark
First of all let me keep you posted - your shrimp will be ready for posting in a couple of weeks, the postal strikes plus pending strikes are of concern to me at present but ill keep you informed.

As for your current problem, I think you will agree that the ferts are the most likely cause of this problem. You should not have the same problem with a dedicated shrimp tank - as a breeder of shrimp I perform twice weekly water changes of around £20 however less is ok - pay more attention if your tank is small and you feed things like fruit/veg which can foul the water rapidly - I feed purely Red Astax crumb and spirulina stix. Your subtrate is entirely up to you, the Black works well and the breeding females in full colour really show up well. I have a black subtrate with bogwood (low/Neutral PH) and a white crushed coral subtrate (Higher PH) in another tank - neither make any difference to the colouration - plain glass bottomed also makes no difference....! Plants are useful as they are afterall algae grazers - I use Java moss / Java fern and Anubias although any plant would be fine - they love this and provides comfort for the growing shrimplets to hide. Sponge filters are best as they will otherwise always try to get into the internal filter sponges. When buying or transferring plants to your shrimp tank pay particular attention to ensure that there are NO SNAILS present - otherwise you will find the snails as always begining to proliferate and as its already been stated, you cannot use a liquid snail remover with shrimp as this contains Copper and is deadly to shrimp. Any problems with snails - buy a couple of Assassin snails and they will chomp through your troublesome population of unwanted snails.

Hope this helps mate

Bungy