I keep losing shrimp

[KatNor21]

I have a 5.5 shrimp tank and for the past week or two, every other day I notice a dead shrimp in the morning. Doesn't seem to matter if it's an adult or juvenile, or what coloration. I have about 10 red rilis, 5 orange cherry, and 5 blue velvet. It's a planted tank with pearl weed, java moss, water sprite, dwarf hairgrass. I keep it at 70-78 degrees. I recently had a problem with detritus and flatworms (found one planaria, but mostly other types of flatworms) and teeny tiny copepods or something. I changed out the gravel, retained the same filter and most of the same water. The pests have reduced quite a bit. I added a scarlet badis for good measure. Noticed the nitrites were rising (probably because the gravel change disrupted its cycle), so I do water changes every day they are 1ppm or higher, but only change like 20% of the water. Other parameters: GH is 150ppm and pH is 6.5. This morning I found a dead red rili juvenile, checked the nitrites and it was about 0.5. I should point out that the occasional shrimp deaths occurred BEFORE the gravel change (when nitrites were 0), while the pests were thriving, so I thought maybe worms were killing them. But now I don't see worms anymore so...?

I'm at a loss. Everything seems to be fine. But every couple days, there's another dead shrimp in the morning. Any ideas?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Are you certain these are carcasses, and not molts?

 

[KatNor21]

Are you certain these are carcasses, and not molts?

Yes I am. Molts are translucent and hollow. But the dead shrimp are fully formed with colors intact.

 

[Slaphppy7]

What kind of test kit are you using? What is your reading for ammonia?

What water conditioner do you use?

If you had positive readings for nitrIte, the tank isn't cycled

 

[KatNor21]

What kind of test kit are you using? What is your reading for ammonia?

What water conditioner do you use?

If you had positive readings for nitrIte, the tank isn't cycled

As I said in the post, I'm getting readings for nitrite because I had to change out the gravel because of pest worms and such. I don't think it's the cause of my problems because shrimp were dying when the tank was cycled previously. I use Aquarium Co-Op test strips and ammonia is 0. I use Aquarium Solutions Ultimate water conditioner.

 

[Naughts]

The nitrite needs to be 0. Logically thinking, 1.0 nitrite then a 20% W/C would leave 0.8 nitrite. It needs to be 0.

 

[KatNor21]

The nitrite needs to be 0. Logically thinking, 1.0 nitrite then a 20% W/C would leave 0.8 nitrite. It needs to be 0.

I don't know what else to do at this point. Changing more than 20% will kill them too. And how do you account for the ones that died when it WAS 0?

 

[Naughts]

If you match the temperature and dechlorinate you can change 50%, unless your tap water pH/GH is different to that in the tank?

 

[Naughts]

Maybe they were dying before because the water quality was deteriorating, indicated by the presence of detritus worms.
I think planaria can kill them too.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Planaria can and will kill Neocaridina shrimp.

If you have nitrItes, you have ammonia.

Ditch the test strips (unreliable and inaccurate, many times), and get one of these ASAP: https://apifishcare.com/product/freshwater-master-test-kit

Run the tests for ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte, and post the results here.

You need a good quality water conditioner, get either Seachem Prime or API Tap Water conditioner, and use that instead.

You are most likely in the midst of a fish-in cycle, read and follow the directions here: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-i.433769/

 

[KatNor21]

I think what happened was, while I was cycling the tank to prepare for the shrimp, I put in some fish food. It probably was too much and the tank got overrun with pests/worms. I felt as though the tank was cycled when I added the shrimp. But perhaps they were being killed by sneaky planaria from the substrate. Notice the shrimp are always dead by morning. Because of my efforts to get rid of the planaria, the tank basically un-cycled. *Sigh* I'm going to get some better products and maybe bacteria in a bottle and keep on trying to get this tank balanced out.

 

[Myraan]

I dont about the risk of big water change killing shrimp, but if so - do several 30% after each other
3 and 30% will be like 97%
Hopefully the test strips are exagerating - 1ppm nitrate is said to be lethal to fish - its maybe worse for shrimp

 

[Naughts]

I dont about the risk of big water change killing shrimp, but if so - do several 30% after each other
3 and 30% will be like 97%
Hopefully the test strips are exagerating - 1ppm nitrate is said to be lethal to fish - its maybe worse for shrimp

Not sure of the maths there....
3 x 30% water changes dilutes a lot less of the pollutants than 1 x 90%.
Imagine (or experiment) using a glass of black coffee and replacing 30% with water on three occasions versus doing 90% at once.


The first example, which shows large changes (50%) is short, so may be easiest to see:

50% Partials:​
Change #	Start % Old	% Change	End % Old
Baseline	100.00	None	100.00
1	100.00	50	50.00
2	50.00	50	25.00
3	25.00	50	12.50
4	12.50	50	6.25

The first column only shows the partials, first, second, etc. after the arbitrary start at “change #1”.

 

[Myraan]

Not sure of the maths there....

ye sorry - the maths in my head must have been for 3 70% water changes
3 30% ones would be like doing one 65% change

but either way I'm sure all the ammonia and nitrite in the tank is a much bigger problem "changing too much water" is - alot of people give that advice to never change more than 20% - and i dont get it

 

[Naughts]

ye sorry - the maths in my head must have been for 3 70% water changes
3 30% ones would be like doing one 65% change

but either way I'm sure all the ammonia and nitrite in the tank is a much bigger problem "changing too much water" is - alot of people give that advice to never change more than 20% - and i dont get it

If you regularly (weekly) do large water changes (eg. 50% +) the water parameters are very close to that coming from the tap/ source so it does no harm.
If you only do small changes (eg. 20%-) the parameters drift away from that of the tap/ source so that if you then needed to do a large change with differing parameters (mainly pH), the fish or shrimp will be shocked.

This is why I questioned the parameter difference in post #8.

People also think that shrimp are extremely sensitive but I always do at least 50% changes with my shrimp and have no concerns about recommending it.