Rcs Dying? Why?

[aaronnorth]

Hi, i have lost 1 shrimp a day (for the past 2 days) an i dont know why, 50% w/c weekly if i can or at least 25% weekly. Tank been sset up 6 months. Shrimp have been in there a good 3 or 4 month. other inhabitant include ottos and endlers & ramshorn snails. It is planted - water stats:

ph - 8
NO2 - 0
NH3 - 0/ 0.1
NO3 - 50

temperature - 26C


It also seems to be the adults, they have had loads of shrimplets over the past few weeks.

ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, Ph.

 

[Liam]

As usual with shrimp nothing is certain, but my best guess is that it is ammonia, nothing much else seems to kill cherry shrimp, if you do a rescape or disturb the substrate even too thorough fliter cleaning can lead to levels of ammonia that you might not detect, though as your test does show some NH3 that is almost certain to be the cause. Older shrimp and berried females seem to die more easily, though with the tiny ones its almost impossible to see the bodies. Prime as a conditioner is good for water changes if you have chloramines in the tap as it binds the NH3 until the filter can process it. If you have prime you can add some to the tank to detoxify the ammonia. Otherwise lots of water changes until the filter catches up. If you have a spare filter and some media from another tank you could add that for a while. Fish dont react nearly as badly to the ammonia as the shrimp.

 

[aaronnorth]

Thanks Liam, i have just rescaped so maybe it is from the substrate, i think it is 0 NH3 on the kit but like you say, it doesnt pick it all up.