Red Cherry Shrimp

[mtbdean]

Help!

I've had a tank setup for a couple weeks, using a filter that has been running alongside my Large Tank for a good year or two, (which was cycled properly) and I keep loosing my Shrimp! I wake up and find that they turn bright pink, and are thus dead.

Ive check the parameters, which show no ammonia, no nitrite, and around 10 nitrate (testing with Proper Liquid Test Kits)

It always seams to happen to the Berried ones, they appear to give birth on the night before (I find loads on tiny shrimplets) and the next morning she is dead!

Help?!?

 

[fishprotector]

Have you used any copper based medications in this tank or indeed your larger tank before?

 

[Baccus]

Old age? They have such a quick life cycle they tend to only last a couple of years as fully fledged adults, but always have plenty of babies to make up for it. Do you only have shrimp in the tank? What is the temp of the water? Could the temperature have been fluctuating?

Even though I would expect all the shrimp to die if any chemicals had made their way into the tank, is there any way that things like air freshener, insect killer, or hair spary could have entered the tank. Has the tank been used (or the filter) been used with any medications in the past that contained copper?

 

[mtbdean]

Believe it or not, I have never doused my Tank with Chemicals, only declorinator and API Leaf Zone.

I only have the Shrimp in the tank, and i've only had the shrimps for around 8 weeks, but it might just be old age, as Im unsure how old they were!

Cheers for the advice!

 

[fishprotector]

If they are the ones that you got from me, then they were born around last july so I doubt it was old age. They normally live for around a year in usual water temps.

 

[mtbdean]

Cheers. I did purchase a few more from a LFS, some more adult ones, so they might have been the ones that died, but mine are definatly happy!, around 5 of them have berried, and ive nearly tripled my population!