Shrimp Very Active After Water Change. Are They Okay?

[BeckyCats]

Interestingly, no one freaked out after the water change tonight. They were a little more active, but not like last time. Peaches came out, which is unusual. He/she (?) tends to be more shy and prefers hanging out in the bushy plants. I'll try to attach the picture I got of her (him).

My LFS had a vampire shrimp that was SO cute. It took all my willpower to walk out without it. But I have to research whether I have the right home for it before I just rush into it. That's next on my to do list: research their requirements and see if I can provide a good home.
Thank you Baccus for your great post. Thank you everyone who has taken the time to answer.

 

[Somethingsfishy001]

"My kh reads between 30 and 40. My gh is usually 30-50. I don't think the kits are terribly accurate, but it does look I might have soft water. I read mixed things about whether or not I should put crushed coral in the tank. What do you guys think?"

Wanted to comment on this post, even though old to help anyone else. So I live in an area with soft water. 1 GH/KH out of the tap. Tanks will sit at around 2-3 gh and kh, but still with 7.8 ph. My shrimp did ok, but died after about a month. So I checked to see what a local breeder did. Firstly they have a well planted tank (I have drift wood with plants attached that naturally lowers PH to 7.2). Secondly their water was at 7 GH/KH. They crush eggshells into power and add a spoonful to their tank 1-2 times a week. I started doing that, and crushed cuttle bone, gh got to about 5. Lost none of the shrimp so far, and saw a molt today. PH was raised up to 7.6 from the cuttle bone. I only added a tiny bit at first. 1/4 spoonful to 3 gallons and it raised the gh 2-3 points in about 2 days.

The second thing I wanted to say was that big water changes would sometimes result in shrimp dying the next day from the changes. They often dont like big changes. So instead of a 50% water change at the end of the week, I would do two 25% changes. Also found that many fish can handle up to 40ppm nitrates, but my shrimp only seemed to handle about 20 before I would get losses.

Anyways now I just keep the shrimp in nano tanks with only a couple other really tiny fish, and never change more than 30% of the water at a time. I would recommend multiple small changes over 1 large change. Such as 10% per week rather ther 40% per month.

 

[Master7RealPowerBodyNMind]

My shrimp are the same after a water change.

Are you using a dechlorinator to treat the water? Eg Seachem Prime?

Haha, what a waste...keep a bottle of water out overnight.
Do the math.

 

[Essjay]

If tap water contains chloramine, this does not gas off so a dechlorinator is necessary.
Also, shrimps are more sensitive than fish to metals in the water and virtually all declhorinators also bind metals. Levels of metals which are not harmful to humans can be harmful to inverts.

 

[seangee]

Anyways now I just keep the shrimp in nano tanks with only a couple other really tiny fish, and never change more than 30% of the water at a time. I would recommend multiple small changes over 1 large change. Such as 10% per week rather ther 40% per month.

Shrimp don't like large changes in water parameters. Lots of clean water is fine. I change around 80% in my shrimp tank every single week and they breed like MTS. That is the best way to keep the parameters stable. If you change 10% per week your tank water will, over time, become substantially different to your tap water. At that point a large water change will kill the shrimp, and that is a major problem if you have to do an emergency water change because a contaminant (for example) has been introduced.

This has actually happened to me. Fortunately I spotted it before all my shrimp died from the contaminant. I did an immediate 90% change followed by another 90% change. The colony survived.

 

[Somethingsfishy001]

Shrimp don't like large changes in water parameters. Lots of clean water is fine. I change around 80% in my shrimp tank every single week and they breed like MTS. That is the best way to keep the parameters stable. If you change 10% per week your tank water will, over time, become substantially different to your tap water. At that point a large water change will kill the shrimp, and that is a major problem if you have to do an emergency water change because a contaminant (for example) has been introduced.

 

[Somethingsfishy001]

True. My tap water is very different than my tank. My tap water is extremely soft. Gh/kh 1 or 20ppm ph 7. My cherry shrimp tank is gh 6. Ph 7.5. So i add minerals when I do water changes. But yea a large water change for me would really change the parameters. If I do a 50% change I might lose 1 or 2. If I had a contaminant emergency so bad I had to change all the water I might change it every day at 30%. Or I guess put them in a similar tank.
So far everything is working for my shrimp now and it wasn't before. (When I had low gh, and water changes were larger). Thought I would share if others are having a similar problem.

 

[Essjay]

Do you add the minerals to the new water at the same dose rate at every water change, or do you add the minerals to the tank after the water change? If you add it to the new water and are careful to dose exactly the same amount per gallon/litre every time, the tamk water parameters should remain stable.

 

[faolteam]

when people do a water change what percentage do u do?
Also when you add the dechlorinated water back in , what way do u do that ?