Why can’t I keep neocaridinas alive?

[hazyvonne]

I have an established 20g tank that’s about a year old. As far as fish are concerned, I have 3 otos and 15 neon tetras in there. It’s quite heavily planted, the substrate is sand but most of the ground is covered in moss. About 9 months ago I put 15 blue dream/velvet shrimp in there. Over the first couple of months, I lost all but 3. Those 3 seemed to be doing great though. They grew very big and didn’t seem to have any issues (never any babies though - but I can’t tell the gender). So I figured maybe whatever was wrong before is now gone since they’re doing so well. So I went to my LFS and bought 5 cherry shrimp. Within 48 hours of adding the cherry shrimp my 3 blue shrimp died (why?!? ). Since then 2 of the new cherry shrimp have passed. The other 3 are still fine. I have no idea why this is happening. The only fertilizers I use are Flourish root tabs and aquarium coop Easy Green which are both shrimp safe. I do weekly water changes of about 20%. Here are my parameters:

Ammonia = 0, Nitrites = 0, Nitrates = 5-10ppm, Temperature = 75F, PH = ~7, GH = 70-90ppm, KH = ~70ppm (~4 dkH)

 

[Coryking]

I have an established 20g tank that’s about a year old. As far as fish are concerned, I have 3 otos and 15 neon tetras in there. It’s quite heavily planted, the substrate is sand but most of the ground is covered in moss. About 9 months ago I put 15 blue dream/velvet shrimp in there. Over the first couple of months, I lost all but 3. Those 3 seemed to be doing great though. They grew very big and didn’t seem to have any issues (never any babies though - but I can’t tell the gender). So I figured maybe whatever was wrong before is now gone since they’re doing so well. So I went to my LFS and bought 5 cherry shrimp. Within 48 hours of adding the cherry shrimp my 3 blue shrimp died (why?!? ). Since then 2 of the new cherry shrimp have passed. The other 3 are still fine. I have no idea why this is happening. The only fertilizers I use are Flourish root tabs and aquarium coop Easy Green which are both shrimp safe. I do weekly water changes of about 20%. Here are my parameters:

Ammonia = 0, Nitrites = 0, Nitrates = 5-10ppm, Temperature = 75F, PH = ~7, GH = 70-90ppm, KH = ~70ppm (~4 dkH)

My first guess would be lack of calcium. Shrimp need calcium to molt if there's not enough they can die. If you have snails in the tank that shows that there is enough calcium to keep shrimp. Another thing is the dead shrimp may be molts they might not be though. my second guess would be lack of food you still need to feed shrimp food even if the tank is full of alage.

 

[Ellie Potts]

Hmmm... very odd indeed
how are you acclimating them? Shrimp are very sensitive to quick changes in water, so often times people drip acclimate.

If you're doing that safely, then I would also suggest feeding a calcium-high shrimp food.
Your water is a smidge soft for shrimp - they typically prefer a gh of 100—200 ppm. Having such hard water helps them get both calcium and magnesium. I don't think your water is too soft to keep them successfully, but enough that it would justify some supplementing.

 

[hazyvonne]

Thank you for your replies! I forgot to mention that I do actually have some assassin snails in the tank. But I can try and add some calcium. I do throw some shrimp food in there occasionally but they rarely eat it (I fish it out 24 hours later). I mostly see them eating whatever the fish left on the ground. I did not drip acclimate them. I floated them in their bag and slowly added more and more tank water. That might explain the death of any new shrimp. Still a mystery though why my established blue shrimp died. Anyway, I really appreciate you guys trying to help out here. I won't add any more shrimp for now - clearly, something is not right and I don't want the poor things to suffer until I figure it out

 

[Ellie Potts]

Good luck!

 

[StevenF]

Ammonia = 0, Nitrites = 0, Nitrates = 5-10ppm, Temperature = 75F, PH = ~7, GH = 70-90ppm, KH = ~70ppm (~4 dkH)

The GH test measures total calcium and magnesium levels Shrimp, fish and plants need them to live). You GH level is high enough that the problem is probably not a calcium issue. Your Neons might be the problem. They are big enough that they will try to eat them. The ones you have left are likely the ones that hide most of the time to avoid attracting attention.