Cherry Shrimp Dying

[anitstuk]

My ammonia is 0ppm, my nitrite is 0ppm and my nitrate is 25ppm.. 

Over the past 6 days, I have noticed that my Cherry Shrimp are dying.. We've had them for around 5 weeks and up until this point, they were completely fine. We had 8 and now we only have two.. One of them is swimming around freely and one is alive but not moving... We believe that they have the problem when they can't molt their skin properly. Does anybody have any idea why all of my shrimp are dying?. 

[drewzero1]

Water hardness? I've heard molting can be affected if there's too much or too little calcium in the water.

[Cory]

Are there fish in the tank? Do you have a picture to give us more context?

[Colu]

What's your KH and GH 

[JettsPapa]

We need a lot more information to be able to help.

1. Where did you get the shrimp?
2. What was your acclimation process?
3. Was the tank cycled before adding the shrimp?
4. How long had the tank been running before the shrimp were added?

[anitstuk]

On 7/19/2022 at 2:38 PM, drewzero1 said:

Water hardness? I've heard molting can be affected if there's too much or too little calcium in the water.

I don't know the general hardness of my water but the PH sits around 7.0.. 

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by anitstuk

[anitstuk]

On 7/19/2022 at 5:17 PM, Cory said:

Are there fish in the tank? Do you have a picture to give us more context?

 We got a 10 gallon tank which is shared with 7 other Harlequin Rasboras.. I'll get a picture as soon as I get home, I am currently out the house..

 

On 7/19/2022 at 9:59 PM, Colu said:

What's your KH and GH 

I'm unsure how to test my KH and GH.. What should I buy to test it?

 

On 7/20/2022 at 12:50 AM, JettsPapa said:

We need a lot more information to be able to help.

1. Where did you get the shrimp?
2. What was your acclimation process?
3. Was the tank cycled before adding the shrimp?
4. How long had the tank been running before the shrimp were added?

1. We got the 8 Cherry Shrimp from a private breeder selling on Ebay.. 

2. We drip acclimated the shrimp for around 30 minutes before slowly adding them to the tank. 

3. The tank was fully cycled for 6 weeks with the ammonia and nitrite being 0ppm.. The nitrate was 10 ppm.. 

4. The shrimps were the first to be added to the tank so the tank had been running for 6 weeks with only plants before they were added.. 

 

Hopefully you can help! Also feel free to tell me any products I should buy to help them.. Thanks in advance.

[Colu]

On 7/20/2022 at 1:45 AM, anitstuk said:

I'm unsure how to test my KH and GH.. What should I buy to test it?

API does a test kit that test GH and KH it's possible lack of mineral caused by a low KH could be the cause

[anitstuk]

On 7/20/2022 at 11:20 AM, Colu said:

API does a test kit that test GH and KH it's possible lack of mineral caused by a low KH could be the cause

I'll try to find one 🙂

[anitstuk]

Did you want any other pictures?

 

[JettsPapa]

On 7/19/2022 at 7:45 PM, anitstuk said:

 We got a 10 gallon tank which is shared with 7 other Harlequin Rasboras.. I'll get a picture as soon as I get home, I am currently out the house..

 

I'm unsure how to test my KH and GH.. What should I buy to test it?

 

1. We got the 8 Cherry Shrimp from a private breeder selling on Ebay.. 

2. We drip acclimated the shrimp for around 30 minutes before slowly adding them to the tank. 

3. The tank was fully cycled for 6 weeks with the ammonia and nitrite being 0ppm.. The nitrate was 10 ppm.. 

4. The shrimps were the first to be added to the tank so the tank had been running for 6 weeks with only plants before they were added.. 

 

Hopefully you can help! Also feel free to tell me any products I should buy to help them.. Thanks in advance.

You can get strips from ACO to test for KH and GH, or get a liquid kit.  Until you get it, there's a pretty simple test you can do to get an general idea.  When you take a shower, rub your palm along the opposite forearm.  Does it kind of skip along, like it's catching on things, or is it very smooth and feels like it still has soap on it?  If it's jerky you have hard water, which is great for neocaridina shrimp.  If it slides along easily, like it was still soapy, your water is soft (low KH and GH), which isn't so good.

While some people have okay luck with acclimating for 30 minutes, many experienced shrimp keepers recommend drip acclimating for at least two hours.  The more difference there is between your water and the water they came from the longer the acclimation should be.

I, and other shrimp keepers I've corresponded with, have struggled with introducing shrimp to a new tank, even one that's fully cycled.  It takes several months for biofilm to build up, which is important since shrimp graze continuously.

[anitstuk]

Thanks for the tips.. I'll make sure to follow next time!

[anitstuk]

Quick update. We bought 10 more young shrimplets around 2 or 3 weeks ago and we only see around 2. We have a suspicion that they are all hiding under the big log at the back of the tank.