Hello from Pensacola

[RoyaleButterfly]

Hi everyone! I’ve been in the fish hobby for about 5 years or so. My last betta died of old age last year so I’ve just been keeping my tank going with plants and 1 mystery Snail. Well I decided to start a shrimp tank and have been doing research for months. I got my first batch of 20 in yesterday of Neocardinia Davidi assorted and 20 cherry. One of my Cherry died of the white ring of death last night. I feel horrible about it and I’m not sure how to prevent the others. Several of them molted last night and only 1 didn’t make it. Any advice? The only other “issue” I’ve found is the cholla wood seems to have left a film on the water? Which according to various YouTube’s that’s good for shrimp but I want to make sure. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Welcome to the forum @RoyaleButterfly! Sorry about your Betta but dying of old age in a fish is a wonderful thing, you must have been a great Betta keeper! 

Shrimp I think require a whole lot of acclimation and aren't super easy (IMO). I've killed all the shrimp I've tried to keep for one reason or another. I doubt you had issues because the tank was new since you've had a running tank for some time. After shrimp get moved to a new tank/water they do tend to molt rather quickly and this is when they are very vunerable. How long were they in your tank? 

Do you use Equilbrium or Wonder Shell, etc? 

White film on new chola is just fine! It will likely be bio film which shrimp love!

[RoyaleButterfly]

Thanks for the response! I just put a new wondershell in the tank today as the other one had finished dissolving. The shrimp haven’t been in my tank for 24 hours and only one of them had the ring of death over night. I acclimated them slowly over 3 hours yesterday before I caught them and put them in the tank. All of my other shrimp are doing great they’re active and eating and having so much fun in my tank. I got my new aquarium co-op test strips in today and the ph is around 7.0 the GH is over 150 but under 300, the KH is 40, no chlorine and no dechlorinator, 25 nitrates, and 1 nitrite. 

I am glad to be here and been loving the community so far!

[Patrick_G]

Shrimp can be tricky, some folks have a good touch and the shrimp breed like bunnies. In my tanks I’m lucky if they breed enough to keep the population up. 
 

A note on the Wondershell: Make sure you use the directions on the Aquarium Co-op site and not the ones on the package or you’ll end up with water that’s way too hard for the shrimp. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

It sounds like you did the acclimation right! @Patrick_G is spot on, some people just seem to have the touch with shrimp, hopefully you'll be one of them! I don't otherwise see anything outwardly wrong with what you've done so hopefully that's your only loss, and definitely look into the instructions for wondershell that @Patrick_G brought up as ACO is typically on target for their instructions with aquarium products.

[RoyaleButterfly]

Thanks, @xXInkedPhoenixX and @Patrick_G! I have had no more deaths and no more molts since last night. I am hoping it was the stress. I will go look up the Wondershell instructions! 

[Shadow]

@RoyaleButterfly First off, WELCOME! I live about 20 mins from the state line of the panhandle in Loxley, Alabama(just moved from Gulf Shores area). Nice to have a fellow Emerald Coast friend aboard!

 

So...I have gone DEEEEP into the shrimp keeping thing recently. Something I haven't really been sharing, so kinda started nerding out with it. 

One, I like to add the following things into the water before ever adding shrimp and conditioning the water. Molting has become not much of an issue as I have my parameters where I want them or near where I want them before I add them. 

Cholla, Indian Almond leaves, Jackfruit leaves, Alder & Filao cones, Catapappa bark & mineral balls. Usually I can gauge out my GH properly that way and also start to increase my TDS. Neocaridinas often like TDS in the ranges of 150-300, slightly soft pH, GH of between 4-8(I keep mine at around 6-7 at the highest and there are some additives that work well with narrowing these numbers down if you have trouble). One thing I can say about Cholla or any of the other debris adding in, you need to boil them every time and for about 15-20 mins. I then let them soak for about 2 hours just to leach out tannins. BTW, tannins are not so bad...you just dont want them super prevalent. I keep my rillis in tannic water and my solid colors in less tannic. So far, not seen much of a difference. I also rarely do any water changes unless its an emergency situation or clean the glass. The water, depending on how long you leave your lights on, will slightly green water. I like to control this by removing some of the excess algae if needed and feeding it to my algae eater tank lol. Seems a good symbiotic relationship so far. 

Anyways, this is just some of what I have done while nerding out on shrimp breeding, so hope it helps. I am currently conditioning my first tank for those ever so sensitive bee shrimp aka caridinas. Wish me luck!

 

Oops, tagged wrong person by accident, but hope that helps you! 🙂 

 

Edited May 11 by Shadow

[Randall H]

Hello and welcome!

[H20 Plecos]

Welcome to the group RoyaleButterfly! 

Very nice to meet you, I'm am located in Dothan. If you need any help feel free to ask me or others. Thanks 😊