Shrimp dying / everything else thriving?!

[Proy]

Hello everyone,

first post, hoping to find help for a few problems. I have 2 15 gallon Fluval edge tanks. These tanks have been up and running for roughly 5 months. I’ll breakdown the tanks individually real quick and then get to my issues.
 

Tank #1 has 6 endler males, 8 ember tetras, 2 otocinclus, 3 Amano, a large outbreak of pond snails, and 4 assassin snails to get rid of the pond snails. 

Tank #2 has 3 endler males, 8 harlequin Rasbora, 3 chili Rasbora, 2 otocinclus, 3 Amano, again a large outbreak of pond snails, and 4 assassins snails.

Both tanks use Fluval stratum roughly 1.5 - 2 inches deep, 3 small pieces of stone in each tank for structure, both tanks have an individual Fluval plant 3.0 nano light. 
lights are on for roughly 8 hours (they fade up and down from full brightness). 20% water change every Sunday. 2 pumps of easy green every 3 days. Substrate supplemented by API root tabs. One small bag of crushed coral in the sump section in each tank.

I have had 0 fish loss except a few crazy Chili Rasbora that snuck into the back sump area of the tank and I didn’t notice until it was too late. All tank inhabitants are healthy, vibrant, eating well (bug bites flakes are main food, I also supplement with frozen baby brine shrimp, blood worms, and daphnia)

ph: 7 - 7.5

Temp: 75 - 77 F

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 20 - 30 ppm 

GH: toward the hard end of the scale (co-op multi test strips)

KH: in the low to medium range of the scale (co-op multi test strips)

Ok, so now onto the questions.

First: Tank #1 added 12 blue dream shrimp 45 days ago, Tank #2 added 20 Sunkist orange shrimp 60 days ago. I didn’t mention them in the stocking section because they just keep dying. Not all at once, i’ll find one dead randomly every couple days. I’m now down to 3-4 in each tank. For food I have been providing a rice grain sized portion of bacter AE mixed with tank water every 3-4 days, 1-2 times per week I offer a small chunk of shrimp king complete, full access to any leftover food that the fish miss, as well as plenty of algae and biofilm. I keep logs of food and water changes…I can find no association with food type or water change leading to death.

Second: I’m having a real hard time with algae. Green dust algae, hair algae, and Blackbeard algae. I initially had way too much light on the tanks, on top of the plant 3.0 nanos I had a long 3.0 stretching across both tanks. I have removed the extra light and carefully maintained 20ppm nitrates at all times via easy green. I have scrubbed, scraped, and brushed away all the algae numerous times. It just keeps coming back. Recently, my plants have started to get hair algae at the top of their growth and Blackbeard algae starts attacking the lower portion. You can see this in the photo of the tank with the white background. I started lightly vacuuming the Fluval stratum on water change day to remove extra debris without removing much stratum. I don’t want to use any anti algae chemicals as I don’t want to mess up what is an overall healthy tank.

Summation: I’m really at a loss with the shrimp deaths. No rapid tank parameter swings, good Gh & Kh. I feed good food and have plenty of algae whether I want it or not. I’m including photos of both tanks. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!! I’ll happily reply with any further info or photos if you have questions. 
Thank You!

[RoyaleButterfly]

Do they seem to have the white ring of death? I am not an expert by any means, however, I have seen that amano shrimp can sometimes kill and eat neo shrimp. I have no experience with this so I am unsure if that is true. When you added the shrimp how did you acclimate them? 

Hopefully, you can get it all healthy soon!

[Lennie]

Have you ever used copper based medicine, or anything that has copper? Are you sure your tap is free of copper?

 

Have you ever seen fish harassing shrimp? For shrimp to make it in such community tanks, generally you should be expecting not to see most of the tanks due to heavy planting and covers. The tank seems pretty open and shrimp are likely be being harassed by the fish. Especially during their fragile times like molting period and following time. Babies, on the other hand, are almost certainly being eaten by any means. 

 

For how long did you drip acclimate your shrimp? Did they stress molt? Generally everything may seem okay at first after a stress molt but gradually it comes with its problems and deaths in the future.

 

Have you been observing nice moltings left around? Or were they struggling to molt?

Shrimp also need a dedicated diet and Bacter AE alone isn't enough imo. Neocaridinas eat much more than low  ph friend caridinas. You can watch Marks Shrimp tanks videos and his feeding schedule for his neocaridinas. I personally use sera micron twice a week, complete shrimp food 1-2 times a week and bee pollen once a week.

[TOtrees]

Sorry you’re seeing losses. Personally, I would let the tanks run for a few months with no changes, and then try adding shrimp again. Maybe try half a dozen in one tank instead of 2 dozen total. 

[Proy]

On 5/30/2023 at 3:15 PM, RoyaleButterfly said:

Do they seem to have the white ring of death? I am not an expert by any means, however, I have seen that amano shrimp can sometimes kill and eat neo shrimp. I have no experience with this so I am unsure if that is true. When you added the shrimp how did you acclimate them? 

Hopefully, you can get it all healthy soon!

Hey, thanks for responding.

no white ring issues, shedding has never been an issue in either tank. I am a bit worried about my Amanos as they are pretty big, but I’ve never seen any hostility. I acclimated with a drip line for 2 hours each time. Out of all the shrimp I only had one die after introduction to the tank. 
thank you again!

[Proy]

On 5/30/2023 at 4:41 PM, Lennie said:

Have you ever used copper based medicine, or anything that has copper? Are you sure your tap is free of copper?

 

Have you ever seen fish harassing shrimp? For shrimp to make it in such community tanks, generally you should be expecting not to see most of the tanks due to heavy planting and covers. The tank seems pretty open and shrimp are likely be being harassed by the fish. Especially during their fragile times like molting period and following time. Babies, on the other hand, are almost certainly being eaten by any means. 

 

For how long did you drip acclimate your shrimp? Did they stress molt? Generally everything may seem okay at first after a stress molt but gradually it comes with its problems and deaths in the future.

 

Have you been observing nice moltings left around? Or were they struggling to molt?

Shrimp also need a dedicated diet and Bacter AE alone isn't enough imo. Neocaridinas eat much more than low  ph friend caridinas. You can watch Marks Shrimp tanks videos and his feeding schedule for his neocaridinas. I personally use sera micron twice a week, complete shrimp food 1-2 times a week and bee pollen once a week.

Hey. Thank you for helping!

I’ve never used any copper in the tanks. I’ve taken the aquarium water to my fish store, water is good, no copper. All other tank parameters aligned with my at home testing.

I have never witnessed any predation in either tank. Hope it’s not the case but if it is it’s those Endlers, they eat everything. I can see losing the young population to them but why do the full sized shrimp just randomly die? With no damage to the animal at all. Looked at multiple dead and found no sign of sickness, shedding issues, or planaria.

Acclimation was the drip method for roughly 2 hours. I had no immediate molting in the blue’s. I had one Sunkist molt right away and it did pass right away. All other shrimp thrived and grew, I saw berried females. Very active colonies. Then after the first month they started dying. None of the deaths were shedding issues.

I ask honestly, with all the algae and biomass in the tank shouldn’t they have enough to survive and I’m supplementing that main diet with my bacter and shrimp king? Have I been starving my shrimp to death! I will attempt to increase my feeding schedule for them. It is difficult to target them directly without the Endlers getting involved.

Thank you very much! I’ll be sure to update.

On 5/30/2023 at 5:15 PM, TOtrees said:

Sorry you’re seeing losses. Personally, I would let the tanks run for a few months with no changes, and then try adding shrimp again. Maybe try half a dozen in one tank instead of 2 dozen total. 

Hey, thanks for the suggestion.
I’m hoping to keep everyone alive and get the tanks to mature a bit more. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/30/2023 at 12:08 PM, Proy said:

Both tanks use Fluval stratum roughly 1.5 - 2 inches deep,

ph: 7 - 7.5

Temp: 75 - 77 F

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 20 - 30 ppm 

GH: toward the hard end of the scale (co-op multi test strips)

KH: in the low to medium range of the scale (co-op multi test strips)

First, it is wonderful to have another shrimpkeeper on the forums!  Welcome.  Hopefully we can get things going on the right track.

I would start by asking you to purchase a GH/KH liquid test kit to verify what is going on.  There is always 2 things we need to keep in mind with our shrimp tanks.  What are the parameters of the water we are putting into the tank and what are the parameters of the tank itself?  There is also a lot of questions surrounding water changes, how often, specifically the method of adding water back into the shrimp tanks, and ensuring we don't cause stress molting.  Testing the tapwater (or whatever you're using for water changes) we'd want to run an off-gas test.  Take a sample of water and aerate it with an airstone for 24 hours.  Test it at that point.  Compare that to your aquarium water results.

Once you have those tests, we can dive into the GH/KH side of things a bit further.  I recently had an experience where my strip was telling me one value, but my shrimp were dying on me.  I lost ~4 shrimp in a matter of days.  My GH was right at where it should be, my KH was where it need be, my PH was fine, everything was great.  Visually with my eyes I was seeing issues.  My advice for anyone with shrimp is to just make absolutely certain you can verify those two parameters with liquid tests.

Alright... let's dive into it.

Stratum is an active substrate.  This will pull minerals over time from the water.  This is the most common reason why you see it recommended to keep Neos on inert substrate like sand or gravel.  In no way does this mean that is the reason for issues, but it does mean that it's a concern and is something you want to monitor over time.  Having something like Seachem Equilibrium or another Neocaridina specific shrimp buffer might be beneficial to have on hand in the case you do need to add a little bit of minerals back into the water.

The other thing that stratum does is it makes it incredibly difficult for shrimp to graze.  This is what my gut instinct tells me could be leading to issues for you.  It might not be the full reason, it could be a mix of things, but it is something to note.  Check this out:
 

The other thing stratum can do is add excess nutrients to the water causing a lot of algae.  I see the time when the shrimp were added, but if both tanks are relatively new, then a series of water changes would help to get excess nutrients out of the system.  I'll mention a bit more on how I would handle the algae later on.
 

On 5/30/2023 at 12:08 PM, Proy said:

I’m now down to 3-4 in each tank. For food I have been providing a rice grain sized portion of bacter AE mixed with tank water every 3-4 days, 1-2 times per week I offer a small chunk of shrimp king complete, full access to any leftover food that the fish miss, as well as plenty of algae and biofilm. I keep logs of food and water changes…I can find no association with food type or water change leading to death.

It is really nice that you keep a log of everything.  I would be feeding Shrimp King every 2 days for my tanks.  It's a PERFECT food and it's great as a staple diet for your shrimp.  Making sure they have access to it might be the key.  You can actually feed less it seem than you are feeding, especially if we focus on a few techniques to make sure the shrimp have access to that food!  Step one is the feeding dish.  Step 2 might be feeding them when the lights are out.  This gives the shrimp the ability to graze all day long and then while the fish are sleeping they can get their specific shrimp food and eat it all night long.  This will also really help out the baby shrimp to have access to the calcium and other nutrients in the food.  Something like BacterAE is often discussed and used for shrimp.  I think MST has a few videos and he does caution overuse of that particular product.  The main thing is to make sure the shrimp have total nutrition and to make sure that you're not overfeeding or polluting the tank.

I'll attach the video below, but here is a quote from his website:
https://aquariumshrimpkeeping.com/bacter-ae-micro-powder/

Quote

Q: Can you use too much beneficial bacteria?
A: Yes, using too much beneficial bacteria can lead to excess nutrient levels in the aquarium, which can cause algae growth or other water quality problems. It is important to follow the recommended dosage based on your aquarium’s stocking level and to start with half the dosage during the first week to help your shrimp adjust to the new food supplement more gradually. Overdosing can also lead to an increase in biological activity in the aquarium, which can cause fluctuations in water chemistry.

In my methodology, I use a bit of a non-conventional method where I don't have access to some of the nicer shrimp foods.  I am using what I have on hand.  I'll feed powdered food 1-2x a week, but my main diet is going to be shrimp specific food (with minerals) every other day.  I'll see the adults eat, then I'll feed powder the following day for the baby shrimp.  If you don't have baby shrimp, then you really don't need to feed powder food.  It is easy, very easy, to overfeed shrimp.  Excess nitrates means you're overfeeding and that does stress out the shrimp.  I try hard to minimize that.  Given the community setup, I know that isn't going to be an easy task.  Mineral junkie (or in my case even equilibrium) can be used as a powdered calcium food for the shrimp too.  I'll attach a video below that is applicable to neo and caridina shrimp.  It's a thoroughly tested technique and it works well!
 

 

On 5/30/2023 at 12:08 PM, Proy said:

One of the other things that causes issues with shrimp and certainly caused me some stress was the question of how well can the shrimp hide in the tank.  Both of these tanks do seem relatively open.  The top tank has a large flat area, which is great for grazing, and it has two large flat rocks.  In my case, I had 3-4 pieces of wood, rocks, and plants, but the shrimp were so stressed out from the amount of corydoras in the tank and the swordtails I had were definitely not conducive to a stress free environment.  Ever since that point and through a variety of other tests to get fish in with my shrimp, I've accepted the theory that the "best method" is always going to be to have a shrimp only setup and to eventually add in fish or to add culls to your community tank.

The second tank shown does have a good amount of plant cover.  That is wonderful!  I would hope that the shrimp have an easier time in that tank and aren't on the back glass or exposed nearly as much as in the top tank.

Both tanks have some pretty intense algae and I do feel the stress of trying to combat that stuff.  There is a variety of ways to try to eradicate the algae and it's a very complex issue because you're dealing with pretty much every type of algae.  Using a phosphate test kit to monitor excess organics in the water is a good place to start.  Running carbon, running purigen is also likely to help out combat some excess nutrient issues in the water.  I would be scraping the glass every week, all 4 sides, given how densely packed the algae is on the glass.  You do want algae on the back (and potentially sides) of the glass for the fish and shrimp to graze on, but you also don't want it to get this dense on you.  If I don't scrape my tank for 6+ months it might be that bad on the back glass.  Putting things like the green diatoms from the glass into the water lets the filter remove it mechanically and then you can scrape it out. 

Both tanks likely need a heavy siphon on the substrate to remove as much excess food, organics, and algae off of the substrate as possible.  You can also try doing a dip on all of your plants.  The popular recommendation on the forums is to use something called "Reverse Respiration" which is a technique of submerging the plants in algae.  For BBA specifically I also recommend this technique with an airstone:
 

Ultimately, controlling the light and nutrients is your friend here.  After you complete the above steps to manually remove the algae as much as possible, you can do a blackout on the tank for 7 days. It was recently revealed to me that for BBA, which is spread via algae spores, you would want to perform a water change every day to help remove as much of those spores as possible during the blackout.  Those water changes will be stressful for the shrimp, so it's best to remove them from the tanks while you do these deep clean measures and keep them in a tub of 5g bucket.  They will absolutely be fine with this and should do well.  There are a variety of ways to setup a "shrimp tub" and given the low bioload you won't see issues with something like ammonia.

Limit your light to 4 hours a day and run that setup for a few weeks.  This limits your algae growth and gives your plants a chance to catch up.  Once you see growth and you see the algae dye off, then you can steadily increase the duration of the light to the normal 8-10 hours per day.  I did this and it worked really well to keep things in check.  It was recommended to me as a last ditch technique to fight BBA from Bentley Pascoe.  I highly recommend it if you're at a loss of what to do!

I hope the above helps to get things on the right track and leads to thinking about what is causing the issues you're seeing.  I am sorry for your losses and the struggles.  I wish for success for you and hopefully you see little baby shrimp thriving soon!

[JettsPapa]

On 5/30/2023 at 3:15 PM, RoyaleButterfly said:

. . . I have seen that amano shrimp can sometimes kill and eat neo shrimp. I have no experience with this so I am unsure if that is true. When you added the shrimp how did you acclimate them? 

Hopefully, you can get it all healthy soon!

Are you sure that was amano shrimp, and not ghost shrimp?

[RoyaleButterfly]

Quote

On 5/31/2023 at 8:31 AM, JettsPapa said:

Are you sure that was amano shrimp, and not ghost shrimp?

 

No, I am not. It was a few weeks ago I watched a video on Aquarium Co-op and I could have misunderstood him. I have no personal experience with it. 

[JettsPapa]

On 5/31/2023 at 10:24 AM, RoyaleButterfly said:

No, I am not. It was a few weeks ago I watched a video on Aquarium Co-op and I could have misunderstood him. I have no personal experience with it. 

It was probably ghost shrimp.  There are a number of species that are lumped into that common name, and some of them will eat anything they can catch.  Amano shrimp are generally not aggressive.

[Proy]

On 5/31/2023 at 2:35 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

First, it is wonderful to have another shrimpkeeper on the forums!  Welcome.  Hopefully we can get things going on the right track.

I would start by asking you to purchase a GH/KH liquid test kit to verify what is going on.  There is always 2 things we need to keep in mind with our shrimp tanks.  What are the parameters of the water we are putting into the tank and what are the parameters of the tank itself?  There is also a lot of questions surrounding water changes, how often, specifically the method of adding water back into the shrimp tanks, and ensuring we don't cause stress molting.  Testing the tapwater (or whatever you're using for water changes) we'd want to run an off-gas test.  Take a sample of water and aerate it with an airstone for 24 hours.  Test it at that point.  Compare that to your aquarium water results.

Once you have those tests, we can dive into the GH/KH side of things a bit further.  I recently had an experience where my strip was telling me one value, but my shrimp were dying on me.  I lost ~4 shrimp in a matter of days.  My GH was right at where it should be, my KH was where it need be, my PH was fine, everything was great.  Visually with my eyes I was seeing issues.  My advice for anyone with shrimp is to just make absolutely certain you can verify those two parameters with liquid tests.

Alright... let's dive into it.

Stratum is an active substrate.  This will pull minerals over time from the water.  This is the most common reason why you see it recommended to keep Neos on inert substrate like sand or gravel.  In no way does this mean that is the reason for issues, but it does mean that it's a concern and is something you want to monitor over time.  Having something like Seachem Equilibrium or another Neocaridina specific shrimp buffer might be beneficial to have on hand in the case you do need to add a little bit of minerals back into the water.

The other thing that stratum does is it makes it incredibly difficult for shrimp to graze.  This is what my gut instinct tells me could be leading to issues for you.  It might not be the full reason, it could be a mix of things, but it is something to note.  Check this out:
 

The other thing stratum can do is add excess nutrients to the water causing a lot of algae.  I see the time when the shrimp were added, but if both tanks are relatively new, then a series of water changes would help to get excess nutrients out of the system.  I'll mention a bit more on how I would handle the algae later on.
 

It is really nice that you keep a log of everything.  I would be feeding Shrimp King every 2 days for my tanks.  It's a PERFECT food and it's great as a staple diet for your shrimp.  Making sure they have access to it might be the key.  You can actually feed less it seem than you are feeding, especially if we focus on a few techniques to make sure the shrimp have access to that food!  Step one is the feeding dish.  Step 2 might be feeding them when the lights are out.  This gives the shrimp the ability to graze all day long and then while the fish are sleeping they can get their specific shrimp food and eat it all night long.  This will also really help out the baby shrimp to have access to the calcium and other nutrients in the food.  Something like BacterAE is often discussed and used for shrimp.  I think MST has a few videos and he does caution overuse of that particular product.  The main thing is to make sure the shrimp have total nutrition and to make sure that you're not overfeeding or polluting the tank.

I'll attach the video below, but here is a quote from his website:
https://aquariumshrimpkeeping.com/bacter-ae-micro-powder/

In my methodology, I use a bit of a non-conventional method where I don't have access to some of the nicer shrimp foods.  I am using what I have on hand.  I'll feed powdered food 1-2x a week, but my main diet is going to be shrimp specific food (with minerals) every other day.  I'll see the adults eat, then I'll feed powder the following day for the baby shrimp.  If you don't have baby shrimp, then you really don't need to feed powder food.  It is easy, very easy, to overfeed shrimp.  Excess nitrates means you're overfeeding and that does stress out the shrimp.  I try hard to minimize that.  Given the community setup, I know that isn't going to be an easy task.  Mineral junkie (or in my case even equilibrium) can be used as a powdered calcium food for the shrimp too.  I'll attach a video below that is applicable to neo and caridina shrimp.  It's a thoroughly tested technique and it works well!
 

 

One of the other things that causes issues with shrimp and certainly caused me some stress was the question of how well can the shrimp hide in the tank.  Both of these tanks do seem relatively open.  The top tank has a large flat area, which is great for grazing, and it has two large flat rocks.  In my case, I had 3-4 pieces of wood, rocks, and plants, but the shrimp were so stressed out from the amount of corydoras in the tank and the swordtails I had were definitely not conducive to a stress free environment.  Ever since that point and through a variety of other tests to get fish in with my shrimp, I've accepted the theory that the "best method" is always going to be to have a shrimp only setup and to eventually add in fish or to add culls to your community tank.

The second tank shown does have a good amount of plant cover.  That is wonderful!  I would hope that the shrimp have an easier time in that tank and aren't on the back glass or exposed nearly as much as in the top tank.

Both tanks have some pretty intense algae and I do feel the stress of trying to combat that stuff.  There is a variety of ways to try to eradicate the algae and it's a very complex issue because you're dealing with pretty much every type of algae.  Using a phosphate test kit to monitor excess organics in the water is a good place to start.  Running carbon, running purigen is also likely to help out combat some excess nutrient issues in the water.  I would be scraping the glass every week, all 4 sides, given how densely packed the algae is on the glass.  You do want algae on the back (and potentially sides) of the glass for the fish and shrimp to graze on, but you also don't want it to get this dense on you.  If I don't scrape my tank for 6+ months it might be that bad on the back glass.  Putting things like the green diatoms from the glass into the water lets the filter remove it mechanically and then you can scrape it out. 

Both tanks likely need a heavy siphon on the substrate to remove as much excess food, organics, and algae off of the substrate as possible.  You can also try doing a dip on all of your plants.  The popular recommendation on the forums is to use something called "Reverse Respiration" which is a technique of submerging the plants in algae.  For BBA specifically I also recommend this technique with an airstone:
 

Ultimately, controlling the light and nutrients is your friend here.  After you complete the above steps to manually remove the algae as much as possible, you can do a blackout on the tank for 7 days. It was recently revealed to me that for BBA, which is spread via algae spores, you would want to perform a water change every day to help remove as much of those spores as possible during the blackout.  Those water changes will be stressful for the shrimp, so it's best to remove them from the tanks while you do these deep clean measures and keep them in a tub of 5g bucket.  They will absolutely be fine with this and should do well.  There are a variety of ways to setup a "shrimp tub" and given the low bioload you won't see issues with something like ammonia.

Limit your light to 4 hours a day and run that setup for a few weeks.  This limits your algae growth and gives your plants a chance to catch up.  Once you see growth and you see the algae dye off, then you can steadily increase the duration of the light to the normal 8-10 hours per day.  I did this and it worked really well to keep things in check.  It was recommended to me as a last ditch technique to fight BBA from Bentley Pascoe.  I highly recommend it if you're at a loss of what to do!

I hope the above helps to get things on the right track and leads to thinking about what is causing the issues you're seeing.  I am sorry for your losses and the struggles.  I wish for success for you and hopefully you see little baby shrimp thriving soon!

Nabokov,

what an amazing post! Thank you for all of your insights. I read through that post a dozen times, great info. 
 

you’ve definitely helped me decide to rework everything! I’m going to move all of my fish, amano’s, and snails to a freshly setup & cycled 20 gallon. That can be my community tank. I’ll then strip both of the 15’s and build each tank specifically for shrimp as you described.

This will take a few days, i’ll keep you updated!

thank you again! Great post

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/31/2023 at 1:32 PM, Proy said:

Thank you for all of your insights. I read through that post a dozen times, great info. 

That's wonderful!  I am glad I was able to help out.  Keep us posted 🙂

[Proy]

On 5/31/2023 at 3:50 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

That's wonderful!  I am glad I was able to help out.  Keep us posted 🙂

Update:

I cleaned up and refreshed my 20 gallon tank. Moved all community fish to the 20.

I broke down the first 15 gallon tank. 
everything removed & discarded. Kept all equipment (pumps, physical & biological filtration). Cleaned tank itself with hydrogen peroxide, every nook and cranny. Returned the lightly cleaned but definitely not dead filter pumps and media. Added fresh rinsed black sand. Installed a large piece of driftwood, rocks, shrimp hides, and a bunch of fake plants. I wanted to go for the more sterile, clean approach this time. So, new 15 is setup and running for a day or two now. 
Ph: 7, Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: <20, Gh: 12, Kh: 3, TDS: 237, Temp: 78F to help the bio filter get going again. 
 

As suggested I tested my water direct from Tap and 24 hours after. Gh & Kh didn’t move. Ph dropped .2 in the 24 hour water. The only thing that worried me was my high Gh. I have added a large piece of driftwood, 5 medium Catappa leaves in the filter, i’ll move them into tank when they are soft and don’t float. 
Is 12 too high to successfully raise shrimp?

As of early this morning I returned my 1 remaining Blue shrimp and my 3 Chili Rasbora to this newly setup 15. I’ll post updates and pics in the next few days.

Thank you again!

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/4/2023 at 4:53 PM, Proy said:

Is 12 too high to successfully raise shrimp?

The source I have states a range of 6-15 for GH.  I know @Cinnebuns has their shrimp in really high GH and did run into some issues when getting over 15.  If you can lower it slightly over time via the tap, that's great.  I would encourage the setup to have more than 8 as opposed to less than 6 if I had to pick one of the two.

 

[Cinnebuns]

On 6/4/2023 at 6:53 PM, Proy said:

12 too high to successfully raise shrimp?

It depends. 

I raise mine in higher so if it were my shrimp then no. I keep mine in kGH of 14. The person I got them from raised them in dGH of 16!  However, if the person you got yours from raised them in 6, then you might have some problems. If you are able, ask the person you got them from what GH, KH and PH they kept them in. That is where you will get your answer. If you can't ask this (like if you got them from a store and therefore who knows who the supplier was) then I would assume they were raised in 9 dGH. This is by far the most common GH for people to pick. In that case I would say lowering it a bit would be wise but you arent far off so don't be too worried. 

[Jackson]

On 5/30/2023 at 5:41 PM, Lennie said:

Shrimp also need a dedicated diet and Bacter AE alone isn't enough imo. Neocaridinas eat much more than low  ph friend caridinas. You can watch Marks Shrimp tanks videos and his feeding schedule for his neocaridinas. I personally use sera micron twice a week, complete shrimp food 1-2 times a week and bee pollen once a week.

I have been feeding my shrimp Hikari shrimp pellets and pleco wafers . Is that enough ? They are multiplying and colorful . Whats up with the bee pollen sounds interesting .

[Lennie]

On 6/7/2023 at 7:13 PM, Jackson said:

I have been feeding my shrimp Hikari shrimp pellets and pleco wafers . Is that enough ? They are multiplying and colorful . 

Hey Jackson,

If you face no issues and have healthy shrimp, then I bet it is fine. Mainly shrimp love to graze in an established tank.

I personally think at least having one complete shrimp food under hand is a good assistance to support their well being. What I mean by it is, a shrimp food that includes lots of herbs, good quality protein. Basically anything that shrimps need covered. 

A good example is Shrimp King Complete. The ingredients are: kelp, insect proteins, dandelion, stinging nettle, spinach, mulberry leaves, chlorella, montmorillonite, moringaoleifera, rosemary, mannanoligosaccarides, ß-glucans, flower pollen, turmeric, cinnamon.

 

I'm using a Turkish brand to support local brands. Mine has Rosemary, dandelion, laurel, lentil blossom, chamomile, paprika, nettle, peas, soybeans, milled grains, spirulina, wheat gluten. I also dose montmorillonite to the water column with water changes. It solved my molting issues totally. I dose a bio powder from time to time as well.

Generally normal brands like Hikari Shrimp food don't have these type of herbs/ingredients. 

Hikari shrimp cuisine ingredients are; Fish meal, krill meal, wheat flour, flaked corn, dehydrated alfalfa meal, brewers dried yeast, wheat germ meal, dried seaweed meal, cuttlefish meal, fish oil, alfalfa nutrient concentrate dehydrated, spirulina, chitosan, kale meal, DL-methionine, astaxanthin, garlic, minerals and vitamins including stabilized vitamin C. 

You can see the difference.

On 6/7/2023 at 7:13 PM, Jackson said:

Whats up with the bee pollen sounds interesting .

Bee pollens are rich in trace elements! Even some fish go crazy for it 😄 You just need to make sure it is organic and pesticide free. Yo ucan find plenty online for shrimp!

"Bee pollen are rich in proteins and amino acids. These proteins and amino acids ensure good cell construction, which support shrimp growth, color and breeding. Bee pollen are a good supplement to the daily shrimp feed to support the growth of your (young) shrimps. Additionally, bee pollen are full of trace elements."

[Jackson]

On 6/7/2023 at 12:54 PM, Lennie said:

A good example is Shrimp King Complete. The ingredients are: kelp, insect proteins, dandelion, stinging nettle, spinach, mulberry leaves, chlorella, montmorillonite, moringaoleifera, rosemary, mannanoligosaccarides, ß-glucans, flower pollen, turmeric, cinnamon.

 

Are they the Shrimp King Complete in stick form ? Been trying to mix up my fish food , Be good to get the shrimp a better variety as well . The bee pollen sounds great . My shrimp seem to eat the Hikari and wafers right up . Lots of little ones to feed now .

[Lennie]

On 6/7/2023 at 8:05 PM, Jackson said:

Are they the Shrimp King Complete in stick form ? Been trying to mix up my fish food , Be good to get the shrimp a better variety as well . The bee pollen sounds great . My shrimp seem to eat the Hikari and wafers right up . Lots of little ones to feed now .

Yes. They are in stick form. My shrimp food is also in a stick form and even a small piece feeds a lot. My snails love it too 😄 

You can see the sticks here. I tagged the related part for you.

 

 

If you can manage to find it, great food 🙂

 

Also for Montmorillonite, you can check this video out:

 

 

 

[Jackson]

On 6/7/2023 at 12:54 PM, Lennie said:

Bee pollens are rich in trace elements! Even some fish go crazy for it 😄 You just need to make sure it is organic and pesticide free. Yo ucan find plenty online for shrimp!

Where is good  organic bee pollen to be had ? Thanks for all your info 😊

Edited June 7, 2023 by Jackson

[Lennie]

On 6/7/2023 at 8:30 PM, Jackson said:

Where is good  organic bee pollen to be had ? Thanks for all your info 😊

When you google shrimp organic bee pollen, there is plenty of choices. Idk which one is good tho.

Sharing links of such products are against the forum rules if I'm not wrong, so I can't share any.

 

@nabokovfan87 which bee pollen you have been using?

[Jackson]

On 6/7/2023 at 1:38 PM, Lennie said:

When you google shrimp organic bee pollen, there is plenty of choices. Idk which one is good tho.

Sharing links of such products are against the forum rules if I'm not wrong, so I can't share any.

 

@nabokovfan87 which bee pollen you have been using?

 

On 6/7/2023 at 1:38 PM, Lennie said:

When you google shrimp organic bee pollen, there is plenty of choices. Idk which one is good tho.

Sharing links of such products are against the forum rules if I'm not wrong, so I can't share any.

 

@nabokovfan87 which bee pollen you have been using?

Okay , no troubles ... I'll look around . Thank you

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/7/2023 at 9:13 AM, Jackson said:

I have been feeding my shrimp Hikari shrimp pellets and pleco wafers . Is that enough ? They are multiplying and colorful . Whats up with the bee pollen sounds interesting .

Having some sort of "shrimp food" with calcium is the key. Some are better than others, but that shrimp food would be something you feed often.

The algae wafer or pollen or anything else I only feed at most once a week. I've run into some molting issues and ruling food out as a cause for concern is good.  I know others feed a variety, fresh foods, etc. That is just my method.

On 6/7/2023 at 10:38 AM, Lennie said:

@nabokovfan87 which bee pollen you have been using?

I got mine as a sample bag when purchasing shrimp online.

 

On 6/7/2023 at 10:05 AM, Jackson said:

Lots of little ones to feed now .

I feed the tank a powder food once or twice a week. Just repashy powder. There's other stuff, like sera micron and shrimp baby foods that do the same thing. You can also powderize wafers too!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 5/31/2023 at 3:35 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

There is also a lot of questions surrounding water changes, how often, specifically the method of adding water back into the shrimp tanks

When I first started my shrimp colony, it was my water change method causing some casualties.  Now that I drip water back into the tank, I don't lose shrimp @Proy

Edited June 8, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Proy]

On 6/8/2023 at 8:48 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

When I first started my shrimp colony, it was my water change method causing some casualties.  Now that I drip water back into the tank, I don't lose shrimp @Proy

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea

Thank you. 
i’ll be using the drip method moving forward.