cherry shrimp dying 1 or 2 a day

[blackout_titan]

Hello everyone about a month ago i purchased some etsi rasboras and 20 cherry shrimp. i also added about 7 other cherry shrimp from another tank i had when they arrived. both rasboras and cherry shrimp have been doing well for about 3 weeks but since the start of this week 2/12/2024 i have found 1 or 2 dead shrimp a day . below i have everything i could get on my tank and any helpful input would be very much appreciated. i also attached a picture of the tank aswell 

 

 

 

 

Tank

What is the water volume of the tank? 29 gal

How long has the tank been running? 1year

Does it have a filter? aqueon 30 hob filter with intake sponge

Does it have a heater? yes set at 75f

What is the water temperature? 75F

What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 9 juvenile etsi rasboras and 27 cherry shrimp

 

Maintenance

How often do you change the water? 10-25% waterchange every 2ish weeks

What do you use to treat your water? api stress coat

Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? vacuum the substrate every other waterchange 

 

*Parameters - Very Important

Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? yes

What do you use to test the water? aquarium coop test strips and api gh kh test kit

What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0ppm

Nitrate: 25ppm

pH: 6.8

gh: 11

kh: 80ppm

 

Feeding

How often do you feed your fish? feed the rasboras 2 timesa day a throw a couple pellets of xtreme shrimp food every other day

What brand of food do you feed your fish. xtreme shrimp pellets and fluval bug bites

 

Illness & Symptoms

How long have you had this fish? for about 4 weeks

Edited February 15 by blackout_titan

[cmo1922]

Hello, I'm sorry you are having trouble with your shrimp. You are not alone, I also struggled when I started keeping shrimp! My first batch all died when I tried to start my colony.

Your parameters and other conditions for the shrimp look pretty good for neocardina. But some things you maybe want to consider, and some questions.

Do you know the water parameters of the seller? Even if your parameters are "in range" if they are pretty different from what they were bred and raised in, you can encounter issues. In general for neos, it is good to buy local so you can get shrimp used to your local water. If you can't buy local, find a seller who has gH kH and pH similar to yours.

How did you acclimate the shrimp? I typically plop and drop if the parameters are similar to mine, but if not, drip acclimation is a good idea. With a timeline like 4 weeks, though, probably less related to acclimation and more related to general parameters or disease.

Did you get the shrimp as adults? Usually the adults will have a more difficult time acclimating to your water if it is very different parameters to what they are bred in. Sub adults tend to do better.

Check your gH and kH bottle expiration. You may not have accurate results if expired. I believe these expire very quickly compared to other API tests so it can catch you off guard.

Do you see any lesions on the shrimp? I believe there is a good disease guide here https://aquariumbreeder.com/understanding-dwarf-shrimp-diseases-and-parasites/

Finally, though some folks keep neos at a slightly acidic pH, in my experience they do best at neutral to alkaline pH, and higher kH. When I was keeping them below 7 pH will a kH of whatever 3 drops is on the kit, my colony did not do so well. My current colony lives in pH of 7.8-8, gH 12-15, kH of 8 and they do very well.

 

 

[Dancing Matt]

You may need to feed more. Watch and see how long it takes for the shrimp to finish off the pellets. Do the pellets last till you feed the next time or are they gone by 24hrs and the shrimp are having to wait 24hrs for another feeding.

[blackout_titan]

im not sure what the sellers parameters were. i bought them from aqua hauna 

i drip acclimated them for about 3-4 hours before adding them to the tank.

i do not beileve thy were adults. they were much smaller then my other shrimp i have

both my gh and kh bottles dont expire until 2028

any advice on how to raise my ph easier. out of the tap its around a 7.2-7.8 ph but seems to drop over time

i throw a few in there and some days its all gone the next day and sometimesthere are a few pellets left over. i do feed 5-6 pellets at a time

i also see no signs of lesions or parasites

[cmo1922]

Hello, if your pH is potentially dropping from 7.8 to 6.8 over time, this could certainly be the issue. This was happening to me when I first had trouble with my colony, when I had very soft water. The swing could be affecting your shrimp. Though your kH is not terribly low (I'm assuming that is the kH in your tank), you still may need to raise it to help prevent you pH from dropping like this. I would suggest raising the kH of your tank water a little, maybe by 3 degrees kH to target 6 dkH (not sure what that is in ppm).

You can do this by adding some alkaline buffer (I used to use the seachem one). I would suggest adding enough to raise by 1 dkH daily until you reach your target (say 6 dkH). Then try to keep the same kH when you do your water changes by adding the necessary buffer to keep it around 6. I would suggest monitoring your kH for a while so you can see how quickly the kH and pH are changing and then you can better know a schedule for adding some buffer to the water.

If you don't want to be adding buffer powders, you can try some crushed coral. Note that it will increase your gH too. Your gH is already on the higher side so I would probably just go with the alkaline buffer and start slow with frequent pH and kH monitoring.

Note that these changes may not save the current shrimp. But if you start with another batch this could make a difference for them.