Totally devastated start to shrimp keeping

[Zorba]

As the title says "totally devastated" !

Over the last few days most of my shrimp have died. Now I know what it feels like and it sucks

From excitement to them arriving my first ever shrimp , several becoming berried , spotting a couple of shrimplets to then seeing them dieing off

I have been doing water changes of around 10 to 20 % every week. I use tap water and let it age and then add  prime, superchlor, and quick atart

I use an inert sand as the substate ,cholla ,and plenty of moss in the tank , no fish. I feed them Boss aquaria Shrimp Crack every 3 days

Originally starting with about 25 blue gene red rillis that Disciple was so kind to send me and now about 8 are left

PH is about 7

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Sorry Disciple for not looking after them , I feel pretty bad

Any idea guys to what I have or not done right?

[perplex]

do you know your TDS?

GH and KH too?

 

Edited September 22, 2015 by perplex

[jc12]

Did you know what is your nitrate, temperature and TDS?

[Disciple]

@Zorba

Dont stress man and dont panic. We all have been in this position. Never ever give up, i have gone down to 2 shrimp before and recovered.

Now if you can find out the info jc12 and perps have asked.

Can you think of when the shrimp started to die? Do you remember anything that was done differently during that time? And bug spray being used near the tank? What did the dead shrimp look like?

Take a few pictures of the tank we may be able to see something you missed.

When you do your water change how do you add the water back?

[Zorba]

TDS is 213

Temp is 22 C

Nitrate is close to 0

Sorry don't know GH or KH , will have to grab a test kit for that tomorrow

No spray or anything new that I recall , but who knows what goes on when I am at work

When doing water changes I siphon the new water into the tank using 4mm airline hose so it is a slow way 

I just had a thought, I remember a few of them moulting within a few days of getting them. Since I have not seen an exoskeleton, so perhaps they are having troubles moulting. Can they die from this?

I also have a mineral ball in the tank

[Disciple]

Yes they can die if they have difficulties molting.

Do you add any minerals when you go your water changes?

[perplex]

Yes they can die if they have difficulties molting.

Do you add any minerals when you go your water changes?

i was goig to say maybe molting issue, and bam! you said it

 

i think i had this issue, i got down to 4 shrimp, then started adding minerials and used rainwater and fixed it all

 

[Zorba]

No because I thought you only add minerals if using r/o

I do have Boss mineral balls in the tank

[perplex]

can you add minerals if your TDS already 200+? @Disciple wont it make it to high?

[Zorba]

So should I add Mineral powder?

[Disciple]

Ok so if you use RO water your remineralise it using a product like Salty Shrimp. Since your tap water is already 200 tds I would not recommend you use this product.

I also use another product called benibachi minerals which are stocked by some of our sponsors which from my understanding add a different set of minerals into the water column which among other things help shrimps with moulting. Boss aquaria also have a product called Mineral powder that does the same thing. It has minimal effects on the tds.

I use it once or twice a week as I believe it replenishes certain minerals the shrimp use up.

I would be very interested to see pictures of your dead shrimp as it would help.

[perplex]

did they just drop off 1 a day or?

[Zorba]

Believe it not I am probably the only person that does not have a smartphone or a decent camera. I tried taking a pic from the rubbish camera I have and it is too blurry

I have Boss mineral powder so I will add some now

I am not going to give up , I just hate them dying from my bad management 

Maybe 2 a day ? I saw some on their sides and then upright and this may have gone on over several hours. The next day they were dead

[Disciple]

Was there any discolouration on the shrimp?

Follow the intructions and add a bit of mineral powder. So how it goes.

[revolutionhope]

hey zorba,

im 100% certain you should not be adding quick start and superchlor and prime. the quick start is a bit if a useless product.

especially if your cycle is established (ie no ammonia and nitrites anymore)

and prime is a dechlorinator as well as heavy metal detoxifier so you should not use superchlor as well.

I've no idea if it would suddenly cause die-offs but it's worth considering that if you have been overdoing the prime and superchlor then the sodium tetrasulfate (or whatever it is) and other additives could be accumulating more and more each time you do a WC.

I'm no expert but I am doubtful that you be having so many die-offs in a short period because of moulting issues. Moulting issues will cause gradual casualties..

Unless you are finding dead shrimp that are partially-moulted and died while doing the process then I can't imagine that this would cause so many sudden deaths but again this is just my somewhat noob opinion.

Anyway i do know you should just be adding prime and not using those other 2 products. The superchlor is an inferior duplicate and the quickstart isnt useful at all at this stage.

You might want to do a single large WC and see if that resolves your situation (do it very slowly make sure it is a drip and not a trickle - ie 3+ hours to complete)

love n peace

will

i also think disciples question re discolouration is worth considering!

you could read jayc's wonderful disease/diagnosis sticky thread in the shrimp health subforum and use a magnifying glass if one dies again (hope not!) and check it out for any illness.

love n peace

will

[albash]

Zorba,

I have been at stage where no clues at all why shrimps perished a couple times already - hang on mate.

I reckon if one uses RO, most likely all minerals and heavy metals have been adsorbed. Double check the RO water with TDS - you should get 0 reading. I thought both Supachlor and Prime do the same.

I just recently purchase Supachlor (Prime too expensive then I alternative to Supachlor) to dechloronite Purigen. My brief understanding this Supachlor is to dechloronise and take up heavy metals - so not really sure if you need both Supachlor and Prime (since both appear have same function) if you use RO?

Not trying to be a smart guy - I also quite new in shrimp. I reckon a modest feeding would do and not to let the feed stays in the tank too long. Few days ago I fed them snow flake (first time feed them snow flake) and boom didn't realise it would expand. I had to siphon all leftover after 3 hours feeding - a nightmare. Sometimes overfeed can cause ammonia spike.

I reckon good minerals, modest feeding, water change and most important (from many fail experience) shrimps need stable/constant environment. I always like to link shrimp with human in term of breeding - would we want to have offspring in an unfavourable environment such as unstable economic?

 

 

 

[jayc]

I have been doing water changes of around 10 to 20 % every week. I use tap water and let it age and then add  prime, superchlor, and quick atart

Can I ask how many litres 10 - 20% is?

And how much Prime, Supachlor are you dosing?

Overdose of antichlorine can lead to oxygen depletion.

 

 One last question ... how old is this tank since you added livestock?

 

 

[Zorba]

Thanks for the advise guys , really keeps me going

Jay - normally 10 to 15 litres is the water change

2 drops of Prime per 4 litres , superchlor is a dash

I think tank was running for about 2 months with no livestock

I think your right Will , when doing previous water changes I only used prime. Unfortunately I thought more would be better. Well stupid me has all but wiped out my little friends

Well I at least have 6 left  

.

Was there any discolouration on the shrimp?

Follow the intructions and add a bit of mineral powder. So how it goes.

No discolouration

Can I ask how many litres 10 - 20% is?

And how much Prime, Supachlor are you dosing?

Overdose of antichlorine can lead to oxygen depletion.

 

 One last question ... how old is this tank since you added livestock?

 

 

shrimp have been in tank for approx. 45 days

[jayc]

20% water change per week might be too much.

Cut it down to 10% a week.

Add Prime or Supachlor (one or the other, no need for both) to the tap water and let it age a day before adding it to the tank.

[Zorba]

Will try that , thank you

[Zorba]

Since I have done 1 x 10% water change ,using prime only, and  I have seen 2 perfect moulted exoskeletons and no more deaths

Good news

Thanks for all the help

 

[Disciple]

Great news Zorba 

Keep it up

[sacurt]

This hobby can be rewarding and extremely painful as well, its great to see such support on this forum

[jayc]

You bet. SKF  is the best place to be if you need inspiration or motivation for this hobby.

Edited September 28, 2015 by jayc

[Zorba]

A recent update

All shrimp have passed away. Still don't know why and I need to work it out before I try again

I recently introduced some mini pellia and some snails were in it. As soon as I noticed them I tried to remove them with long tweezers . Generally as I crushed them a distinct crack was noticeable however snails from this tank had very soft shells. Does that mean the minerals in the water are not high enough? Can this had caused the shrimps to die off?

As previously mentioned I only use tapwater treated with prime