How to improve shrimplet surivival rate

[Notshrimpboy]

I have just joined SKF and looking for help from more experienced shrimp keepers. I have a 10G planted tank with lots of java ferns, mosses, annubias and water wisteria in Fluval plant/shrimp substrate. There is also a layer of duckweed on the water surface to remove nitrate. There is a sponge filter and a separate air stone for aeration. The water parameters are PH=7, KH=1, GH=4 and TDS=120. There are on average 10+ berried shrimps at any one time. But after 1.5 months, I can only find 3-4 babies surviving. The only other inhabitant of the tank are Assassin snails. Some of the berried shrimps lose the entire batch and I don't see any surviving babies. The shrimps are fed with ZooMed pellets and Shiakura powder. I only clean the glass on the front of the aquarium. And I do about a 10% water change every week with RO water and Seachem Equilibrium 

Please suggest what could be hurting the shrimplet survival rate.

[perplex]

Welcome

May i ask what type of shrimp you are keeping

[Notshrimpboy]

Sorry. I thought I had covered everything in my post but left out some key information. My post refers to crystal shrimps; both CRS and CBS.

[Disciple]

Hello @Notshrimpboy

First of all welcome to SKF.

Now your WP look fine except for the ph, It is a little high for CRS & CBS but this alone should not cause your a low survival rate.

Have you checked for ammonia, nitrites and nitrate recently? What is the temperature of your tank?

How big is the colony? could the adults be out competing the shrimplets for food? What do you usually feed and how often?

Not many answer but hopefully we can find one for you.

[fishmosy]

Assasian snails will eat shrimp but wont be solely responsible for the losses you have described. 

Do you target feed your newly hatched shrimplets?

Do you conduct large wate changes when new shrimplets are present?

During water changes, do you drip new water into the tank or pour it in (i.e. Are there likely to be substantial changes in water parameters during water changes?)

 

[Notshrimpboy]

Thank you for everyone's queries and inputs. Please keep them coming.

I feed ZooMed pellets to the adults of about 1-2 pellets per day. I usually drop some Shiakura baby powder on the surface of the water that opens up to about a 2-3 inch (diameter) circle (5-7mm). The powder drops to the water column and on to the various plants and substrate. Therefore, I have not been target feeding the babies. I have not checked for nitrate, nitrite and ammonia but will do so later today. Since I use an aged sponge filter and have an abundance of immersed as well as emmersed plants, I had assumed that these parameters are not critical in my situation. I will double check now.

The colony is about 25-30 CRS/CBS. They are mostly adults. There are usually about 9-10 berried shrimps in the tank at any one time. I have also assumed, may be incorrectly, that just because conditions are fine for the adults to carry berries, they may not be good enough for the babies to survive.

When I change water (usually not more than 10%), I pre-mix the new water (RO) separately with Seachem Equilibrium and then drip them slowly into the sponge filter uplift tube. The new water is within 2-3 deg C of the tank water. The pH and TDS should be practically the same as the tank water.

Thanks for your help.

[Notshrimpboy]

I forgot to mention that tank water temperature is 72F or 22.2C.

[Disciple]

On ‎20‎/‎01‎/‎2016 at 5:55 AM, Notshrimpboy said:

Thank you for everyone's queries and inputs. Please keep them coming.

I feed ZooMed pellets to the adults of about 1-2 pellets per day. I usually drop some Shiakura baby powder on the surface of the water that opens up to about a 2-3 inch (diameter) circle (5-7mm). The powder drops to the water column and on to the various plants and substrate. Therefore, I have not been target feeding the babies. I have not checked for nitrate, nitrite and ammonia but will do so later today. Since I use an aged sponge filter and have an abundance of immersed as well as emmersed plants, I had assumed that these parameters are not critical in my situation. I will double check now.

The colony is about 25-30 CRS/CBS. They are mostly adults. There are usually about 9-10 berried shrimps in the tank at any one time. I have also assumed, may be incorrectly, that just because conditions are fine for the adults to carry berries, they may not be good enough for the babies to survive.

When I change water (usually not more than 10%), I pre-mix the new water (RO) separately with Seachem Equilibrium and then drip them slowly into the sponge filter uplift tube. The new water is within 2-3 deg C of the tank water. The pH and TDS should be practically the same as the tank water.

Thanks for your help.

Your water parameters all look fine, so I believe we can rule out wp issues. Only your Ph seems a little high.

Have you had a chance to check ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? any chance you can put a pic up of the tank. It might help us spot something.

[jayc]

After reading all the info presented ... my immediate suspicion jumped to Nitrates as a possible cause.

Assuming you have a matured filter and Ammonia and Nitrites are zero, since the adults are ok.

Since you have not checked it, I would check Nitrates asap.

 

 

Edited January 22, 2016 by jayc

[larrymull]

I know nitrates did me over in the past with shrimplet survival rates.

 

[jayc]

And if Nitrates are high for Notshrimpboy, I'm sure Larrymull remembers what we did to reverse it ! 

 

[Clansman]

I would consider soil or substrate for being toxic , when I first set up my first shrimp,tank Taiwan bees and f1s I was given bad advice to put bacter AE under the soil , I ended up with almost 20'females constantly berried but never saw a single baby , this went on for 4 months , I set up,a new tank moved over aprox 60 adults including berried females and within days had my first babies and survival was very high.

 My prl tank has been running for 18 months on red bee soil, but in the last 4 to 5 months survival of babies has really declined so couple of weeks ago I set up another and moved them over with new glasgarten soil , 5 days ago I had my first babies and tonight there foraging all over including the substrate and doing great .

I think with time our substrates level of bad bacteria build up, I am now using beemax to assist with healthy bacteria to try and break down waste etc , and in future if no breeding I will use a nano substrate cleaner 

 

[Notshrimpboy]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you very much for your inputs. They are very valuable.

I had the water tested for Nitrate/Nitrite/Ammonia and they are all fine. They registered at the lowest level  on the test strip. The Fluval substrate in the tank is only about 3 months old. I started with new substrate in a new tank last September using aged sponge filter. It was left cycling for a month before I put CRS/CBS shrimps in it. They have been in there for 2+ months.

I am getting the sense that my setup may be just fine. Perhaps it was something that I did such as not rinsing my hands before I stuck them in the tank one time or changing water too drastically. I may just need to do less cleaning for the next several weeks to see if more shrimplets survive.

Thanks to everyone.