Shrimp death & belly fanning???

[BID]

Hi!

I found today the smallest of my 6 shrimp dead and can't figure out why and am hoping for help. They seemed generally less active in the last week or two, and I have noticed that they fan their belly flaps quite a lot (though none of my shrimp are berried, at least I am pretty sure, the eggs always seem pretty obvious on photos). Is it maybe too little oxygen? 

The dead shrimp appears completely normal to me, and I found it lying on its side in the middle of the tank, still flapping it's belly fins. I put it in a glass with tank water where aber about 15minutes it stopped moving completely, even if prodded. 

It shouldn't be a shedding issue, as I think this shrimp has shed about 4 days ago. It's the smallest of the 6 (almost half the size of my biggest) so I figured it must be juvenile and it shouldn't be age.

I do have some worms in there that I can't seem to get rid of, but I'm quite sure none of them are planaria. Seems to be some sort of white flat worm that usually sticks to the glass and very thin hair like ones that float around. 

All my cherry shrimp are solid red, so I can't see if they have bacterial infection. There always seems to be one of two that are paler/mottled but as they shed I think it's that? I have a hard time keeping them apart tbh

I did a 50% water change and removed most of the floating plants in case there wasn't enough aeration.

My goal with making this post is to maybe find out what might have killed it/how to avoid further deaths. I'm happy for any advice!

 

Background/setup: 

This is my first aquarium, just as a disclaimer, so I'm gonna list...everything, not that I oversaw sth stupid.

I got 6 cherry shrimp and 5 MTS(that have made about two dozen babies by now) approx. 5 weeks ago. The tank had been set up and running w/ plants and filter 4 weeks before that.

It's ~25L, running a sponge filter with air pump, have some java fern and moss, wood, flourite black sand, and dwarf grass(?) and a lot of tiny floating plants on top. The light sold with the aquarium (very bright) and a desk lamp (less bright) that I use sporadically.

They get fed JBL 'Nano Prawn' pellets (which they don't seem to be fond of) and sometimes blanched spinach/peas/lettuce (which they will fight eachother for). Would they starve themselves for not getting the beloved spinach&peas???

Measured half an hour ago upon finding the dead shrimp:

PH: 7.2  

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: ~5 (now probably 2.5 as I just did a 50% water change)

Temp: 22-24C

I do use dechlorinator (tetra tap safe).

I currently don't have a gh/kh test but it's on the shopping list. They have a small piece (2x2cm) of cuttle bone permanently floating around the tank, as Glasgow water is supposedly soft and between snails and shrimp i figured they'd need it.

It has been stable like this for at least 3 weeks now, before that, week 1-2 of having the shrimp, the ph was a little lower and small amounts of ammonia/nitrite.

From what I read this should all be fine? 

Edited December 22, 2018 by BID
Accidentally posted too early, sry!

[jayc]

5 hours ago, BID said:

They have a small piece (2x2cm) of cuttle bone permanently floating around the tank, as Glasgow water is supposedly soft and between snails and shrimp i figured they'd need it.

Without a GH and KH test kit, you wouldn't know if it's needed or not. If you can buy a TDS pen, that would help as well to get the TDS measurement. 

Remove the cuttle fish bone for now, at least until you get your test GH/KH kits.

A cuttle fish bone doesn't know when to stop releasing calcium, so that will keep climbing, and it could be too much calcium in the water.

Also note that calcium doesn't get utilised as efficiently if there isn't Magnesium as well in a 4:1 ratio (Ca:Mg).

If you have Magnesium sulfate in the form of Epsom salts, then add a little, a pinch or two for a 25L tank. Just make sure it pure Epsom Salts, without fragrance or other additive that can be added for baths.

 

5 hours ago, BID said:

before that, week 1-2 of having the shrimp, the ph was a little lower and small amounts of ammonia/nitrite.

The impacts of ammonia on shrimp can only surface a week or 2 after. So this is also a possibility.

 

Report back when you get your GH/KH test kit.

[BID]

@jayc 

Thanks for the advice! The bone was removed and I've been doing 3 waterchanges a week now (still no parameter changes) and have been feeding less (based on someone else's advice).  So far (toi toi toi) there have been no further deaths, but these friends are definitely unhappy and hiding, unlike before.

 

I now got a TDS pen, and GH/KH test!

Gh: 2

Kh:<1 (i couldn't figure out how to do half a drop)

 

So those are horribly low...

 

My TDS pen apparently needs configuring and I dont have the solution to do that, which i didnt know, but unconfigured it says: 37  (28 for tap water) which is also really low (assuming its anywhere near correct)

 

To make things even better, i spotted Vorticella on some, so I'm gonna get aquarium salt to fix that *sighs*

 

Do you have advice/experience with raising gh/kh?

 

(i totally overread the epsom salts until rereading your response now, i'll get on that)

 

 

[jayc]

8 hours ago, BID said:

Do you have advice/experience with raising gh/kh?

Now we know your water parameters, we can adjust it.

What you need is some remineralising mix, like Salty Shrimp GH/KH+. It will have Calcium and Magnesium premixed in a powder that you add to the tank, following some instructions on the packet. So don't worry about getting epsom salts for now.

Some of out UK members might be able to chime in on where to buy some. @sdlTBfanUK, might know.

 

8 hours ago, BID said:

My TDS pen apparently needs configuring and I dont have the solution to do that, which i didnt know, but unconfigured it says: 37  (28 for tap water) which is also really low (assuming its anywhere near correct)

That is very low indeed. Even with it unconfigured, it will probably only be a few ppm off, tens at the most.

 

[sdlTBfanUK]

At last, something I know I know, the drop test kits. I do all my drop tests by half drops, easy peasey, instead of 5ml of tank water (1st line on my testtube) use double water ie 10ml (2nd line on my test tubes) so each drop is a half. You can do quarters (each drop) etc same way, ie 20ml (or fourth line on my test tubes. This works for ALL droplet kits............ hope I have explained it properly, let me know if not and I will try again.

Good luck with the rest of it hopefully someone else can help with that!

Simon

Looks like JayC and I posted at the same time. I always use

www.pro-shrimp.co.uk as they have the best range, service and prices.

Edited December 28, 2018 by sdlTBfanUK

[Zoidburg]

If GH is confirmed at 2, then TDS should be a minimum of ~35 ppm. 1 German Degree in hardness is 17.86ppm

Tap water generally runs higher though when it comes to TDS. My tap is, on average, 3 GH and 3 KH. The TDS usually ran around 56-67ish? Which honestly isn't that high!

 

If a TDS of 28 is accurate, then the GH may be around 1.5 rather than 2.