Is this a moulting issue?

[DKC]

I seemed to have this RCS do fine until today. Yesterday, I did put in some new yellow cherries in, they were in water which was blue tinged. I did drip acclimatise them but some of the water went into the tank.

This morning my red cherries which were the originals and have been in for three months are swimming up then tipping on their sides and becoming immobile. A few of them are doing this.

Temp is 22, TDS is 92, ph is 6.6, ammonia 0.25ppm, nitrites 0, nitrates max 20 (the orange colour between 10and 20 is too subtle for me.)

Not sure what when wrong? Fish unaffected. One of the new yellows died and some of the new yellows are behaving oddly with tending to move around arched the wrong way.

The reds were doing fine till today.

Can I put a video clip on to show what is happening?

[jayc]

35 minutes ago, DKC said:

TDS is 92, ammonia 0.25ppm

You have ammonia !

That's the problem.  How old is your tank?

Do a large water change quickly.

Do you have another tank that has been running for more than a few months?

 

And why is TDS so low? Are you using RO water and not remineralising ?

Edited April 11, 2019 by jayc

[DKC]

It is now about 3 months old. Been 0 ammonia since 5th March. Honestly, the ammonia test colour was just slightly off yellow but not quite to the 0.25ppm yellow green but just the fact that it registered ammonia, I did a 40% water change. I did put in a small amount of living black worm for the fish this morning. Never done that before. And on opening the bag, boy, it did smell rank. Maybe this was the source of the ammonia? The only other thing added was a bunch of Ceratopteris. I removed the lead wire before putting them in the tank. 

Funny thing...the Darwin Algae Eater shrimp are totally unaffected.

Edited April 11, 2019 by DKC

[DKC]

Oh and the water out of the tap has TDS of 45. I don’t have RO. I can’t lay hands on any Salty Shrimp remineraliser so far.

[jayc]

Time to try making your own remineraliser.

Rank smelling blank worms mean that your bag had some dead works in it.  And that would be a source of ammonia. 

How do the shrimp look after the water change? 

[DKC]

You are right about the ammonia @jayc.... after the water change the DAS remained fine, some of the RCS seemed to settle but by the morning could see that 5 had died. A few looked like they were drunk and going a little white. So retested again and the ammonia had shot up to 2ppm from almost  0 after the change. Did about a sixty percent water change. Some of the red and yellows outwardly seem fine but some look sick. I wonder if some are more susceptible to ammonia levels. 

After water change and careful vacuum of substrate, the retest shows a slight tinge of green, not quite 0.25 but not over. Hope for the best. All fish accounted for, so no dead or missing fish. Maybe I should not put blackworm in the tank....

gosh these shrimp are like canaries.

[DKC]

Actually, I wonder if I have crashed my nitrogen cycle? Retested now 6 hours after water change and ammonia going up to 1ppm. Nitrites have remained 0 throughout. Prior to this week, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 10 to 20. TDS sometimes up to 190. pH always been around 6 to 6.2. The reds were doing fine up until the last 36 hours.

[jayc]

Yeah, sounds like something has happened to your beneficial bacteria. 

Do you have another tank/filter that you can seed bacteria in a hurry? If not, any friends with fish tanks? 

Last resort get some filter squeezings from a LFS.

You got to get that tank going again, or the rest of the shrimps will suffer.

Edited April 12, 2019 by jayc

[sdlTBfanUK]

Hope you can get on top of this. Are you sure the tank was properly cycled from the beginning, I have 'heard' some peoples tanks CAN take months to properly cycle, or even not start cycling at all until livestock is added? Did you add the fish and shrimps all in one go at the start as that may have caused the cycle to go out?

Your TDS seems to be all over the place so you probably need to try and pinpoint what is causing that if you can? Do you get a lot of evaporation as if you then top up with tap water that will raise the TDS. JayC has covered the PH and KH adjustment already, have you tried that yet.

Even if you can't get remineralisers locally in the shops, how about through the post?

Definitely don't use those dead worms! Anyway, would you want to eat something that smelt that bad..............

JayC has just replied so hopefully that will help. Jojo on here set up a bucket when she had a problem and kept the shrimps in there until the tank settled, is that an option?

 

Simon

[DKC]

I actually have two filters in the tank. A sponge filter and a HOB. Will get much from another tank and put it in and see. Luckily the RCS are not the most expensive but nonetheless upsetting when they die.