Identify illness

[Gael]

I am new to shrimps.
I had 7 neocaridina blue velvet since 1 month. I lost a couple in the very beginning but all the others seems to be very fine. Then one day most of them disappeared but I discover they were mating and 1 female was berried. Since then they hide much more and I realise they have an illness. I can see white on the legs. I did a salt treatment on one but it did not helped. The shrimps don’t move and don’t go on the moss as before. Kh is between 3,5 and 4, ph is around 7. Amonium nitrite and nitrate are fine, i have Chili Rasbora doing well . I thought it was a mold issue due to low kh I reduced ph and put a catalpa leave. I had to leave for some days and when I came back I see only 2 shrimps. This one has white on legs and stopped eating. She move her legs I thought it was for her eggs but I am not sure. They dont go on catalpa leave. They always stays in the dark so it’s difficult to observe. What should I do?

[sdlTBfanUK]

The photo is a bit blurred and in the shade for me to see much! Have a look through this link and see if that helps in any way.

https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/topic/5052-shrimp-diseases-and-diagnosis/

If you have fish (albeit small Rasboras) and a small tank then the shrimp will naturally hide more than if they are alone in an aquarium.

Hopefully someone can help but the more information you can give the better!

[Gael]

Thanks for your feedback.

I am coming back because I am uncertain on what I should do.

There are some good and bad news.

Bad news is that since last post, I think I lost one more shrimp. I see only 4 of them. Also I discovered some planarian. I just started the no planarian treatment yesterday.

I have scuds too, I could get some but the remaining are now much more cautious and hide. Not sure what to do with it.
The kh is very low, slightly under 3. I add water at 4kh but somehow it doesn’t evolve. I don’t want to introduce water too different since it s a nano and evthg can go so fast. I have the fluval bio stratum. I was thinking to add some crushed coral but I don’t have place in filter nor want to add it on the dark substract.

On the positive side, the berried female is giving birth and I have seen at least 4 shrimplets. She still carries eggs.

I put a picture of an adult and 2 shrimplets, can u see them?

Finally this morning, I saw a male going crazy and actually mating the other female. Does it means that there are not so unhappy after all? Their behavior seem much more normal since last time.

I barely feed them since they never eated my hikari shrimp cuisine but yesterday I did a test and they eated it. (Not the scuds) So I plan to feed them more regularly. I also bought bacter AE. Fishes go well

[jayc]

I cannot see anything wrong with your shrimps.

KH at 3 is fine for Neos.

But why are you fighting the substrate by adding water with more KH?

Fluval Bios stratum has a tendancy for slightly acidic water. Which means lower KH.

I quote from Fluval website :

"+ helps support a neutral to slightly acidic pH - ideal for live plants as well as tropical fish and shrimp commonly kept in planted aquariums
+ softens water naturally, reducing carbonate hardness" .

If you want KH to stabilise at 3 or 4, some crushed coral is a good idea. I add some in my tanks in an old pantyhose, and bury it in the substrate so it cannot be seen.

[sdlTBfanUK]

I see the 2 shrimplets, very exciting and the shrimp in the photo look very healthy!

The KH is fine at 3 and slowly dropping because of the substrate, but still in the acceptable range. Not sure about your tank size, other than 'nano' but if you have fish in that same tank (I think I see one in the photo blrred and at the back) I would do 25% weekly water changes (mainly because of the fish) and that will help counter the substrate as well, until the substrate is 'exhausted' of its buffering ability. Use the same kh4 new water as currently and always add the new water slowly, a drip method is best. Obviously you will need to be extra careful when removing the old water that you don't remove any of the new shrimplets........

Try not to change too much though as you may do more harm than good and it looks like everything is actually already going well, visible mating behavour and shrimplets doing well. Hope you manage to get rid of the planaria and that usually involves sizeable water changes in the process so complete that first and from then do the 25% regular water change routine.

As the population grows you will need to increase the amount of food but be cautious not to overfeed. The bacter AE should help with biofilm growth etc but it isn't actually a food for the shrimps, though you may see them eating some if it isn't dissolved fully.

The scuds are harmless and I would (and did in the past) remove them manually when you see them.

[Gael]

Maybe it’s time to give some feedback. I forgot the time I could see only 2 shrimps, since then the population has grown so much that I gave 30 of them a couple of months ago. Then again now I think the population went over 120 and I am giving again about 70 of them.

Not sure why they died in the beginning, maybe they were quite old. They were fairly big! Or it was the planaria?

I got rid of them and scuds. The second one was not easy. It was out of control so I emptied all the shrimp population from the tank and poured sparkling water for a couple of hours. Some scuds survived that! But eventually they disappeared in some weeks after manual removal each time I could see one.
My only problem is that plants dont go well anymore.  xmass moss, dwarf hair grass and anubia nana go very well but other plants progressively died. (Not suddenly)

- Is it due to shrimp over population?

- the sparkling water treatment ? 
- i can’t see other issue, i provide generous lighting, co, fertilizer (in soil and in water). I have a bit of algae but under control. 

[sdlTBfanUK]

Thanks for taking the time to do the update and photo. Very pleased to hear it is now going so well.

Different plants have different requirements so you need to check they will thrive/survive with the setup, light requirement/co2 etc or just get more of what you have, there are various Anubias if you want some variety. The number of shrimp shouldn't affect what plants do well! Maybe just get one plant at 6 month intervals and have another go, things change in time and you don't need many in a small tank, and the ones you already have will grow over time as well.

Good to hear you got rid of the scuds, I did the same, manual removal when I had them, but I caught it quite quickly and only had substrate in the tank!