Jump to content

Shrimpy Business


SUSS8

Recommended Posts

Hey everyone,

My names Muss and from melbourne. I have been researching a fair bit on shrimp as far as habitats, keeping & breeding them for a little while and for Xmas was given a Fluval EBI shrimp habitat.

I set it all up and had it cycled etc and purchased some RCS as some people recommended to start off with and after a few days I noticed some algae (hair algae & BBA) and slowly my shrimp have continued to die off! I had one berried female and she has now gone too.

Also my floating fern ball I had to trim because of BBA and the long stringy plant in the back right I've had to pull out because of how bad it had gotten also.

2nu1x95.jpg

Ph: 6.4

High range Ph: 7.4

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrite: 0ppm

Nitrate: 5.0ppm

kh: 89.5ppm

gh:107.4ppm

so hopefully with the knowledge of others here I can sort out my issue and maybe start over again with some success !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to SKF. Thanks for sharing a pic of yir tank too.

----- Sent from my mobile so apologising in advance for any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Muss, your PH fluctuation from 6.4-7.4 is HIGH, I preferably would prefer a lower KH, but your cherries should be OK in those WP you posted, except for you PH fluctuation. Is that an internal filter ? Best to ensure future shrimplets do not get sucked up. 4 little suggestion.

1. 20% Water Change

2. Increase aeration (Air Sponge Filter ?)

3. Add a Catappa Leaf ..

4. Find out the reason for your 1 degree PH fluctuation ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Muss' date=' your PH fluctuation from 6.4-7.4 is HIGH, I preferably would prefer a lower KH, but your cherries should be OK in those WP you posted, except for you PH fluctuation. Is that an internal filter ? Best to ensure future shrimplets do not get sucked up. 4 little suggestion.

1. 20% Water Change

2. Increase aeration (Air Sponge Filter ?)

3. Add a Catappa Leaf ..

4. Find out the reason for your 1 degree PH fluctuation ?[/quote']

hey Bluebolts,

yeah it's an internal filter but I'm wanting to purchase an eheim canister soon instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to SKF mate. Theres little further advice I can give you other than what has already been said. Best of luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

G'day Muss...Welcome to SKF...You've already been given advice by Bluebolts...Try that first...With the algae hair problem try to get some natives Darwin Algae Shrimps(Caridina sp NTnilotica), they are great for clearing it up ... And finally, sorry to hear the lost of your cherry shrimps...Not nice to experience dead shrimps, but hopefully you'll learn from it and perservere to become a successful shrimp keeper/breeder...Best of luck mate...CJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey buddy I remember you ! :D

I'd also be very worried about your pH Swings.

You'd wanna get on top of that asap.

Any ideas on why it could be swinging so much?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to SKF,

As you have already read, heaps of good advice and good shrimp luvvin people here. I hope the advice they give you will help you get things back to good. Sorry I cant give you any, just learning myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

just a question with your ph and high ph?

Its not 2 seperate tests is it?? my api kit has a normal ph range that does 6.0-7.6 and a high ph that tests 7.4-8.8 for higher ph range.

The first ph of 6.4 may be your actual ph and the High ph kit is just bottoming out in its test range, therefore displays 7.4.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome! Good to see another Melbournian on the forum.

I myself have recently joined and am a relative noob when it comes to shrimp.

I'm also looking to start up with some cherries, but my eyes are bigger than my wallet atm.

I recently turned down an offer that most others here would have been chomping at the bit for, but I'm not ready for them.

So far I've only kept some natives, which are known to be more forgiving but would love to put in a handful of cherries into my Dymax IQ5 for a bit of colour.

Let me know how you go with finding some cherries. So far I haven't seen any entry level ones in the classifieds here, or any "freebies".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TRIGGS long time no speak bud !! I'm finally back lol

I have been using flourish excel lately to try and clear up my BBA issue. I have been doing regular water changes 50/50 RO water.

I have been retesting and my ph level has stayed as normal Nd everything else has been fine no issues what so ever. Out of 10 RCS (including one Berried female) i only have one male left and only noticed him because he was swimming around the tank.

i am thinking of removing my java fern from my driftwood and topiary ball and adding some fresh healthy plants hoping that will get rid of the BBA so if anyone has some mosses available I would be very much interested !!

also, my LFS sells RCS which is where I purchased mine from for $1 each but in saying that I don't believe it would have been a fault of mine from their deaths as everything was spot on before I purchased them and within an 2 hours they just started dropping like flies. So I may look at purchasing some from a forum member here ! hoping someone has some RCS available.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mate welcome to SKF I am sure that within a couple of days you will have all the info you need to sort out your problems

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • sdlTBfanUK
      Time for another update! The PH this morning is 6 and KH 0-1 (you can't measure zero obviously). I plan to check everything tomorrow and then a water change on satuday. At the moment the TDS is 190 which should drop to 170 after a water change and then 150ish after the following/next weeks water change. Last time I checked GH it was 6, but again I will do ALL the tests tomorrow. I had to resort to using a PH/KH- product (AQUACID) to get to where these parameters are now but as the water I use has PH6, GH0 and KH0 I assume/hope I won't need to use that from here on, but will see if the parameters stay stable for the next week and have a PH alert disc in the tank which should indicate any significant change. I don't like using these sort of products as a general rule and wouldn't if there were any shrimps in situ and that product has raised the TDS at about .5TDS per drop. I may well order some blue bolts towards the end of next week (the road to the house will be closed for a month from 3rd June so it is next week or wait another 6 weeks) and see how that goes. I plan to drip acclimate them overnight this time so as to not rush that as it shouldn't get cold indoors overnight anyway this time of year. This all depends on the tank parameters staying stable for the next week (aside from the mentioned TDS adjustments with the water changes), though the GH  may drop a tiny bit with using just RO to reduce the TDS but that is fine, and even could be a bonus. I did manage to find some nice floating plant that I had before (good old ebay), and will try and get a photo of that at some point to attach, Azolla red I think it is called? Anyway, keeping my fingers crossed for now but all appears to be going well at this point! Snails seem to be doing well at least.   
    • beanbag
      That shrimp itself survived the molt just fine, but left about half dozen eggs still in the shell. I haven't measured KH in a really long time, but assume it is zero since I don't have any rocks besides a few small pieces of lava rock.  Maybe you have unwanted rocks in your tank?  My tank is the "long" style which I really like because I have a HMF on one end, and a pump outlet spout that shoots water all the way to the other end.  I have no idea how many shimp it can support because I don't really understand waste management in a tank.  Shrimp poop eventually turns into mulm, but then what?
    • sdlTBfanUK
      As at time of this post the SL Aqua is available from this UK website, https://gbeeshrimp.co.uk/product/z1/
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Just in case someone may be looking for the SL Aqua it is available from this UK website at time of this post, https://gbeeshrimp.co.uk/product/z1/  
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Thats a great photo, beautiful blue bolt, I hope it survived the molt without dropping the eggs! I think I can just about see some black dots (eyes) on the central egg but can't be 100% sure. I used to (and plan to again) do weekly water change of 10-15% but if you do too large or quick (not drip in new water) that would likely trigger a molt. What KH are they in, my new setup is sitting at (and refusing to budge) KH 3 and PH 7.5 so I may have to settle for neocaridina shrimp this time as opposed to the caridina I want, though not looking/deciding just yet, give the tank a bit more of a run in! Tap water here starts at kH 14, tds 320, when filtered goes to KH 0 and PH 6 but when put in the tank keeps going to KH3 and PH 7.5 despite 3 x 50% water changes???? You may be at 'maximum capacity' with only 20L tank especially if the tank is a cube type rather than shallow type?
×
×
  • Create New...