Dying Shrimp

[jimburns4u]

Hey guys i have been keeping crystal shrimp for about 4 months now, just last week i started noticing about one shrimp dying a day, first few times i noticed to late and the shrimp was almost totally eaten by other shrimps. The last few times however they have not been eaten. I have now had 1 shrimp die everyday for the last 2 days in another tank. 2 shrimps got berried in the same tank in the last few days and they are all coming for food and behaving normally. But there are a couple in there that there colours have rapidly deteriated in the last few days. I am a novice in the fish/shrimp world and i would appeciate any advice.

I have checked me tank peramaters and they are all steady

ph 6.6

temp 22c

kh 1

gh 5

tds 180

I have some taiwan bees in a partition in the 2nd tank and so far none have died so i want to try and get it fixed asap! cheers

[jimburns4u]

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[BlueBolts]

Sorry to hear…..taht looks like a failed moult…..touch the shrimp and see whether it's soft to touch, or whether you can feel it's shell…I suspect its soft to touch. Shrimp require calcium in the water, and in consumption as well, and amongst other things like your Ca:Mg ratio, it will ensure a good moult,

[jimburns4u]

Thanks for the reply BB, I use reverse osmosis water with gh+ remineralizer. Would this cause so many deaths in 2 seperate tanks? Should i go buy a calcium test?

[BlueBolts]

Either that or head down to your LFS, and get them to check you Ca, BUT really worth the $ purchasing a kit… there's a thread on SKF on how to use the API Ca Test kit, as our Ca value is so low, instead of using a 5ml tube, a 20ml tube will give us a much more accurate reading.

Was the shrimp soft to touch ?

[jimburns4u]

i had already flushed him down the toilet! i will take my water into local fish shop see what they think. What do i do to add calcium? I feed them a mix of hikari shrimp food, kale, spinach and bloodworms

[BlueBolts]

Well, sounds like a mineral issue…..just a thought, that the LFS may not understand using a 20ml tube instead of 5ml :-( As the ratio is minor, a 5ml difference is huge, and the APi test kits are in 20ml factors, thus the dilution from 5ml to 20ml….. Are you NOR ?

[jimburns4u]

i am south of the river, there is a guy at aquotix (my lfs) that is a shrimp fan so i will see if he is there. i will buy a kit aswell/otherwise but maybe they can check out my other params and see if they can find something else im missing. Are you from perth aswell? thanks for all your help!

[BlueBolts]

Great, my LFS is Aquotix, and the guys there know all there is to know. There's a 20% discount offer for Jan ATM, so perhaps worth the purchase...... Check out the sponsor section,

[jimburns4u]

So i had ammonia spike in both tanks one at 0.5 and the other at 1.0, which i dont understand as both tanks were fully cycled and one is quite heavily planted also? he also thinks its a bacterial infection killing the shrimps. So i dont really know what to do, he sugested constant 10% water changes so i am going to have a constant drip in RO water and constant drip out. Any other sugestions.

[BlueBolts]

Spikes ammonia - nitrates will def cause issues, and their effects can be seen in proceeding weeks. Over feeding, stocking, leaving dead shrimps etc..... Will result these spikes.

What's your Ca ?

Personally I dint think its a bacterial issues, just water quality...

[jimburns4u]

So i have been contineously changing water at a drip rate of about 10 litres an hour, havent had any more deaths but in the main tank there are lots of bad looking shrimp, there are also getting black spots in there head and body ( could this be black spot disease) ? Any way to treat at all?

[jayc]

Not sure if your shrimp has black spot disease without seeing it, but many will tell you that there is no cure yet for such a disease. But have you read my post on "edible flowers"?

Nasturtiums have an abundance of anti bacterial qualities. Can you get your hands on nasturtium flowers to feed your shrimp? Might as well give it a try.

Of course, you will need to maintain proper tank cleanliness too.

[jimburns4u]

thanks alot for your reply, i will read up on it now!

[jimburns4u]

Okay so i am doing near constant dripping water changes, have had 1 more death. Didnt change any water over night and tested water in the morning ammonia is close to 0 nitrites at 0 but nitrates is always between 20-40. I cant really work out what that means? The bacteria cycle seems to be working then? from amonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate at least? Also from all the water changes i have got 3 newly pregnant shrimp, would they still be getting berried if the water conditions are so unfavourabale to them?

[Squiggle]

No they wouldn't, so that a good sign but you really need to get your nitrates down to below 5ppm & you need to find why the nitrates are so high. Is there any excess food left in the tanks? Or any other source of ammonia? Sounds like your filter is very well cycled & any ammonia is converted to nitrates very quickly, which is why you ammonia level is so low & your nitrates are so high. :dejection: