Watched our juvie deep blue 2 stripe KK die today

[Jenbenwren]

Today when I was taking a break and checking out our shrimp, I saw one of Mrs Brownnose's (our first berried Mischling) extra special juvies from her first batch. The juvie was a stunning deep dark blue with 2 tiny little stripes on its back, (on the charts the black ones with the same markings are called a 2 stripe KK), and would be about 7 weeks old. It came out of a dark area of the tank then fell on its side and was kicking and trying to right itself but within 2 minutes it was dead! I have no idea what happened to it and while I was hunting for the long planting tweezers the Cherrys pounced and there was nothing left of it for me to pull out and examine. I've noticed the odd dead RCS over the last few weeks, but there's so many of them I thought nothing of it. I know our water parameters are far from ideal for Mischlings, Temp:- 23, TDS 274, ph 6.8, kh 0-1, gh 3, nitrate 0, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, but they are pretty much stable. The TDS has risen by about 20 & gh dropped by 1-2 over the last 3-4 weeks but that's it.

Fingers crossed we don't lose any more and very glad the 80cm tank I've reset for the RCS is finally cycled so I can start moving them out and let our Mischlings have their own tank. Should also have the second hand RO unit I picked up on Monday, up and running next week when the new membrane and tap fitting arrive from FSA next wee. I think I might add some peat to the new Eheim 2213 now running on the Mischling tank, I did place all the media from our old still running cannister in with the new media that came with the Eheim and the RCS were dying before I changed filters.

[BlueBolts]

Sorry to hear...your TDS is high, but of reater concern is your GH. Should be 4-5.... Otherwise you'll have moulting issues.

[Jenbenwren]

I added some salty shrimp minerals +gh when I did the top up tonight. Hopefully the parts arrive for the RO unit next week so I can get it up and running. I took a few videos of some critters in the substrate using my new macro lens for my iPhone and posted them on Facebook. I've had someone comment that one of the critters is Planaria. I have some No Planaria and will start dosing the tank. Fingers crossed it doesn't affect the shrimplets or cause an ammonia spike.