R.I.P. CRS & CBS

[Matuva]

A month ago, I bought 10 CRS & 10 CBS. They came from a US seller, and it took 10 days for them to come. All of them were alive, no DOA.

I was very happy. I put them in a well established tank, NO2 : 0 NO3 < 3 PH : 6.5 GH : unknown (no valid kit available, one on order)

 

They arrived on a wenesday. The first mistake happens on saturday: I vaccum the substrat. While doing this, I remarked the shrimps were swimming all around the tank, same as if a female was throwing pheromone. I thought myself "Hooray, they are really healthy !

1 hour later I was rushing for a water change : 4 of them were laying dead at the bottom of the tank, and 3 of my 10 red cherry were almost dead. Probably there was something lethal on the vacuum tool.

I succeded in rescuing 1 red cherry male, luckily, as this is now the only male I have left...

 

Then, I continued slowy loosing the Crystal one by one, despite water changes and parameters which seem almost good, except the GH I can't check yet... Also, at the moment, water temp is around 29~30° Celsius at mid-day. Hot here.

 

Now, I have none of my crystal left, and 6 of the 10 red cherries still alive : 5 (or 6?) females and 1 male. The only nice thing is that 1 female is berried, and may be a 2nd one... I cross fingers.

Edited January 3, 2015 by Matuva

[Squiggle]

Whoa dude, that's definitely not cool!

First thing I'd say was the problem is the temp, CRS/CBS don't do well above 23-24deg, might want to look at getting a chiller if you are going to give it another try.

Definitely don't vacuum the gravel, this will disturb a lot of the bacteria & most likely cause an ammonia spike, you would have also removed a lot of the necessary fine substrate that helps buffer the pH.

Hopefully you get back on the horse when you sort the tank out, these interesting little critters are definitely worth it!

[Matuva]

Whoa dude, that's definitely not cool!

First thing I'd say was the problem is the temp, CRS/CBS don't do well above 23-24deg, might want to look at getting a chiller if you are going to give it another try.

Definitely don't vacuum the gravel, this will disturb a lot of the bacteria & most likely cause an ammonia spike, you would have also removed a lot of the necessary fine substrate that helps buffer the pH.

Hopefully you get back on the horse when you sort the tank out, these interesting little critters are definitely worth it!

Eeek! I just vacuumed again (with a known good & clean tool this time) + water change 4 hours ago. And yes, I saw a lot of fine substrate coming out the gravel...

But this time, the red cherries look okay. I will monitor very close the Ammonia in following hours & days... I did read on another forum that vacuuming is a good thing to do? Though, what you say about bacteria and Ph does ring a bell to me. I have put 6 egg shells in my tank, time for me to receive the mineral stones I have ordered...

Edited January 3, 2015 by Matuva

[OzShrimp]

I would even try and lower the temp for your remaining cherrys. When i had no chiller and only kept chillers i didnt like the temp going over 28.

[buck]

I find with shrimp the less you disturb them the better. a gravel vac would be a huge disturbance, all the stuff in the gravel being disturbed, the stress of you banging around with the suction pipe thing. it would be shrimp hell.   

 

My yellow cherrys have only just gotten over me pulling some algae ( ok a heap of algae)  out of there tank and moving a few things and that was like 2-3 weeks ago! But there berrying up now so I guess the cholla wood peace offering worked.      

[petfish]

Whoa dude, that's definitely not cool!

First thing I'd say was the problem is the temp, CRS/CBS don't do well above 23-24deg, might want to look at getting a chiller if you are going to give it another try.

Definitely don't vacuum the gravel, this will disturb a lot of the bacteria & most likely cause an ammonia spike, you would have also removed a lot of the necessary fine substrate that helps buffer the pH.

Hopefully you get back on the horse when you sort the tank out, these interesting little critters are definitely worth it!

what Squigg's said, vacing a shrimp tank is definately a no no, maybe a fan blowing on the water surface may help you to keep temp down, temp/fix

[OzShrimp]

I vacc my gravel every time i do a water change but only small sections t0 get up all the food :)

My soil used to be so dirty i was quiet suprised, but in saying that my soil is not deep and only 1-2 cm deep.

[Matuva]

I check the tank 1st thing at wake up this morning. Everything seems fine.

I did vacuum about a third of my gravel only, especially a spot where blood worms had settled a colony. The cherries are hiding, but I can't see any "corpse", so they probably get out the drift wood and go for a swim later in the day ...

 

About the blood worms, I read somewhere that they can snack juveniles

The fact is that I saw them eating a moult from an adult cherry, and it took them less than 2 days to get rid of it.

[kizshrimp]

Welcome to our forum Matuva, sorry to hear of your losses. I was lucky enough to visit your country a few years ago and it truly is a paradise. I can imagine how difficult it must be to obtain shrimp there, even in Noumea. Please, you should get out with a net and discover what native shrimps you have living there, and take photos to post here on SKF. I'm quite sure that would be a world-first! 

 

I do not vac my gravel, I think most keepers don't, but you can see that some do. Like OzShrimp, I also choose to only use a thin layer about 1cm in most tanks, however I manage the pH independently and don't need so much help from the substrate. Whatever your choice, change only a small amount of water at a time, perhaps 5-10%. Replace the water very slowly - I siphon it in through a 4mm airline, but even slower may be better (like dripping it in). Stability is important, these are much more delicate animals than fish. The smaller your tank the more care you must take. Try to have your new water treated and ready before you start the water change - same pH, GH, EC and temp as in the tank would be ideal. Minimise evaporative water loss (and consequent GH/EC rise) between changes by keeping a close-fitting cover glass on the tank. 

 

If there are bloodworms living in your substrate you may be feeding too much. When there are few shrimp in a tank they will often survive on algae and biofilm on the glass, mosses etc. - as the shrimp density grows they start to need more food. When I feed powdered foods I use the amount that sticks to the end of a damp toothpick, no more. Feeding a small amount more often is better than a large amount less often. 

 

Finally as it is so important, I second what Squiggle and others have said about temperature. You can expect trouble if the tank gets to 26 C or more for long. Do what you can to keep it cooler! A fan will help but air conditioning or a chiller is much better. I wish you the best in fixing your problem and moving forward to happy and successful shrimping. 

[Sprae]

I'm thinking you might as well reset the tank and cut your loses. Worms are hard to get rid off, as even if you kill them of with shrimp friendly treatments, the ammonia spike from dead worms will affect the tank for sure. Good luck mate.