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Hi there, About 6 weeks ago I set up a Biorb 8L tank with artificial decor, put in a pre-sponge filter to make my filter shrimp safe and did my best to cycle it (made some rookie mistakes with that). The tank is not heated. Ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all read 0. All other levels are reading in safe ranges but pH has been high (close to 7.8-8). I just added bacter ae and a catappa leaf. I have 10 blue dream shrimp that have been in the tank about a week. They have been consistently pretty active until last night. I added a very small amount of bacter ae for the first time yesterday and also washed/boiled/cooled/added a catappa leaf for the first time. Last night my dog got sprayed by a skunk which unfortunately saturated our whole house, including the room with the tank in it. I put several bowls of vinegar out to help with the smell but no other chemicals. My shrimp have been totally MIA since last night. I can't find a single one......I'm wondering if any of yesterday's events may have been problematic for the shrimp?? Tested the water again today, no changes from what was noted above. Any insight would be much appreciated, thank you! Angela

I looked up the leaves and they should be pesticide free and meant for Betta so they should be fine! Those round shape tanks are probably not very shrimp friendly as they don't have much base area, which is where the shrimp spend their time. If you were getting an ammonia reading then the tank probably wasn't cycled properly and there probably may not be enough biofilm in such a small tank with plastic plants etc. When you change water you need to add the new water slowly for shrimps as they are a lot more sensitive than fish, I use a dripper. Also could the shrimp be getting stuck/trapped in the large substrate, I've not heard of this being used with shrimps before? Depending where in the US you live will depend on whether a heater is required, cherry shrimp can tolerate fairly cool water! See if the situation changes in the next few days as the shrimp may be hiding/moulting with the water change? Let us know how it goes. Fingers crossed that they are just hiding and still alive and well? Simon

Good morning, I can find one shrimp this AM.....I bought a starter kit and the substrate included are fairly large rocks, so there are lots of cracks the shrimp can crawl down into out of sight. Usually I can find at least 5-6 though. It is a round tank which makes it a little harder to see. I got the leaves from SunGrow, which had good reviews but doesn't specifically state they are chemical free (I would assume that is a given.....it must not be ?). I didn't use any air freshener......just vinegar. I did about 20-25% water change three days ago because I had an ammonia spike (.2). I did a water change and treated it with Prime and it dropped to 0. Thoughts about the tank being unheated? I've gotten mixed info on how important that is for shrimp? Thank you!

They have to be in there some where, it's only an 8L tank. You can't see any of them?

I've had a bit of a think about this and I have a few options: 1. Get rid of current tank and buy 2 smaller eplacement tanks - other half wont be happy about this and I'm not that keen either. 2. Divide current tank into 2 - dunno how best to do this. Seems like it could be more hassle than it a worth. 3. Sell the shrimp I don't want to keep - easiest option. Tested the water params today. TDS 155, PH 6.8-7.0, GH 7/8, KH 0/1. I'm wondering if the high-ish PH is why the population never really "exploded". The RO water made a world of difference, but I still don't have "hundreds" of shrimp. I have half a bag of ADA Amazonia. I'm tempted to remove the current Amazonia and replace it with fresh stuff after I let it leach in a bucket with a HOB for a few weeks. Surely that'll help bring PH down. I use the same water in my cube that houses Bloody Mary's (RO with Salty Shrimp GH+). It has fresh Amazonia and co2 and PH sits about 6.2. Probably a bit low for them but they seem to do fine. KH 2 and GH 6 in that tank. Thoughts? Thanks

Well done Cesar

Success! Thanks so much guys. Appreciate the help.