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Those look like water louse to me, or gammarus as you suspected. They are harmless enough and a sign of good clean water! I had them once, I used to take leaves from the pond and put them in the tank and they must have hitched a ride - I don't do that any more! I emptied the tank and set it up again and haven't seen any since (that was yers ago), though I probably caught it quite quickly/early. I have not seen them swim like yours though, only walk, but I only had a few? I wanted rid of them as I thought they were a bit creepy. I doubt there is any treatment you could use to kill them without killing the shrimp at the same time as they are so similar to shrimps in so many ways. The chances are you didn't get rid of them all when you re-did the tank, may be they were on a plant etc that you re-used, or, if you have been getting things from a pond or steam you have re-introduced them, or they were hiding in the substrate if you didn't change that etc? You will probably have to re-do the tank again and use as much new stuff (substrate especially) etc as you can and anything you do re-use keep in a container for a few days in tapwater so you can check it frequently and clean it well to see if there are any unwanted hitchhikers before putting it back in the tank. It looks like you have too many to catch them all! Simon

use Reverse osmosis water + shrimp specific remineralizer Also, temperatures too high

Hi all, I am having trouble with some parasites that appeared in my shrimp tank a while ago. They look something between a shrimp and a bug and they swim differently than shrimps. Please take a look at the attached photos and videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-T4sPKHgoY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CotyO-lg1b8 Have you ever seen anything like this? Do you know what they are and how to get rid of them? They multiply rapidly and they do not leave any food for the shrimp. It looks like I posted the same question 2 years ago and they said they are gammarus... I'm still having the same problem in my new tank also and I had to restart the entire tank. Thanks for the help! Dimos

So IV been Breeding Guppies for the past couple years pretty successfully. But I recently wanted to get into the shrimp hobby so I try to get my water parameters correct and I have added some cherry shrimp and oranges Sunburst shrimp and some cobalt blue shrimp as well as a couple crystal black and crystal red but unfortunately the crystal black and crystal reds keep dying so quickly.I have three separate 10 gallon tanks with hang on the back filters I have small pea gravel as substrate because I like the natural look. Here are my tank parameters hopefully this will help. temp 76 ph7 gh 12 kh 3 tds 320 tanks had Tap water then I started using Purified bottled water to try and get my TDs down what am I doing wrong??? thank you

okay guys ive got a seasoned tank ready to go with plants and fluval shrimp/plant mix soil(costed me $240 for a 200l tank ? )my tank is 6.5 ph which i hear is in the range for crs,im using melbourne(vic) tap water the tds is 36 out of tap but 96ppm in my tank. i havnt added any minerals etc, is it okay to use seacheam equilibrium to minerlize?i have seen crs like around 150-200 tds.also my water supply company says the hardness comes out at around 35 hardness but from what ive read i need it to be around 6? are the americans using another measurement for hardness like ppm or grains per gallon or ml/g ?

btw the only thing I brought from outside was alder cones which I let them soak in hot water for a few days before introducing in the tank.

Thanks for your response, it's really helpful! Or it could be that some babies were into the water that I moved with the shrimp. It's impossible to separate them from the shrimp. For now I took out some water filtering with a net into a bucket and carefully took out the shrimp and put into the bucket. I then threw away all the water from the tank (including the parasites), rinsed the plants and the substrate. I will now leave the substrate dry for 2 days and put the shrimp and water back in. Do you think it's safer to completely replace the substrate? Is there any chance these guys survive without water for 2 days? Thanks again!

do americans measure gh in ppm?

I expect the reading you are getting is a differnt scale of reading which usually equates to approx 18 per 1 GH , what measurement what that be ? im confused im guessing the the tds goes up from my tap water,(36) to (96) is becausse of the fluval subtrate yep so my ph is good my tds is good at 90 ppm , (although i havent added minerals)my main concern is gh!

Time for a rethink! The orange and blue shrimps, being cherry I assume are fine so you can continue using tap water etc as you are doing. The third tank can either be used for another type of cherry shrimp, the simplest route/solution or you can make a few changes and get it ready for crystal/bee shrimps? Your water parameters are way off (double for gH/kH/TDS) for crystal shrimp! You need to start at the beginning and that is the water source. You will need to use RO (or equivalent) water and remineralise it with a GH+ shrimp product. Being USA based you can easily get a zerowater jug (walmart and many other places sell these, also online) so that you can just use your tap water filtered through the jug (RO) so that is fairly easy and cheap, then you will need a shrimp GH+ product to get to the desired parameters. My zerowater jug drops the water to Ph5.5 so you may be ok to use the gravel still (as long as there is nothing (including the gravel) in the tank that will increase the PH) if you like that look, but most people prefer a soil substrate with plants. It would be a good idea to get some indian almond leaves for all of the 3 shrimp tanks. Even when you have drained the tank and filled with mineralised RO water you should probably leave it a month before considering getting the shrimp and this gives you the opportunity to keep an eye on the PH and make sure that stays below 7 with the gravel etc, give the biofilm time to grow, and cycle the tank etc, though the cycle may not be as clear due to the lower PH! Thats all you need to consider/do at this point. I would guesstimate the total cost of the water jug. leaves and GH+ to be a total of around $50? Obviousy ask away if you have any questions? Simon edit - Did you drip acclimate the shrimps?

I would say that your tap water parameters incompatible with Crystal shrimp. Crystals need softer water. So aim for GH lower than 5 and KH 1 or lower. TDS should be around 150 as well. You might only be able to achieve that with RO or Rainwater.

It is a bummer to use Styrofoam, but it really does make a difference. Lowe's has some decent, fairly cheap options. I found a 3 pack of 14"x48" Styrofoam sheets for around $10 that I cut to size, and get about 10 shipments out of it. I use the 7"x7"x6" priority mail boxes that you can order for free from USPS. I have yet to have a shipment arrive DOA *knock on drift wood* ? I also use breather bags (doubled up) and always put a swatch of screen or mesh into the bag for the shrimp to ride the wave.