Leaderboard

Thanks for the update! It sounds like the tank has settled down nicely, sometimes that takes longer than our patience allows. The staghorn algae should also die off once everything is completely run-in and balanced. Its presents is an indicator that the tank isn't quite fully there/balanced/settled yet! Have the shrimps moved away from the heater now? I also have a few ember tetras with my red cherry shrimp, it adds another dimension to the tank, though they probably pick off a few of the shrimplets if/when they can! Shrimps are a lot more delicate than fish. You shouldn't need the C02 or flourish excel, especially with the fish as well, but I understand if it is now going well you may not want to change anything. You may find these actually cause your plants to grow too quickly and result in you having to spend more time on maintenance/trimming etc. All being well, the shrimp (neocaridina) should readily breed and you should soon be restocked!

Yeah I've dealt with the staghorn before. It's a new tank so no surprises. There are only little tufts of it and I'll be damned if I let it get a foothold. The shrimp do still like the heater. Not as aggressively, but it is still one of their homes. There are clusters of ~15-20 shrimp of both types found in 4 different spots in the tank. The heater is one of them. The rest are plant thickets in the mid and lower tank. I'm going to ignore the heater love for now. I do not *need* the CO2, but considering many of my Buce's and Swords have started flowering since it turned back on that is likely to stay as a morning 2-3 hour infusion. It's only 1 bubble every other second and the pH/KH are not dipping during these treatments. No adverse reactions yet. I'm happy to trim as that means nutrient export! The flourish excel will be discontinued fairly soon as things are back on track. I don't like dosing with it long term. I'm assuming the occasional shrimplet picked off will be more than outpaced by their breeding soon enough!

So update. I got frustrated when a few more days of 1-2 deaths happened. I turned the CO2 back on for 3 hours in the morning. I started doing 25% water changes every other day to combat the staghorn algae that had arrived from the combination of lowered plant growth and increased shrimp feedings. I started dosing Flourish Excel at 1/2 suggested rate. I added 50 ember tetras and 20 pygmy cory cats. I added more plants. I installed a second canister filter because I did not like the low flow on one side of the tank. And more stuff I had been holding off on because of the seemingly frail shrimp. I now have several egg laden females, ~10 sighted babies, and a seemingly growing neocaridina population. Maybe all the weak ones died from some mysterious disease? Guess it's possible. Ultimately, I'm moving on with the actual problem being a mystery.