So I'm guessing you have swapped out the suspect filter media?

Has that affected the balance of bacteria in the tank i.e. will you get a ammonia spike?

Have you been doing water changes to lower TDS?

 

Edited November 3, 201510 yr by fishmosy

Haven't done any work on it at all since makinf the discovery last night aside from removing more very sick looking shrimp.

im sure there is no risk with ammonia spike it is only 1/4 - 1/3 of the total media and there is purigen to pick up the slack not to mention the large sponge i have covering intake and the additional oversized air-driven aponge.

im somewhat obsessed with filtration.

i was wondering about the WC situation. do u think i should do 50%? 75% ? also do u think i should have any hardness ?

I just double checked the water parameters that I measured in Short creek. TDS was 21, GH and KH less than 20ppm and 10ppm respectively - i.e.  the levels couldn't be measured.

A 50% water change with RO should drop your TDS to roughly 40 (from 80) so I would start there. Don't add any remineralising salts/buffers or any other products. That should reduce the bacterial count in the water substantially. Just make sure the RO is at the same temperature as the tank water and its probably best to feed it into the tank over a couple of hours after removing half the water from the tank. I would make smaller daily (or every 2nd day) water changes after that to reduce TDS to at least 30 and hold it there. Hopefully that will help the shrimp to be less stressed.

Another thing you could do is to add a few IAL leaves. I'm not 100% sure about this as I've never done it with sick natives, but there are reports it helps with bacterial infections in exotic shrimp. If desperate, i.e. you continue to lose shrimp, I'd go for broke and try it. Another antibacterial remedy that has worked with fish is honey. Honey has a natural antibacterial agent in it, but be warned using in your tank will almost certainly kill all the bacteria in your filter, leading to a crash and obviously create more problems. Best to use it in a hospital tank or perhaps in short baths. There should be recipes online for fish but I would use it at a much lower dosage rate for shrimp (at most 1/4, and I'd probably start at around 1/10).

Finally if you happen to have access to them (though its pretty much impossible to get them without a script from a vet) antibiotics can clear up bacterial infections in shrimp according to what I've read from overseas keepers who have easy access to them. Don't ask me which antibiotics or dosage rates as I don't know.

i have finally gotten around to kicking off a > 50% waterchange tonight, i'll see how i go i guess. the pH has been staying neutral so far as i can tell which is one thing I'm glad about. And i haven't seen any more deaths. :-)

Will have more of an update in the next few days for sure.

Thanks again Ben!

love n peace

will

Awesome news about the death rate. Best of luck in the coming days. 

1 hour ago, fishmosy said:

Awesome news about the death rate. Best of luck in the coming days. 

cheers, it is good news, i realised recently that if i can keep these ones alive and hopefully breeding (if i have one of both sexes left) then it will mean i should be able to keep the other short creek variety alive and doing well - even if it does mean i ultimately end up culling these ones!

love n peace

will

Thats right. Even one male and one female can create a whole colony, and that has been done ( I suspect) more often than we realise with regards to new exotics arriving in Aus. Sulawesi shrimp being a prime example. 

alas the journey has ended :-(

but i am a sucker for punishment and not one to give in so I'll return to the challenge and avenge myself another day !!

i spoke too soon. after removing the last dying or dead specimen i could find i came across a very very healthy looking one (female is my guess!)

hopefully theres another one i missed somehow. if not i may need a sperm donor

I hope that your solitary healthy shrimp managed to hide a few more healthy friends in your tank. Many times I think I have removed every possible shrimp or fish fry from a tank only to look in around 5mm of water and see more still wondering about in a now almost empty tank.

cheers baccus but alas the colony perished :-( i have learnt from the experience though and have the confidence to try something wild from bob again soon :-)

If you haven't already tried them I would suggest Chameleon shrimp from the NT, they are still a small shrimp and can be tricky to keep but they do get amazing patterns and some nice colours. I'm lucky right now and have quite a few berried females and am seeing a lot different sized shrimplets around the tank. It will just be a waiting game to see if the new shrimplets are chameleons or more Blackmore River shrimp or perhaps even Darwin Red Nose. Blackmore River Shrimp can also get interesting patterns and so far I have found them the easiest to keep and breed in my native shrimp tank.

I did have a heap of Barney Springs shrimp but they just gradually disappeared and the few remaining ones I ended up adding to my other native shrimp tank. Sometimes I suspect I am seeing the odd Barney Springs shrimp still getting about in the tank but its really hard to tell and there are too many places for the shrimp to disappear into other recesses of the tank.

Thanks very much for the tips Bacchus. Can you share any pics of the Blackmore river shrimps?

Ordinarily I would but my computer is being glitch.

There would  be previous pictures of mine in the other native shrimp part of this forum or Native Caridina species .

 

Edited December 15, 201510 yr by fishmosy
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