Mysterious deaths

[ErinF]

Hi! 

I know this has probably been asked a million times before but my shrimp keep dying and it's truely a mystery and being very new to shrimp keeping I'm hoping someone can help. Sorry this is long, tia! 

 

I cycled my 21L tank for 2 months with plants (anubias on driftwood and hair grass with some floating rotala) I use Seachem Prime and Stability. 

 

I tested everything and all was fine (we keep fish so I'm not new to water parameters just shrimp) I put in 3 large natives (pictured) and a pack of 10 glass shrimp I ordered from livefish.

 

All of the glass died within the week but the natives (transferred over from my housemates tank) are still thriving and have even shed the other week and grew a little. I feed algae wafers every 3 days and Hikari shrimp cuisine every second.

 

Did a small water change last week (10-15%) and on the weekend put in 2 cherries and 3 glass from an aquarium shop in. One of the cherries is dead and the others except 2 are hiding and I havnt seen them since the first day. 

 

I've noticed a few detritus worms on my glass, could it be an oxygen issue? Temp is at 23°c same as housemates tank but the aquarium shop didn't seem to have a heater and livefish sent the glass in bags that arrived cold I floated the bags and let a little of my water in for about 40 mins before setting them free.

[jayc]

Can you list your water parameters ... as many as possible?

pH,

TDS,

KH,

GH,

Ammonia,

Nitrite,

Nitrate.

 

Temps at 23degC are fine. 22 is ideal in fact. Shrimps prefer cold rather than hot water. So Summers are more of a problem in Australia.

So getting a heater is not a priority.

 

Can you also tell us where your water source is coming from?

Tap (which city are you in?), or RO or rain?

[ErinF]

40 minutes ago, jayc said:

Can you list your water parameters ... as many as possible?

pH,

TDS,

KH,

GH,

Ammonia,

Nitrite,

Nitrate.

 

Temps at 23degC are fine. 22 is ideal in fact. Shrimps prefer cold rather than hot water. So Summers are more of a problem in Australia.

So getting a heater is not a priority.

 

Can you also tell us where your water source is coming from?

Tap (which city are you in?), or RO or rain?

Hi, 

I've just got my API kit out and done a test now current readings are:

Ammonia - 0 ppm

Nitrite - 0 ppm

Nitrate - not quite dark enough to be 5.0 but darker than 0 ppm

PH - 6.8-7.0

I just used the API test for GH & KH for the first time I may have to re do it so I'm not sure but I think the readings are:

KH - 35.8

GH - 214.8 (not sure about this as it didn't really go green or even start out orange like the instructions state) 

TDS - Not sure my housemate has a digital reader for this but she isn't home, she originally did a reading a month ago and it was "fine" 

Water is Sydney tap water 

I've got a heater in the set to 22°c as my axolotl is currently at room temp and that's down to 17°c in his tank apparently and sits around 17-19 daily so I figured better safe than sorry. 

[jayc]

1 hour ago, ErinF said:

KH - 35.8

GH - 214.8 (not sure about this as it didn't really go green or even start out orange like the instructions state) 

These readings for KH and especially GH are a big concern ?. However, it is very possible that you have not tested it right. API kits for GH and KH are not the best. Try again.

As a reference point, KH should be 1 or 2 but no more than 5. And GH should be 5 to 7.

If you have a TDS meter, that will confirm GH and KH readings. See if your housemate has one.

 

Tip for using liquid test kits that are difficult to discern colour change... 

1) Test during the day, with plenty of daylight streaming in. Testing under lightbulbs can make it difficult to see a colour change.

2) Rather than looking for a colour change from the side of the test tube ... look from the top down - through the opening of the test tube, straight down onto the white of the test chart.

3) be patient with each drop. Add a drop, put the cap on, shake, take note of the colour.
If not yellowish or greenish (depending on the test), take the cap off the tube and repeat until you see the respective colour.

Stop as soon as you get a colour change.

Edited July 2, 2018 by jayc

[ErinF]

3 minutes ago, jayc said:

These readings for KH and especially GH are a big concern ?. However, it is very possible that you have not tested it right. API kits for GH and KH are not the best. Try again.

As a reference point, KH should be 1 or 2 but no more than 5. And GH should be 5 to 7.

If you have a TDS meter, that will confirm GH and KH readings. See if your housemate has one.

 

Tip for using liquid test kits that are difficult to discern colour change... 

1) Test during the day, with plenty of daylight streaming in. Testing under lightbulbs can make it difficult to see a colour change.

2) Rather than looking for a colour change from the side of the test tube ... look from the top down - through the opening of the test tube, straight down onto the white of the test chart.

3) be patient with each drop. Add a drop, put the cap on, shake, take note of the colour.
If not yellowish or greenish (depending on the test), take the cap off the tube and repeat until you see the respective colour.

Stop as soon as you get a colour change.

I think the issue with the test was the conversion chart I wasn't sure how to discern it. 

The KH took 2 drops to change which is 2 °dkh or ppm GH/KH 35.8 

The GH (just did the test again) is supposed to go from orange to green but no matter how many drops I add it stays a yellow with a tinge of green, distinctively shifting shade around the 6-8 drop mark but as it never started at orange and just went from yellow to an ever so slightly less yellow I'm not really sure. 

Thanks for your patience and replies I really appreciate it. 

[jayc]

Sorry, I misunderstood your KH/GH readings.

KH 2 and GH 6-8 is more like it and seems normal for Sydney tap water. False alarm.

So water parameters look fine. I wonder if it's just an initial shock of change in water parameters. 

Any idea what water parameters these shrimp came from?

For example, my LFS keep shrimp in the most inappropriate water parameters. They must get large amounts of deaths initially and only the strong survive. When someone buys them and puts them in correct water parameters, they get another shock in the change having got used to the water in the LFS tank.

If the water parameters were indeed very different between LFS and your tank, then acclimation should have been a lot longer than 40 minutes. I usually drip water from tank into the bag for 6 hours if I find the water parameters very different.

Maybe wait a few days and observe their condition. 

 

 

[ErinF]

56 minutes ago, jayc said:

Sorry, I misunderstood your KH/GH readings.

KH 2 and GH 6-8 is more like it and seems normal for Sydney tap water. False alarm.

So water parameters look fine. I wonder if it's just an initial shock of change in water parameters. 

Any idea what water parameters these shrimp came from?

For example, my LFS keep shrimp in the most inappropriate water parameters. They must get large amounts of deaths initially and only the strong survive. When someone buys them and puts them in correct water parameters, they get another shock in the change having got used to the water in the LFS tank.

If the water parameters were indeed very different between LFS and your tank, then acclimation should have been a lot longer than 40 minutes. I usually drip water from tank into the bag for 6 hours if I find the water parameters very different.

Maybe wait a few days and observe their condition. 

 

 

No unfortunately I didn't ask, they did have what looked like a Co2 infuser bubbling in the tank loads of moss and hundreds of very healthy shrimp and babies. I didn't realise how big a deal acclimatising them was I'm so used to fish I suppose this is my mistake.

My housemate ordered some blue ghosts off livefish on the same day and she definitely didn't acclimatise them any different than I did but hers apparently all survived her tank is around 75L though so perhaps my small 21L had a shift in parameters of some kind. The mystery remains, extended acclimatisation it is then.

[jayc]

always try to get water parameters off the seller. If you are at the LFS, bring your TDS meter with you and test their tank water. A TDS reading can give you a general idea of how big a difference in parameters their water is compared to yours.

 

 

On 7/2/2018 at 10:45 PM, ErinF said:

housemate ordered some blue ghosts off livefish on the same day and she definitely didn't acclimatise them any different than I did but hers apparently all survived her tank is around 75L

Depends on the water parameters your housemate has compared to that of Livefish.