Jump to content

Mysterious deaths

ErinF

By ErinF
in Shrimp Health & Care

 Share

Recommended Posts

ErinF Be nice I'm new here

ErinF

Posted
Posted

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.

_20180702_164738.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jayc Shrimp Guru

jayc

Posted
Posted

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ErinF Be nice I'm new here

ErinF

Posted
  • Author
Posted
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. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jayc Shrimp Guru

jayc

Posted
Posted (edited)
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 by jayc
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ErinF Be nice I'm new here

ErinF

Posted
  • Author
Posted
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. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jayc Shrimp Guru

jayc

Posted
Posted

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. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ErinF Be nice I'm new here

ErinF

Posted
  • Author
Posted
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jayc Shrimp Guru

jayc

Posted
Posted

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

    Shrimp Disease and Treatment
    Tibee, Taitbee, Pinto, Mischling, F1, F2

  • Tropical Fish Forum
    Discus Breeding Guide
    Discus Disease and Treatment Guide

  • Posts

    • ngoomie
      Shrimp and meds containing gentian violet

      By ngoomie · Posted

      Alright, I've done a bit more research on gentian violet's cancer-causing potential but I haven't yet done research on malachite green's to compare. But from reading the California propositon 65 document about GV (North Americans incl. some Canadians will recognize this as the law that causes some products they buy to be labelled with "known to the state of California to cause cancer", including the exact product I bought) it seems that the risk of cancer is related to internal use, either injection or ingestion. Speaking of ingestion, I think GV bans mainly relate to its use in treating fish/shrimp/etc. which are intended for human consumption, because of the above. And in countries where GV isn't banned for this purpose, it does seem to get used on various species of shrimp without causing any issue for the shrimp themselves (at least enough so for shrimp farming purposes). See the following: In February, the FDA Began Rejecting Imported Shrimp for Gentian Violet and Chloramphenicol (2022 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) FDA Starts New Calendar Year by Refusing Antibiotic-Contaminated Shrimp from Three BAP-Certified Indian Processors and Adding a BAP-Certified Vietnamese Processor to Import Alert (2024 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) Southern Shrimp Alliance and some other organizations have tons of other articles in this vein, but I'd be here for a while and would end up writing an absolutely massive post if I were to link every instance I found of articles mentioning shrimp shipments with gentian violet and/or leucogentian violet registering as contaminants. That being said, I know shrimp farmed for consumption and dwarf shrimp are often somewhat distantly related (in fact, the one time a shrimp's species name is listed that I can see, it's the prawn sp. Macrobrachium rosenbergii, who at best occupies the same infraorder as Neocaridina davidi but nothing nearer), but this at least gives a slightly better way of guessing whether it will be safe for aquarium dwarf shrimp or not than my bladder snail anecdote from the OP.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Shrimp molting before eggs are hatched

      By sdlTBfanUK · Posted

      I would hazard a guess that perhaps those eggs were unfertilized and thereby unviable? Did the eggs change colour, usually yellow to grey as the yolks used up, or any eyes in the eggs. Is your water ok, using RO remineralised and the parameters in range, as I have heard others say that if the water isn't good it can 'force' a molt? How is it going overall, do you have a good size colony in the tank, you may have reached 'maximum occupancy' as a tank can only support so many occupants.
    • beanbag
      Shrimp molting before eggs are hatched

      By beanbag · Posted

      Hello folks,  The current problem I am having is that my Taiwan bee shrimp are molting before all their eggs have hatched.  Often the shrimp keep the eggs for 40+ days.  During that time, they lose about half or so, either due to dropping or duds or whatever.  Shortly before molting they look to have about a dozen left, and then they molt with about half a dozen eggs still on the shell.  Then the other shirmp will come and eat the shell.  These last few times, I have been getting around 0-3 surviving babies per batch.  I figure I can make the eggs hatch faster by raising the water temperature more (currently around 68F, which is already a few degrees higher than I used to keep it) or make the shrimp grow slower by feeding them less (protein).  Currently I feed Shrimp King complete every other day, and also a small dab of Shrimp Fit alternating days.  Maybe I can start alternating with more vegetable food like mulberry?  or just decrease the amount of food?
    • ngoomie
      Shrimp and meds containing gentian violet

      By ngoomie · Posted

      Yeah, cancer risk was a thing I'd seen mentioned a lot when looking into gentian violet briefly. I kinda just figured it might only be as bad as the cancer risk of malachite green as well, but maybe I should look into it more. I've been doing a pretty good job of not getting it on my skin and also avoiding dunking my unprotected hands into the tank water while treating my fish at least, though. Maybe I'll just not use it once I'm done this course of medication anyways, because I know a store I can sometimes get to that's pretty distant carries both malachite green and methylene blue, and in pretty large quantities.
    • jayc
      Shrimp and meds containing gentian violet

      By jayc · Posted

      Can't help you with Gentian Violet, sorry. It is banned in Australia violet for potential toxicity, and even possible cancer risks. I thought it was banned in Canada as well. At least, you now know why there isn't much info on gentian violet medication and it's use. But keep an eye on the snails after a week. If it affects the snails, it might not kill them immediately. So keep checking for up to a week. Much safer options out there. No point risking your own life over unsafe products.
×
×
  • Create New...