Hi, I have recently started to lose a few shrimp, 2 this week. They are blood mary shrimp.
These are my parameters
Ph 7.0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Kh 2
Gh 4 (best I can read it with a test strip )

TDS 190
Temp 22' c (71f)
Substrate Fluvial stratum
Moderately planted.
5 gallon tank.
I have some montmorillonite rocks in the tank, but I don't think it's enough and an almond leaf. The white looking stuff in the foreground is shrimp snow.
The tank is just under 3 months old, but I added a fair few very mature rocks to provide biofilm.
I think I have a problem with Kh and Gh.
Here is a picture of the latest dead shrimp which looks to have the ring of death.
 

I went to the LFS and they advised not to change anything, but overnight I had 2 more dead shrimp, second photo. I don't know what to do about this. Any help would be much appreciated.

Water parameters look okay, but that is just a slice in time.

I would remove those rocks you have in there. It will most likely be the culprit in messing water parameters up. Do you know what type of rocks those are?

Next, I would do an 80-90% water change and reset the tank to desired parameters again.

If there is anything in the water, this should get rid of it.

Anytime you have multiple deaths, just do a water change immediately. Don't even wait to check on SKF.

Sorry to hear you are having problems.

I would say your water is a bit too soft and I suspect the shrimp may be having difficulty shedding their shell from the photos. Recommended GH range is 6 - 8 for cherry shrimps. KH is at the lower end of range so could be increased a bit.

What water source are you using?

How long have you had the shrimps and did you acclimate them slowly?

The tank looks great!

The rocks are montmorillonite, I've taken them out for the time being. I was advised by my LFS to add them initially.

I've also done a large water change.

I'm using local tap water. I've had these blood marys over 12 months now, but they've been in this new tank for just under 3 months.

Any suggestions on how to raise my Gh and Kh?

I was told using montmorillonite rock would help and possibly crushed coral.

Yes, I drop acclimatised them when I added them to the new tank for a couple of hours.

I've got yellow Chery shrimps in another tank and they are doing really well. I can't work out the problem with the refs.

Are the parameters the same in the yellow shrimp tank?

The easiest way to alter the gh and kh would be to use a commercial gh/kh plus, it will also add tds but you have enough range that all 3 should remain in all their individual ranges! All these parameters will increase over time if you are topping up with water that has gh/kh/tds as evaporated water is purely water.

 

Hi, sorry for the late reply. I went to one of my LFShops and got a spin test on my water, the results are below.

Since then I have used additives to increase my Gh to 6 and Kh to 4. There has been no further deaths thankfully.

The shop seemed to think that the Fluval stratum was the culprit and suggested changing it for just plain gravel. I may do this.

Regarding my yellow cherry tank the Gh is 10 and the Kh is 4. I don't know if that's excessive, but they population of yellows has grown substantially, I see shrimplets everywhere.

Hopefully this will be the end of the problem, thanks all for your help and taking the time to reply.

Ouch the picture was to large to upload but the readings were as follows.

Ph 7.4

Gh 77

Alk 31

Phos 0.0

Am 0.0

Nitrite 0.0

Nitrate 2

This is how the spin test display lists parameters.

I think the shop got it right and the substrate will be softening the water, usually that substrate is used with Bee shrimp and an inert substrate is used with Cherry shrimp.

You may (though hopefully not) lose some of the shrimp when they next try to molt, so just be aware/prepared!

If your tap water is GH 10, assuming that is what you use for the yellows, and you were getting readings of GH 4 then the sudstrate is absorbing a lot so will likely not 'buffer' too long but the easiest/quickest fix would be to change to a non buffering substrate. Parameters should be changed very slowly though so don't go from GH 4 to GH 10 in one leap, that will need to be done over weeks/months by small increments so you need to plan how you are going to do that. I would start with the existing tank water with the new substrate and then do 10% water change (dripped) each week with the water you plan to usually use going forward.