Losing Shrimp at a very Fast Rate

bradlgt21

bradlgt21

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May 9, 2009
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Chicagoland, Illinois
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Brad
My girlfriend owns the small tanks. A 3 gallon eclipse and now a Fluval Edge. The eclipse housed cherry red shrimp. Now betta moved into the eclipse and the new fluval edge gets the shrimp. I filled the aquaclear 20 with used bio media from my canister filter so the tank cycled really fast. It was done in like a week. Moved the shrimp in and they started dropping like flies. 2-3 a day. I know when it happens because they crowd around and eat the bodies. I don't know what is causing this. Since I noticed the deaths I have done 2-3 large water changes a week, and tested the water maybe 6 times now. not a hint of ammonia or Nitrite and nitrates have always been below 10. Same water source as the eclipse and everything. I have absolotely no idea what is going on with them. The tank has Tahitian Moon sand (new, wasn't in the eclipse). It is planted just like the eclipse was. The only other thing different is I added root tabs but they are deep under the sand and I have not seen any leaking out of the sand, from the tabs. The only thing I can think of other than some type of shrimp disease which I don't even know is possible, is something in the water from the root tabs? Or them needing Iodine, Which I have never used before and I have kept shrimp for over a year now and 6 turned into probably 60, now after this die off I have about 6 left and none of the females are saddled and they barely move anymore. Still losing 2-3 a day. Is there any hope to save any of them?
 
Same thing as I run in all my tanks. Not to mention it has 4 amano shrimp, 2 green lace shrimp, 4 Nerite snails and the normal pond snail outbreak all doing fine and never had problems.

Oh I forgot to mention the Fluval actually has 2 Nerites and a bunch of pond snails and they all seem to be doing absolotely fine, I have more pond snails then shrimp now. So how are they doing fine but the shrimp are dying?
 
a cycled filter is only half the battle with moving shrimp. if there is no food, no biofilm or microfauna, they may not have what they need. Also, other water parameters could have an affect... a ph difference, amount of aeration, hardness... all require acclimation. I've never had a lot of luck with moving a large group of shrimp into a brand new tank. I rarely have problems dropping shrimp into old tanks though.


and to answer your question about pond snails, there is nothing that will kill them, besides huge doses of copper, cooking, and smooshing. You can't use them as your canary.
 
I second that about pond snails. They've been doing just fine in my cycling picotope with aquasoil amazonia 2 with ammonia at 4 for weeks. I believe I have some red rams that hitchhiked in there too...

How about temperature? What do you keep it at and is it any different than your other tanks? How often do you feed them? They can survive w/o biofilm, but they need other food to eat until it grows.
 
who makes the root tabs and what are the main ingredients? Might be worth looking into that aspect as well. You wouldn't necessarily see the ferts leaking out.

I think its probably an issue of a new tank. Most shrimp really do best in a well established tank. Are you testing gh/kh? Is the temp the same?
 
The water is very hard. 12kh and 19gh. Is what my API kit showed. But that remained the same as the eclipse. I am feeding them Ken's Veggie sticks, It high in calcium and it says it's good for inverts. The tank was established for a good 3-4 months before I got them before. This time other than 2 small plants nothing else was established. I was thinking about getting a API copper test kit and maybe some kens reef stuff as I heard that's how people get iodine in the water.

The root tabs I got were self made from this website. It's Red non toxic clay, CSM+B, NO3, K2SO4, and Epsom Salt for Magnesium. The same stuff as what is in the sticky section of this forum under plants.
 
i have used those in shrimp tanks. You pushed them well under the surface?

Your hardness is fine. How much and how frequently are you feeding?
 
Yeah they are deep in the sand under the plants only. I was feeding them 2 sticks a night back when I had tons of them. I tried fasting for a day thinking I was overfeeding and found like 3-4 dead this morning. Should I be feeding them more often? I have been doing 1-2 sticks since there numbers are way down. Should I try feeding them twice a day until the tank starts growing it's own food?
 
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