Mysterious Red Cherry Deaths

I never plant anything in my backyard so there are no fertilizers or pesticides there, at least for the 13 years I live there anyways.

If there were some problem with the soil or the water wouldn't the shrimps die when they were juvies? They die within a few days of each other though not all at once, water problems would wipe them out almost within a few days of each other wouldn't it? I'll cut back on feedings to twice a week to see if there is any changes.

Miracle grow soil is just a type of organic fertilizer with no added fertilizers. It's safe to use I'm using it in 2 of my bigger aquariums for a few years makes the tank look more natural and provide them with nutrients overtime, very low maint. I just don't like how gravels like eco-complete look.
 
You do make a good point about the shrimps dying off as juvies if there is something in the soils that you are using. IDK though? I don't think I would be comfortable using them with shrimps as they can be quite touchy. I do know how you feel about the Eco-complete look :thumbsdown: and I'll bet your tank looks killer.

Overfeeding is the number one killer of shrimps. Your parameters can check out just fine, everything is right, everyone is healthy except for the shrimps who are just dying off and not thriving. This was the most difficult thing for me to learn about shrimp keeping--shrimp are not fish and don't eat like fish. I feed my shrimp only tanks very sparingly about two or three times per week.
 
I paid a bit more attention to it in the past week and I do notice there is a trend to the deaths. They usually die when the lights are off for about 8-10 hours, could it be that they die because of the water parameters when the plants stop photosynthesis? I mean there is a hell lot of plants would they drain most of the oxygen from the water? Or there is ammonia/nitrite build up during that off period?
 
I don't think that could be close to a problem as the shrimps can swim up to more oxygenated water near the surface.
 
I did a close to 100% water change yesterday hopefully whatever is killing the shrimp will be gone then and the random deaths will stop.
 
This was the most difficult thing for me to learn about shrimp keeping--shrimp are not fish and don't eat like fish. I feed my shrimp only tanks very sparingly about two or three times per week.

Thanks for this tip. I am new at shrimpkeeping and want my 4 babies to grow forth and multiply. They're in a tank with a couple of juvie boy mollies and I had been worried they (the shrimp) weren't getting enough to eat, since the fish grab everything as soon as it goes in.

Perhaps the juvie shrimp could cope with the food quantities because they were still growing? Then when adult size the overeating caught up with them. Hmm. They may have more in common with humans than I thought. :)
 
Could it be the rise in nitrate rather than any ammonia or nitrite spikes usually associated with overfeeding and small water changes? I ask because I keep cherry shrimp now in most of my pleco fry tanks and my pleco breeding tanks as well. Feeding growing bottomfeeders and feeding the bottom feeders well in order to keep breeders in good condition requires some overfeeding. The cherries seem fine. There's often food in the tank. But the difference with my tanks is I'm doing very large, 75% water changes on the tanks weekly on the breeder tanks and at least 3 times a week on the growout tanks.
 
qwertus said:
I paid a bit more attention to it in the past week and I do notice there is a trend to the deaths. They usually die when the lights are off for about 8-10 hours, could it be that they die because of the water parameters when the plants stop photosynthesis? I mean there is a hell lot of plants would they drain most of the oxygen from the water? Or there is ammonia/nitrite build up during that off period?
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I've read of night time die-offs in tanks with CO2 systems running at night. Do you have a CO2 system?
I have a lot of plants in my shrimp tank, but they are all low maintenance plants. The shrimp are thriving. I also feed them daily.

I hope you find out what is killing your shrimp.
 
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