RCS die off
- Thread starter authmal
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I'm going with the smaller and more frequent changes stabilizing the tank. I added charcoal a few weeks ago, but that apparently did nothing useful. Thinking about it, being such a small volume of water, it's easy for me to throw 3 or 4 gallons of water into the 10 during a water change, quickly changing the water chemistry. In my 55, it takes 20-30 minutes, depending on how much attention I'm paying to the process, to replace the water removed, so it's kind of a quick acclimation to the "new" water chemistry and the shrimp seem to be okay with that. I could probably do something similar in the 10, just gradually replace the removed water, but it's easier for me to scoop out about 1.5 gallons via a two quart pitcher and replace it the same way than try to figure out a way to gradually replace the water.
The addition of the polyfilter was supposed to tell me if there are too many organics in the water, or metals in the water that was causing the problems. Aside from being darker from being submerged (just that slight difference in white stuff that gets saturated with water), the polyfilter has not changed color. That apparently means it's not detecting anything out of the ordinary. That really only leaves one thing that I'm doing differently.
The addition of the polyfilter was supposed to tell me if there are too many organics in the water, or metals in the water that was causing the problems. Aside from being darker from being submerged (just that slight difference in white stuff that gets saturated with water), the polyfilter has not changed color. That apparently means it's not detecting anything out of the ordinary. That really only leaves one thing that I'm doing differently.
That's excellent to hear! Glad you got everything sorted out. I am so ready to give shrimp another go so this helps renew my confidence.
I inadvertently lied. I took the polyfilter out since the water flow seemed too low, and was taking the filter apart to a bit of maintenance. It *did* change colors, and I guess the smoky sides of the filter kinda hid it from me. It turned kinda brown. Which translates to either tannins or organic waste, neither of which is unexpected in an aquarium with driftwood. I added 5 RCS from the 55 today. A little while after, I was able to count 15. Just a few minutes ago, I only got up to 8, but no bodies, so they're probably just taking advantage of the hiding spots. Especially the new additions, I'd imagine. I think they're used to hiding from the rams and angel while the lights are on.
Well, there were two deaths I found today. :irked:
That said, I'm 90% sure it's just my fault. Knowing they were coming from a 55 that is around 40-80 ppm for nitrates when it comes time to change water, and knowing that the tank they're going into was around 5-10 before I started doing every other day water changes, I should've acclimated them to the water. I'll move some more over in a few days, and take the time to properly acclimate them.
That said, I'm 90% sure it's just my fault. Knowing they were coming from a 55 that is around 40-80 ppm for nitrates when it comes time to change water, and knowing that the tank they're going into was around 5-10 before I started doing every other day water changes, I should've acclimated them to the water. I'll move some more over in a few days, and take the time to properly acclimate them.
No more deaths, and the RCS seem nice and active. I'll be adding some more from my 55 tonight (the rams seem to be hunting for larger RCS now, so I guess they've gotten bigger and I just didn't notice), and will take the time to acclimate them properly, over the course of at least half an hour, probably a whole hour, instead of 5 minutes.
Well, the past 6 weeks have been informative. It seems that the effort of many small water changes really didn't do anything. I'm now of the opinion that it was simply a lull in the life cycle of the pathogen, whether bacterial or parasitic, that was killing off my RCS. I got the count up to about 30 in this tank, and I had a 2 week stretch where there were a bunch of deaths, and I stopped transferring them from my 55. I had about a 2 week stretch where there was one or deaths, followed by another 2 week stretch of frequent deaths. I'm down to about 5 in this 10 gal; at least one berried female had a successful hatching, because one I saw was newly hatched sometime this week. Yay.
As if this wasn't stressful enough, I happened to see a shrimp *right* after it died, as in before it got that whitish opaque look that crustaceans usually get when they die. It was oddly black on the thorax and tail. That blackness wasn't present before, that I noticed. I saw another that was still alive, but she looked like the side of her thorax was blistered. I removed her to her a specimen container (the kind for holding fish) and she started feebly swimming upside down, before dying about 15 minutes later. In addition to the blistered appearance, her thorax was black, and so was part of her tail. I took pictures of the first one, but not the second, and will upload this weekend. I had issues doing so when I first took the pictures, and due to the elevated stress in my life recently, haven't gotten around to addressing this issue here again, until now. I didn't see anything in the water before I dumped it. I think I'll be bleaching that specimen container, though.
I'm again on the verge of nuking everything in that tank, even the lovely bladder snails, and starting over. Hmm.. Now that I think about it, although I stocked MTS and ramshorns in there months ago, I don't have any now. That's odd, as well.
As if this wasn't stressful enough, I happened to see a shrimp *right* after it died, as in before it got that whitish opaque look that crustaceans usually get when they die. It was oddly black on the thorax and tail. That blackness wasn't present before, that I noticed. I saw another that was still alive, but she looked like the side of her thorax was blistered. I removed her to her a specimen container (the kind for holding fish) and she started feebly swimming upside down, before dying about 15 minutes later. In addition to the blistered appearance, her thorax was black, and so was part of her tail. I took pictures of the first one, but not the second, and will upload this weekend. I had issues doing so when I first took the pictures, and due to the elevated stress in my life recently, haven't gotten around to addressing this issue here again, until now. I didn't see anything in the water before I dumped it. I think I'll be bleaching that specimen container, though.
I'm again on the verge of nuking everything in that tank, even the lovely bladder snails, and starting over. Hmm.. Now that I think about it, although I stocked MTS and ramshorns in there months ago, I don't have any now. That's odd, as well.
Absolutely. Bought it at a dollar per gallon sale a couple years ago. It was in storage at a friend's because 2 of the 10s I bought were going to be gifts for my daughters, and 1 was going to be a QT, so they needed to be hidden. They were stored in a closet in his spare room, he doesn't use aerosols of any sort if he can avoid it, he doesn't spray for bugs in anyway, and rarely traffics the room at all. He occasionally works out in there, but it's rare, and he'll go in to shelve books/DVDs or to grab them, but that's really it. The last time I used the toilet (the downstairs toilet was in use) adjoining that room, the water had almost entirely evaporated out of the toilet bowl.
I'm leaning to the shrimp I bought to initially (and then I was going to gradually transfer some/all from my 55) stock in there having something that's still propogating. I'm not transferring any more RCS over anymore.
I'm leaning to the shrimp I bought to initially (and then I was going to gradually transfer some/all from my 55) stock in there having something that's still propogating. I'm not transferring any more RCS over anymore.
