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Why are my shrimp doing better in these conditions?


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So, I have blue velvet/dream shrimp (5) of them in my 10 gallon tank with a sponge filter.

I tried my best to keep Nitrate, Nitrite and Ammonia at 0ppm. I have been successful at this for about a week and a half so far. Ph is at 8.0 and I have such a hard time getting it any lower.

 

I added java moss and cholla wood. Temperature is set to 75 degrees F. 

 

Unfortunately, they seem very inactive and dont eat much when ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite is kept as low as possible. I am not sure why. It could have been a different reason. 

I either do 50% water changes or 20% every 3 days. 

 

Today, ammonia is at .25ppm, nitrate is 5.0ppm, nitrite is at .25ppm. Ph is at 8.0 and temperature is the same.

 

Now, all my shrimp are behaving normal. They eat, swim, and walk in and out of my cholla wood.

I was worried about my nitrite and ammonium, but they are doing so well right now. 

 

Should I not do a water change, yet? 

Thank you everyone.

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PH is kinda scary high , using some peat it will lower your ph in exchange for a little darker water but if neocardinas are hardy enough to take that haha.

But have you cycled the tank? Because shrimps like things to be stable so they don't really like water changes every 3 days. A good shrimp tank should have water changes every other week.


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Yea, the ph has been bugging me so much. Ill look into peat or other ways to try to lower it. But, its been staying at 8.0 and has never changed. It is stable, but I would prefer it to be stable at a lower ph level ...

Yes, my tank has been cycled. I havent done frequent water changes until this week, because I did not rinse out my sponge filter. I probably did around 20% water changes every 5 days or a week later. 

 

I was so confused about my sponge filter. I read a few people talking about making sure to not clean it so that the bacteria can stay alive. 

About 2 days ago I saw my tank get really cloudy, and it was because my sponge filter had a lot of stuff. Maybe poop? I barely squeezed it and a bunch of stuff came floating out. After that quick rinse (which I did with the water from the tank in a bucket), the tank got back to normal. 

 

So, they were quite active and always grazing on my moss and cholla wood for a long time. Until two days ago with the cloudy water. I am just confused as to why they are doing well atm with the current ammonia,nitrate,nitrite levels. 

 

Im just confused. sorry. Still have a lot to learn.

Ill keep in mind about how they are less active than cardinas. 

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if you have readings above 0 for ammonia & nitrites, your tank is not cycled or is going through a mini cycle.  For most of us(there are exceptions)  we do not change that much water nor that often.  I do 10% once a week.  I noticed when I do more my shrimp do not fare well and go into hiding.  

 

Keeping your ph stable is more important than getting it to a certain number.  By getting to a certain ph number you have to introduce something(peat, active substrate, etc) that will burn out after a while and if you are not on top of it when it happens, it could stress your shrimp.  

 

I clean my sponge filters little by little (with old tank water)  In my 20g longs I have 2 double sponge filters running.  every couple months I will take ONE of the sponges out of four and shake it around and squeeze it in a bucket of water coming out of the tank during a water change.  Then the next week I will do the same with a different sponge.  I repeat this until all 4 sponges are done.  It takes me 4 weeks to clean all 4 sponges from one tank.  I do this so that I do not bother the bacteria colonies on all 4 sponges at the same time.

 

Some times fish/shrimp are more active when their water parameters are bothering them.  This has happened to one of my fish tanks before when I had an ammonia spike, all of my fish in that tank were much more active than normal until I corrected the situation.

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if you have readings above 0 for ammonia & nitrites, your tank is not cycled or is going through a mini cycle.  For most of us(there are exceptions)  we do not change that much water nor that often.  I do 10% once a week.  I noticed when I do more my shrimp do not fare well and go into hiding.  
 
Keeping your ph stable is more important than getting it to a certain number.  By getting to a certain ph number you have to introduce something(peat, active substrate, etc) that will burn out after a while and if you are not on top of it when it happens, it could stress your shrimp.  
 
I clean my sponge filters little by little (with old tank water)  In my 20g longs I have 2 double sponge filters running.  every couple months I will take ONE of the sponges out of four and shake it around and squeeze it in a bucket of water coming out of the tank during a water change.  Then the next week I will do the same with a different sponge.  I repeat this until all 4 sponges are done.  It takes me 4 weeks to clean all 4 sponges from one tank.  I do this so that I do not bother the bacteria colonies on all 4 sponges at the same time.
 
Some times fish/shrimp are more active when their water parameters are bothering them.  This has happened to one of my fish tanks before when I had an ammonia spike, all of my fish in that tank were much more active than normal until I corrected the situation.

This is the most careful shrimp keeper I ever seen ! Wow good job


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