AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 21, 2018 Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 Hi I am just coming back into freshwater shrimp after a few year hiatus. I have a 12g long with a sponge filter and shrimp king substrate. I cycled the tank for about a month, then added 6 otos. One of the very small otos passed shortly after but the rest did fine. I added bunch of plants (hornwort, cabomba, several anubias, several buce, cabomba, elodea) and let the tank run another 1.5-2 months. 8 days ago I purchased 12 auratai shrimp and dripped them for 2 hours. Up until 2 days ago I could always find at least 8 at a time in the tank and I always saw different ones. I havent been available to check the tank again until today. Now I only see one shrimp that seems lethargic? It randomly freaked out a bit ago and was twitching upside down in the water column. I do not see any dead shrimp however I have a bunch of pond snails and a mystery snail and I think the bodies would get eaten quickly. Parameters- TDS-174 (was 156 2 days ago??) GH-5-6(6 drops) KH-0-1 Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thenamespo Posted August 21, 2018 Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 What’s the pH of your tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 Just found a dead shrimp in my tank. It had turned orange? I will try to attach a picture. What could explain the raise in tds? The only thing I did was feed bee pollen that is now gone and top off with ro water that tests at 4 tds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 3 minutes ago, thenamespo said: What’s the pH of your tank 6.4 ph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 I found another survivor. Should I remove the dead orange shrimp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 Update the lethargic one just passed before my eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thenamespo Posted August 21, 2018 Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 Something in your water is causing your shrimps to die. are there any spikes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 4 minutes ago, thenamespo said: Something in your water is causing your shrimps to die. are there any spikes There was a spike in tds by over 20 ppm. I do not know what could explain that. The only thing I did was feed bee pollen food and topped off with RO water. Does the top off need to be dripped in? How should I go about lowering my TDS without killing my one possible survivor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thenamespo Posted August 21, 2018 Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 Don’t necessarily go by TDS all the time. Tds could mean anything. What about ammonia, nitrates etc? any spikes there, because like I said anything can raise tds like feeding and leftover foods Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 8 hours ago, thenamespo said: Don’t necessarily go by TDS all the time. Tds could mean anything. What about ammonia, nitrates etc? any spikes there, because like I said anything can raise tds like feeding and leftover foods I moved my crypts and the die off completely disappeared since 2 days ago. I will do a test when Im back from lunch for the rest of my parameters. I wonder if there was too much decaying matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 Parameters were 0.25 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate. Definitely had an ammonia spike. I suspect from my crypts. I recently moved them all and they melted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGardenofEder Posted August 22, 2018 Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 Also disrupting substrate will cause issues best to leave plants where they are once shrimp are in the tank. You do spray anything like febreze do you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 3 hours ago, TheGardenofEder said: Also disrupting substrate will cause issues best to leave plants where they are once shrimp are in the tank. You do spray anything like febreze do you? I do not. I actually moved the plants about a week or a week and a half before I purchased the shrimp. My cryptocryne undulata took a while to start dying off. Definitely learned my lesson. Im not going to touch anything just going to do a large water changes and while im at it im going to shoot for a lower gh like 3-4. TheGardenofEder 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy6107 Posted August 22, 2018 Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 On 8/21/2018 at 12:10 PM, AdvancedAquaculture said: Does the top off need to be dripped in? I suggest dripping in both top off water and water change water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 3 hours ago, chappy6107 said: I suggest dripping in both top off water and water change water. That one survivor is still kicking and ammonia is back down to 0. Tds is at 168. Would doing a water change with 2GH water kill him? I wanted to lower my gh closer to 3-4. I plan to do it as a slow drip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted August 22, 2018 Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 i know a lot of people feel like those stones dont affect water parameters, but if me I wouldnt use stones in shrimp tanks. those dragon stones tend to have pockets that collect things and crumble. who knows what gets released from them. do you have a full tank shot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hcuellart Posted August 22, 2018 Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 Always remove any dead shrimp/fish as soon as you see it. Your ammonia rised very probably because of the dead shrimp... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 2 hours ago, bostoneric said: i know a lot of people feel like those stones dont affect water parameters, but if me I wouldnt use stones in shrimp tanks. those dragon stones tend to have pockets that collect things and crumble. who knows what gets released from them. do you have a full tank shot? I do not have a current one. This tank used to be scaped with just malaysian driftwood. Hopefully the 30$ I spent on dragonstone isnt a waste. Do you think i need to take it out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy6107 Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 8 hours ago, AdvancedAquaculture said: That one survivor is still kicking and ammonia is back down to 0. Tds is at 168. Would doing a water change with 2GH water kill him? I wanted to lower my gh closer to 3-4. I plan to do it as a slow drip. since you are having issues, just do a very small amount dripped in. say a gallon or less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hcuellart Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 If it is real Ohko/Dragon Stone then they definitely don't change water parameters, but like bostoneric said these rocks always come with dirt attached to them. When I use them, I leave them in a bucket for a couple of weeks and then pressure wash them a bit and use a toothbrush to try and dislodge any sediment that is still attached to the stone... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcrafted Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 Isn't dragon stones just clay based? Having said that, it smells like an old cave and the dust is hard on the lungs, especially for asthmatics like myself. lol I've used in my shrimp tanks, but only after soaking a few hours in hot water, then scrubbing with toothbrush, followed by a 3% H2O2 dip for safe measures. My personal favorite "stone" to use these days is petrified wood. Shrimp love picking at the algae and biofilm that readily grows on them and it doesn't affect parameters either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 26, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2018 I hate how good shrimp are at hiding. It took me almost 15 minutes to find one of the 2 aura blue tigers I added. I just have to assume the other one is hiding somewhere. I dont want to add a bunch of shrimp just to have them die again. I added a piece of cholla wood and did some tests. Forgot to snap a photo I still need to get a FTS. Parameters currently (I dripped a 50% water change in overnight just in case that auratai is still around) 138-145 TDS (138 last night, 145 today) 3-4 GH (4 drops) 0 KH 0 ammonia 0 nitrite <5 nitrate Do you guys think 5 otos and a mystery snail is too much of a bioload for a 12g shrimp tank? I took out all of my hornwort and Im pretty sure thats what keeps my nitrates so low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdvancedAquaculture Posted August 26, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2018 Current FTS with my top off being dripped in. My cholla wood hasn't sunk yet. I found an auratai still kicking. Not sure where either of the aura blues are. Im worried since were losing a lot of shrimp from the same supplier at work. Is there any downside to only feeding snowflake food while theres only a couple shrimp in the tank? I don't want to pollute my tank with food I doubt the shrimp will find in time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicpapa Posted August 27, 2018 Report Share Posted August 27, 2018 Try to add 2-3 more sponge filters... Tank is very long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted August 27, 2018 Report Share Posted August 27, 2018 I would lose the stones and try to simplify your plants. a sponge on each end would be plenty. 5 ottos is a lot for a small tank. you really dont need ottos in shrimp tanks. I'd try to keep things to a minimum to try and make it easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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