Adults not surviving

[blue]

Hi All,

 

I am new here, I joined because I was hoping to get some thoughts on why my shrimp may not be thriving. 

 

I have had a number of different shrimp over the years but every since i moved to this apartment 3 years ago I have a heck of a time keeping adult shrimp alive for long periods. It may correspond with sheds, Im not sure, when it was happening when I first moved here I didn't have as many hiding spots and they definitely seemed to have issues with death around sheds, but now I have lots of spots for them to hide and don't witness any issues. 

 

They breed, I have tons of babies, they grow up, live a while, have babies, and then disappear. I never see any bodies I just stop seeing certain individuals after a while. 

 

At one point I had over 30 in my 10 gallon, then it dropped down to about 6, so I purchased 10 more, and some lovely females, after a few of them hatched some eggs they were carrying when I bought them they have since disappeared but I now have about 30 babies of various ages and sizes and a few adults left again. 

 

Im at a bit of a loss, any ideas?

 

thanks!

 

 

[Jynn]

Have you tested your KH and GH?

 

Maybe your new apt has super hard water or something that is killing them during molts?

[blue]

Hi Jynn, 

 

My GH is 180ppm ( or higher that's as high as my test goes), and KH around 40 ppm. PH is 7. 

 

I actually added a calcium block because I thought maybe my water wasn't hard enough lol

 

thanks

[chibikaie]

That's kind of high for GH, especially since you're not sure if it is higher. Try mixing your water with an equal amount of distilled water and see what result you get.

P.S. I also use test strips routinely. You'll likely hear that they are inaccurate. That has not been my experience.

[RyeGuy411]

To get an accurate hardness reading you really need to use a liquid test kit especially since your GH reading on your test cannot go higher. I have a feeling hardness is your issues.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Approximately gh 10, kh 2

 

Off the top of my head here's a couple thoughts:

 

1) gh depends on type of shrimp, as does TDS in my experience.  Since your profile says rili, 10 gh is acceptable for neos.  I try to keep mine between 6-9, but I have received neos from 22 gh water with no ill effects.  (I wouldn't recommend that. LOL)

 

2) if using tap, there could be something unidentified in your water.  When I switched to RO + remin, my shrimp survival drastically went up.

[blue]

well today I checked my KH and GH with liquid test kits. 

 

My KH was 2 and my GH was off the chart ( put 12 drops in and still didn't turn green) however my tap water which I use for my tank is only a GH of 1.....the thing is.. last week I added a calcium block.. so Im wondering if that's why the GH is so high in that tank, and since the GH was so low in my tap water that it was actually the LOW GH before that was causing the molt issues? 

 

I do have some nitrates going on in that tank as well so need to get in a few water changed, and that might help lower the GH again.. 

 

I also add plant fertilizers to my tank which Im guessing will mess with the GH a bit too vs the plain tap water? 

 

The good news is.. my favorite shrimp, a lovely blue female that I was sure had perished was out and about today and had hatched her eggs! So pretty happy about that! 

 

[Wygglz]

Congratulations on your female and babies. 

[gillznglass]

Sweet looking shrimp! 

 

May try some Seachem Purigen for your nitrates. Works great for me.  Plus it makes for crystal clear water.  Not much of a learning curve to it but I still soak the regenerated purigen in Seachem neutral regulator after I re gen it.  Otherwise it seems to mess with my PH.

[Shrimple minded]

That is an amazing shrimp.......it's easy to see why you adore her.

[blue]

thanks guys! I wish I could get a better photo of her, I haven't had any luck getting good shrimp pics with any of my current cameras ( that's just a cell phone pic). She gets more and more vibrant as she gets older. She is still quite young and this was her first batch of eggs, I was so sad when I hadn't seen her in a few weeks as I was really hoping some of her babies would be blue too (I'm not familiar with shrimp color genetics at this point lol). Really hoping I can keep her alive! 

 

I think the nitrates are simply because I had some baby guppies in the tank that I was feeding pretty decent amounts too and although the shrimp seem to be pretty good and cleaning up after them obviously not good enough. I don't think they mind too much cause it's causing a bit of algae growth. A few water changes and it should be back to normal, especially since most of the guppies are gone out of the tank now.