Red Cherry Shrimp keep dying despite trying everything Ive read

[geruta]

Hello and thank you all for reading this. 

 

I have a 10 gallon aquarium that I have been working on for a little over a year now. I set up the tank with CaribSea Eco-Complete 20-Pound Planted Aquarium Black substrate and did a dry start method to get a full carpet of baby dwarf tears. After a few months of the dry start method, I added in some Seiryu Stone rocks and finished off the tank by filling it up with conditioned water and cycled the tank for 30 days. 

 

I added in a batch of 10 RCS after the tank was fully cycled and the first batch lasted for about 2 months. They slowly started to die off. 

 

After the first supply of RCS died, I added in a batch of 20 more RCS with hope that these would some how survive longer. Well, after about a month of these new RCS, only 10 are still around. They die very slowly, and almost impossible to notice if any died away or not by how slow it is that they dwindle off. I try to remove the dead shrimp as soon as I see them, but I may miss some here or there because they get lost in all the baby dwarf tears.

 

Here is the thing. I can't understand why they are slowly dying off.

First things first, I do a test on the water every 2 weeks using the API Freshwater Master Test Kit and I always get satisfactory results. 7.2-7.4 PH, 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrate, 0 Nitrite. I have a heater that keeps the shrimp at a constant 80 degrees F.

 

I don't feed them anything because they are able to live off of the bio film. Occasionally I may throw in a few shrimp wafers (3-4) they are super, super tiny. But I never really see them going after them.

 

I do a 20% water change a month. They have no predators, they are alone in the tank except for some small snails.

 

I did a copper test just this afternoon and it reported 0 copper in the water. 

 

The only thing that I possibly can think of is maybe there is a PH spike at night from the CO2 but Im really doubtful of that because I have very hard water (which buffers the PH) and im running a lower than average co2 setup (1.5 bubbles a sec).

Can anyone shed some light on what might be causing these shrimps to slowly dwindle off?

 

 

Thanks.

[Wygglz]

I'm sure others will have advice and opinions, but right off I would slowly drop your temp to about 72.

[geruta]

Thanks for that suggestion. 80 was in the acceptable range but according to wikipedia, 72 is the most comfortable temperature for them. Just switched it down 1 degree. Ill try lowering it down to 72 over the next few days.


Hopefully someone else can also chime in on this.



Has something like temperature, even within acceptable ranges, been known to kill shrimp?

[Pokeshrimp]

From my understanding, higher temps=higher risk for bacterial infections.

[Louie]

I agree that 80 is on the warm side but that wont kill them . I have a cull tank in a cichlid room that stays mid 80s more or less year round and they do well but not breed as fast however they will do better at cooler temps . IMO 74 is ideal

I think your C02 is killing them.

I have never had luck with C02 and shrimp though countless here have .

Perhaps shutting off the C02 at night is an idea .

[Soothing Shrimp]

Louie, what does the crossed out words mean?

[Louie]

Louie, what does the crossed out words mean?

When I signed on they were crossed and I couldn't change it .  I must have hit something by accident  .It changed on its own in the other posts . 

 

 

I just tried to change it in that post but the new letters came out the same with lines through them.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Okay, fixed your post for ya. ☺

[Louie]

Okay, fixed your post for ya. ☺

Lol thanks .  I must have hit a wrong gadget but I couldn't figure out what and than regardless of what I hit I couldn't change it .

 

Other than  emails , animal forums and my free zombie attack online games I'm not that computer savvy and even than when the zombies are over running my fort I shut the computer off in a panic rather than being eaten .

[Soothing Shrimp]

"...even than when the zombies are over running my fort I shut the computer off in a panic rather than being eaten ."

 

LOL  If it happens again, at the top of your reply text box is a toolbar.  B = bold, I = italics, U = underline and S = strike through.  Just click the appropriate button(s) you may have accidentally touched, and they'll go off again.

[35ppt]

I assume you are using tap water? You could try switching to RO water with a shrimp-specific remineralizer.

[zodiac]

OP says he has hard water,why no one asked what his GH is?

isn't a GH above ideal with a high temp of 80 very bad together?

[Toads74]

Doesn't Seiryu stone add to gh as well?

[PlantDude]

Doesn't Seiryu stone add to gh as well?

Yes it does, or at least everyone that has those seem to see their params change

[Soothing Shrimp]

isn't a GH above ideal with a high temp of 80 very bad together?

In what way?

[zodiac]

In what way?

something i heard.

 

something like...

they grow faster in warmer water.

the shells are harder in a higher gh.

so,the body gets crushed in their shell.

[Nuthatch]

Changing 20% of your water at a time can be shocking for your shrimp.  I just killed a few of mine by changing one whole gallon (9 gallon tank) too quickly.  I've read where other, successful folk have only just topped off their water.  Hopefully some more experienced keepers will chime in; I am much too new at this myself. 

[OMG Aquatics]

Changing 20% of your water at a time can be shocking for your shrimp.  I just killed a few of mine by changing one whole gallon (9 gallon tank) too quickly.  I've read where other, successful folk have only just topped off their water.  Hopefully some more experienced keepers will chime in; I am much too new at this myself. 

Are you just pouring the new water in?

 

Perhaps using an airline dripping may help if the new water and old water is very different

[atteb]

I have a 10 gallon with Fire Red Cherry Shrimp, my water is hard alkaline water, my temp is 78 my tank is a sea of red shrimp everywhere. I do weekly 10 percent water changes right from the tap with water conditioner. I do feed them and offer a variety of pellets sparingly  plus my tank is planted as well. I dose every single day Excel never had an issue but I know that is a bit different than C02. I really do not do anything special for them except regular water changes. I just added a trio of the Indian Zebra Shrimp a few days ago so far all three are there and one is heavy in berry too.