Aiden123 Posted March 17, 2016 Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 Hi Everyone! First time on the forum and I am looking forward to expanding my shrimp knowledge. I have been in the shrimp hobby for nearly 3 years now. I initially started off with the humble red cherry shrimp and after a year took the plunge into the crystal bee world and TB's. Unfortunately it has taken me many attempts and a considerable amount of money to get to where I am today, but it has been worth it In September 2015 I was quite successful with breeding in my crystal bee and TB mixed tank and had quite a lot of berried shrimp and shrimplets. Unfortunately at the same time I had a planaria outbreak so I treated with No Planaria. I did lose a lot of shrimp with the treatment (mainly adults) and it took me a month or so to get things stable. Since the treatment, I have had no planaria and no more shrimp deaths, however there has been no signs of breeding since. I have had no berried shrimp let alone any shrimplets. I do have quite a lot of adult shrimps now who were the survivors of the No Planaria treatment. I don't think there are any problems with regards to molting. I have not seen any shrimps struggling with molts and I have not had a dead shrimp in months. Tank Details 45cm x 45cm custom made tank (approx 90 litre) Borneowild Substrate 2 x 100 litre sponge filters 2 x Eheim air diffusers Fluval E 200 heater Boyu S2000 AIr Pump Java Moss, Java Fern, Flame Moss, Weeping Moss and some Lava Rock. Water Parameters TDS: 170 GH: 6 KH 0.1 PH: <6.0 (my test kit only goes to 6 but I suspect that the PH is closer to 5. I base this on the fact that no snails, even pest snails, can survive in this tank) Ammonia: 0ppm Nitrite: 0ppm Nitrate: 5ppm Feeding I usually feed 5 or 6 times a week at once per day. Feeding includes: Glas Garten Bacter AE Borneowild Multipara Borneowild Spinach Borneowild Barley Tank Maintenaince I tend to only do a small water change every few months. I drip 1 litre of RO water per week to account for evaporation. I found that the less messing around I do with the water, the better. When I did weekly changes (5/6 litre), even with matching the water temp, tds, etc I always had a few deaths a day or so after. After I drip 1 litre of RO water in I put half a spoon of Borneowild Enlive in the tank. There is Borneowild Mineral Rock in the tank for mineral release and I also seeded the tank on set up with Borneowild minerax, bebe and enlive. There are also some Borneowild Bee Balls, Azoo Max Bio Balls, Indian Almond leaves and Alder cones in the tank. Anyone have any ideas why I there is no breeding? If you need anymore info, please let me know. Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimple minded Posted March 17, 2016 Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 Over the past three winters, had you seen a "slow down" in breeding during the cold months? Perhaps just bad timing with planaria treatment ending when winter was beginning? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden123 Posted March 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 I haven't really noticed any "slow down" before simply because 2015 was the first year I managed to get everything stable with the bee shrimp until September 2015 with the planaria issue. I haven't really had consecutive, interrupted and stable years to notice if there was any decrease in breeding during the winter months. I keep the tank at a constant 22.5c all year round apart from really hot days when the temperature creeps up to 24c - 25c but here in England those hot, sunny days are very limited Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maylee Posted March 17, 2016 Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 I think my situation is similar but it's with my neo tank. I used a small amount of No Planaria several months ago to get rid of some hydra which worked wonderfully. I also did some water changes after I confirmed the hydra were all gone. Ever since then, I don't even see saddles now, let alone berries but they seem to molt just fine. I can't say for certain it was the No Planaria because I don't seem to have the best of luck with my shrimp tanks in general but it's hard to say. At the time, all I used was a sponge filter which I still use in that tank today. I wonder if it's possible that the No Planaria sort of "lives" in there this entire time. This thread has got me considering removing it to see if it helps. I also wonder about the substrate (eco-complete) after a No Planaria dosing. I forgot to mention I didn't lose any shrimp during the dosing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimple minded Posted March 17, 2016 Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 Interesting, I have no Planaria but I haven't ever used it.........my last planaria treatment executed I used fenbendazole. I also was worried about a slow-down in breeding due to treatment, but have since seen both berries and babies. I'm struggling to come up with other angles that could be the cause. Thinking.............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden123 Posted March 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 I would be quite hesitant to pin it on the No Planaria treatment itself, although I cannot rule out a link. Before using the No Planaria I did quite a lot of research on it. At the time I did find some threads of shrimp death but no mention of slowed breeding that I can remember. My shrimp did die when I used the treatment, however I think the large 25% water change (as recommended by the instructions) resulted in the death of my shrimp. Even when I did the weekly 5/6 litre water change before the treatment (so approx 6-7%) I still had shrimp die so I believe that the deaths were simply multiplied by the much larger water change that time around. There was also no deaths during the treatment itself, rather once the treatment had stopped and I was in the process of removing it. The product itself is said to be shrimp safe and biodegradable. After the treatment I filtered with active carbon and did the large water change as recommended so I would hope that there is no trace left of the product after 6 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadenlea Posted March 18, 2016 Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 Ya, I dont think it would be the No Planaria. I have not used that brand but I did use actual Dewormer from the vet .. I forget the exact dose as it was a couple years ago. It had no effect on the shrimp or their breeding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DETAquarium Posted March 18, 2016 Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 How many shrimp do you currently have in your colony? I am assuming you could of had planaria because of the amount of feeding you are performing every week (5-6 times). Dependent on the size of your colony of shrimp I would suggest cutting back on your feeding. All other parameters look great, sometimes when I perform a water change 10-15% that is all it takes to start a "dance". Nothing like removing some excess nitrates and encouraging breeding by adding freshly oxygenated water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden123 Posted March 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 Its difficult to know the exact amount since there are so many hiding places but my best estimate would be 35-50. I do try to only feed very little amounts and enough that can be eaten within 2 hours but I can always reduce and see what happens. I would like to perform a 10-15% water change, however when I usually did 5-6% water changes and matched the tds, temp, etc I always had deaths after. That's why I only do very small water changes every so often (1 or 2 litre) and mainly top up with 1 litre RO per week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden123 Posted March 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 After reading through the forum some more I noticed that there has been quite a lot of discussions on aeration and flow and the importance of the same on shrimp survival and breeding. I had both sponge filters and the eheim diffusers on the back wall of the tank as this was the most convenient place to put them and I thought the flow would be ok. I have now moved the eheim diffusers to the front of the tank and instantly the shrimp have become more active and the flow does seem a lot better at the front. I'm guessing the mass of wood and moss in the middle was disrupting the flow to the front quite a lot. Maybe the improvement in flow will help with breeding since the shrimp do seem happier now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimple minded Posted March 18, 2016 Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 The massive plant/wood mass is awesome. Is it Windelov Java Fern? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden123 Posted March 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2016 Thanks It is Windelov Java Fern mixed in with weeping moss. The wood is actually two pieces that I placed together in the desired shaped. It didn't take too long to get to that size and density and requires regular pruning. This is what it looked like on initial set up: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden123 Posted March 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 After increasing the flow yesterday and seeing the jump in activity levels of the shrimp I decided to try something. I had an old 1000LPH water pump not being used so I have connected it up to one of the sponge filters for an inlet and added two spray bars for the outlet flow. The water is now circulating from the back and reaching the front of the tank as can be seen from the bubble movement from the below Youtube video. However, I am worried that this might now be too much flow and should I put it back the way it was before with two aid driven sponge filters at the back and the eheim diffusers at the front? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ0svK84Uf0&feature=youtu.be Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimple minded Posted March 19, 2016 Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 I was going to say that (from the top) it looks like a LOT of flow, but seeing the shrimp, they seem to be OK with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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