Cherry shrimp problems (yes seriously)

[Ashley]

Long time lurker, first time poster.  I'm having trouble with my 5gal, fluval spec cherry shrimp tank. I've tried everything I can find and they are still dying.  Many signs point to molting issue but I can't stop it!  I'm getting the white ring of death on many. I've tried adding cuttlebone, crushed oyster shell & feeding kale, reduced temp, increased GH ....and still deaths. 

 

Stats:

ammonia/nitrate/nitrite: 0

ph: 7.4

tds: 300

temp:73

kh:4/gh:12

calcium:around 100 mg/l

Weekly water changes with remineralized RO water. 

 

Tank is planted, no co2, occasional excel, no medications or chemicals for the most part. Help

[dbpelletier]

How much water are you changing a week and how fast are your changes?

How old is the tank and where did the shrimp come from?

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[Ashley]

I'm changing about 20% weekly (maybe bi-weekly if I get lazy).  Water changes are fairly quick but water is at same temp and deaths occur even if I forget to change water for 2 weeks.  And lastly, tank is a few months old, shrimp have come from a private seller and an online retailer that I can't seem to remember. All die. Oh I have 2 other tanks that are NEWER and all fairing fine.  

[wego21]

Hello,

 

My 10G tank for Neos has following parameters and the shrimp are fine, no molting issues what so ever, breeding like crazy

PH: 7.2

Temp: 26C

TDS: 250

GH: 6

KH: 2

Ammonia, Nitrate,Nitrite: 0

 

I also have few types of additives that put into the tank during setup - Borneowild balance, Mosura BT9. I put additional minerals into the water - I have a big Mironecton block which slowly dissolves and about 30 pieces of Lian breeder stones. Do you have something similar in your tank and other tanks? This could be the difference thats causing the molting issues as well. What product do you use to raise GH, KH and TDS from RO water during water change?

 

[FishRFriendz]

On 7/4/2017 at 6:04 PM, Ashley said:

I'm changing about 20% weekly (maybe bi-weekly if I get lazy).  Water changes are fairly quick but water is at same temp and deaths occur even if I forget to change water for 2 weeks.  And lastly, tank is a few months old, shrimp have come from a private seller and an online retailer that I can't seem to remember. All die. Oh I have 2 other tanks that are NEWER and all fairing fine.  

 

Last resort, tear it down, clean everything, start over, don't reuse gravel and hardscape.

[Ashley]

@wego21-  I use salty shrimp GH/KH

 

@FishRFriendz That would seriously suck!  I swear ive tried everything, if you see my pic, I even modded the outlet of my spec to create more surface agitation just in case it was a biofilm problem .  ugh.  The grave,l to be fair is eco-complete and its the same gravel (from same bag) in my other tank.  I mean other than that...a bad piece of wood???  Is that even possible?

 

Truly a mystery!!!

[Shrimple minded]

On 7/4/2017 at 4:10 PM, Ashley said:

increased GH

 

On 7/4/2017 at 4:10 PM, Ashley said:

kh:4/gh:12

 

This is what stands out to me

[chappy6107]

the gh seems a bit high to me too.  I keep mine between 6-8

 

I tried keeping some cherries in a tank with ecocomplete before and failed.  

 

You also said the tank is a couple months old.  Is it possible it is not cycled completely?  

 

some online retailers sell imported shrimp.  If this is what you received, you may just be going through the typical higher losses associated with imported shrimp.

[FishRFriendz]

4 hours ago, Ashley said:

@wego21-  I use salty shrimp GH/KH

 

@FishRFriendz That would seriously suck!  I swear ive tried everything, if you see my pic, I even modded the outlet of my spec to create more surface agitation just in case it was a biofilm problem .  ugh.  The grave,l to be fair is eco-complete and its the same gravel (from same bag) in my other tank.  I mean other than that...a bad piece of wood???  Is that even possible?

 

Truly a mystery!!!

 

I had the same mod on my Spec V. Ended up extending it all the way across the entire tank. No more surface film . Problem is, its a bright blue PEX pipe across the front of the tank... at least you've oriented yours so it's the back of the tank. 

 

Could be the wood, have seen others where they isolated it down to some random piece of drift wood someone gave them. Kinda expensive replacing one thing at a time till you find the culprit. 

[Ashley]

7 hours ago, chappy6107 said:

the gh seems a bit high to me too.  I keep mine between 6-8

 

I tried keeping some cherries in a tank with ecocomplete before and failed.  

 

You also said the tank is a couple months old.  Is it possible it is not cycled completely?  

 

some online retailers sell imported shrimp.  If this is what you received, you may just be going through the typical higher losses associated with imported shrimp.

 

Anything is possible at this point but I can say my numbers are consistent and I seeded the tank, went thru all the cloudiness and whatnot and made it through the other side.   

 

Ill try lowering GH. It was at 3 before I switched to RO and I was trying something I read saying to remineralize by bringing tds up to 300.  I'll try by GH reading next time.  

[Ashley]

7 hours ago, FishRFriendz said:

 

I had the same mod on my Spec V. Ended up extending it all the way across the entire tank. No more surface film . Problem is, its a bright blue PEX pipe across the front of the tank... at least you've oriented yours so it's the back of the tank. 

 

Could be the wood, have seen others where they isolated it down to some random piece of drift wood someone gave them. Kinda expensive replacing one thing at a time till you find the culprit. 

@FishRFriendz lol yah I went clear tube but trick is you need a CORK stopper on it to keep it afloat.  

 But yah maybe tear down is best at this point...maybe....I mean I've gone through EVERYTHING else!    Such a fail. The first 15 I killed I think was due to me using tap water that I didn't realize went thru a salt softener.  But since then I never recovered. 

[Jen]

I think my parameters are the same as wego21 except for TDS and nitrite. Mine are higher than the recommended numbers but both my Painted Red and Bloody Mary are thriving. I did a 75% water change on my BM tank to try and lower TDS and N03 using the drip method that took almost 24 hours to fill my 3 gallon tank. There were no deaths as a result. 

 

When you do water changes how fast are you changing the water? If you're not using the drip method may I suggest you try that. 

[ciaong]

I've had cherry shrimp in Eco-complete and off-the-charts TDS succesfully in the past. It's possible your batch of Eco-complete was contaminated, but highly unlikely since your other tank is fine. Are you using a dechlorinator? I accidentally killed two colonies of cherries with a store-brand dechlorinator that has apparently given other people problems too. They died one by one, some with the white ring. I switched to Prime and haven't had a death since. Also, have you checked for shrimp diseases? Some of them are really hard to spot unless you know to look for them.

[bobthesushiguy]

You seemed to have added quite the mix of different things. Is it okay to ask if you put all the stuff at once? Or was it slowly paced. Although in the beginning, you could of had an issue, the deaths that occur continuously can be from diff problems. Stability is extremely important. D: I wish I could help. However, some shrimp will pass away and it becomes RLY hard to find out why.

 

You can try your best to determine the reason behind it. How many died? All of them would be an issue. Some of them? Find what you think is a similarity these shrimps share. D: