Berried CRS dying one by one

**ryangiggs** · 6th Oct 2016, 15:51

Hi,

I have abt 10-12 berried CRS. Recently i noticed that those berried ones especially those that are probably due soon begin to die off one by one... every 1 or 2 days will have one dead... i guess they are about to give birth soon as i saw very few shrimplets around and they probably been carrying the eggs for abt 3 weeks before they die...

Mine is a 3ft heavily planted with shrimps and otos only. PH during the day is around 6.4 and during the night is about 6.0-6.2. I have stop using CO2 as i find that it can affect the PH. My GH is abt 4 and KH 0-1. The tank is up and running for abt 5 months and it is only recently that the CRS begin to get berried.

Any idea what is causing the deaths? Any things to remedy the situation? I tried the artificially incubate the eggs with those glass hatchery but so far none is successful. Most of the eggs will either start to turn mouldy or turn stale... Bought a Ziss hatchery online yesterday but dun think it will come in time if there are more death within this few days...

It is disheartening to see berried shrimps dying... especially after 5 months you thought everything is going smoothly and shrimps starting to get berried... and this happen...

Would appreciate some advice from u guys...

thanks in advance...

**Rachdanon** · 7th Oct 2016, 20:23

I feel your pain bro. I had berried shrimp die too and it coincide with these 3 events, which I suspect is due to the 3rd :

1. Bought a bunch of Monte Carlo and Glosso and planted them - Didnt wash them so suspect could be some anti snail or chemical in the batch or digging up of the gravel caused some nasty stuff to come out

2. Separated the guppies from the shrimp. Took the guppies out to another tank. Can't think how this could have caused the deaths

3. Corner immersed filter was nastily dirty

Lost 80% of the fire red/sakura shrimp in the tank including a few babies. Now I got babies and adults happily in one tank and guppies and fry in another.

You didn't mention the temperature. I had some experience in CRS and found that temperature was the thing that killed them.

**genki89** · 7th Oct 2016, 22:38

Hahahaha same problem here except mine was bloody mary and chocolate. Camping here to see what can i learn

. My fire red doing perfectly fine with the same setting and environment.

My water parameters: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20, gh 6, kh 2, tds 124, ph 7, water temp 27
Using seachem prime, so should not have copper and chlorine test 0.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**ryangiggs** · 8th Oct 2016, 09:50

As of yesterday... another 3 berried CRS mama died... the number of eggs wasted is really disheartening... going to try the fish net over filter outlet method to see if it works... after using the cheapo glass hatchery... i concluded that it is totally useless... adjust the flow too slow it will start to turn mouldy... adjust too strong the eggs will tumble to the side and turn mouldy oso...

yah my fire red are doing well and reproducing well oso... not sure what trigger the deaths...

the only thing i can think of is i take out abt 70% of the frogbits as it is blocking the lights from reaching the carpet MC...

another thing i notice is when i fish out the dead shrimps... sometimes there are a few planarias inside and it start to crawl out... not sure if the planaria caused the death or it went in after it died... i do not have a serious infestation as i usually only see 2-3 crawling around at any time...

**cosworth** · 17th Oct 2016, 04:38

Are you noticing this when you conduct water changes? Also are you using RO or DI for WC or using tap water? Do you keep your TDS stable?

**Guppendler** · 17th Oct 2016, 22:10

And also what is the temperature of your water? Optimal temperature range is 22-25 degree Celsius for CRS

**ryangiggs** · 18th Oct 2016, 10:08

I'm using normal tap water treated with Prime... I have a teco 500 chiller that keep it btw 24-25... But i did not do water change after noticing the death... since i suspect it might be the fluctuate PH that may be the cause... however the death continue... i think i am now left with one berried mama...

btw... just an update on the glass hatchery... i left those eggs that turned mouldy in the hatchery to see if it hatch... to my surprise it did... now got abt 4 hatched... so conclusion is that even if the eggs turned mouldy it can still potentially hatch...

and the net under filter outlet doesn't work... somehow some small cherry shrimps managed to get in and i think they ate all of the eggs... so another conclusion is that shrimps will eat the eggs?

**Rachdanon** · 20th Oct 2016, 20:47

Do you have plants growing healthily in your tank? I use plant growth and sufficient amount of it as a sign my tank is comfy for the fish/shrimp. Just my 2 cts.

**FreemanAng** · 25th Oct 2016, 23:27

Its 19 days after you posted this thread, I hope you have found a solution.
Anyways here's what I encountered, hope it helps you.

I have CRS dying on me suddenly too, and here's what I tried (and what worked for me in the end):
1) 50% Water changes + vacuum gravel to remove toxins + clean filter (with dechlorinated water)...
2) Adding bacteria for every deaths encountered (I use SMW)

Worked for a while, but death continues 1 day at a time... I seek advice from shrimp whatsapp chat and learned that it could be the substrate has too many waste material. So I......

3) Buy the carpet moss and plant it all around the soil so 80-90% of the substrate is covered (shrimps have no contact with direct soil).

Currently no deaths for 2 weeks.

Edit: From then on I use purchased distilled water (the Life brand) and added SMW + Borneowild GH+ to remineralize.

**ryangiggs** · 26th Oct 2016, 09:45

Thanks for the advice... i have not seen any death for the past week... probably coz most of the berried mama already dead... i think i left 1-2 berried mama which got berried recently... will monitor these 2 since the death seems to strike late in the pregnancy... so far the death only affects the mamas... all other shrimps are ok and eating well...

Mine is a planted tank with full MC carpet... plants oso growing well despite me stop using any fertilizer and CO2...

I am using SMW as well and Mosura Mineral Plus...

So far i only managed to hatched 8 eggs out of the probably 100s... such a waste...

Anyway... i know it is a difficult balance trying to do a planted and shrimp tank... Maybe next time will do a pure shrimp tank instead...

**Dscheng** · 1st Nov 2016, 11:41

Originally Posted by ryangiggs

I'm using normal tap water treated with Prime... I have a teco 500 chiller that keep it btw 24-25... But i did not do water change after noticing the death... since i suspect it might be the fluctuate PH that may be the cause... however the death continue... i think i am now left with one berried mama...

btw... just an update on the glass hatchery... i left those eggs that turned mouldy in the hatchery to see if it hatch... to my surprise it did... now got abt 4 hatched... so conclusion is that even if the eggs turned mouldy it can still potentially hatch...

and the net under filter outlet doesn't work... somehow some small cherry shrimps managed to get in and i think they ate all of the eggs... so another conclusion is that shrimps will eat the eggs?

Tap water with Prime is definitely not going to work for CRS. Go for distilled water or RO water and then adjust the TDS by using mineral to the desired TDS. PH level must be maintain stable at 5.5-6.5. No big changes in PH at the short time. They will suffer PH shocks and eventually dead. Temperature must be stable between 24-25. Make sure no copper or any form of chemical that will kill off the shrimp.