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Sounds like overcrowding in an improperly cycled tank.
3 months into my new hobby, of the 26 adult shrimps i have added into the tank in march
Only 2 adult and 5-6 juveniles remain
To provide some background, I started a 12L shrimp tank back in March. My setup is as such:
12L Gex tank
Nameless shrimp substrate
1 rock
1 nana (that has been growing non stop)
some xmas and java moss
Gex slim filter S
ANS 1000 fan
Dymax clip on LED
After the tank cycled for a week (tested no ammonia and <5ppm nitrate), i added in 2 ottos 15 fire shrimps,6 crs in the first month and another 5 sakuras in the next month
Initially all was well, only 1 death in the first week (which was expected for new shrimps)
However after 1 month, shrimps began dying at a rate of 1-2 shrimps per week.
Ph is stable at 7.0 but nitrate kept climbing to a steady ~20ppm
Tank temperature is around 26-28C depending on ambient temperature. The big problem i had was evaporation, i have to top up almost 1 litre of water everyday to maintain water level.
The water i use is aged tap water from a bucket which i add chlorinator and liquid bacteria
By now all that is left is the 2 ottos, 1 fire shrimp,1 crs and 5-6 juvenile (from 1 berried fire shrimp i bought)
Feel like restarting the tank now to start with fish instead of shrimps
Sounds like overcrowding in an improperly cycled tank.
For crs what grade did you buy, they are very fragile for those high grade. For fire red dying it is a concern since they are hardy shrimps. Maybe you can try adding stuff such as bt-9 which is suppose to help improve condition and reduce death rate. But its funny your Ottos survive they are suppose to be more fragile.
Try adding some shrimps products for treating water into your aged water such as BT-9, shizhen( other brand products will do too so long for stabilizing water condition for shrimps, as I am using mosura products so i named them).
Hopefully will help
How often do you do your water change, and by how much?
Topping off water may be an option throughout the week, but if water is constantly topped off, without water change, TDS levels would increase and affect shrimp health.
in my opinion, this is the issue.
"i have to top up almost 1 litre of water everyday to maintain water level."
that's too frequent and too much. 1 litre of a 12 litre tank is 8% water top up. May i know what water was used in the top up? distilled or treated tap?
Please do consider doing something to your tank to reduce evaporation. Get the water parameters stable and do a 10% water change every week.
Smaller tanks are difficult in the sense that the water parameters change with a small amount of water change. Fluctuations in water parameters is not ideal for shrimps.
Sorry for your lost bro, did you measure the ammonia level whenever you spot a dead shrimp? Afterall its a small tank with very little water volume, which means water parameter can be very unstable by the slightest changes such as the water top up you did. By the way, I measured my home tap water and it contains ammonia and nitrate. Hence I always prepare a big pail of aged water treated with Seachem Prime to ensure it is shrimp safe before using it for water change. So do check your tap water, as well as the aged water you stored before conducting the water change.
Last edited by josephogk; 13th Jun 2013 at 11:29.
the reason why the shrimp dies is probably due to the high amount of metal in the water. our water contains some traces of metal which is toxic for the shrimp in high amount. because you keep topping up water, the amount of metals in the water accumulate and turns deadly for the shrimp. This is why the ottos are alive because they are not affected by the amount of metal content. If u wish to top up water only, you must use distilled water which have zero metal content. otherwise your shrimp will just keep dying
Very interesting, any idea what are the metals and how much.Originally Posted by demoon
Hi all,
I refer you to PUB link on the right which shows all the metals and other minerals in our water. http://www.pub.gov.sg/general/waters...gWQReport.aspx
The items that are more deadly to the shrimp is copper and lead. Other heavy metal might have also leached from the water pipes to our water supply.
While in small amount, they do not affect the shrimp, it will kill the shrimp in large amount.
Hence when keeping shrimp, we should probably change the water or top up only using distilled water to keep the amount of heavy metal in the aquarium constant in small amount
I seriously doubt that you can concentrate the levels of metals in our water in a month to the level that is would kill the shrimp. The fact that the shrimps die at the 3 week to 1 month mark is and indication of the Nitrate peaking in the nitrogen cycle. The usual culprits in a 'water topping up only' tank is the GH which makes it difficult for the shrimps to moult. Added to that he has said that there is a rock in the tank which might also contribute to the GH problem.
I use tap water, add de-chlorinator and liquid bacteria and leave it for a day. A pail of 5 litre will last for 5 days exactly
The evaporation is largely due to the fan, my room is pretty hot so without it the temperature easily reaches 31-32C in the day and 30C at night
So if i tone down on the fan....the temperature goes up
The only workaround is a chiller but it seems a little excessive for a small beginner startup tank
Moving to a bigger 2ft tank is an option too...
I used to do a 10% water change weekly but stopped doing so after I noticed deaths almost immediately the next day
Nowadays I do a 2-3% change every 2 days to spread the parameter change and also to pick up any debris on the water surface
Come to think of it, i never checked my aged water. WIll do so tomorrow to see how it goes
Will also check out seachem prime as i suspect my liquid bacteria seems to have gone "stale"
As i mentioned, the water is evaporating too fast for me to not constantly top up
My only option is to turn off the fan....but temperatures will soar to 30-31C which seems inhabitable for even the cherry shrimps
was thinking of getting frogbits to lower nitrate levels, would that help?
overcrowding shouldn't be a problem now since livestock level is at a all time low...
Hi Bro,
I used to have simlar problems as you previously.
I started with a nano tank UP Easy Aquarium and I still have it, 6 months into it now and I have CRS breeding, and my blue pearls and red rilis breeding like crazy which I have since then taken out and placed in a tiny tank for my GF. (My ambient room temp is 27-29 due to A/C being on quite abit but can go up to 30 when I dont turn on the a/c)
Here are some of my learning that may be beneficial to what you are encountering.
At pH 7.0 and the temperatures you have, the water conditions are also more friendly to the survival of pathogens (bacterial, Viral and fungal) which means if a pathogen is introduced then it can be causing the wipe out. Would be good to get the pH to lower with pH buffering soil or PH down of some sort for shrimps
Another good insight is what bro Cheetf said about the Nitrate peaking due to where your tank is at in the nitrogen cycle. Try putting in 10 to 12 frogbits to cover 60-70% of your tank to effectively reduce the nitrate (something Bro UA from here taught me) If you need frogbits you can come pick some up from me. This could also help you with your rapid evaparation issue.
On to the quick evaporation run top ups with low or 0 ppm water to keep tds down.
See if you can get your hands on bacteria in bottle products that would aid in introducing beneficial bacteria in your tank. I am using this product called BN7 from RAC so far it is serving me really well.
Alot has been said here so I wont repeat. But general rule of thumb I learnt is dont mess with what is already working and shrimp tanks tend to screw up when you're doing something on the daily to it. SNAFU is definitely no go.
Stick with shrimps bro we're all here so you can keep and appreciate what you enjoy best. These beautiful inverterbates wil lift your spirits when you get things right!
Hope you survive and get out of this stronger!
Last edited by AndyPeh; 14th Jun 2013 at 03:38.
Do you use a timer for your fan? I let the fan run 30 mins On, 30 mins Off and so on to reduce the evaporation rate and to let the fan cool down. I manage to maintain my water temp at around 28 degrees daily. I am using the timer bought from ikea at 9.90 for 2.As i mentioned, the water is evaporating too fast for me to not constantly top up
My only option is to turn off the fan....but temperatures will soar to 30-31C which seems inhabitable for even the cherry shrimps
bro how long ago did u buy the timer was it on offer ?
thanks!
Ikea timer always been $9.90 for 2. You can check the pricing online at ikea website
Hi Bros,
Sorry it took so long to reply, had been busy with school and work.
I took the advice provided in this thread, bought seachem prime for water aging,better evaporation management and stuff.
Glad to say the shrimps had stopped dying!
Even better is that 2 of my first gen juveniles have berries and successfully gave birth an entire batch of shrimplets(counted at least 10+)!
My moss wall is also coming out rather nicely haha.
Many thanks for the help! Looks like my shrimp journey is not coming to an end any time soon haja
Sent from my RM-821_apac_singapore_293 using Board Express
it would most have been a water problem. Do take extra precautions with the water parameters, and your shrimps should be happy and breed like rabbits!
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