All my Japonica Amano Shrimp going to heaven. Why? :-(

[Filet-O-Fish]

Hi guys,
I bought 20 Amano shrimps for my 4 ft tank 1 week ago. I did the drip method ( took about 2 hours) to acclimatize them before adding to the main tank.

The next day onwards I noticed 1 to 2 dead shrimps on the substrate. I have lost a total of 6 shrimps over the past 7 days.

Yesterday I did a water test:

Water temp: 25.5c
Ph:6.4
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite No2: 0ppm
Nitrate No3: 40ppm
KH: 5
Phosphates: 10ppm

For fertilizers, I'm dosing EI dry salts.
Injected Co2
No dosing of any liquid carbon.

Noticed that some shrimps are normal body colour and some have a slight reddish body colour. Please see photos of the reddish body.

Has any members come across this in your shrimps?
Thanks

[Phillipians]

The slightly reddish dead shrimp is due to it having been there for a while. Meanwhile your other parameters look alright.

[Shadow]

Sorry to heard that. Your water parameter look OK, except the KH, did you add something to increase your KH? Are you using Ada soil ? Did you add any plant recently? Any other shrimp inside the tank?

[strat]

How old is your tank?

[Filet-O-Fish]

Sorry to heard that. Your water parameter look OK, except the KH, did you add something to increase your KH? Are you using Ada soil ? Did you add any plant recently? Any other shrimp inside the tank?

Hi Shadow,
My KH was 6 before I took out my coral chips out of the ext filter about 1 week before adding the shrimps. Now its reading as 5. Should I get it lower?
Yes my soil is ADA.
No plants were added for the past 4 months.
As for other shrimps, I added about 30 red cherry shrimps 4 days before the Amanos.

This has never happened before. Previously I had about 10 Amano shrimps but they all managed to jump out of the tank over the course of 1 month. I had some big fish which would chase them about and these poor shrimps have nowhere to go but out of the tank.
I have since removed the big fish. Now there are only 8 Rummynose and 10 Diamond Tetras in a 300 litre tank. I'm more of a plant guy.

Oh BTW...I have to add this though, since I had bad case of BBA for some time, I was double dosing AlgaExit but I stopped it 3 days before adding the shrimps. Now I have completely stopped using AlgaExit.

Cheers

[Filet-O-Fish]

How old is your tank?

My tank is now 10 months old.

[Filet-O-Fish]

The slightly reddish dead shrimp is due to it having been there for a while. Meanwhile your other parameters look alright.

I realize that the 1st photo has created some confusion. Sorry.
When I mentioned about the reddish colour on the shrimps, I was not referring to the dead ones. The live ones in the tank had that slight reddish colour. My last batch of Amano shrimps had greyish bodies.
You can see it clearly on the 2nd photo.Is the reddish colour normal?
Thanks

[Urban Aquaria]

I realize that the 1st photo has created some confusion. Sorry.
When I mentioned about the reddish colour on the shrimps, I was not referring to the dead ones. The live ones in the tank had that slight reddish colour. My last batch of Amano shrimps had greyish bodies.
You can see it clearly on the 2nd photo.Is the reddish colour normal?
Thanks

Color tints on amano shrimps bodies are fine, i had some which showed greenish tints and even slight bluish tints, not sure why but they were healthy and active. Maybe there are different variations of amano shrimps, like how cherry shrimps have different color mutations.

Main thing to watch is their bodies don't turn opaque/cloudy (not transparent anymore), that likely means they have some sort of bacterial infection or parasite issue and survival rate is usually low.

[Shadow]

Hi Shadow,
My KH was 6 before I took out my coral chips out of the ext filter about 1 week before adding the shrimps. Now its reading as 5. Should I get it lower?
Yes my soil is ADA.
No plants were added for the past 4 months.
As for other shrimps, I added about 30 red cherry shrimps 4 days before the Amanos.

This has never happened before. Previously I had about 10 Amano shrimps but they all managed to jump out of the tank over the course of 1 month. I had some big fish which would chase them about and these poor shrimps have nowhere to go but out of the tank.
I have since removed the big fish. Now there are only 8 Rummynose and 10 Diamond Tetras in a 300 litre tank. I'm more of a plant guy.

Oh BTW...I have to add this though, since I had bad case of BBA for some time, I was double dosing AlgaExit but I stopped it 3 days before adding the shrimps. Now I have completely stopped using AlgaExit.

Cheers

I see, normally ADA soil will lower the kH to almost 0. Did you do large water change? I'm afraid the coral chip was trying to increase kH while ADA soil was trying to reduce the kH, in the end what dissolve in the water might be too much for Amano shrimp.

Not sure about AlgaExit, never try before.

[Phillipians]

I ve done 1.5 dosing of algexit before to no detrimental effect to the amanos/yamatos. However 2 times the dose is a little heavy. May or may not. Algexit in proper dosing is harmless. I can testify to that. Of course only for fire shrimps, malayan and yamato. Thats my experience. I have got high KH too. Approx 5 to 6 but mine looks fine.

[Shadow]

Not the kH that I worry about, it the dissolve solid. Basically the ADA soil is dissolving the coral chip until it exhausted. Hence the question did you do large water change to flush out the dissolve solid.

and one more thing did you dose K2SO4?

[Filet-O-Fish]

I see, normally ADA soil will lower the kH to almost 0. Did you do large water change? I'm afraid the coral chip was trying to increase kH while ADA soil was trying to reduce the kH, in the end what dissolve in the water might be too much for Amano shrimp.

Not sure about AlgaExit, never try before.

Hi
Yes I do 50% PWC weekly.
So will my KH drop even further now that I have taken out the coral chips?

[Shadow]

It should because the Singapore water is about zero kH, at least in my area.

[Filet-O-Fish]

I ve done 1.5 dosing of algexit before to no detrimental effect to the amanos/yamatos. However 2 times the dose is a little heavy. May or may not. Algexit in proper dosing is harmless. I can testify to that. Of course only for fire shrimps, malayan and yamato. Thats my experience. I have got high KH too. Approx 5 to 6 but mine looks fine.

Well its good to know. BTW is yours ADA soil?

[Filet-O-Fish]

This morning I saw my Amano shrimps busy cleaning but not the whole group of them. Either they're inside the dense plant growth or gone to heaven.

Does dosing Magnesium sulfate play a part in KH?

[Filet-O-Fish]

that likely means they have some sort of bacterial infection or parasite issue and survival rate is usually low.

Can it spread?

[Shadow]

No, but in the old day when I dose K2SO4 excessively, shrimp start dying.

[Filet-O-Fish]

No, but in the old day when I dose K2SO4 excessively, shrimp start dying.

Hummmm....very interesting. I have always thought that K2SO4 was a benevolent salt. One can dose more than necessary and it won't harm the flora or fauna like other salts would.
So my profile title is right after all "Still Learning"

BTW what time period are we talking about when you mentioned "in the old days"?

Cheers.

[Shadow]

6-7 years ago maybe , we are all still learning. Never ending learning

[Filet-O-Fish]

6-7 years ago maybe , we are all still learning. Never ending learning

I forgot to ask you. When you said "excess potassium", can you let me know what was the ppm like.
Cheers.