Mysterious Death of shrimps

**felix_fx2** · 27th Oct 2009, 20:50

Hi need help.

All my shrimps one by one have passed on, Cherry/Malayan/Ghost.
But my neon tetra are still living fine.

Did a 50% WC when only ghost shrimps were still alive but still they died

.

what possible causes?

**eviltrain** · 27th Oct 2009, 22:19

mind give us more detail like tank, filter, water parameter

**silane** · 27th Oct 2009, 22:41

Originally Posted by felix_fx2

Hi need help.

All my shrimps one by one have passed on, Cherry/Malayan/Ghost.
But my neon tetra are still living fine.

Did a 50% WC when only ghost shrimps were still alive but still they died

.

what possible causes?

This type of major death is likely due to water quality or water parameters.

**felix_fx2** · 27th Oct 2009, 23:14

It only happens to my 3 x 1.5 x 1.5.
Filter is CF-800 using only CR, added activated charcoal after WC.
Don't have any test kits for parameter, but i do use "Stress-Guard" during WC.

I do believe water quality caused their death, that's why i did a 50% WC.
Don't wish to do any higher if not my neon tetramight not take it.

**mrnyunus** · 27th Oct 2009, 23:52

Since you don't have any test kits suggest you go get one bro...suspect ammonia spike or even PH in-balance...

**felix_fx2** · 28th Oct 2009, 01:20

i just had a discovery. 1 survivor a bee shrimp.
mrnyunus bro, thanks for the advise.

hoping for more causes so same thing DOES not happen again, shrimp dying one by one is not exactly nice to see every day.

**dnsfpl** · 28th Oct 2009, 09:24

measure your no3, i bet more than 60

**silane** · 28th Oct 2009, 10:08

Originally Posted by felix_fx2

It only happens to my 3 x 1.5 x 1.5.
Filter is CF-800 using only CR, added activated charcoal after WC.
Don't have any test kits for parameter, but i do use "Stress-Guard" during WC.

I do believe water quality caused their death, that's why i did a 50% WC.
Don't wish to do any higher if not my neon tetramight not take it.

The more water change, the more they may die, shrimps are not fish, water quality not necessary improved by large water change.

**felix_fx2** · 28th Oct 2009, 12:52

dnsfpl, i'll measure when i get test kit bro.

silane, bro i'll be pulling my hair until i can think of something in the setup that affects the water conditions that fish can tolerate but shrimp cannot.

Survivors found hidden: 2 x Malayan, 1 x Bee.

Hopefully they are well when i return home from NA this evening, gonna buy test kit and some livestock.

**felix_fx2** · 28th Oct 2009, 22:45

Hi bros,

Thanks for all the advise, my itchy fingers have bought a test kit as well some live stock.

Parameters are
ph - 6.4
kh - 3-6d
gh - 14-21d, 7-14d, 21d, 21d
no2 - 0.5
no3 - 25

i have no idea why GH so many, i bought JBL test kit.

dnsfpl bro "touch wood" no3 at 25 considered high?

**stormhawk** · 30th Oct 2009, 07:25

A 50% water change may have stressed your shrimps excessively. When doing water changes to my shrimp tank, I never do more than 5-10% at any one time. They dislike sudden changes to the water parameters.

Note, our tap water contains both chlorine and chloramine. If you did not leave the water to stand overnight, or adding it in stages, the shrimps may have died from elevated levels of chloramine from the tap water.

It is always advisable to do water changes to a shrimp tank in small amounts over a period of time.

Too much nitrate and nitrite can be bad for shrimps too. From your reading, Nitrate at 25ppm seems fine. You might want to step up the biological filtration though. The 0.5 on Nitrites can be killer for some shrimps. I try to keep my tank stable with nitrite at 0 ppm. Nitrates can be dealt with easily via the use of hornwort. They are the best nitrate suckers, at least to me.

Perhaps it's the substrate, or something else you placed in the tank as an ornament.

**felix_fx2** · 30th Oct 2009, 12:30

stormhawk, i only did the 50% water change after most of them died.
the water test was done after the water change and not before. judging from the nitrites level it should have been the cause.

Personally i only like to add water and not change them. i had 2 caves which were made from water proofing cement i deeply feel it was them and hence removed them.

I have frogbits in there to take up nitrates, maybe its when i threw half of what i had that had nitrate levels go up too much.

Thank you so very much for your view/advise.

**stormhawk** · 30th Oct 2009, 12:35

Yeah the loss of the frogbits combined with the nitrites might have caused the imbalance and thus their death. Like you I just top up water, not remove it.

I think you just wait a few days before getting new shrimp. Let the nitrite go down to 0 and then get new shrimp. Just to be safe, buy only a few cherry shrimp as your test subjects. Should not be an issue once the nitrite is gone.

In fact I have a better suggestion as your "canaries". Get some Ramshorn Snails, put them in the tank once your nitrite has gone down to zero. Let them roam around the tank. If they don't die within 48 hours, you should be safe. I did this when I first set up my 4 foot tank. From a single Ramshorn now I have a ton of them.

They're my water quality indicators, because in the past, if the snails don't like the water conditions, then the shrimp won't like them either. Better for the snails to die than the shrimps.