Please help my CPO/Shrimp tank!!! they are dying

[lsk]

Dear all please helpout on my Dying shrimps.

I'm new into keeping shrimps and just started the tank two days ago.Please advise me on what I should do to salvage my tank of shrimps!

Components/live stock in tank.

1) 1.5 x 1 ft five plan tank.

2) Gex M size HOF

3) Black ground gravels

4) 3 pieces of java moss on wire mesh(7x9cm)

5) 2 pieces of moss ball

6) 1 piece of Bogwood

Livestock

1) 10 pieces of Cherries shrimps (4-5 left)

2) 20 pieces of fire red shrimps (10+ left)

After carefully washing the gravels and items and got the HOF going, I introduced the shrimps in immediately. I did not put any solution etc inside. Initially the shrimps were doing well in the tank, they were very active! After a day, the water turned brownish and shrimps were found jerking and dying one by one. Please advise me on what I should do and what I did wrongly. Please help me, as they are suffering , it pains me to see them like this.

Thanks and regards,
sk.

[lucasjiang]

You forgot the most important step, to cycle your tank. you have to cycle your tank for about 1 month before you can introduce livestock.

If i am right, there is a type of shrimp soil that has beneficial bacteria inside, and can reduce cycling time to 1-2 days. Silane is selling it here. Thats the best way to salvage your tank now.

[silane]

Hi all the bro and sis here, pls help and advise on what to do with my tank!!

I just set up my tank 2 days ago.

Tanks/livestock specification

1.5ft x 1ft five plan tank.

GEX HOF

Black ground gravel

3 piece of 7x9cm java moss on mesh

2 moss ball

1 bog wood

3m,3f CPO

10 cherries(left 3-4 only)

20 fire red shrimps(left 10+)

I'm new to this hobby after seeing them in LFS and bought them to start up my tank.

After Carefully washing the items, I set up the tank and got the HOF moving. Once everything is done, I introduced all the live stock into the tank immediately.

I only put all the items in the tank, no medication or solution involved.

Initially all the livestocks were doing well and happily in the tank, after 1 day, the water turned abit brownish and can see the shrimps jerking and some died off. The CPO have not shown any signs of discomfort, however all the shrimps are suffering!!

Pls advise me on what to do.... I'm really lost! Should I put solutions in or what?

pls pls help out my shrimps!! I'm really desperate for solution

Another point is, no anti-cholorine or water conditioner is used. This is something very very basic and needed and a must for invertebrates.

I bet you didnt even acclaimised the livestock.

There are many informations in the forums on how to deal with shrimps and cray for beginners but you choose to focus on other topics, I can match your nick with another forum.

Anyway, check your ph, I think it is too high or your cherry shrimps are suffering from "you have not add any other solution".

Soil which offer ph like 6.x or some 5.x is not suitable for cray. Cherrys shrimps can adapt from 6.x to low 7 and cray prefer weak alkaline. So choose the right substrate, quartz may offer you to high ph, soil will offer you too low ph for the combo (CPO and cherry).

Personally, I would not want to comm shrimps and CPO, they have their own optimal water parameters. Bad comm but common comm is CRS and CPO in soil, CRS should be fine but CPO will suffer.

Why would someone want to comm two entirely species when he can even do the basic things to keep alive?

Measure the pH and we shall see. Shrimps when damaged are hurt to recover all.

Basic topic you want to read are:
- acclaimisation
- ph, temperature
- cycling and denitrifying cycle
- gravel effect on water

[globalcookie]

I would be very surprise if you face low casulty. A instant setup with so many lives introduced into it directly. You are causing mass slaughter.

Stop buying, stop introducing anymore lives into the tank. Get all the remaining out and see if you have friends with mature tanks to house them for the time being, else give it away to people with mature tank.

Cycle your tank! Read up! HEED Advise! Get benefitual bacterial powder/liquid and dilute it in tank water before pouring it into tank (use air tube). Plug and Play is not a good option for shrimp/invertebrate keeping. We are not talking abt hardy fishes here, but lives with minimal or no immune system to protect themselves.

[lsk]

hi, i do not have any friend that has matured tanks. Can anyone tell me how to cycle etc in simple words? I did some research and didn't understand. Is there anything I can do to speed up the cycling process? Pls advise.

[stormhawk]

Short of getting some mulm from an established tank to seed your HOF, it's difficult to "shorten" the cycle time. I'm afraid you have to be prepared to see a 100% wipeout on your shrimps.

[lsk]

ok so let say all my shrimps died off, then what am I suppose to do to cycle it? Just leave it running ? for how long?

[sthh]

Hmmm, you mentioned that your water turned brownish very fast. That is quite unusual, even for uncycled tank. I suggest you do a water change, and of course add anti-chlorine. Do check if the water turns brownish again. If it does, remove those bogwood and moss mess. I can't really comment on your black gravel.

If you need to get some dirty mulm to add to your hof, I can cut some sponge media from my goldfish tank and give it to you free. However, do not squeeze any of the mulm to your substrate, as it is likely to cloud the tank more.

[lsk]

Hmmm, you mentioned that your water turned brownish very fast. That is quite unusual, even for uncycled tank. I suggest you do a water change, and of course add anti-chlorine. Do check if the water turns brownish again. If it does, remove those bogwood and moss mess. I can't really comment on your black gravel.

If you need to get some dirty mulm to add to your hof, I can cut some sponge media from my goldfish tank and give it to you free. However, do not squeeze any of the mulm to your substrate, as it is likely to cloud the tank more.

Hi bro, thank you very much for the initiative!

I bought the anti chlorine solution and added in already. The shrimps seems much more stable and active compared to yesterday. The overall population of my cherries/fire red is around 10+ now . more than 15 casualties.

Where do you stay btw? would definitely like to have that dirty piece of mulm. btw mulm is the sponge... pls correct me if i'm wrong.

[sthh]

I stay in the north. The mulm is the dirty yucky brown stuff that you squeeze out from the sponge media. Contains lots of beneficial bacteria.

I usually squeeze them onto the substrate, then add water to the tank, and also put some of the dirty sponge in the hof filter couple of days before adding any shrimps. This will help spread the bacteria all over the tank and also in the filter.

However, I think you should just take the dirty sponge media and add it to hof, as it is too late to squeeze the mulm onto the substrate. This could cause a nitrate spike.

If your water is still turning brown, you should check your water parameter to find out what is leaching out. I think your shrimps might be safer temporarily in a pail with dechlorinated water if your substrate, or bogwood is turning the water brown.

PM me your number, and I will try to arrange to pass you some used sponge media tmr.

[lsk]

already pmed you.

[sthh]

Didn't see any PM from you. You may need a post count of 10 or more, and it may not be activated immediately.
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=16285

[sthh]

Glad to know they are better. Do monitor the water, esp if it change colour.

If your tank is not cycled, you may need to do more regular water change, and don't disturb the substrate while doing that.

Cycling a tank can take up to 1 month, esp if the bio-load is high.

[Jungle-mania]

Could the browning be due to the bogwood leaching tannic acid?

[stormhawk]

Highly likely it's the bogwood.

@lsk:

Good to hear your surviving shrimps are doing better. Guess the ones that died earlier, aided in the cycling of your tank, by sacrificing themselves to provide the boost for the bacteria to seed your filter.

[ciaossu]

hi, i do not have any friend that has matured tanks. Can anyone tell me how to cycle etc in simple words? I did some research and didn't understand. Is there anything I can do to speed up the cycling process? Pls advise.

i did the same thing as you last time, due to my impatience and ignorance. however, i was lucky some of my shrimps even gave birth.

some links that might help u
http://www.petfrd.com/forum/articles.php
http://www.silaneshrimp.com/articles...ank-setup.html ( i hope bro silane dun mind i c&p his link here)
http://www.shrimpnow.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=16
http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/ (require you to sign up to read more treads)

[globalcookie]

hi, i do not have any friend that has matured tanks. Can anyone tell me how to cycle etc in simple words? I did some research and didn't understand. Is there anything I can do to speed up the cycling process? Pls advise.

There are a few remedies.

As some mentioned, get a used filter sponge from other tank as it will contain benefitual baterials (BB). Do not squeeze the sponge in your tank as we don't know what that may release.

For a new setup tank wanting to speed up the cycling process, you can include powder or liquid BB. Else, you can also throw in some fish food or dead fish/shrimps and let it completely disappear (disolve).

An empty tank without lives, means there is minimal bioload. If you cycle a tank with only food or dead fish/shrimps, do repeat the process. Once the tank is clean (of the above), maybe leave it for another 2 days before releasing shrimps to the tank.

We should never release a bag of shrimps directly into the tank without acclimitisation. Getting them adjusted to temperature is one thing, getting them to adjust to water condition is another. That second part is just as important.