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Sounds like your new tank is not fully cycled.
I managed to breed sulawesi shrimps when I gave it a first try keeping them.( I was partially lucky and partially informative as I did a lot of research on them before trying out)
A few months later when I had my third batch of eggs, I decided to change them to a larger tank( from 1ft to 1.5ft) since the bioload of the system is reaching maximum. (need to change water more frequently to keep nitrates 0). Around that time, I had 30 pieces of shrimps. I started with only 4 shrimps.
However, recently, I start noticing shrimp death. Though it was those weaker ones which couldnt adapt to the new environment so I ignored those warnings. The main thing is that the rest of the shrimps are feeding normally with no sign of stress.
Tonight when I discovered more shrimp death, I decided to do a shake down of my tank to see the total population of the shrimps again. My tank is heavily decorated with lava rocks which they like to hide. So I removed all the decorations.
To my horror, only 9 shrimps left remaining. This means that I have incurred a loss of 21 shrimps or 70% shrimp death since I moved them to the new tank.
The details: Before I moved them, I occasionally exchanged water from the old tank and new tank. This lasted for around a month.
During this water changing phase, my shrimps got pregnant with the fourth batch of eggs( a long time since the last batch) and this gave me confidence that the water from the new tank is fine with the shrimps.
In one day, I moved all the shrimps to their new tank. Water from the old tank is also added to the new tank, which accounts for around 40% of its volume.The shrimps look fine.
My old tank water perimeters: 27degree celcius,10mg/l nitrate, pH: 7.9
My new tank water perimeters:27degree celcius,0mg/l nitrate, pH: 7.9
The differences in content between the tanks:
1) The new tank is infested with button snails and those cone shaped shell snails.
2) I noticed that the new tank is also infested with hydras.
3)The new tank is filled with a lot more fissidens tied to lava rocks.
4)Some of the lava rocks and coral chips are rather fresh. But I have washed them with hot water and soaked them for a few weeks.
5)I turn the bubbling on for 24/7 for the new tank, which is at a different rate for what is used for the old tank( occasionally)
Hypothesis:
1) The invasive snails and hydra are the root cause for their sudden deaths.
2) Fissidens might be related to the shrimp death.
3)The tiny amount of hair algae attached to fissidens may be responsible for their deaths.
4) The stress on the shrimps arising from the increased water tensions through the bubbling.
5) The lava rocks or the coral sands may still be unclean and release harmful substances into the water.
ANYONE, ANYONE EXPERIENCED OR KNOWLEDGEABLE ENOUGH, PLEASE HELP ME OR GIVE ME SOME ADVICE. I AM SERIOUSLY LOST AT THIS SITUATION.
LOSING 20+ shrimps is a pain both emotionally and economically. It really takes alot of work to keep them.
I have breed them from 4 shrimps to 30 shrimps.
One shrimp gives less than 10 babies.
Survival rate like around 50%.
The time for one shrimp takes to conceive one batch from the last batch takes around 40-50days.
One batch takes 20days to hatch.
(Everything based on research from my own tank)
Means I have been breeding them for months. Now takes only a few weeks to reduce my efforts back to square one.
Seriously lost...
Sounds like your new tank is not fully cycled.
How did you transfer them over?
If you have cycled the tank, if you transfer them properly, then it could be this:Originally Posted by PhantomV
Hydra, but they can harm shrimp of small size
lava rocks, you wont know what you get from them
Snails are friendly to shrimps and in fact, they can be helpful
silane
Hmmm.. Have you fully tested your new tank's water parameters? What about ammonia & nitrite levels? Also hydra will have a go at ur shrimps especially if they do like to swim around.. Snails shouldn't be a problem but maybe next time u can send a few test shrimps into the new tank instead of throwing all of them in.. Better to keep your eggs in seperate baskets to reduce the loss.. Oh ya.. And also maybe check your plants and moss for dragonfly nymphs? They too like to munch on shrimps..
Mad about shrimps!
Robin
For your info, the new tank is cycled for at least one month plus, with some old water and substrate from the old tank and I tested several times for nitrate spikes before deciding to mix the water to the old tank.
Well, I know I shouldn't put all shrimps at one go.
But like I mentioned earlier, I have already mixed water from both tanks for around a month(gradually from small amounts) before I transfer the shrimps to the new tank.
During this water mixing phase, my shrimps got pregnant again, which they haven done so ever since I added some sulawesi rabbit snails to it.( the nitrate levels of the tank increased since I added the snails).
It is this that gives me confidence that the water quality of the new tank is fine with the shrimps. Or else, they would have die on me the moment I mixed water.
As for the transfering part, I did partial water change with the water from the new tank, until most of its old water are replaced then I add them to the tank.All managed to survived when I added them. Furthermore, they should already be acclimatized to the water from the new tank since I mixed water periodically. They showed no sign of stress when they are added into the tank.(though they seem abit confused, staying at one spot moving their feelers and slow to move initially, but resume normal activities the next day).
Critters, like snails and hydras, I believe, do minimum harm to these shrimps as I have them in my cherry shrimp tank as well. The cherry shrimps are unaffected by them. But there is also a possibility that they may be lethal to them as well. Cardinal shrimps are not exposed to these critters in their native habitats. So they may not be able to take it if they were to live with them. Those critters may be producing chemicals that are lethal to those shrimps but not others who are used to their presence,or the shrimps may accidentally consumed the hydras and got poisoned, Whatever the case, I haven tested them living together peacefully with the shrimps thus this does not rule their presence causing the shrimps death out.
As for the lava rock and coral sand, they seem to be the prime suspect. Most of them are new, in a sense, although they are washed and soaked, but I haven official tested them to be shrimp safe. But the water I used to mix with the older tank comes from my new tank already mixed with these lava rocks and coral chips. Or is there a chance the old tank can neutralize those chemicals emitted from these materials thus render the mixed water safe for the shrimps? Anyway the lava rocks and the coral chips from the new tank are obtained differently from another source compared to the ones in the old tank.
Silane, with regards to your experience and knowledge, do you think the lava rocks and coral chips lfs are selling are 100% clean and fauna safe? Or do different lfs sell different quality of these goods? Maybe perhaps different types of lava rocks( the differing redness of those rocks) differ in their quality of chemical composition as well? Do different standards of coral chips exist as well?
Another highly suspicious factor is my substrate. Most of my substrate comes from my other decommissioned tank which I used boiling water to wash it, followed by using dechlorinated water to wash it again. During the process, some ramhorn snails are boiled in the substrate as well( I tried to remove all from the sand, apparently some hide well...).
So the new substrate has got ramhorn carcasses in it. Could this lead to the shrimp deaths as well?
Haiz, questions, questions, questions... Seems like keeping cardinal shrimps are not just lava rocks, coral chips and water stability...I might be lucky on my first try but I still got lots to learn with these guys. Maybe current and future cardinal shrimps keepers can learn from this thread as well...
Last edited by PhantomV; 19th May 2010 at 18:56.
sorry to hear that. hoped that your rabbit snails are ok.
The Hydras in your tank might cause this. These little things are dangerous to shrimps, especially sensitive shrimps like cardinals....
Boxedfish. Your rabbit snails are ok, in fact pretty healthy. They look like a robust bunch of critters.
Haha it's your snails already. I would say they are quite hardy but still not as hardy as other snails.
phantomv.. you are Guan Hong?
I feel that it might be your water perimeters. I recently started to keep these shrimps too.. had some deaths too but managed to find a suitable perimeters for my shrimps. Now they are all doing fine..
Last edited by Limy; 17th May 2010 at 12:46.
Well, I tried to create water in my new tank with the same perimeters with my old tank. Apparently the problem lies somewhere beyond just recreating the suitable water perimeters for the shrimps. It could be some other chemicals that exists in the water of the new tank introduced by the new lava rocks, or maybe even new micro organisms in the tank introduced by the old substrate which threaten the shrimps' survival.
Whatever the cause, its unknown. Now I have shifted the remaining shrimps to the old tank where it still have its original substrate and only 2 inches depth of its original water.
Few days have pass, the remaining shrimps have no death in their former tank.
Should stay away from larva rock, their composition may differ from production locations.
Coral chip is quite standard in composition.
silane
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