After doing homework for sometime, I thought I was ready to switch from goldfish to shrimps.
With a sparsely planted tank with black quartz cycled for a month with 0 ammonia/nitrite, 10ppm nitrates, pH7.5 and temp of 21 deg C, I happily bought 11 sakura (supposedly the hardiest od the shrimps) on Thurs night. After acclimating them for 3 hours through addition of small amount of tank water at 10 mins interval, they were released into the 50L tank.
To my horror, with 24 hours 7 have, and by now, only 1 is sill alive but I suspect will not be for long.
I don't know what did I do wrong....should I do a 100% WC before starting again? Anyone can advise please?
Yo bro, I think your temperature is just too low. Even for CRS, shld keep between 22 to 26degC. pH is on the high too but not critical if you had acclimatized them well. what's your GH & KH like? TDS? how did you age or cycle your tank? Possibly have traces of unwanted chemicals? Presence of chlorine & chloramine?
Just my 2cents worth of brainstorm.
Shrimps Watching.
Voted No.1 as Stress Reliever & Anti-Depressant.
Fine prints: Please learn to keep them alive successfully before applying.
http://shrimpsredefined.wordpress.com/
I had thought the temp was a bit low but this tank is in my living room with no chiller/air con. The air temp feels like 25 but water is quite cold.
KH is 1dKH, no measurement for GH and TDS though, not so sophisticated.
Another reason I suspect could be the EXCEL and FLOURISH I administered for the plants but my dosage is well within recommendation. I have seen conflicting comments about whether these products are shrimp-safe, but Seachem said they are.
Liquid ferts always have controversial debates on shrimps mortality. It highly depends on the shrimps and tank volume + number of plants in it. Absorption vs residual if you know what I mean. In other words, whatever is recommended on bottle may not work for all. Better to half that recommended amount if you want to try. If no mortality and plants grow well, keep to that amount.
Ultimately, you have to ask yourself, are your shrimps accompaniment to your plants? Or plants as backdrop to your shrimps? Which comes first as priority?
For mine, plants are just a natural hideout for shrimplets and also to provide them with alternative food source. Thus, no ferts added. And I keep only mosses and fissidens with some mini pelia.
As for the temperature, where do you stay? Cos in SG, how often do we get to enjoy ambient temperature of 25 without AirCon and water temp 21 without chiller? And you have none of these 2 running to support the temperature?
Last edited by Matt; 24th Dec 2011 at 09:22. Reason: Add info.
Shrimps Watching.
Voted No.1 as Stress Reliever & Anti-Depressant.
Fine prints: Please learn to keep them alive successfully before applying.
http://shrimpsredefined.wordpress.com/
Living in Queenstown, very high floor though. Not sure if the thermometer is accurate (those red-coloured presumably alcohol glass thermometer from LFS) but the water does feel rather cold.
In all my years of goldfish keeping I have never killed so many lives in 2 days.
Welcome to the shrimp world. As you have found out it is rather different from the Goldfish world.Originally Posted by BISO
Living in Queenstown, very high floor though. Not sure if the thermometer is accurate (those red-coloured presumably alcohol glass thermometer from LFS) but the water does feel rather cold.
In all my years of goldfish keeping I have never killed so many lives in 2 days
I started somewhat in a similar fashion with yamatos about 6 years ago. Quite shocking isn't it? While the rest of your fish and plants thrive in those tank conditions your shrimp are all dead.
You will now have to unlearn many of the things that you have picked up through the years. Things like 100% water changes might be fine for a goldfish but it might just kill all your shrimps. All water changes have to be done in 10-20% amounts to be on the safe side.
Also dosing plant ferts and such will have to be done in a very different manner. Nowadays it will be mostly under dosing. Or no dosing at all. Anyway, having a planted tank with nice shrimps is really quite a challenge to balance.
Maybe you should get another thermometer to confirm your readings. 21C without chilling seems rather unlikely.
Lastly, don't forget to look through the stickies. There is much more information there.
I think that your thermometer is not accurate. You can get those digital ones at about $10 from LFS.
What brand of anti-chlorine & chloramine are you using?
Do not use those that are used for fishes as some have contend that are harmful to shrimps. Use the usual ones that bros have been using, personally I have used Mosura Shizhen and Seachem Prime
I've consistently overdosed on seachem excel and ferts in a tank of fire reds and they didnt die so I'm not going to blame the ferts.
Temperature is too low, that I agree with Matt. I'm also in Queenstown, on small hill and 8th floor. I don't think it's possible for water to fall below ambient like this. You should check your thermometer.
Even ammonia spikes takes time so something must already be very wrong with the water for shrimps to die immediately. More parameters and details needs to be looked into
Queens' Close?
The only time i Had Sakura dying within an hour is when I transfer them to a cull tank without acclimatizing them at all. (a big regret that I killed them even though they are cull)
Do please take a picture of your tank as it can give a clearer picture of what might be wrong.
Maybe not the adults.
I too use seachem excel n flourish. But i dose once a week. My shrimplets survived. My temperature is at 24.9 to 25.4 degrees. Hope this helps!
Shrimp tank FTW!
Then my dosage calculations must have been wrong.
I have a 40L tank. I dose 1ml per week for each product. I use a syringe to get the exact amount.
Shrimp tank FTW!
Thanks to all for the kind advices.
Just did a 100% WC and re-acclimate the remaining soul to see if there is any chance of making it. Also running activated carbon and stopping the ferts for now just to be sure. I am using Prime as well, so anti-chloramine should not be the problem.
Quite good chance the thermometer failed QC, will grab another one (anyway inexpensive...only worry is what if whole row of thermometers all showing diff temp at the same time.
A humbling learning experience for me.
Nice, do keep us posted of your progress.
Try not to use prime, use Mosura Shizhen instead.Thanks to all for the kind advices.
Just did a 100% WC and re-acclimate the remaining soul to see if there is any chance of making it. Also running activated carbon and stopping the ferts for now just to be sure. I am using Prime as well, so anti-chloramine should not be the problem.
Quite good chance the thermometer failed QC, will grab another one (anyway inexpensive...only worry is what if whole row of thermometers all showing diff temp at the same time
A humbling learning experience for me.
Hey thanks man. I have my own thread called New to shrimp tank. Maybe you can check it out.
Shrimp tank FTW!
I am using Seachem Excel and Lush Grow on my 80+L tank, dosing 2-2.5ml for each of them twice a week. No problems on CRS/BDS shrimplets and even for the sensitive KKs (0.7-1.5cm).
Thanks to all for the advices. There is no more 'massacre' since the 100% WC. The surviving soul is still around, and the 2nd batch I bought since the WC have also made it so far (together with the shrimplets who came together in the plastic bag). They have also started to feed on algae wafer, which is a good sign. It is still early days so I am keeping fingers crossed.
Unfortunately I have now started to see uninvited guests in the tank as well. A couple of wriggling white worms (nematodes?), a long white worm which crawls on the wall (???) and a couple of tiny, hard and almost transparent crawling things which could be some sort of snails....*sigh*
Dont worry, these are very normal in a healthy shrimp tank. As long as you remove uneaten food regularly, you can keep all these to a minimum.
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