CRS shrimplets dying

[garfieldnfish]

I have done a search under CRS shrimplets dying and CRS breeding and did not find my answer. So here I am trying to find answers and hope not to get punished for not researching enough beforehand.
I have 10 CRS shrimp. 2 of the females have been berried twice within the last 3 months. I have found 2 or 3 shrimplets on occasions and then they just vanished. Now I have a berried female again and I need to know what I am doing wrong. As I really want to keep these ones alive.

My water is R/O, close to 7.0 ph, but I add idodine and calcium and equilibrium to the water. I also add Shirakura mineral supplements and Shirakura baby Shrimp food. I do not have a heater in the tank but the room temps are close to 75. There is a Mangrove root in the tank, java moss and pelia. As well as duckweed and baby water sprite for cover.
The next shrimplets should hatch in about 2 weeks. Please help me let them survive.

[Guba]

You didn't mention why you use R.O. water, I'm fortunate to use well water straight from the ground. It already has most of the trace elements and minerals that they need. R.O. water can change PH at every feeding, there's just not enough buffering capacity, I'm not a fan! I only change about a third of the water at a time, one of my hard lessons! Inverts like stable water conditions, not too much fluctuation in chemistry. I do add iodine! You also didn't mention how often/much that you feed them. Too much of a good thing is bad.

[Neonshrimp]

Hi garfieldnfish,

CRS babies are much more sensitive to water conditions than other shrimp like Cherry shrimp. Have you been keeping the water stable and clean as they grow? The problem sounds to be loss of the babies and not lack of breeding. I would advise trying not to adjust/change the water hardness/parameters much and keep the water clean with more frequent but small water changes. This seemed to work for me but look at your tank as a whole and adjust accordingly. Best wishes and let us know how the new batches do.

[garfieldnfish]

I do weekly 20% water changes.

There are 10 adult CRS and 7 Orange shrimp and 2 male Cherry shrimp in the tank. I just added 5 baby apple snails to the tank in hopes of them keeping excess food from spoiling, as overfeeding the tank may have been a problem. I saw planaria show up a few days ago, so I added the apple snails. And I have a ton of water fleas in the tank as well, at least that is what I believe they are. At first I was hoping they were orange shrimp larvae, but they have not grown in size in months only in numbers. This would be the perfect fish fry tank.

I use R/O water because I have a water purification system in my house that removes almost everything and gives me 99% pure H2O. So I have to add certain chemical and minerals for the plants and the shrimp, but I do believe I got the additives right as I have not lost any of the adults in the 7 months I had some of them. The CRS were in this tank that long, the orange shrimp and Cherries were added later about 4 months ago.

I have been thinking if it could be possible for either the Cherries or the Orange shrimp to be cannibals? If there is a chance in that, I have a planted (java moss and swords) 6 gal tank that is empty safe for a few Malaysian trumpet snails, which would not hurt CRS shrimplets. If the next set hatches should I try to net the shrimplets and move them to the 6 gal?
I do not want to move any adult shrimp to this tank as this would not be a good permanent home for any shrimp. This tank is ok for the next 2 months but after that it get's too hot. It's a death trap in the summer here in Atlanta. I have to keep the top propped open to let the heat escape and I could see adult shrimp jump out of the tank. It will be ok until mid May and by then I would think the shrimplets would be large enough to be transfered to the main tank again. Any suggestions on that? I use that tank only to grow java moss to ship with my BNs fry.

I do not have a good separate tank for the different shrimp species at this time, but I am expecting to get another tank empty with the next few months. I have 16 tanks set up and a lot of my fish are approaching old age. I will rehouse a lot and I will have at least one more shrimp tank when that time comes.

[Guba]

I currently keep cherry shrimp, and I assure you that they aren't canniballistic! For me they seem to be a "weed" shrimp. Whole house R.O. system is GREAT, for your household use! I have a water softener for my house, but I bypass it when comes to aquariums. Shrimp didn't evolve in water that's so pure that it will barely conduct electricty. Unless your water is sooooo polluted with some kind of serious toxin such as lead, mercury or land fill runoff, I would use it straight from the ground. If you have city water, call up the water department and ask if they treat the water with chrolorine or chloromine. Chlorine is easier to deal with than chloromine. You can add chemicals/vitamins to your water that will keep things alive, but if the water has no buffering capacity from minerals then your water chem could be on a rollercoaster. I suggest a little experimentation, try a tank without R.O. water, bypass it, all household water filteration systems can be bypassed by operating a valve or valves. Put 1 or 2 shrimp in and see what goes. Here's an oldtimer trick I was taught, add some snails. If the snails are still alive after a couple of weeks I would say that your safe for shrimp. But remember, with the soft water that the shrimp are in at the moment you will probably have to acclimate them slowly to the new water. Planaria in a tank is not a good sign. Overfeeding. Waterfleas, that is Dafnia, love aged water. Old water is full of nutrients that they love and need to reproduce. I, unfortunately, have never been able to raise them. What ever you do, don't think of shrimp, or anything aquatic, as needing to be fed the same way poeple need to be fed! Remember, they're cold blooded and have different metabolisms. I feed my shrimp once a day and will skip feeding once or twice a week. It's worked for me! I hope this helps you, if you have any questions about all the above feel free to give me a message I'd be happy to help.

[garfieldnfish]

These tiny things in the shrimp tank are not daphnia. I grow daphnia in 3 separate containers and they look different. These critters in the shrimp tank look like tiny oval shaped bugs that "fly" through the water pretty quickly. I thought those were water fleas but if water fleas is just another name for daphnia then they are something different.
I could bypass the R/O and use tap water (I do it when I water the lawn), but then I have to remove the chlorine and choromine, both of which are in my regular water. Equilibrium is made to replace the minerals and chemicals needed for a healthy natural aquarium (at least thats how it is advertised) I use it according to the directions on the bottle.
I am going to cut down on feeding a little more. And I hope the snails are taking care of the excess. It already seems to have made a difference in the number of these water bugs. If the next set of CRS shrimplets does not make it in my current tank, I will set up the 6 gal with normal water, treat it with Prime, let it age and move a couple of shrimplets into it. As breeding is not a problem, I should have more batches of shrimplets in the future. It's just keeping them alive.
I am assuming they eat the same food as the adults do. But since I added shrimplet food with the last batch as well, they already had a choice and it did not seem to make a difference in their survival. Only the water bugs seemed to rapidly grow in numbers.

[Neonshrimp]

I have been thinking if it could be possible for either the Cherries or the Orange shrimp to be cannibals?

It is possible in the sence that they will eat dead shrimp. They will eat almost any dead/rotting meat or plant matter they find.

It's a death trap in the summer here in Atlanta.

Use floating frozen water bottle, fans, chillers or your AC to keep things cool. Then you can keep the top on and stop them from jumping out.

Only the water bugs seemed to rapidly grow in numbers.

Sound like overfeeding if this is occuring. Overfeeding=bad water quality

I hope things will turn around for you and you have the tank/shrimp you have been wanting.

[garfieldnfish]

I use the A/C and that is generally enough for my other tanks. It's just this 6 gal that get's so hot. The light is built-in and get's so hot that it adds too much heat to the tank. Last year I left the light off but then my plants did not look so good anymore. I have since not used the tank for fish or shrimp.
But I like the frozen water bottle idea. I could even use that in my 2 goldfish tanks. My goldfish already thank you for that great suggestion. I know they will survive another summer (they have for 5 years), but I also know that they would use some unkind words from May to September if they could talk.

[Newjohn]

With higher temps,
The water parameters can go bad at a faster rate.

So, I would keep up on the water changes
and
Try to lower the temps.

John

[Guba]

Use floating frozen water bottle

That's a good idea! I never thought of that. I don't really have to deal with high temps too much. I'm thinking of starting a salt tank, they need more stable temps and the tank would not be in my fishroom. I have never used Equilibrium and can't comment on it's use/effectiveness. My past personal experiences with water "conditioners" is not a winning record, so I stay with as natural as possible. And so far I can't complain, so I'll stick with the winner. The "oval" critters your talking about, and I have a tank that has them, they aren't daphnia, but they like a lot of nutrients too. They don't bother any fish/shrimp from my experience, but reproduce more when I use that tank as a fry tank (heavier feeding). The good news is that fish like to eat them. The bad news is, their exoskeleton is so tough that small fish can't eat them. When I had a tank that was "overly" infested with them, they started eating fish fry( personal eye witness). I don't know if they preyed on the fry or if the fry died because of water parameters and then they moved in to scavenge. Maybe they're preying/scavenging on shrimplets??? I have not been able to rid the tank from them because I am stubbornly reluctant to add any chemicals to do this. Now if these oval critters are teeny tiny small and white colored and make your water look "cloudy", then they are probably paramecium. Fish fry love 'em.