Questions from Newbie

[attygirl]

Hello to the forum! I have been reading the forum for awhile and tried to find answers to my questions before bugging everyone. My experience with Opae Ula started in early March when I received an "Ecosphere" as a gift. I started to research it and learned how horrible these things are for the shrimp. Thus, I started my own desktop aquarium one week ago so that I could release the Ecosphere shrimp. Being new to aquariums, I did not feel comfortable making my own brackish water and bought from someone who supplied the water, rocks, and of course, the shrimp. I followed the directions but apparently overfed because the ammonia was very high. I removed some water, added more brackish water that I made (so much for not being comfortable mixing the brackish water) added Ammo Lock and Stress Zyme and within a few days things were better. Today there are about 8 shrimp swimming around. However, I can see at least 3 dead shrimp on the bottom of my vase/aquarium. Should I remove some of the rocks to try to remove the dead shrimp? I have 3 inches of rocks in a 9.5 inch tall vase. Should I look for more dead shrimp and remove them? I started with 20 shrimp. Also, how important is it to add limestone/coral per the directions on this forum? If necessary, do I let it soak in brackish water before adding to the vase? Incidentially, I have not yet opened the Ecosphere to release them into the desktop aquarium. I was waiting until it seemed established, i.e. no one dying. Thank you for any suggestions.

[Harry]

Mustafa moderates this forum and I am confident that he will weigh in with some good advice. For now, I would simply monitor the ammonia and do partial water changes (maybe 30%) to keep the ammonia down. Otherwise, it's a wait and see proposition. These tanks do best when left alone to establish safe water parameters. You can also add some bacteria to jump start the process. I use Nutrafin Cycle and Instant Ocean Bio-Spira. Both are good, but I prefer the Bio-Spira.

[KenCotigirl]

Hello attygirl. Glad you joined us. A few questions. What size tank? You mention a 9.5 inch vase. Is that your tank? 20 shrimp seems like a lot. What is the water volume? Quart, half gallon? Remove the dead shrimp. Making brackish water is easy. Most sea salt have directions for a gallon, ie Instant Ocean. 1/2 cup of sea salt per gallon will give you a s.g. of 1.022. You use half that amount 1/4 cup per gallon and get brackish water at 1.011. Easy. I use Prime to remove chlorine and Chloramine. Stress Zyme is not needed. DO NOT FEED!!! At least for a few weeks. And when you do a very small amount. A small piece of flake fish food. Remove rocks and any dead shrimp you find. Only replace rocks for eye appeal. 3" of rock in a 9.5" vase is a lot. What is high ammonia? Replace 10% of water per day. Prime can be used in an emergency to lock up ammonia.
Ken

[attygirl]

Harry and Ken, thanks for responding and for the helpful suggestions.

Ken, my "vase" is my aquarium. It holds about 84 oz of water. How many shrimp do you think I should keep in the vase? The ammonia level on Monday was 1.00 - something like that. The test water turned pretty green based on the API test. Is Prime similar to Stress Zyme? Also, any suggestions on how to remove the dead shrimp without disturbing the others? Thanks!

Lisa aka attygirl

[KenCotigirl]

1.00?! That is incredible. I am surprised any shrimp are alive. How much did you feed? Harry's 30% water change is right. Did you do the test more than once? Cleaned the glass tube thoroughly? Prime is a chlorine/Chloramine remover. It also locks up ammonia and nitrites. What does the label say stress Zyme does? You need to reduce the ammonia. It should be zero. Water changes can be stressful but ammonia and nitrites are deadly. Remember It is easier to recheck than make changes.

[attygirl]

Ken, I really did not think that I feed them that much. The directions I received said to dip a swab in spiralina and wipe it across the top of the water. I am wondering if maybe the rocks contributed to the ammonia. I did the ammonia test only once. I rinsed the test tube in distilled water to clean it before doing the test. But, not really knowing what I am doing I could have contaminated the water sample. I will test again tomorrow. The Stress Zyme is supposed to add beneficial bacteria to your tank to get it established faster. It was one of the products the directions for ammonia test suggested to buy if ammonia was present. Thanks.

[KenCotigirl]

Stress Zyme may add bacteria but that bacteria will not cycle the the tank quickly. The bacteria needs to establish itself on the surface of the tank, substrate, etc. Shrimp are much more sensitive than fish and you cannot cut short the cycle process. I do not know if rocks can cause an ammonia spike. Remove them and see.
Ken

[Mustafa]

Hi Lisa,

Welcome to the forum! Ken already gave you some very essential information. Just a few more things. Whatever information/instructions were given to you or came with the shrimp, most of the time it's a good idea to NOT follow them. Almost everyone who sells these shrimp out there has no idea about keeping them (although they pretend they do) as they just pick the shrimp from the wild and send them directly to you. Just click on the Supershrimp! link above and go to the "How to set up your Supershrimp tank..." page. Follow the instructions there *exactly* as described. It will take time but your tank should settle. Your tank is only a little over half a gallon, and with the 3 inches of rock it's probably quite a bit under half a gallon, so even seemingly tiny amounts of food can cause ammonia spikes in the absence of nitrifying bacteria. Stress-zyme probably won't help at all. There is, of course, also the possibility that whoever supplied the water also supplied the ammonia with it. An unwanted "freebie." Either way, I would be a little bit more aggressive with my water change, as this is an emergency situation. Do a 50-70 percent water change. Then, just leave it be. No more tinkering, no feeding...nothing. Once the tank has been established, you can keep 10-30 shrimp in there, plus snails. I always prefer starting with fewer shrimp and let them breed. E.g. I started my 20 gallon breeding tanks with only 30 shrimp in each. If you can get the "supershrimp macroalgae" and some extra snails from anyone in the forum, do so (via private messaging). Otherwise, they are for sale here in the store. Those will help with the establishment of your tank and can buffer mistakes you make. I can't emphasize this enough: make sure that you use distilled water when you mix your saltwater. Tap water already comes with ammonia "built in" in the vast majority of cities in the US. Good luck!

[attygirl]

Mustafa and Ken: thanks for responding and for your help. The ammonia level was zero on Friday. I replaced about 50% of the water on Monday after I got the high ammonia level and added Ammo Lock on Tuesday. On Friday, there were 5 shrimp swimming around and hanging out on the leaves of the plastic plant in the center of the vase. I rinsed the plastic plant with distilled water when I first set up the vase.

However, the dead shrimp on the bottom really bothered me since I knew my actions killed them. So, I tried to remove the dead shrimp and probably made things much, much, worse. I had no idea that the "lava rock" was so messy and moving the rocks to try to access the dead shrimp would cause such an upheaval of rock dust in the vase. I used a shrimp net from Petco and tried to scoop out the dead ones. Needless to say, it was not pretty and caused a mess. I ended up removing the plastic plant and almost all of the rocks to access the dead shrimp.

When done, I replaced the plastic plant and some of the rocks (I was told the rocks were "live" and had food on them for the shrimp). I also had to add some brackish water (made with distilled water) and added some Stress Zyne and Ammo Lock. In doing all of this I think I killed more shrimp (BIG SIGH).

The vase/tank is at work. If any shrimp are alive on Monday, I promise to leave them alone.

However, do I need to add a coral or limestone for a buffer? If so, do they come in packages or as a single stone and do I need to soak it in brackish water before adding to the vase?

Thanks for reading.

[Mustafa]

However, do I need to add a coral or limestone for a buffer? If so, do they come in packages or as a single stone and do I need to soak it in brackish water before adding to the vase?

Thanks for reading.

You don't really need a huge piece. For the size of tank you have one or two chicken nugget sized pieces would be more than enough. You can use anything that has calcium carbonate it it...like sea sheels, snail shells, coral etc. Maybe others can chime in, but usually they come in larger packages instead of being sold singly. How are the shrimp doing?

[MelWong]

Attygirl: you can get five-pound bags of coral rock for fish tanks at Petsmart - the rocks aren't very big. I'd say fist-size would be a good indicator of the smallest one in my bag. If your tank or bowl is too small for something like that, I have two leftover coral rocks from my own five-pound bag, as I only used three in my tank setup, and if you'd like I could try mailing you one.

PM me if you're interested and we can work something out?

- Mel

[attygirl]

Mustafa and Mel: Thanks for your responses. I went to my local Petco and it did not have anything . . . I was directed to two other pet stores that apparently have a larger supply of fish products.

When I returned to work the Monday after I tired to remove the dead shrimp, two survived the ordeal and were swimming around and being active. But, I have not seen more than two. I checked the water and there is no ammonia. I am disappointed the others died so hopefully I can keep these two alive and get a stable system.

Lisa

[MelWong]

Cuttlebone's another source of calcium for the ph. Just get an untreated piece, and it breaks apart easily into smaller pieces so you won't have to put a whole piece in there.

- Mel