Baby Shrimp Dying

[sl0th]

Hello, having another issue now with my tank. My super mom shrimp has berried three times now. The first time she dropped all her eggs. The second time she dropped all of them, but one that hatched. It was floating around for a couple weeks and then disappeared (I figured it grew and started hiding). This most recent time most of the eggs hatched. I had 14 babies floating around my tank. The tank is in my office at work. They were fine all week. I came in Monday only to find 6 babies floating around. The next day there was only 1. I looked closely around my tank and couldn't find any of the babies anywhere. Then I saw most of their bodies were collected at the two front corners of my tank (which I found odd). I have a turkey baster that I used to suck up a body to make sure that's what I was seeing in the corners and it was indeed a body of a baby shrimp (and the water stunk horribly). I immediately checked my water and everything looks fine. I have a hermit crab, 4 snails, about 13 shrimp, and they were all doing fine. My salinity is around 1.014. The lone baby was around for the rest of the week. Today, I came in to work and he is gone as well (though maybe he grew and started hiding?).

If anyone has any ideas or comments, it would be greatly appreciated (I don't want this to happen again!). The strangest thing is that their bodies were all lying in the two front corners of the tank together (I have no flow in the tank).

[Mustafa]

The first thing that I think about is usually "overfeeding", especially when I see "hermit crab." How much and how often do you feed the tank?

[sl0th]

The first thing that I think about is usually "overfeeding", especially when I see "hermit crab." How much and how often do you feed the tank?

I break off a small piece of algae wafer (maybe about a quarter of an algae wafer) once a month or so. I put it in the tank during the evening and remove whatever was left uneaten in the morning. The snails seem mainly to be the ones that eat that up though and honestly if it weren't for the snails I probably would never feed the tank. I've only seen the occasional shrimp come over to the algae wafer and take food, but the snails usually will eat the whole thing. The hermit crab is a dwarf blue legged hermit crab, so he is really tiny and seems to have about the same eating habits the shrimp have (comes out every once in awhile and picks through the substrate for bits of food).

Just for an update. The single surviving baby shrimp has appeared again and seems to be doing well. I believe he has transformed into the next stage (looks more like a shrimp now, just super tiny). He has just been sitting on the sides of the tank.

[Mustafa]

Once a month does not seem so bad, but the fact that the shrimp don't react to the food is telling. You probably have lots "organic pollution" in the tank that provides or grows the food for your shrimp. In other words, they have enough to eat and thus snob the food you give them. Organic pollution, though, can be detrimental to the larval stages. Having said that...it's very hard to see newly morphed shrimp babies in general. So there may be more out there than you think.

[sl0th]

Once a month does not seem so bad, but the fact that the shrimp don't react to the food is telling. You probably have lots "organic pollution" in the tank that provides or grows the food for your shrimp. In other words, they have enough to eat and thus snob the food you give them. Organic pollution, though, can be detrimental to the larval stages. Having said that...it's very hard to see newly morphed shrimp babies in general. So there may be more out there than you think.

Thanks Mustafa, I appreciate your input and replies!

If I had a lot of organic pollution wouldn't my nitrates be really high? My water tests I did showed my nitrates practically at 0.

I hope there are more that made it!

[Mustafa]

No necessarily in a Supershrimp tank. Since the intervals between feedings are so long the organisms (algae, bacteria etc.) in the tank have enough time to eat up all the nitrates, phosphates etc.. However, all of that turns into Biomass (i.e. doesn't just disappear) and when these organisms die, it all gets deposited in your tank as "organic material." That can cause further problems if your shrimp don't eat it all up and you keep adding more food. The organic pollution just keeps increasing over time.

[sl0th]

No necessarily in a Supershrimp tank. Since the intervals between feedings are so long the organisms (algae, bacteria etc.) in the tank have enough time to eat up all the nitrates, phosphates etc.. However, all of that turns into Biomass (i.e. doesn't just disappear) and when these organisms die, it all gets deposited in your tank as "organic material." That can cause further problems if your shrimp don't eat it all up and you keep adding more food. The organic pollution just keeps increasing over time.

Makes sense. Thanks for your input!

[Mustafa]

No problem.

[augustus4842]

I think I'm having the same problem. What can I do to help the little baby shrimp survive? The adults seems to be happy and red.

[KenCotigirl]

If my memory is correct Mustafa has said the larvael stage is more sensitive to poor water quality than the juvenile and adult stages. My own experiences have been that the first berried shrimp in a new tank drops her eggs. Also the first floaters seem to have disappeared. Whether they died or hid or I was not experienced to see them is unknown. But seeing berried shrimp and floaters is a very good sign. Your patience will be rewarded. DO NOT MAKE CHANGES.

Ken

[Mustafa]

Yes...just wait.

[augustus4842]

Okay, I will resist the urge to do anything. Hnnnnngggg.
Thank you for your responses!

[augustus4842]

I know this is an old thread, but my baby shrimp are still dying. I've had 4 batches of eggs and none of the babies have survived passed 2 weeks. All the adult shrimp are still red and happy. The last batch survived the longest at around 2 weeks. The only thing I did differently this time was to feed them 1x a week. I fed them 1 tiny (like 2mm x 2mm) flake of food.
My tank is 1.89 gallons, there is no pump and I have some wispy moss. The substrate is fine sand. I've had the tank for about 2.2 years now.
What am I doing wrong?!

[Varanus]

Especially given the size of your tank, you may well still be feeding too much too often. You mentioned earlier in the thread that the shrimp show little interest in food you put in the tank, is this still the case?

If so then you may want to try not feeding at all for a few months, see if that changes things at all. Maybe add some Prime to the water to reduce any toxicity that may exist.

As a comparison I feed my six gallon tank every three weeks or so (there are dozens of babies of various sizes and twenty adults) and they go crazy for the pellets every time, devouring everything within an hour or two. The one time they showed little interest I decreased the frequency of feeding and how much was fed until their interest in the food returned to what it was before (then returned to the former schedule, but with the reduced amount of food).

[i<3Opae]

Agree with Varanus . Overfeeding is easier done than said. Altho I think some of my past shrimp behaved differently even when they were being overfed, they still gobbled everything up. Which means it's even harder to tell. In case of doubt, underfeeding is way better than overfeeding. Opae ula are not demanding when it comes to food, the consequence of underfeeding cannot be compared to that of overfeeding. The upside is, at least you have berried females!