4 gallon Bio Orb Crystal Looking Ball

[ShrimpyShrimpShrimp]

Its been cycling for just over 4 weeks, i'll be ordering shrimp as soon as the temps improve. It is intended for my work desk, not sure if they will let me bring it in. In my job i try to project future pricing and the colors are my companys colors.

[Dch48]

Very interesting setup

[Mustafa]

Looks great! Update us when you finally get your shrimp!

[ShrimpyShrimpShrimp]

Shrimp came today and are happy! You all think the white macro stuff will recover?

[ShrimpyShrimpShrimp]

Hungry!

[ShrimpyShrimpShrimp]

Dead shrimp?, i have two doing this...

[Dch48]

They could be molting or trying to. If they don't move for an hour or so, they're probably dead.

[Vorteil]

Color doesn't look good. I don't think they're alive.

[ShrimpyShrimpShrimp]

So I lost ~32 of 40 shrimp. I think things have stabilized now. The only explanation I have is that the addition of 40 shrimp to 4 gallons of water caused a spike in ammonia that I didn't have enough bacteria to process. I did a 1/2 water change when I saw the first dead shrimp, and have done 2 since as more died. I lost large ones and the very smallest, no pattern was established. The only other thing it could have been would be starvation which seems highly unlikely. After no more shrimp had died for a week I feed them a small piece of fish food (2 days ago) and the remaining 6-7 swarmed it. The next day they were all pooping. I hadn't seen that before, but i also hadn't looked for it.

[Dch48]

I'm really surprised you lost so many. I put 10 in my one gallon tank and still haven't lost a single one almost 9 months later. In fact I now have over 25 in there. I'm doubting the ammonia theory but I guess it could have been. I have no idea what else could have caused it.

[ShrimpyShrimpShrimp]

I did use Seachem's "Stability" according to the label when my tank first started cycling.

[Vorteil]

Something in the water is off. Why make new water in a container and put the rest of the shrimp in there temporarily? Even high ammonia would probably not kill off the opae. Clean everything out and start all over. If not the rest might die and would you want to take the chance of adding more?

[ShrimpyShrimpShrimp]

So I received 10 additional shrimps about 13 days ago. All shrimp are alive. My macro algae has now turned back green. The blue sphere I have in middle of tank is now clean from algae due to shrimp I presume. I've also quit leaving the tank light on all night, where as a month ago I was.

I've put a tiny bit of food in 2 weeks ago and then today, each time the shrimp have swarmed it and when they finish I remove the remainder with a turkey baster.

Really not sure what could have poisoned the water.

[Mustafa]

There was definitely something wrong with the water. 40 shrimp in a 4 gallon is barely any biomass. The shrimp can even live in their shipping bags for well over a month without any problems. Mass die offs like that are a sure sign that the shrimp got poisoned, either by ammonia (yes, the shrimp are sensitive to ammonia) or something that leeched out into the tank from decoration, substrate, rocks, the surrounding air etc., or from products poured into the tank (such as Stability). Stability promises live nitrifying bacteria, but how do you keep nitrifying bacteria alive in a bottle for months or years on store shelves? Yes, you need to add food...i.e. ammonia.

That is why I recommend the simple step by step instructions on this site. Inert substrate, no additives, wait for algae, etc.. The last thing that will happen to these shrimp is starvation, so just stop feeding for now. You can put a tiny piece of food in there in a month or two, but most likely you should wait even longer if there is enough visible algae. If a tank is set up the "simple" way described on this site, there should be no deaths at all.

Next time, if you see problems with mass deaths starting to occur in your tank, just change 80+ percent of your water and post here what changes you made to the tank recently.

[ShrimpyShrimpShrimp]

After many days of my moss balls sitting on the bottom, they have now both floated up to the top. Is this a common occurrence?