Red Cherries are DYING!!!!

[JoshGuppy]

I was looking in the tank this morning, and noticed a weird "shrimp shaped" piece of waste, i thought it was just decaying algae pellet, because i usually put one in there, they eat their fill, then after a day or so a fuzz grows around it, then i suck it up... well i moved the shrimp shaped one and yes, it was the exoskeleton of a scrimp...

I PAID ALOT FOR THESE GUYS!!!

OK So, I put a small piece of carrot in the tank also, i hope that doesnt hurt, they nibble on it every once in a while...

I tested the water, nitrates and ammonia are fine, but the pH is abnormally high, 7.8. - could this be the cause of death?

My water in my larger aquarium is a perfect 7.0, i have a cuttle bone floating around in it... it keeps the pH stable, but i put a cuttle bone in the small tank a while back and it didnt do anything. I will try it again i guess....

Anyone have any ideas? I would rather not lose this 50 dollar tank of scrimps lol...
josh

[IndianaSam]

Do you know that they're dying?

My shrimp molt all the time and I find exoskeletons from time to time. It can mean that something is wrong, but it usually just means that the shrimp are growing.

When you say that your ammonia and nitrate readings are "fine", what do you mean? Ammonia should definately be 0ppm and your nitrates should be low (5ppm to 10ppm).

Also, why do you need to buffer the pH using a cuttlebone if the pH out of the tap is 7? Unless your water is super soft or you're injecting CO2 there should be plenty of buffering capability present already.

[Mustafa]

Hi Josh,

From your description I can tell that you are feeding way too much. Even if your shrimp are not dying and you only found the shed exoskeleton of a shrimp, they will soon be dying if you continue feed that much.

In a shrimp tank you should never feed more than the shrimp can consume within a short amount of time. Having algae pellets or vegetables (e.g. carrots) linger a day or more in a shrimp tank is a bad idea since the decaying process creates too much organic waste.

So...next time just put enough food in that the shrimp can finish within 10-15 minutes at the most and you should be fine.

If I were you I go do at least a 50% water change to get rid of any excess organics in the water. Don't forget to use a chlorine/chloramine remover.

Mustafa

[JoshGuppy]

now that i think about it it could be just molting. My ammonia and nitrates are both at 0ppm.
Thanks for the advice about the food, ill go ahead and do my 50% change tonight.

I will also count my shrimp and see if all 10 are still there I counted 9 just now, im sure i overlooked the 10th.

[JoshGuppy]

oh also, the pH that comes from the tap is usually 6.6-6.8, i have no idea how the cuttlebone made the larger aquarium 7.0, but it worked

[JaVaGiRl]

Hey Josh, the same happened to me, when I ordered from Mustafa, I ordered 10 and recieved 10, 3 weeks latter there were 2 dead. Everything was great with water conditions. I was not overfeeding or anything like that. A week after that 1 more died, still water was great. But now, I havent had a death for a few months. So I still have 7 out of the 10 shrimp. They are now transported into a ten gallon planted tank. I have 20 other cherries in there and about 10 amanos. Heres a picture of there tank :: seems like there doing really crappy on eating algea ::

[Mustafa]

Apparently the "same" did not happen to you "when you ordered from Mustafa" (I have no idea why you have to emphasize "ordered from Mustafa" in connection with dead shrimp..makes me think about your intentions...hmm...). Josh did not report any deaths at all so far, so I don't know where the similarity lies. If young shrimp that were healthy when I sent them out die all of a sudden it's usually because of the water paramaters and the environment they live in. It's obviously not old age or stress due to import from some other country or "disease." I send out young shrimp, which are bred right here in their breeding colony. If the shrimp were diseased the whole colony would suffer from it and I'd be sitting here with a bunch of dead shrimp.

What does "water was great" mean? Did you test Nitrates, Chlorine/Chloramine, Copper, Phosphates and a number of other parameters I can think of besides Ammonia and nitrite? Did you have PH fluctuations? Sudden drops or rises in PH can kill shrimp even though everything else can look fine.

Finally, from the tiny pics all I can tell is that you have a bunch of string algae in there, which most "algae eating shrimp" do not eat (Palaemonid shrimp do however). Of course a shrimp won't do fine "on algae" if it's all string algae and they can't eat it and you do not feed additionally.

[JaVaGiRl]

Yes I tested my water for everything. I work at Petland and we do water tests every tuesday for customers i bring my water in to use as an example. I said I ordered from you because I am the one that told Josh to order from you. And he did, these are the shrimp he is talking about. I find out that many shrimp breeders tell me some baby shrimp do not survive, and who knows why. I was in no way implying your shrimp as "faulty" in fact, I ordered 10 of your mixed breeds today. And, if you do not remember, I started a thread a while back about how well my shrimp arrived and how great they are. I don't see why we have to be so offensive, I didn't mean to be intrusive or anything. And I didn't think I was. And I feed my reds 3 times a day, flake food and or algea wafers.

[Mustafa]

Ok, I'm glad you clarified that. In any case...you should stop feeding three times a day, unless it's really *tiny* amounts every time. The water pollution will be immense with 3 full feedings a day.

[JaVaGiRl]

Yeah, I know Mustafa, 3 times does seems to be alot, but, I do have many in there and I feed them in small portions. My amanos are hilariouse when its feeding time. When I sink flakes to the bottom, the amanos attack the flakes. They are sooo active the last couple of weeks. I hope its breeding time for them now. My cherries seems to hide in the ten gallon I am not sure how many I have now. Are cherries and amanos behavior different with being active ? Or maybe there so active (always swimming around and playing tag w/ each other) because its breeding time?