new RCS not eating

[phoenix]

I have been preparing a new 20L to be a shrimp only tank and it finished cycling a week or two ago. I ordered 12 juvenile cherry reds and introduced them Wednesday night. The tank has a really large piece of driftwood, a couple of java ferns, pennywort, and a bunch of duckweed. I have tried to feed the shrimp but they express no interest in any of the foods I have put into the tank thus far, and I have tried small portions of at least 8 kinds.

On Thursday the shrimp just seemed to swim around the edges of the tank all day long, so I thought they were just getting used to their new surrounding, and the new water parameters. On Friday the shrimp weren't swimming around as much and mostly appeared to be hanging out on the driftwood. They still would not eat the food, however, and this morning they are ignoring it also. (It's not the same food, I suck the old stuff out after a few hours)

I have had 20+ of the wild looking variety, in another of my planted tanks, since around March or February. I'm trying many of the same foods that get those shrimp to come running, but my new baby RCS just ignore it.

They may be finding something else to eat in the tank, other than what I am trying to feed them, but the tank has only been established a couple of months and there isn't very much algae. Does anybody have any suggestions?

[badflash]

What are you feeding them?
What is your pH?
What is the water temperature?
Mine are not picky. I feed them sinking goldfish food, spirulina flake, cooked collards, hair & soft algae.

[Mustafa]

Don't feed anything at all right now. There are two reasons why shrimp might not eat. The main reason is that there is something wrong with the water parameters, which unfortunately could be something that the usual test kits don't necessarily measure (shrimp have different requirements from fish after all). Or, they might just have more than enough food in the tank. They don't just eat algae but all kinds of micro-aufwuchs that grows in the tank (invisible to the human eye most of the time).

I would also try to take that drift wood out of the tank and do some small water changes for a few days in a row to get rid of whatever that drift wood released into the water. See if that makes any difference.

[phoenix]

well I've tried hikari micro pellets, hikari algae wafers, osi spirulina flakes, omega one veggie rounds, and several different new life spectrum foods... In addition to this I've also tried a couple different kinds of zucchini. They just swim or crawl right past the food like it isn't even there.

Right now they are almost all on the driftwood and it looks like they are eating something off of it. I can see that many of them have full looking digestive tracts but it looks like a few of them don't have any food going through them.

The driftwood had been scrubbed and boiled as best as possible before I put it in the tank. It also had about a month to release tannins etc., during the course of which I performed several water changes. In addition to this I performed a 90-95% water change before I introduced the shrimp to the tank, so I don't think there should be any hazerdous build ups in there. I guess it is also worth mentioning that none of the water used in any of my changes comes from the hot water pipes.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate between 0-5ppm (barely detectable color change so I'm not sure)
gH 220ppm
kH 130ppm
pH7.8

[Mustafa]

How are the shrimp doing now? Did you check their digestive tracks? As long as they are picking at *something* they should be fine. If they are not picking and their digestive tract is empty it could either mean that they are stressed out by some water parameter issue or they are about to molt or have just molted.

[phoenix]

Thanks for checking back with me mustafa.

Most of the ones I can see still have full tracks, although I did see one or two that were empty looking. I have found 3-4 molted skins in the last day or so, but no dead shrimp. They seem to be eating something off of the driftwood, but what is bothering me is that they ignore any other food i put in the tank. I have also tried quartered zucchini now, and while I saw one pick at it briefly, it doesn't get any attention either.

[GunmetalBlue]

They seem to be eating something off of the driftwood, but what is bothering me is that they ignore any other food i put in the tank.

Hi Phoenix, if it helps any to say this, my RCS initially ignored all commercial food. Mine apparently had plenty of algae to eat and preferred to stick with that. I personally think algae and other micro bits (aufwuchs) are a wonderful food for them.

It wasn't until after the births of many hungry, growing shrimplets did they begin to outstrip their algae supply... at which time they turned their attention to commercial food. Now they're used to it and eagerly eat the food offered.

Hopefully that's all that the problem is - that they currently prefer whatever goodies they're finding on the driftwood over commercial food; if so, they should be fine.

-GB