bee shrimp acclimatisation

[fishgeek]

i have just yesterday recieved 8 young bee shrimp of 1-1.5cm in size
i had 2 options to house them in and choose a smaller tank that already has red cherry shrimp in as it was easy to see into and monitor there progress here

this morning i have found 1 shrimp white and dead on the bottom of the tank
the water is clean , neutral and moderately hard in this tank(the other option is slightly acidic and softer) the bag water the shrips came in was slightly alkaline and obviously had something added that raised the hardness quite high

any thoughts on how i should avoid anymore settling in lose's
is it acceptable(!) because of size to have some lose when transporting

they were packed very well and had been couried from some 300 miles away
fish in the same transport box seem well

andrew

[Kenshin]

Frugalfish, I have bought bumblebee shrimps from 2 different seller (from aquabid.com) so far and I did not have any good experience so far. The 1st seller claimed that 25% - 40% will die within the first couple of weeks from adjusting to a new environment, even though he claimed that he bred the bumblebee shrimps himself. I bought 30 bumblebee shrimps from that seller and he did give me extras. However, the extras were dead upon arrival alone with others. So basically, I wasted all of my money on that and cannot receive any sort of refund. The 2nd seller was basically the same, but only 4 dead upon arrival (again paid for 30 shrimps), however the rest did die one by one. I have learned from Mustafa and others in this forum (please search through bumblebee shrimps topics) that these shrimps require soft and slightly acidic water to thrive or otherwise they will slowly die one by one. RCS likes alkaline and hard water, and that is where I tried to raise the bumblebee shrimps in. I hope this helps. So my suggestion is for hard or alkaline water shrimps are RCS, the Neocaridina sp., and green shrimps.

[fishgeek]

i know the propritor of the shop i purchased the shrimp from
water from the tap there is very soft 2-3 Gh
as they run a large aquatics outlet they cannot afford pH crashes and so add coral sand to the water

on testing the bag water the fish came in(as i stated) it was hard water and the proprietor suggests this is how they are kept
actually hard maybe the wrong term perhasp it was moderately brackish as NaCl will dissaccioate fully and give a high EC reading
coral sand makes me think there must be some calcium carbonates or other calciferous products involved

i can change the shrimp to a second tank if more people believe thisis in there best interest?
are these particularl small shrimp to be sending?
do they get transit problems more than fish

ps i have read the varieties articles on what water amybe ideal for keeping these shrimp
i choose the harder tank as i could better observe them and it seemed to match the bag water more appropriately

then with fish that i am more comfortable with i am happy to rapidly change water parameters if i think i am matching there ideal

andrew
any more thoughts

[Pconnieae]

Hi,

I received bee shrimps twice from a German hobbyist. The first time there was no dead shrimp on arrival and none died after acclimatisation. The second time, because of a problem the package arrived in 3 weeks and only 3 shrimps out of 20 were dead. 2 other shrimps died a few days later.

I think it is really important to keep this species in soft and acidic water. I use RO water to have these parameters: KH 1, GH 3.

[fishgeek]

so prehaps i should move them
mustafa?

[Mustafa]

If anyone ever tells you that it's "normal" for shrimp to die during tansit or right after they arrive, then that person is just trying to hide the fact that he/she has extremely stressed out, sick imported shrimp that he/she is keeping under terrible conditions. These people don't have a clue about how to keep shrimp alive and try to sell their dying shrimp as soon as possible to make a profit. After I put up this website and explained how captive-bred shrimp are always preferable to imported ones, some crooked people started claiming that they are "breeding" the shrimp they are selling. So one has to be extra careful about such people. Fact is that the only other people, besides petshrimp.com, who are selling captive-bred shrimp in the US are private hobbyists and it's usually red cherry shrimp. Everything else offered by anyone else out there is imported. This will hopefully change in the future as the hobby grows, but that's reality now.

I have sent out thousands of shrimp and NEVER had any die during transit because I only sell healthy captive-bred shrimp. I just recently had shrimp die because the bag had a manufacturing defect and the water completely leaked out. But that obviously had nothing to do with transit or the health of the animals.

1 -1.5 cm is not small for a shrimp at all. At that size they are already either very advanced stage juveniles or young adults. That's definitely not the reason why your shrimp died. So bottom line is, if someone sticks unhealthy, half-dead imported shrimp into even a well packaged box and even delivers it overnight, there are bound to be lots of deaths. Don't let anyone tell you that's "normal."

[fishgeek]

sorry mustafa , what is your vote on water, should i leave them?
some are acting happily -eating foraging as i would expect

or should i move them, i am not too sure how well shrimp cope with change
like i said i wold be pretty happy moving fish with minimal acclimatisation aslong as it was to water i knew was appropriate

is pH 6.0 T 25.5celsius and hardness of 3 kH and 6 gH with the probability of getting softer

or slightly cooler and pH 6.5-7.0 kH6 and gH 10

thanks
the seller never suggested deaths were acceptable
i was just wondering whether it was a normal occurence
i am in the uk and no-one here has made any claim to them being captive bred or wild caught

andrew
thanks again

[Mustafa]

Hi andrew,

I was replying in part to all of the posts in this thread, including Kenshin's, hence my reference to the US.

The PH 6 tank sounds like it's ideal although the PH 6.5-7 tank would be ok, too as long as the PH does not stay or go over 7 but is more in the midrange (such as 6.7-6.. However, this does not guarantee that they will do well since they have been probably under a lot of stress for quite some time. If they get back to health, however, soft, acidic water gives them ideal conditions.

[TKD]

Mustafa,

So would a pH of 7.2 or so be to high for BB shrimp?

TKD

[Mustafa]

Mustafa,

So would a pH of 7.2 or so be to high for BB shrimp?

TKD

They'll live at that level but breeding is a different matter.

[badflash]

I just got a dozen bumblebee shrimp and they didn't last 2 days in a tank with other thriving shrimp. My tank is runnning pH 7.4 and pretty hard water set up for cherries and amanos.

Do bee shrimp and bumblebee shrimp both need the same acidic soft water? My indian zebras, and green shrimp are doing fine but not breeding. Did I get really stressed animals, or was it the water that did them in?

[badflash]

I spoke too soon. These bumblebees are MUCH better hiders than nay of my other shrimp. At least 4 are still alive and seem to be gaining color. They are hiding under a rock I use to anchor a java fern. There may be more under there. I can hope.

[TKD]

Is there a pH that both Cherries and BB could breed at?

I just tested mine and it is no were near the 7.2 as I had though but rather 6.2 ish ... (Come with having no gravel in the tank and all plants)

I guess I need a buffer of some kind.

TKD

[Mustafa]

I just got a dozen bumblebee shrimp and they didn't last 2 days in a tank with other thriving shrimp. My tank is runnning pH 7.4 and pretty hard water set up for cherries and amanos.

Do bee shrimp and bumblebee shrimp both need the same acidic soft water? My indian zebras, and green shrimp are doing fine but not breeding. Did I get really stressed animals, or was it the water that did them in?

7.4 PH is too high in the long run. However, in your case it was probably a combination of stressed out animals and adverse tank conditions that did them in since your animals are imported. And yes, bumblebees need soft acidic water, too.

[Mustafa]

Is there a pH that both Cherries and BB could breed at?

I just tested mine and it is no were near the 7.2 as I had though but rather 6.2 ish ... (Come with having no gravel in the tank and all plants)

I guess I need a buffer of some kind.

TKD

You might want to try the PH range of 6.8-6.9 (maybe even 7.0). However, in the acidic range Red Cherry shrimp are not very productive and if it gets to acidic none of their offspring survive.