Beginner Jar-Habitat

[jcfrank922]

Hi! I have the same Jar as you except mine is 3/4 gallon. Once your jar has cycled, give it 3 weeks, you should be fine introducing your super shrimp. Keep your jar in a bright indirect sunlit space. NO direct sunlight! Feed sparingly! DO NOT OVERFEED! I feed mine 1 "ocean nutrition shrimp wafer" (bought on Amazon) around once a month. They are cleaner than the powder and my shrimp love them. 1 wafer is about the size of a pin head. That's all they need. I take my lid off once a week for about 30 minutes for oxygen. If evaporation occurs, replace with distilled water. I also removed the lid handle to alow a small air hole. These are very hardy little shrimp and require minimal care. I have 10 shrimp which I bought here 6 months ago, and they are doing fine.

[Mustafa]

Welcome to the forum sparrow (and jcfrank)! I'm seeing some awesome questions and answers in this thread so I'll just move on.

[sparrowhawk]

jcfrank - I somehow missed your very helpful post until now. Your jar looks beautiful!

Mustafa - Thank you for a warm welcome

I think I made a mistake by ordering my shrimp too soon because I let my son's impatience get to me. It had been about 6 weeks and I think I was confused about what the algae is supposed to look like. There's noticeable biofilm on the water surface and even though I seem to have killed a couple of my original snails, the remaining 6-7 seemed to be doing well. I purchased an LED tank light, set a timer on it and ordered some additional snails, and 10 opae ula. I released them into the tank 2 days ago and this morning I noticed that 4 of them are dead! What's striking is that the dead shrimp are the red ones. the ones who are swimming around and hanging out with the snails are the ones that I'd assumed were the more fragile, stressed out brown shrimp.

How badly did I mess up? Should I just leave things alone after removing the dead shrimp? Should I order some tests?

[Varanus]

I would add some water conditioner like Prime (just a few drops) before anything else, as if there are toxins in the water that will detoxify them. Testing the water for ammonia would be the next priority.

However, it should be noted it is not that unusual for a few shrimp to die early on due to the stress of shipping them (even the best shipping methods can't avoid some stress), but that four died so close together still means there may be something wrong with the water.

[sparrowhawk]

thank you for coming to the rescue, varanus. i just ordered the conditioner and an ammonia test kit. i hope i can turn things around without any more deaths.

[Mustafa]

Hmmm...I really doubt it's the shipping. These shrimp have not only survived but didn't even show a "dent" after being shipped to Germany, waiting there for 20 days at a customs office and then being sent back to me. The whole "ordeal" took over 30 days and the shrimp were all alive and as "bouncy" as the day I packaged them. The way I package them they can literally live in those bags for weeks and weeks barring temperature extremes in both directions.

The most likely culprits are usually. 1. Source water 2. substrate 3. decoration 4. possible food provided the tank has actually been sitting there until algae growth is visible.

Can you provide some pictures of your tank and algae growth?

If you continue to see shrimp dying I'd change about 70-80% of the water with freshly made brackish water.

[sparrowhawk]

Hi Mustafa - Thank you for commenting. I'm panicked about what's going on in the tank since I have one more dead shrimp and several dead snails now. I'm about to prepare some brackish water with a gallon of distilled water. Yesterday, I used a couple drops of the primer as Varanus suggested but I think further intervention is needed.
As you can see in one of the photos I placed an ammonia reader in the tank but I don't really trust it.

When I set up the tank I used your instructions and other than the volcanic rock cubes, the only decoration I have is the resin dragon skull. I haven't put any food in there yet but have shrimp pellets arriving tomorrow. Should I go ahead and change the water?

[Varanus]

If even the snails are dying then yeah, I'd change most of the water.

And I highly doubt that ammonia reader is accurate. They are more expensive but the liquid drop tests are best. Course ammonia shouldn't be an issue once you do the water change.

[sparrowhawk]

I just changed about 80% of the water. Crossing my fingers

As I was doing the water change I noticed that a lot of little white flakes floated up from the substrate. Could it be from the dead snails & shrimp? I've been removing them but it's possible I missed a couple of my original snails and they got partially devoured/decomposed?

[Varanus]

One thing that just occurred to me, do you know where the jar came from? Can you be sure it was never washed with detergent or other household cleaners? Assuming it wasn't made to put food or animals in then its possible there is some kind of contaminant on the jar itself.

[sparrowhawk]

No dead bodies today. I think the water change fixed the problem but I'll be watching closely for a while more.

Varanus- The jar is an anchor hocking jar which I cleaned using a tiny amount of detergent but then I rinsed like a maniac. first with tap water and then with gallons of distilled water. and i mean gallons. i feel i did my due diligence there but if things start going south again, i'll definitely consider this.

i'm starting to think i was too late taking out the first dead snail and then i must have missed a couple more little decomposing bodies in the water before I ordered the shrimp.

[Mustafa]

You know, the snail bodies are so small that I don't think that was the culprit. Most likely (as almost always) it was the decoration or substrate. Or some kind of chemical compound got into the water somehow. But either way, the large water change usually fixes these mysterious water quality problems (provided you have a "mature" tank) of course.

[sparrowhawk]

The remaining shrimp are still going strong.

But do you think I should get rid of the decorations, Mustafa? I know you always say the less the better but my little guy would be really upset if I removed the dragon skull at this point.

[Mustafa]

At this point I'd keep everything the way it is. Whatever leached out is probably done leaching.

[sparrowhawk]

My remaining shrimp (5!) are happy and I have a ton of snails. Thank you so much Mustafa and everyone else who offered support. My little guy and I are enjoying these little animals so much. It's added quite a bit of excitement to our morning and bedtime routine to check in on everybody in the jar