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help! my female cherry 'gave' birth to babies...when the babies came out, they were swimming alright for a while..after that, they just had spasms and swam upside down and quickly from bottom of my 1ft tank to top...after that, they sorta swim to the bottom and next morning when i wake up, all of them are no where to be found. i suspect they are dead i already did a 90% waterchange when i saw the first baby shrimp..wat conditions do they need and how do i prevent babies from dying??

A 90% water change is almost certainly too much. Did you do this before or after you thought there was a problem with the baby shrimp?

Most likely, they are dead or dying because of shock from a large change in water conditions.

Hopefully, they are just all hiding and are just fine even though you can't find them.

Welcome to the forum. Sorry your intoduction is a cry for help.

My guidelines are never to do more than a 50% water change and don't do that more than every other day. Having babies is a reason to delay water changes, not do a massive one.

Most of the time the problem is doing too much, not doing too little. Too much feeding, too many chemicals, too much water change. 20% once a week is what I do. I have more shrimp than I need.

thanks everyone for replying..however i have noticed the babies are swimming around and after awhile they disappear..i have checked my filter and there is nothing.....so i assume they all died. are there any tank conditions which i have to keep?

Are you sure they're not just hiding? Baby shrimp can be incredibly hard to see in a tank, even harder if it's heavily planted or if the substrate is a brownish or reddish color. When I first had babies in my tank, it would take me 15 minutes just to find one of them!

I'm assuming you don't have fish in this tank, otherwise, they babies are likely in the fishes' bellies.

nope its purely shrimps...i have attached a pic... i am also thinking of whats missing for my tank so i welcome any opinions..maybe i'll buy more cherries soon when my tank is more matured..i bought 5 cherries from LFS now im left with 2..

DId u pour away the baby shrimp when u were chaning 90% of the water?

LOl.. U might not realise as they were all too small

Shrimpmania wrote:DId u pour away the baby shrimp when u were chaning 90% of the water?

LOl.. U might not realise as they were all too small

no im sure i didnt..cos i did water change when i saw one of the shrimps dying..... anyway any opinions about wat im missing in my tank?

Well if you set it up on the 7th March perhaps it's still cycling?

What are the water parameters?

Sound like all your shrimp are dying . Before you get more shrimp, let your tank settle down for 2-3 weeks. Add some snails and feed them just a little. This will allow the bacteria to get started.

Until you get a proper bacteria level in your tank, the shrimp will be sick.
Go to the "shrimp Varieties" and read up on the needs of your shrimp, then go to the articles section and read all the shrimp articles.

Hi rtcc86,

How did you do the water change?
Did you use a siphon?


TKD

hi all..thanks for replying.. i did water change using a small cup...scooped up water..anyway how would i know if the tank has finished cycling?

To monitor the conditions of a cycling tank, you need to measure ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

First, Ammonia will build up until bacteria that "eat" it start growing in your tank.

Thes bacteria convert the ammonia into Nitrite.

Then when nitrite is available in the water, a different type of bacteria that "eats" it will start growing and they convert the Nitrite into Nitrate.

Both ammonia and nitrite are VERY toxic to shrimp and other aquatic animals.

Nitrate is also toxic, but to a much lesser degree.

We remove nitrate through out water changes and plants also use it as a fertilizer.

First you will see high amounts of ammonia, with zero nitrite and nitrate in a new cycling tank.

Then you will see lower amounts of ammonia AND nitrite

When your tank is fully cycled, you will only see nitrate because any ammonia or nitrite in the water is almost immediately converted to nitrate.

If you measure either ammonia or nitrite in your tank, it is not cycled and is not safe for shrimp.

Until you understand the N2 cycle we can not communicate.

i tested the nitrate in tank..its around 10mg/litre