Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hello everyone, I've had a couple of strange things happen in my shrimp tank and just wanted to see if anyone had any input. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but anyway... First off I had been supplementing with algae wafers, and the red cherry shrimp would always congregate en masse to feed on the wafers. Then suddenly in the last few days, no shrimp will go near them any more... I mean I would think there would be at least a few eating the wafers, but literally the most I've seen has been 1 or 2 feeding on a wafer at a time. (Out of approximately 75 - 100 red cherry shrimp) The only thing that has changed is that the amount of hair algae in the tank has increased somewhat. Even then, there was hair algae before, and they always preferred to eat the wafers instead.

That was the first issue, now the second issue is probably what got me spooked enough to post. There were 2 Amano shrimp in the tank with the red cherries and oddly both died in the last couple of days. Aside from that about 3 red cherries have died also. I would normally assume old age for the deaths as I've had the Amanos for over a year and the red cherries that died were also full grown adults, but it's just odd that they all died within a short time of eachother. I hadn't noticed any other deaths in quite some time.

This is a heavily planted high light 29 gallon shrimp only tank with pressurized CO2 injection. It's been established for over a year and has no ammonia to speak of. I haven't done anything different to the tank lately either. I'm stumped... I'm hoping its just a coincidence... Anyone have any thoughts? All the remaining shrimp appear to be fine...

Thanks,

Jeremiah

Sounds like you just fed too much and drove up nitrate/phophate levels. The ammonia will get turned into Nitrite very quickly, so you won't measure ammonia. The Nitrite also gets turned into Nitrate very quickly, so you won't be measuring that either. The Phosphate is just part of the food.

This causes a typical shrimp die off. If there are enough algae and detritus in the tank you don't really need to feed. If you do you will risk mass die offs like this.

By the way, shrimp do not eat if they don't feel well. That's why the shrimp did not touch your algae wafers.

Mustafa

Mustafa, thanks for the prompt response. You're probably on the right track with my shrimp problem as they had recently eaten several wafers and perhaps I fed too many too quickly... I'm planning on a partial water change, do you think this would be a good idea, or could it stress out the shrimp even more?

Thanks,

Jeremiah

Hey CRShadow thank you for bring it up, because I am having the exact problem! I too have alots of hair algae in my small 2.5G shrimp tank. When I first put the cherries and green shrimps in the tank, they would fight each for a small piece of wafer. But now they dont even go near it.
Another thing I have noticed is shrimps would be swimming around the tank like their catch on fire. Do you notice this strange behavior?

CRShadow wrote:I'm planning on a partial water change, do you think this would be a good idea, or could it stress out the shrimp even more?

A partial water change is a good idea. Have you tested the nitrate and phosphate levels?

Mustafa thank you for the quick answer, as usual
Now I think you are right, the high level of nitrate which causes hair algae problem and also stressed out the cherry shrimps so they dont feed well enough to eat.

I have also noticed my cherry shrimps are not as red as when I first bought them. Is it because high amount of nitrate?

Petshrimp.com wrote:Sounds like you just fed too much and drove up nitrate/phophate levels. The ammonia will get turned into Nitrite very quickly, so you won't measure ammonia. The Nitrite also gets turned into Nitrate very quickly, so you won't be measuring that either. The Phosphate is just part of the food.

This causes a typical shrimp die off. If there are enough algae and detritus in the tank you don't really need to feed. If you do you will risk mass die offs like this.

By the way, shrimp do not eat if they don't feel well. That's why the shrimp did not touch your algae wafers.

Mustafa

Well, just tested the phosphate and nitrate levels and nitrite levels. All are at zero, which would at least explain the algae problem... Perhaps the levels rose temporarily and the plants used it up before I could read it. <shrug>

I'm going to go ahead and do a partial water change and just keep an eye on the shrimp for the next couple of days...

Either you had a temporary nitrate spike due to feeding too much, or the reason for the shrimp deaths is that shrimp "overfeed" and die because of that. Maybe they cannot eat too much of the protein rich food, especially if it's animal protein (yes...even the algae wafers have at least 32% protein). Either way, it is linked to overfeeding.

If you do the partial water change and stop feeding the problem will resolve. That's my experience.

Mustafa

Just thought I'd update everyone. I did a partial water change and all seemed fine, but I suddenly lost 2 today and a couple others don't look good... As a precaution I am currently moving several shrimp to 2 seperate 10 gallon tanks in case there is something funky going on with the water in the 29 gallon.

If the cause of my deaths was in fact the recent large feeding of wafers, I'm hoping these were simply the last of those that ate too much...

-Jeremiah