Narcil

So last week I bought 10 RCS to start my colony in my spare 26Gal Tank, The tank is planted with a aqua soil and a nice bit of driftwood.

It has been cycled, and the water parameters are

ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0 PPM
nitrate ~20 ppm
pH ~ 6.3
Temp 26 C

so i cant figure out what they didnt like about it. The 10 were happily swimming around for the 1st 2-3 days, and then they just vanished. we assumed they were behind the driftwood. had a look for them 2 days later and nothing, all gone

only other inhabitants are some pond snails that hijacked a ride on some of the plants. I have the filter intake covered with some trimmed pantyhoes so they cant get sucked up.

Do shrimp get stressed easily during transport? because it was probably a 20min car ride from the fish shop to home

enthusiast

I had to check this post out because I have RCS of my own & it would be a tragedy to lose them all! sorry for your loss!

I dont think it would've been a 20 min. car ride but surely that would stress them out, but ALL of them enough to kill them ALL? especially after 2-3 days for them to of all lasted the initial introduction period I dont think that was it.. Everything with your tank sounds tolerable. I know they are definately very sensitive to the chorine in water, but surely you were using a water conditioner of some sort for your tank water, right?

The only other thing i can think of is maybe the food you would've been feeding them? I know ghost shrimp will go from their clear color to a milky color and soon after die off.. Check the ingredient list of your food for your shrimps for Copper, thats what kills the ghost shrimp. I dont know if all shrimp are intolerable of this ingredient or only a few species, I'd think if its not good for the ghosts then it probably isnt good for the RCS either? Or atleast, why chance it? Thats all i can think of ?

Narcil

hmm could be chlorine, I fill up my water containers and leave them for a week so that the chlorine evaporates from the water. but i dont treat them with a conditioner.

The above method works perfectly well with my other fish.

I was feeding them these little crab/invertebrate pellet things and when i bought them i checked for copper and they are copper free, so it shouldnt be that. They didnt really go for the pellets tho, they were more interested in the plants.

Wonder if they starved to death . its a shame, although once i work out the problem I will be getting more. My gf really wants the shrimp colony

EDIT// I did some work on the tank, cleaning, planting etc a couple of weeks ago. After emptying half the tank i refilled it straight from the tap. As there was nothing in it at the time. Do you think there could be chlorine still in the water as a result of that.

enthusiast

If it was done a couple of weeks ago I find it hard to believe that would've caused it either...

hmm..so many unanswered questions

griffin

that could be it. i'll use aged water, but if i need some water right then, i will add conditioner to take care of the Cl. hopefully that was it since it's an easy fix tho

Narcil

So I got another 15 RCS (LFS gave me 5 free ones because the 10 i bought died so quickly ), they have been in the tank for about a week now and I still have about 10-12 of them. (difficult to count because its quite a large tank and they are so small)

Hopefully they start breeding, so i can raise a nice size colony.

SWilkins

They are sensitive little stinkers that is for sure. They really like a well established tank and don't do very well in a fairly new setup. I feed mine every other day or so because I was overfeeding. Even though there may be loads of them they are very tiny and really cannot eat that much. They are real scavengers and love to eat what they find on your plants and the substrate. Once you get them going well they will breed like crazy and you will be hooked. They are lots of fun to watch and make for a very active tank. Good luck and keep us posted on how they do.

Narcil

bah.... they are all gone again. I wish i knew what was causing this because its really sad that my shrimp are going . Gonna have to bring a water sample to the LFS to see if there is something else in the water that may be causing them to die.

I will sort this out tho and eventually get my colony up and running, GF really wants shrimp for some reason