Baby Shrimp Not Growing In Months & Other Problems

I have a 5 gallon tank for more than 8 months. It was a quick setup for a batch of green babaultI shrimp. The moment the shrimp came, one of the females was berried and gave birth the day after they were put in the tank. Since then, these things has happened:

1. Almost 9 tigers that came together with the babaultI have died along the way.
2. After 3 months I also got 10 orange sakura. They got berried and gave birth to a lot of babies (4 females one after the other).
3. Bought Crab Cuisine and Biomax #1 for babies and shrimp, strangely enough after 1 week of starting the Biomax #1 orange sakura started dying in a matter of 1 week.
4. Stopped feeding and sticking with green pellets twice a week only.

Now there is only one orange sakura left, no sakura babies, 5 green babaulti, and a lot of baby babaulties (yes, after 8 month, still not growing). Also, there is an amano which seems the happiest of the lot. The other shrimp are very apathetic. Some of the green babaultis turn red and die in a matter of weeks.

So, to recap I have to questions:

1. Why did the orange sakura babies die, along with their parents?
2. Why the green babaultis do not grow nearly at the normal rate (still no bigger than 5mm after 8 months)?

Tank parameters are as follows:
TDS: 190
pH: 8
GH: 7
KH: 6
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
Amonia: 0
Copper: 0
Light: 8 hours
Temp: 24.5-25C (a fan with a thermometer and relay blows when temp crosses 25C, until it gets 24.5C)
Filter: Dual sponge filter with air pump
Plants: A lot

10% of water is changed weekly. Also, the tank has a lot of biofilm, several tiny snails that might have come with the plants, and an infestation of tiny white spots which might be copepods (?).

Attached pictures of the tank, a green babaulti, another one turned red, and the babies...

 

All of these values seem very normal for shrimp with the only thing off I would say is maybe the pH. The neocaridina shrimp tend to like ph around 7 to 7.5 but can adjust to the 8 I'm sure. Sometimes a piece of zucchinI or other green veggie that's been blanched can help add to their diet. The only thing I can really really guess is maybe worms or some parasite. Try to look around for a invert safe quarantine meds

 

All of these values seem very normal for shrimp with the only thing off I would say is maybe the pH. The neocaridina shrimp tend to like ph around 7 to 7.5 but can adjust to the 8 I'm sure. Sometimes a piece of zucchinI or other green veggie that's been blanched can help add to their diet. The only thing I can really really guess is maybe worms or some parasite. Try to look around for a invert safe quarantine meds

Yes you are right, but since the orange sakura lived and bred successfully for more than 3 months, might suggest that it was not that big of a problem. Also, from what I know, caridinas need even lower pH, which might explain their babies not growing, but I'm not sure about that too. I suspect there is some other factor I'm not considering.

Forgot to mention, I don't use any chemicals in the tank except the tetra aquasafe. The substrate is inert and there are no ferts in the water.

I used to feed blanched spinach from my own garden but now they are over and I don't use the marked vegies because of the pesticides.

 

you are so close to being perfect I can only give you what's working for me but ill keep working on it, I agree your ph is a little high ide look at 6.8 ish as a happy medium for caridina and neocaridina to exist and breed in the same tank, yet saying that the BabaultI shrimp have a very large range of parameters to play with ,Kh drop if you could but I don't think necessary , temp for me is high I keep mine at 22c I find good all round temp, although 23c ok higher than 25c that can account for shrimp death, if you can drop your tds to 150 I find my gh stables at GH6 now that's on the high end for caridina and low end for neocaridina which allows both to breed now my crystal reds stopped breeding when my tds was high as it sent my gh up to 11. so what ive got now which is working for me,
T controller to monitor Temp and cool to 22c
sponge filters fluval filter
I do 20/25% water changes every week
PH 6.5
TDS 150
GH 6
KH 2
I us Flora Base Pro substrate which helps keep the PH down and its great for plants
the only other thing not touched on is the diet, are the shrimp getting the minerals they need, also as stated above zucchine de-seeded and boiled for 7 minutes let cool and peg to bottom, I use spinach from tesco put in boiling water for 40 seconds and I never lost a shrimp I think the boiling water takes out any pesticides. all my food comes from
Marks shrimp tanks in Norway he is an out and out shrimp man, the only thing I can think of if things are not getting worse you had a glitch of some sort may be a Nymph larva that went unnoticed killing and eating them,
there are slight differences I water parameters which may help you but nothing that would account for what's happened that I can think of,
looking at the tank photos would there be anything leaching from the rocks or the pipes you used were they sterile, i'm just trying to look at something you may have over looked. all in all you youve got it right,

Reading back over your post I'm edging my bets on the food they are not getting the minerals to sustain life especially the young they may be having molting problems because of it, you need to start with Bactor AE or a similar product, I can't see the biomax being the problem and would start using it again,the pellets twice a week Is not doing it's job. Have a look at putting mineral balls in that are for shrimp
The ammano will live quite happily I find in almost anything they are very hardy. Question? Are the baby babaultis shrimp the same shrimp or are they dying because of molting problems and you got young coming behind making it look as though they are not growing, the more I thimk about it the more i'm being pushed to diet, I would start using spinach,zacchinI cooked broccolI stem, get some Almond leaves, leave the biofilm build up on the back glass and sides if posts and leave the front for viewing, ide start with that

 

Reading back over your post I'm edging my bets on the food they are not getting the minerals to sustain life especially the young they may be having molting problems because of it, you need to start with Bactor AE or a similar product, I can't see the biomax being the problem and would start using it again,the pellets twice a week Is not doing it's job. Have a look at putting mineral balls in that are for shrimp
The ammano will live quite happily I find in almost anything they are very hardy. Question? Are the baby babaultis shrimp the same shrimp or are they dying because of molting problems and you got young coming behind making it look as though they are not growing, the more I thimk about it the more i'm being pushed to diet, I would start using spinach,zacchinI cooked broccolI stem, get some Almond leaves, leave the biofilm build up on the back glass and sides if posts and leave the front for viewing, ide start with that

Thank you for your thorough comments. The babaultI babies are the same ones since the beginning because there has not been any berried ones. Some of the adults (3 or 4) died the first few days and my guess is that I'm left with the females. Almost all of them were saddled for a long time, now I think they are not anymore, maybe because they are not in so good health.

What I don't understand is why the orange sakuras bred for almost 3 months, then all of the sudden all the babies disappeared almost 3 days after I started the Biomax. Then the adults started dying and now there are none left (the last one was found eaten today).

Three sides of the tank are almost covered in green biofilm. There has always been an almond leaf in the tank. When I touch the substrate to remove anything with tweezers, usually there is a lot of debris, but I don't vacuum it because of the babies. I don't know if that is something to blame.

I will buy the Bacter AE and try it... I hope I find some other shrimp because my LFS brings whatever the supplier has at hand at the moment. I don't have the luxury to tell them what type I want.

 

Ok again your up to speed with everything and the death's are strange, as you say was it the biomax, ok don't use it if you think that was the problem, I would try the diet deffenetly, as for cleaning the bottom I use a 1/4 inch and suck up all the fine stuff trying to miss shrimp but I always get a couple, I found if you use a white bucket you will see the shrimp better if you do suck them up, they go back in no worse for ware so don't worry to much about that, iam going to tag you on this if you don't mind as ide like to know if you ever find the culprit, maybe there's someone out there that may think of something that we've all missed,I'll keep intouch

Just found this very interesting video, the babaultI shrimp are also known as the chameleons of the shrimp world due to the fact they can change colour , so that may be one part of the mystery over, also they are very slow breeders there's a little more information I found that may be usefull

 

Yes, I've read about babaultis being slow breeders. Also that the babies take longer to grow, but 5mm in 8 months seems a little excessive.

As for the color change, I've seen them turn green and white-ish from time to time, but when they turn a strong pink like in the picture, its a sure sign they will die in a few days. The one in the picture died yesterday. I had almost 20 in the beginning, now there are 4 adults remaining.

I'm very tempted to undo the tank if it wasn't for the babies which have been holding on for so long. I just ordered the Bactor AE, it will take a week or so to arrive, then we will see if it does make a difference in their growth.

My original plan was to put all the shrimp in a 10 gallon which I've made ready for them, but I waited for babies to grow first and have a sustainable colony without stressing them too much. I also put the orange sakura in the 5 gallon since it was established and "shrimp safe" and got enthusiastic of their progress until the last moment. Now the 10 gallon is being very much enjoyed by a male double-tail betta while the shrimp are still a work in progress.

One question,,, do you think using distilled water mixed with tap water is a viable solution to having lower pH levels in the long run?

 

HI Dorian distilled water should be neutral at 7
So it's down to what comes out of the tap I'll test my tap water see what I've got, As I said I use Flora Base Pro which is great for plants and holds the ph at 6.5 while I'm doing that if there's someone who can help pleas do

Ok Dorian my tap water is coming out at 7.6 so if you mix 50/50 it will only come down to 7.3. Test your tap water, Now if you can get RO water from your lfs the PH should be 6 if it's pure but that will allow you to mix tap water to what you need ,I make my own RO for my 3 shrimp tanks as I go through 60ltr a week on water changes

 

As a last resort I wanted to also try the distilled water mixed with my tap water. Since the tap is at 8 and the water I just bought is at 6, I mixed a 50/50 cup and I think it is almost a 7. I will leave the water for a couple of days to see if the values change or will stabilize.

My plan was to do the next water changes with the distilled water until the tank is at least at 7. In the near future I plan to have a RO/DI system since we have to buy bottled water for drinking and it is becoming more of a burden. Until then, I hope the distilled water will make do.

Just a note, my pH test kit might not be very accurate, but I hope that accuracy won't be much of a problem in this case since I'm not shooting for a very specific value but rather a broad range.

Also, since you mentioned the substrate, I've been asking the LFS for that but until now they could not order it for me. Also, they do not offer RO/DI water but I bought those used for ironing and stuff like that.

 

Ide agree with that, you may find your lfs if he supplies RO will be cheaper than buying distilled ,just a thought

I don't thing you'll go wrong with the way your talking about doing it anyway,

 

I just measured the mixed water and the values for now are:

TDS: 81
GH: 4
KH 3

Do you think I should use a remineraliser like Salty Shrimp GH/KH+?

 

TDS is too low for what your keeping that's almost defiantly the problem you need 2oo tds The GH that low will stop the shrimp breeding it needs to be 8 ish 6 would be border line but raising the TDS will alter your GH but you'll have to check, remember I said for neocaridina and caradina to co-exist and breed in the same tank there's a fine line and that line is TDS 150 GH6 kh up to 10 being best, but the Babualtis have a greater parameter range than other caradinas so 200tds gh 9,10 even 11 is ok kh up to 10 is fine
with red crystal if the GH goes up above above 7 and higher they will stop breeding as i'v found out in my tanks, and the information i'm passing to you is what was given to me to sort mine out.

hI dorian i'v been following mark for a few years now it's where I get all my food, i'v spoken to him a few times and he's must be the best shrimp keeper in the northern hemisphere the information on his you tube channel is nothing short of brilliant, i'v learnt a lot from him over the years and with the knowledge you'v already got you'll have no problem understanding him, his buisness is now in Norway but hes not out to catch people in fact hes quite the opposite, anyone on Fishlore keeping shrimp will find his channel useful, on the link below open it up and scroll down and he gives you his feeding pattern, hope you find it useful

 

hI dorian i'v been following mark for a few years now it's where I get all my food, i'v spoken to him a few times and he's must be the best shrimp keeper in the northern hemisphere the information on his you tube channel is nothing short of brilliant, i'v learnt a lot from him over the years and with the knowledge you'v already got you'll have no problem understanding him, his buisness is now in Norway but hes not out to catch people in fact hes quite the opposite, anyone on Fishlore keeping shrimp will find his channel useful, on the link below open it up and scroll down and he gives you his feeding pattern, hope you find it useful

Thank you for the information and sorry for being away this time. I've been busy at work and also been on vacation the last week. The link you sent me, I've seen some of the guy's videos on YouTube. I really like him, but I don't think he can ship where I live (Albania).

To sum it up, yesterday I got home from vacations and also received the "Bacter AE" and "Salty Shrimp Mineral GH/KH+". The remaining shrimp where doing fine (2 babaultis, 1 amano, ~14 babaultI babies, the most I could count). Also, a friend of mine was able to get me 12 juvenile shrimp from "a guy" who raises them here in my town. They are mixed types, some are RCS but some are more white. According to my friend, who does not know shrimp very well, "the guy scooped a plastic glass in the tank and caught them at once and said those should be enough". During the time I was on vacation he kept them in a plastic water container and all 12 made it to my tank. Also, he ("the guy") said that these shrimp are very hardy. Once he dropped soap in the tank and none died. So his advice was, if I kill these, I better give up on shrimp.

Anyway, I prepared a gallon of store bought demineralized water with the GH/KH+ which brought the water to:
GH: 6
KH: 3
PH: 6.5
TDS: 228

Since the tank is 5 gallons, I intend to do 1 gallon of water change every 2-3 days until I get the tank completely on the demineralized water. I will keep you updated, in case other people need this info.

 

Well done Dorian it's nice to have someone local with shrimp,may be worth getting to know him,like the soap bit, with the Bactor AE keep to what it states on the tub or a bit less, don't over feed with it, the young will benefit but it's also good for adults, feed three times a week and you wount go wrong, post a pic of your new shrimp

 

Well done Dorian it's nice to have someone local with shrimp,may be worth getting to know him,like the soap bit, with the Bactor AE keep to what it states on the tub or a bit less, don't over feed with it, the young will benefit but it's also good for adults, feed three times a week and you wount go wrong, post a pic of your new shrimp

This is one of the juveniles which you can see against the white stone. At least one is a little larger and it jas what it looks like a green saddle. Mostly they are low grade and hard to see.

For now I will feed the bacter ae and green veggies. Lets see how it goes...

 

I would not do a water change that often. Water changes will stress out the shrimp. I do a change every 2 weeks an then its 10%. I top off the tank as needed with treated tap water. That said, I always run two filters in my shrimp tank so my water is highly filtered and kept pretty clean. Have you tried BACTER AE. I found a little bit of it twice a week keeps my shrimp pretty healthy and happy. also the baby shrimp seem to love it

 

I would not do a water change that often. Water changes will stress out the shrimp. I do a change every 2 weeks an then its 10%. I top off the tank as needed with treated tap water. That said, I always run two filters in my shrimp tank so my water is highly filtered and kept pretty clean. Have you tried BACTER AE. I found a little bit of it twice a week keeps my shrimp pretty healthy and happy. also the baby shrimp seem to love it

Thank you for your feedback. At the moment I'm doing water changes to switch to distilled water remineralized with salty shrimp gh/kh+ in order to lower the pH. I've also arranged to have a ro system installed at home, maybe this week. Also I just got the bacter ae and using it every other day with very small ammounts.

On the other hand I'm also experimenting with a diy co2 system in another tank, also for lowering the pH.

Will see how things go. It is still too soon to draw any conclusions.

I was thinking of something that, maybe it's nothing, but I thought I should ask to make sure. Currently the tank is hooked to a system for monitoring temperature (water and room) and lights. It is a Raspberry PI with temperature sensors and a relay board to control light, heater and a fan. It is something I made for fun and so far it has worked flawlessly. Being it a small tank, the single PC fan has been able to maintain a constant temperature during the summer. These last days we have experienced some cooler nights and also the heater has maintained the temperature during those hours.

By looking at the temperature charts I was wondering if the 0.5°C of fluctuations are harmful to the shrimp. I set a target temperature of 24. When it gets 23.5 the heater turns on until water reaches 24. If it goes more than 24, the fan turns on until it gets to 23.5. The heating can take up to 30 minutes. The cooling lasts a little longer as it is not that efficient (1-2 hours). What I was wondering is, does this change in temperature harm the shrimp? From what I read online, everybody talks about day and night fluctuations of several degrees, bot I've not found some forum asking for this particular case? The temperature always stays between 23.5°C - 24°C, but fluctuates between these numbers. I can reprogram the system for a narrower range, but before I play with it I thought I should ask first.

I've attached a screenshot of the charts just to give an idea of what I'm talking about.

 

HI Dorian I have a similar system it's a Aqua medic T controller and I have a temperature range from 22.5 to 23.5 your range and mine are fine that's a good system you made your never going to get a constant temperature and that fluctuation we both have is fine,RCS at 22c will live longer than at 24c where lifespan shortens a bit but the up side with 24c is they breed faster. Before I put my system in my tanks were going to 35c and very luckily not to loose any but if kept in the upper 27c constant will start to see fatalities, so what you've got is excellent so I'd stick with it my friend

 

HI Dorian I have a similar system it's a Aqua medic T controller and I have a temperature range from 22.5 to 23.5 your range and mine are fine that's a good system you made your never going to get a constant temperature and that fluctuation we both have is fine,RCS at 22c will live longer than at 24c where lifespan shortens a bit but the up side with 24c is they breed faster. Before I put my system in my tanks were going to 35c and very luckily not to loose any but if kept in the upper 27c constant will start to see fatalities, so what you've got is excellent so I'd stick with it my friend

Thank you again for you input. I am aware of the fact that 24C is high, but for the moment I'm more interested in getting them to breed in order to have a sustainable colony. Also, getting the temperature lower than 24 during the mediterranean summer is impossible without a chiller.

On the other hand, today I got the RO unit installed and started playing with the water tests. The unit produces water with a pH of 7 with a TDS of 8-9. After mixing in the salty Shrimp GH/KH+, the pH goes back up to 8. KH is 2 and GH 6. Is this something I can use in the long run? Or should I get the Salty Shrimp GH+, so it does not mess with KH and pH?

I also installed a CO2 kit on the 10 gallon with the betta (something like this with citric acid and baking soda, not yeast). So far it has been stable, a can switch it off at night (will buy solenoid with timer if I decide to keep it) and the pH of the water (tap water) has gone to 7. I've read somewhere that pH changes because of CO2 is not relevant because KH stays the same. Is this something I can consider in the shrimp tank?

 

hI Dorian sorry about the temperature bit again I always do it when people talk to me about temperatures, I also realise you've got your head screwd on with your shrimp so if I say something you already know just ignore it, its what I do and can annoy people, anyway I do enjoy our chats and I learn from you as well so that's great. PH 7 is netural as we know your TDS coming out at 8-9 may be something to do with your water over there and its quite possible you'll never get it lower but that's not a problem anyway as your going to reminerilise to whatever is needed, mine comes out zero across the board then I play, I use GH+ the first set of figures are something you can definitely use, the GH is at the bottom end for breeding RCS but they will breed,I have KH2 GH6 TDS140 in red crystal tank which also holds fire red sakura and all are breeding fine, now in my fire red sakura tank on the other hand I keep the TDS 220 KH2 GH 9-10. so your on the ball there, iv'e always used GH+ what I also use is a substrate called Flora Base PRO it keeps the PH 6.5 which red crystal/black bee need for breeding, you have a bigger window for cherries, GH+ would be a good investment' i'am not up to speed with co2 systems but what I have got in all my tanks are Oxydators which do a similar thing, ive also got a gizzmo called New Doctor 3 in 1 which has a shrimp setting on its suppose to condition the shrimp for moulting amongst other things.

 

Just a quick update. Last night my LFS got me about 50 RCS and 10 amanos. At this point its nearly impossible to get a head count them in the tank. So I've decided to stop large water changes (I've done 4 large RO water changes of 25%, by my calculations there should be about 70% of RO water and the other part old water) and proceed with the normal routine, 10-15% water changes weekly with remineralized RO water. Will feed Bacter AE, veggies and Crab Cuisine 2x a week (since there are too many now)

The new RCS are very beautiful, a mix of juveniles and adults. There are also a dozen of berried females. I hope the tank does not crash because of the sudden high load.

I put the amanos in the 10 gallon with the betta to test it since it was meant as a shrimp tank in the first place. The amanos are almost as large as the betta so I'm not affraid of them, on the contrary, the betta might be in trouble.

 

I don't think you'll have any problems with a crash! but what I would watch now with the Ammanos are the bully tactics with the food so ide look at breaking down your food so the cherries have a better chance at the food

 

I don't think you'll have any problems with a crash! but what I would watch now with the Ammanos are the bully tactics with the food so ide look at breaking down your food so the cherries have a better chance at the food

The amanos are in a 10 gallon with the betta only. The RCS are in the 5 gallon which was suposed to be very temporary, but know it is mature. I was planning on making the 10 gallon as a shrimp tank when I had a stable colony.

 

5gal is fine as well I have sakura fire reds in one, there's must be 200 in there and as fast as I move them on there's more behind. just taken these two pics of side walls

 

Yesterday I noticed a couple of shrimplets around the tank. Since there are a lot of plants and hiding places, I guess there should be more. Also, from my past experience, they tend to hide for the first days.

My question is, should I feed more of Bacter AE, or keep my current routine which is: a pinch of Bacter AE in alternating days, in between I put blanched veggies (zucchinI or cucumber), or I crush some HikarI Crab Cuisine or spirulina pellets (one day each, not all the same days).

On another note, this morning I noticed a dead shrimp. Just in case, if you can tell from the picture, is this a molting issue or something else?

Since I got the last batch I am unable to do a head count, but if I put a veggie in there, I can easily count at least 45-50. There should be more than 60 in the tank. At least I have not noticed dead ones which are easier to detect, usually there are 4-5 shrimps on top of it.

 

HI Dorian I don't think it's moulting issues looking at the tail end I can only think it may have been attacked by something, I'd keep to your feeding routine just make sure you don't over feed on the Bactor AE if anything underfeed with it, give at least two days without food but feed Bactor AE on one of those days, if you find the shrimp are not covering the food like in my avatar photo then feed every other day with veg, you'll never get all the shrimp on the food as they are probably hiding, going through a moult or having babies, hope this helps a bit, keep and eye out to see if you get anymore dead ones.

 

Thank you for your response. When I put veggies in the tank they all get out of their hideouts and rush to it. That is also the best time to try and count them. This makes me believe that at least I'm not overfeeding.

As for the dead shrimp, yes he was being eaten by the others. At least that is how I found it this morning. Since there is a fine line in the middle, I suspected molting, but then again, I'm not an expert. I hope he will remain just an isolated case.

 

That's how you want the shrimp on your food, I couldn't see the white line you mentioned, another thing we all find dead shrimp now and again and never find out why, you are feeding all the good stuff to condition the shrimp for moulting, have you seen any old moult in the tank ? That's a good indication things are ok, hopefully it's an isolated case, the other thing when you do a water change try an get it as near ad possible to tank temp as sudden shock to shrimp is bad, if the shrimplets are growing then things are definitely good as they would be first to go if you've got moulting issues, as you say hopefully it's isolated

 

That's how you want the shrimp on your food, I couldn't see the white line you mentioned, another thing we all find dead shrimp now and again and never find out why, you are feeding all the good stuff to condition the shrimp for moulting, have you seen any old moult in the tank ? That's a good indication things are ok, hopefully it's an isolated case, the other thing when you do a water change try an get it as near ad possible to tank temp as sudden shock to shrimp is bad, if the shrimplets are growing then things are definitely good as they would be first to go if you've got moulting issues, as you say hopefully it's isolated

The "line" that I'm talking about is the dent in the middle, what looks like a cut. Maybe I'm wrong anyway and I'm misdiagnosing it.

Yes, I've seen old moults in the tank these last few days, they don't last much though. When I do water changes I still use the dripping method. I use the same container for removing the old water, note the level and fill it with the same amount of new water. Then I let it drip and forget about it since it will not overflow. This way there are no temperature fluctuations. Also I try to adjust the new water with the same TDS as the tank water.

 

Your not doing anything wrong and to see moults is great that's a good sign, the other shrimp could have been a moult issue, why we'll probly never know unless the other shrimp have a problems, the other thing I feed is mushrooms uncooked you can put in whole of slice and put on a stick, it's a bit fiddely try and make a hole first then push down the stick, they have lots of good stuff in them for shrimp,

 

Your not doing anything wrong and to see moults is great that's a good sign, the other shrimp could have been a moult issue, why we'll probly never know unless the other shrimp have a problems, the other thing I feed is mushrooms uncooked you can put in whole of slice and put on a stick, it's a bit fiddely try and make a hole first then push down the stick, they have lots of good stuff in them for shrimp,

I noticed this shrimp this morning. Is this a sign of problems with molting?

 

HI Dorian that dosnt look good so I've looked over the post again and picked up earlier that your TDS was low my reds have all the same as you excpt TDS mine is reminerils to 220 in sakura red tank, now yours coming out was 8/9 and you were going to reminerils, did you start to higher it or is it still 8/9 If it is it's to low and needs to be higher

 

HI Dorian that dosnt look good so I've looked over the post again and picked up earlier that your TDS was low my reds have all the same as you excpt TDS mine is reminerils to 220 in sakura red tank, now yours coming out was 8/9 and you were going to reminerils, did you start to higher it or is it still 8/9 If it is it's to low and needs to be higher

That was the TDS out of the RO water since I just had the system installed. I was asking because I understand that RO has a TDS of close to 0, but then searching online I learned that it can be anywhere from 0 to 20.

The tank has a TDS of 207 (measured this morning). Two days ago I also measured a KH of 4-5 and GH of 8. The pH is about 7.5. This is the result of 4x25% water changes in 8 days, 1 water change every two days in order to switch the tank to the RO water over the old tap water. I stopped this process when I got the last batch of RCS last Friday in order not to stress them.

I planned on doing only 10% water changes weekly and today is water change day. I prepared the water yesterday, remineralized it and let it stabilize for 24 hours. But after the dead one found yesterday and this, I am afraid that a water change might do more harm than good. I will check again when I get home to see if anything has happened.

 

Ok I thought you'd come back with that and again you are doing nothing wrong, to many or to big a water change will do more harm than good so your right to go down that road, 180 to 220 TDS even higher is ok, your feeding is fine, if you look at red Riley they have a clear gap in the middle starting from behind the carapace but that gap looks to close together, Ian hunting my tank to see if any of my Riley have a shorter clear gap and try to get a better understanding as to what's going on, you've also got old moults so it strange, I'll do a little research and see if I can pick up on anything, just another thing the one yesterday and this one today what's the history on them

 

Ok I thought you'd come back with that and again you are doing nothing wrong, to many or to big a water change will do more harm than good so your right to go down that road, 180 to 220 TDS even higher is ok, your feeding is fine, if you look at red Riley they have a clear gap in the middle starting from behind the carapace but that gap looks to close together, Ian hunting my tank to see if any of my Riley have a shorter clear gap and try to get a better understanding as to what's going on, you've also got old moults so it strange, I'll do a little research and see if I can pick up on anything, just another thing the one yesterday and this one today what's the history on them

If it is worth mentioning, yesterday in the evening I put about 1 liter of pure RO water in the tank to make up for the evaporation. I dripped the water in the tank so it took about 2 hours. Since the tank is a 20 liters, it makes about 5% of the water volume.

What do you mean "the history on them"? They are both from the batch of 50 shrimp I got last Friday. I don't know anything that can put them apart from the others?

 

The water would not be a problem that's fine, you've had them a week that's the history I was talking about, that could be something that came in and not from your tank hopefully it's not through all the shrimp whatever it is

 

The water would not be a problem that's fine, you've had them a week that's the history I was talking about, that could be something that came in and not from your tank hopefully it's not through all the shrimp whatever it is

I really hope its not the whole batch. These are really nice looking shrimp (the best I could get so far). Anyway I'll check in the evening after work again and let you know. Thank you again for your support and advice.

Ok, that shrimp was dead when I got home. Will keep an eye on parameters and will make water changes every two weeks. More than that, I don' know. I am ruling out any poisoning (substrate, silicone, plants, any other object in the tank) since the green babaultI babies are still fine since the tank was set up. Maybe its just my luck...

 

Your other shrimp are holding up well this is what's strange had the been a problem in you tank they would be affected as well, a bit of bad luck with these two and hopefully the others will be ok. Keep us posted in the meantime I'll see if I can dig something up that will help put your mind at rest, I've had a shrimp die on me today only 5 months old no signs of bad moult I don't know what's happened there eather all other shrimp are fine a bit of research may help both of us, if I find anything ill get stright back to you

 

Last night I found a juvenile half eaten, also this morning an older one dead. This makes a total of 4 dead in 3 days.

On another note, today I've noticed that the whole tank is unusually active. I removed the amano since he used to bully them sometimes, mostly during feeding time. Also I put a small cube of cuttlebone in the tank, probably to help with the calcium in case of a deficiency. They seem curious and are appreciating it for now.

Also I noticed two small shrimplets which seem to have grown double the size of when they are born...

 

Have a little hunt in the plants for s dragon fly nymph or a damsel fly nymph. Did the older one show signs of white line?