Blue velvet shrimp are struggling with molt

Hi,
Recently my neocaridina shrimp have been dying during molting. It is kind of odd to me though because they don’t ever get the “white ring of death”, they just seem to get tired and never jump out of their molts. Or sometimes it takes them a really long time and they play dead for a while but then come back.
I don’t know the exact Kh and Gh of my tank, but my area does have fairly hard water and my sibling had successfully kept amano shrimp in this same house.I know that amano are hardier though. I started with 12 shrimp about a month and a half ago, and now I’m down to 5 (or 6, depends if this one is really dead or just faking) I feed 2 pellets of hikari crab cuisine once a day about 6 days a week, and that seems to be as much as they like to eat. My tank is not very long established but they do like to hang out on my Java moss and fern and pick at it. I don’t have any pests aside from some scuds, but they are not high in numbers at all. I keep the temp at 72 and approx 10% water change once a week. They all seem fine until they go to molt and then they don’t jump out of it.
Basically, what I’m wondering is, am I not feeding them enough, or the right food? I can’t think of anything else that I’m doing wrong because I’ve searched a bunch on a lot of forums and all of the usual causes are written off in my case and it’s kinda hurting my self esteem. I’m new at this so I can’t be that hard on myself but it still sucks so if anyone has any possible ideas or knows something that could help me out, I’d greatly appreciate it. Sorry for such a long post.

 

You really need to check your Gh and Kh. They are critical to shrimp health. Too low and the shell stays too thin and too high and it gets so hard they cannot break it open to get out.

 

You really need to check your Gh and Kh. They are critical to shrimp health. Too low and the shell stays too thin and too high and it gets so hard they cannot break it open to get out.

Thank you, I’ll look into it

 

A few points on things you've mentioned but is information needed to build a picture of what's going on
Gh/kh as mentioned you mention the tanks nor been established very long,but how long.
Close up Photographs needed to rule out disease
Feeding every day for 5 shrimp is to much reduce that to twice a week
Also need to know if your adding any chemicals of any kind, this is just to start and hope solve this

 

Is there a calcium supply in the tank?

 

A few points on things you've mentioned but is information needed to build a picture of what's going on
Gh/kh as mentioned you mention the tanks nor been established very long,but how long.
Close up Photographs needed to rule out disease
Feeding every day for 5 shrimp is to much reduce that to twice a week
Also need to know if your adding any chemicals of any kind, this is just to start and hope solve this

I started cycling the tank about 2 and a half months ago and got the shrimp 1 month ago (after it was cycled of course) I don’t add chemicals of any kind aside from dechlorinator to new water when doing water changes. For the plants I just put root tabs in there so no c02 dosing or liquid ferts. Ok, I will reduce feeding. I’m looking into getting gh and kh test kits so I won’t be able to get back to you on that quite yet. I am attaching pictures, they’re difficult to take pictures of as the hide in driftwood, so I was only able to take pics of 2 plus a deceased one. Sorry about the dog hair in the one pic. When I’ve seen them though they all look good (nothing odd about them so I don’t believe it’s illness or parasites, but again I have no idea). Thanks.

Is there a calcium supply in the tank?

No, there is no additional calcium supply in the tank, I thought that my hard water and the food would be enough for them but I might look into an additional supply, especially because I’m looking into using rodi water from a friend.

 

I would not use rodi water unless you understand how to remineralize it. By itself it does not have enough minerals to sustain fish, invertebrates, or plants. Everything depends on Gh and Kh with shrimp.

 

I would not use rodi water unless you understand how to remineralize it. By itself it does not have enough minerals to sustain fish, invertebrates, or plants. Everything depends on Gh and Kh with shrimp.

Yes I agree. I am going to wait for my gh and kh test kit to come in and I will go forth based on what I find out with it.

 

I think it'll be a good idea to do full water test,
Gh,
Kh
Ph
Ammonia
Nitrites
Nitraits
It's impossible to tell when a shrimp is going to molt and the dead one shows no sign of molting, the white ring would show, there's no sign of disease, are the ones dying one particular colour like blue.
The fact they go lethargic leads me to think there may be a chemical imbalance so it's important to get the tests done

 

I think it'll be a good idea to do full water test,
Gh,
Kh
Ph
Ammonia
Nitrites
Nitraits
It's impossible to tell when a shrimp is going to molt and the dead one shows no sign of molting, the white ring would show, there's no sign of disease, are the ones dying one particular colour like blue.
The fact they go lethargic leads me to think there may be a chemical imbalance so it's important to get the tests done

Ok I’ll do that. Thank you for your help

 

Look for nitrates. Should be around 15ppm, not more then 25ppm. And test your tap water for nitrates, maybe your adding nitrates with Waterchanges or fertilizer.

 

How are things going for your now? Are your shrimp doing better?

Hi,
Recently my neocaridina shrimp have been dying during molting. It is kind of odd to me though because they don’t ever get the “white ring of death”, they just seem to get tired and never jump out of their molts. Or sometimes it takes them a really long time and they play dead for a while but then come back.
I don’t know the exact Kh and Gh of my tank, but my area does have fairly hard water and my sibling had successfully kept amano shrimp in this same house.I know that amano are hardier though. I started with 12 shrimp about a month and a half ago, and now I’m down to 5 (or 6, depends if this one is really dead or just faking) I feed 2 pellets of hikari crab cuisine once a day about 6 days a week, and that seems to be as much as they like to eat. My tank is not very long established but they do like to hang out on my Java moss and fern and pick at it. I don’t have any pests aside from some scuds, but they are not high in numbers at all. I keep the temp at 72 and approx 10% water change once a week. They all seem fine until they go to molt and then they don’t jump out of it.
Basically, what I’m wondering is, am I not feeding them enough, or the right food? I can’t think of anything else that I’m doing wrong because I’ve searched a bunch on a lot of forums and all of the usual causes are written off in my case and it’s kinda hurting my self esteem. I’m new at this so I can’t be that hard on myself but it still sucks so if anyone has any possible ideas or knows something that could help me out, I’d greatly appreciate it. Sorry for such a long post.

 

How are things going for your now? Are your shrimp doing better?

Hey! They’re doing SO much better. I got a test kit for gh and kh and yep that was definitely the culprit, gh was around 2 and kh was like 20, crazy hard water plus a water softener. I dilute my presoftened water with rodi water from a friend now and have a kh of around 7 (which is still high but it’s lowering still) and gh of around 3 or 4. Not completely ideal yet but it’s getting there, and I haven’t had any shrimp deaths since I first posted this thread almost 2 months ago. I’m really glad that I’ve figured it out with the help from everyone, having all those shrimp dying sucked a lot, I’m happy they’re doing better now.

 

Really glad to hear that! Your Gh is a little low but there's an easy fix for that. The best range is 6-9 with 8 being ideal for them. There's a product you can find on Amazon called Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+. You add a ridiculously small amount of it with a water change to help raise it. I'm talking about a pinch of it, shake it up in a cup to mix it well, then add it to the water you're adding in your WC. If you check your Gh the next day you'll see what it did. You only want it to go up very slowly, not a huge change at once. Your Gh is the most important number to keep checking. I'm learning all this now from richiep here as I've started a new shrimp tank and want it right. It's a huge balancing act! I tagged him on here so he can weigh in and maybe correct anything I told you if it's off.

I have trouble with high Gh. I got it down to 6 once, added a little of this mineral, or what I thought was a little... and it went to 9. Very touchy! So right now it's gone to 12 and I'm working to get it back down gradually. I'll probably never really need the minerals but it's good to have them in case they're needed. My Gh was originally very close to 30 before richiep helped me figure it out - I'd always used our softened water too, which was okay for fish but not the shrimp - they didn't die fast, but they did die. I enjoy them too much to do this wrong! Now I use water straight from the well before it goes through the conditioner. I sure wish you well!