Dwarf Shrimp Dying - Ph issue?

I hear you on the long day! I understand that people mean well, but I thought I had posted everything I was asked. I must have missed some posts. Yours sounds like a great plan Emma - thank you! I've had to pull out the water lettuce before - it grows like crazy and blocks all of the light - the shrimps seem to love it!

I'll post again in a week or so with an update. It's hard to know when/if any more shrimps are ding. I see about 10 when I get home then if I sprinkle in the powered food they come from everywhere and there are suddenly 30+ (80 back in the beginning). Sometimes I don't even see a body but I'll notice one of the ones with a very particular color hasn't appeared in a few days even for food, I can assume they passed on to the big shrimp tank in the sky.
Thanks again - much appreciated!

 

Bad news – I have been following the above regimen, but have lost at least 9 more shrimp! I wish I knew the cause. Last night I came home to two dead and after a shower, dinner etc. about 2 hours later, I found two more dead! Maybe I missed them when I got home, but at least these were fresh so I was able to get a good photo since they hadn’t been mostly eaten, but I don’t know what I’m looking for here. One is curled and the other two look perfectly healthy. Now that I think of it, I used to see a lot of molt shells. Lately, I don’t see many if at all. Perhaps they are unable to molt properly? I also did a water check last night and the Ph did come up slightly:

6.5 Ph.
Kh – 100 – looks between 80 and 120
Gh – 120
Nitrates – 5
Nitrites – 0
Ammonia – 0

Any thoughts on what is happening? It’s hard to correct the problem, when I don’t know what the problem is, but soon I will have no shrimp at all. Someone did hatch their eggs though as I see several tiny, micro babies. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. I also have one female who is buried at the moment.

Thanks!!

 

I was advised to use cuttlebone or crushed eggshell as ways to add calcium to the water for my shrimp. I heard wonder shells add calcium but I think they raise hardness too

I recently read that eggshells are 95% calcium carbonate, so yeah, I'll be trying this in the future tx!

 

HI again,
I was wondering how things were going, I'm so sorry that your shrimp are still dying.
I must admit that I'm now completely baffled.

I'd say that it doesn't appear to be a molting issue as you'd normally expect to see a white ring around their bodies indicating a failed molt. I remember Sprinkle commented that in your original picture one of the shrimp had this ring, but it doesn't appear on the ones that you have photographed today. And, although the ph is still on the low side, as you say, it's slowly coming up due to the higher ph of the new water that you're adding.

The dead shrimp look (to me) totally fine in that respect, but, I could be mistaken.
On the other hand, it's amazing that you've got some babies and a berried shrimp with all this going on.
Do the other other shrimp seem active in general, grazing and acting normally?

I'm not saying that it's NOT a molting issue at all, it's just that the few times it's happened to me, I've seen the classic white ring of death and a poor little shrimp struggling to molt before finally dying exhausted.
I really hope that we can get to the bottom of this and I'm sorry that my water change advice hasn't produced a happier outcome so far.

Just completely randomly, since you have an open tank, is there any chance that any sort of chemicals or fumes could be getting in there and poisoning the shrimp? Paint, air freshener, fly spray etc?
Also, you mentioned feeding baby powder, is this the only food?

I'm sorry, I'm just trying to think of something that might help.
Emma

 

Thanks Emma -I agree - they look totally healthy, other than being dead
I’ll’ ty the egg shell thing as suggested above – it couldn’t hurt. Scrambled eggs for dinner I suppose. Some websites state that a Ph. of 6.0 is ok for shrimp and it did come up a tad to 6.5 so maybe the Ph. isn’t even the issue. Someone else here suggested parasites, but I haven’t see any. Plus the females are getting knocked up and delivering so that is also strange. I don't get any cleaners near the tank, but thanks for trying to think of anything that might be the cause. I'll do some detective work myself and see if ANYTHING comes to mind. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for the support!! Perhaps someone else here can shed some light.

 

Some websites state that a Ph. of 6.0 is ok for shrimp and it did come up a tad to 6.5 so maybe the Ph. isn’t even the issue.

Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that's for caradina shrimp. I'm pretty sure neocaradinas do better with it a good bit higher.

 

Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that's for caradina shrimp. I'm pretty sure neocaradinas do better with it a good bit higher.

you're probably right - could the lower Ph be the cause of so many dying? thanks!

 

HI again!

It's morning now and I've been thinking over this problem.

Something that suddenly occurred to me when looking back over your thread are the three large pieces of cholla wood. How long have they been in the tank? While cholla won't lower ph as much as other types of driftwood, it will still lower it over time, especially with so much in a small tank. Maybe, take a couple of the pieces out and leave just the one as the shrimps do love the stuff, see if that helps.

Re the calcium issue, I found this very useful article about how to add calcium to your tank, it's got a really detailed guide how to prepare the eggshells and I thought that you might find it helpful.

How to Supplement Shrimp and Snails with Calcium - Shrimp and Snail Breeder

Hopefully things will turn around soon, I'm being optimistic that the berried shrimp and babies are a good sign even if some are still dying.

Emma

 

It might be helpful to get a tap water pH reading after it's off-gassed, which can alter the pH up to 1-2 days later. (For example, my tap water's initial pH is ~8.4 but it off-gasses to 7.5 within 24 hours, so my tanks are all at 7.5.) You can let a cup of water sit on the counter for a day, then test it, to see if there's a difference. This would confirm what you might expect the tank's pH to be if things were stable and well maintained.

Re the water: Is it municipal water? Are there any water treatment systems in the home? How much Prime is used and is water temperature matched during water changes?

If it's municipal water, maybe check your town's water and sewer website to see if there's been any maintenance or reported issues.

Is the sponge filter ever cleaned or replaced? If yes, how?

Is all of the equipment used only for the aquarium - buckets or cups not used for other purposes or ever in contact with household chemicals? Are you using any equipment that's not really designed for tanks, e.g. a kitchen sponge or scrub pad to clean the glass?

Was anything new added to the tank around when the problem started - plants or decorations?

I agree with the others that improving the tank maintenance routine may be all that's needed to fix things; I hope that's all it is. I'd just like to check that we're not missing something else too.

 

HI Emma and Jen - thansk for the replies.

Sad news - the tank is just lowly dying. The guppy grass completely died and now the water lettuce is going. I had to take out handfuls in the past to throw away because it was growing so quickly. At least 2 dead shrimp each night when I come home – maybe more since they seem to eat the dead ones. I even found one tiny, tiny little baby curled up dead last night so I don’t think it’s a molting issue. Something is destroying my tank. It makes me so sad. I have about 20 shrimp left and I’m losing hope of getting the tank healthy again. Thanks for the article on calcium – I’ve read threw and it was helpful. I added some eggs shells a few days ago. I’ll try to answer all questions below.

The cholla wood has been in there since day one. I started the tank with it.

I’ll check the gassed tap water tonight.

No changes per the municipal site.

The sponge filter is fairly new – I swapped out for a carbon filter about 2 months ago. I ran them at the same time though so I wouldn’t lose any beneficial bacteria. The sponge has been running by itself for about 6 weeks and I haven’t cleaned it yet. The shrimps were dying even before I swapped out.

No new plants or decorations – everything has been the same since the start, expect for the sponges filter. The only new thing was the amount of snails I wound up getting, but I have since pulled most out though there are still a lot of babies in the tank.

Richie mentioned someone with more expertise, but no tag or name so I’m not sure who he meant.

I will report back with the gassed tap test.

Thanks all!!

 

Just wondering, do you have a liquid test kit or strips? I always kept a pH of 7.2-7.6 with my neos and they did very well. KH and GH were 2 degrees from tap but supplementing with crushed coral and cuttlebone brought those up to 3 degrees. The low pH is really concerning me tbh, it shouldn't be that low without injecting co2. Something is a miss. I also think you should changing out water more often because the pH is too different from tap, so something is for sure depleted. If plants are melting, they are also missing something. If my water is too soft (like for my SA fish), my plants don't do well and melt away. I keep my soft water tanks replenished with lots of water exchanges. So you can't do that with shrimp, not as much water as I change out, so supplementing with calcium and magnesium becomes a neccesity. But your KH should be more non-existent to have a pH of 6, so i'm still confused.

 

HI angelcraze - I'm also confused. I've been reading about RO water and distilled versus tap - should I switch to one of those? I have the liquid API test kit. What's very odd to me is that the plants are now dying off. I'm hoping the egg shells will help with the calcium if that's the issue.

 

HI again,
This is the strangest situation. I'm completely baffled. It seems so odd that the same is happening with the 'new' water going in as was when it was old.

In case there is a problem with your tap water (some undetected thing that they're adding) and since you're interested in the possibility, you could try switching to RO water if your local fish store sells it.

You'd need to get some remineralising powder or liquid, Salty Shrimp is the easiest to use. Also a TDS pen which you use to measure the dissolved solids in the RO water to make sure you add the correct amount of powder. It's very, very easy and myself or anyone here will happily talk you through it over the weekend.

Here's a link to the two products on UK Amazon, just so you know what you're looking for.



(Don't be tempted by a cheap TDS pen, it won't last 2 minutes, HM Digital are the best ones!)
Alternatively, before I got my little RO unit, when I only had a small tank, I used to buy the cheap, own brand supermarket bottled water as the water here in London is beyond horrible. That might be a route to tide you over before you get the RO bits.
I just gradually added the bottled water over small daily water changes until the tank was pure bottle.
Finally, the plants could be dying as they adjust to the lack of fertiliser in the water, now you're changing the water more often, you could probably afford to add a drop every few days (not as much as before!)
I have to get ready for work now, but, maybe today you could test the ph again, see if the eggshells and new tap water are bringing it up a bit more.
Try not to give up, there's an answer to this somewhere, we just have to find it.

Emma

 

I’m not sure that it’s remotely relevant to your tank but...
I’ve had nothing but lower ph than my tap water should provide, in established tanks.
My tap is 8.2 and most of my tanks are 7.2-7.4, in fact I had to work to get them over 7 as they’d all stay around 6.6-6.8 but adding crushed coral helped.
However in all of this I had one 2.5g that was over 8.4ph no matter what I did.

Until I changed out the bio filter to new material. The ph dropped overnight to 7.6. It was the only thing I’d done to that tank that time period and the only thing I’d done in weeks that worked to actually get the ph to drop.

Perhaps your filter media is involved somehow?

Obviously more experienced fish/shrimp tank folks here chiming in.

But sometimes it’s the small, almost impossible thing in the tank that can and could make the biggest difference.

 

And just in case.....

I meant to say to boil the eggshells first to disinfect them. The inside needs to be cleaned out and bacteria (like chicken feces) removed before you use in the tank (say if you scramble eggs and don't cook the shells). You can also bake them.

 

I’m not sure that it’s remotely relevant to your tank but...

you never know - I'm not super experienced and at this point, it could be anything. thanks for the post!

 

So the gassed tap water revealed:
7.5 ph.
Gh 120
Kh 180
Nitrates and Nitrites of 0

I did boil the eggshells first - thank you!

I reallty appreciate everyone's help here. The RO system might help, but at this point I have about 12 shrimps left so I don't know that it's worth the effort. So sad after I had so many healthy ones for so long. I may have to start over woith new RO water and plants, etc. I did add a few drops of fert last night - might as well try to save the plants.

 

HI again!

It's morning now and I've been thinking over this problem.

Something that suddenly occurred to me when looking back over your thread are the three large pieces of cholla wood. How long have they been in the tank? While cholla won't lower ph as much as other types of driftwood, it will still lower it over time, especially with so much in a small tank. Maybe, take a couple of the pieces out and leave just the one as the shrimps do love the stuff, see if that helps.

Re the calcium issue, I found this very useful article about how to add calcium to your tank, it's got a really detailed guide how to prepare the eggshells and I thought that you might find it helpful.

How to Supplement Shrimp and Snails with Calcium - Shrimp and Snail Breeder

Hopefully things will turn around soon, I'm being optimistic that the berried shrimp and babies are a good sign even if some are still dying.

Emma

Probably not the issue here but I've underestimated the cholla wood before, added a 4" piece to my 5.5g and it tanked the pH from 7.6 to below 6 in a day and killed everything in there

 

Probably not the issue here but I've underestimated the cholla wood before, added a 4" piece to my 5.5 gallon and it tanked the pH from 7.6 to below 6 in a day and killed everything in there

I had no idea the cholla wood could do that - I'll pull it out tonight - thanks!

 

Also, I meant to mention – they seem to be dying suddenly. Last night again, I came home to 2 dead. Took a shower, ate dinner, etc. and about 2 hours later, another dead one. If it’s something harsh though to cause sudden death, wouldn’t they all die at once? I’m baffled! Also, I only see 3 tiny babies when there were at least 7 or 8 on Sunday.

 

I had no idea the cholla wood could do that - I'll pull it out tonight - thanks!

Again, I don't think it's part of the problem in your situation; mine was an addition to a newly set-up tank. If it's been in there for months, I'd think the tannins have leached out by now and it shouldn't be doing any harm.

 

Also, I meant to mention – they seem to be dying suddenly. Last night again, I came home to 2 dead. Took a shower, ate dinner, etc. and about 2 hours later, another dead one. If it’s something harsh though to cause sudden death, wouldn’t they all die at once? I’m baffled! Also, I only see 3 tiny babies when there were at least 7 or 8 on Sunday.

I don’t know about that. They’re individual creatures not recreated machines, you know?
I had a ph crash with my blue bolt shrimp and they went slowly. 1 the day after the crash, 1 3 days later, 2 more somewhere after that. They just had different tolerance levels.

 

Others may have brought it up already, but it sounds like your tank might have been experiencing old tank syndrome.

 

May I jump in here with two points. First when you measure your tap water have you ran an air stone in it for 24 hours before the test? Have you add prime to it before the test.
Second and I strongly recommend that you do this. Take a sample of your tank water to your lfs and have them test it. A second opinion might prove to be enlightening. I am not saying your doing anything wrong but there is no logical reason. Your ph is crashing with your KH that high. Oh one more thought, I do t think adding eggshells is going to do you any good short term. They take a long time to add calcium to the water, if you think lack of calcium is killing your shrimp add blanched kale and let them eat it. Looking forward to your tap water test if you did not put an air stone in it.

 

HI again,
Sorry, I didn't come on last night (just too tired) and have been looking through all the new posts this morning.
What wishuponafish said about Old Tank Syndrome has really got me thinking. I found this useful article

What Is Old Tank Syndrome in a Freshwater Aquarium?

It really looks like a possibility, the only thing being that the remedy is the small, daily water changes, which is exactly what you have been doing. (Unless they were somehow too big/too fast and there was an ammonia spike as mentioned in the article?)

Have a look at it though, it's certainly food for thought here.

I also agree with what tjander said about getting your water tested at the lfs. They're just such odd readings, it might flag up something different and suggest another approach.

I just cannot believe that between us all, we can't seem to be able to get to the bottom of this and meanwhile your shrimp are still dying, I feel so sorry for you, I cannot imagine how sad and frustrating it must be.

And, while we'll not give up while there's a single shrimp holding on in there, if worse does come to worst and you end up having to start again, you certainly won't be the first person on here that has had to do that and will be supported every step of the way.

Meanwhile, do see if you can get your lfs to do the water tests, I'd be especially interested in the ammonia now after reading that article and thinking about it, with so many dead shrimp and just a little sponge filter, is it really likely to be zero?

All the best,

Emma

 

@ scteel So I just wanted to let you know that I am backing away from this community.... there are a few people on here that are more interested in starting wars and just repeating what info they can pick up be it good or bad they get some thrill out of being perceived as important. They would rather do this then give good advice and trying to help...

as my last post, I would encourage you to stay in touch with Richie and Emma as they seem to have a good grip on things and have the knowledge to help. Best of luck in solving your PH problem...

 

HI all – so sorry for not replying. I seem to get email notifications when I get a reply, but only half of the time. I had no emails and just came over to check manually and saw all of these replies. Still losing shrimp on the daily. Only one yesterday so maybe that’s a good sign? I put a wafer treat in the tank and counted about 24 so the numbers are a little higher than I thought. All of the tiny babies are gone. I have a few young ones left and 2 females are buried. I tested the tank again and everything was the same, but the Ph. does look to be around 6.5 now so its slowly coming up, but I’m not even sure if that was the problem. I did not test with an air stone – I don’t have one in that tank. I did not add anything when I tested the tap water – I just let it sit for about 12 hours.

I’m not sure what this means “Take a sample of your tank water to your lfs and have them test it”. I have now read some articles on old tank syndrome – it seems that could be it, but I’m not entirely sure. I’m hoping I can save what I have and bring the ph. back up. If I have to start over, I will certainly head here for some advice and support! Again, I don’t know what this means “see if you can get your lfs to do the water tests” – sorry but can you elaborate/explain? I did a separate liquid ammonia test and it is zero – the color turned bright yellow. Even with a lot of shrimp waste, there bio load does not really convert to a lot of ammonia, or so I’ve read.

I’ll keep up with the PWC and will leave the egg shells, as they aren’t harming anything and will give some kale a try.

Thanks and will keep you posted!!

 

Hi!
Nice to hear how things are going and, fingers crossed, they sound like they might be slightly on the way up.

It still seems like it was something to do with the lack of water changes (although how that was causing the drop in PH I'm not going to pretend to understand!) and maybe that does count as Old Tank Syndrome?

It would be great if everything was as simple as ' Now that I'm doing the right thing, all will be fine' but, I think that sometimes it just takes a while for things to catch up.

Don't worry too much if you can't see lots of babies, so long as the girls are still getting berried, they must be quite comfortable (and molting as they do that right before mating) hopefully enough babies should survive to get the colony back on track.

Are you still doing the daily water changes? You could probably cut back to every couple of days now, but, I'd still suggest to keep doing them as they do seem to be bringing the PH up. (don't forgot to always condition and warm the water first)

Since you mentioned the wafer treat, I've been meaning to ask about how often you feed and what you generally feed? I remember you said about baby powder food, but I'd suggest not keeping 'normal' food as a treat. I feed mine most nights and it's actually a really good way to keep an eye on them as, like you said with the wafer, it draws them out. A little bit of fresh vegetable is also good, Tjander mentioned kale, but spinach and courgette/zucchinI are also popular with mine.

Re the LFS water testing, I'm not sure where in the world you are, but generally all the 'big chain' pet shops like Pets at Home here in the UK offer this service where you take along a small bottle of your tank water and they test it for you. I believe that many small local fish shops also do this (or they might just want to sell you a new test kit!!) but the big chains definitely do it for free as a customer service. (you don't have to have bought your shrimps there!)

I think that's everything, have a check on how you've set your notifications if you're not always sure when someone has posted, there's lots of different options but with all the different time zones we're all in as well as work going on, I don't think that anyone worries when it's a while between posts!!

All the best,

Emma

 

HI Emma - I forgot to mention I feed them the baby shrimp powder 2 per week and give them an algae wafer once every 2 weeks. I thoughts things were turning, but I lost 3 more last night. I called 2 local pets shops but they only test water suing the API strips so I don't think they will help me.

 

HI again,

I'm not saying that it's the heart of the problem, but it could be a factor, I really don't think that's enough food.

Yes, they'll eat natural biofilm but, I think that when you see people say "I never feed my shrimp " it turns out that they're in a tank with fish and are actually eating all the small particles of food that the fish miss.

So I really would advise you to feed more, a little bit every day or every other day is absolutely fine. If they're not getting all those nutrients from food, it really could be contributing to the deaths of shrimps that look perfectly normal (i.e. no sign of disease, failed molt, parasites etc)

The Tetra Crusta Menu is a nice food, it has 4 different types of food in 1 container and are tiny little pellets so you don't need to mess around breaking them into smaller pieces. I'd definitely recommend buying and feeding that. A couple of those little pellets would be perfect every other day. HikarI Shrimp Cuisine is another good one, and it's even smaller, like little beads.

The other food that I'd highly recommend is Bacter ae by Glasgarten. Virtually all the shrimpkeepers on here use it. It creates biofilm and the shrimp absolutely love it!!

Now that you're getting on top of the water, if the shrimp are still dying, we'll continue to look for other solutions, I honestly think that increased food will help, especially the Bacter ae-and do try a bit of blanched vegetable.

Also, are you keeping up with the vacuuming? Remember that a sponge filter is great for biological filtration but won't essentially remove particles from the water like a 'normal' filter, so vacuuming regularly when you just have a sponge is absolutely essential or all the old bits of poo will just hang around fouling the water.

Re the test strips at the local stores, I know that they're generally looked down on and yes, they're not accurate, but, I've always said that they give a good general overview and you'd be able to get to see if they essentially match your results. For example if your ammonia reading is 0 and the strip says it's 0.5 I'd think, ok my reading is good but if the test strip showed 8, I'd question my reading. Does that make sense (I don't know if I explained it very well!) I'm trying to say, second readings, even on strips, help to see if your own readings are correct.

I've ended up writing another essay here (sorry!) but I hope that you find it useful. Remember, it won't be a sudden 'no more deaths', so don't get disheartened, keep up with the maintenance, try some more food/veg and get a test strip reading (you can pick up some food at the same time!!)

Keep us posted with an update when you can, we'll get there in the end,

All the best,

Emma

 

I have found the apI test strips to be as accurate as the liquid tests considering the slight color changes. I would encourage the OP to go ahead and let your lfs test you water. Really the only way your ph will fall is if there is not enough buffering in your water. Or something else is not being measured correctly.

 

Hi,
Yes, I agree, the test strips are a decent general guide and would definitely flag if there was something wrong with the liquid results.
What you're looking for is an overall match in the results, not necessarily using them to be super-accurate.
It's funny how everyone relies so much on the API liquid tests, yet looks down on the same companies test strips!
Emma

 

Agreed as I said the subtle difference in the color of the liquid test make them just as inaccurate iMO.

 

Hello all - I have an update. I had no dead shrimp for 3 days, at least not that I saw since the others do eat them. And the Ph. went up a bit more to 7.0 so that was all looking good. Then yesterday, I had 2 dead ones again. Someone did have babies though, as there are tiny micro shrimp swimming around and two more females are berried. I just don't know what to make of all this. I used to feed my shrimp every other day but was told and read online that was way too much. Perhaps I should go back to that regime? I'm also wondering if I need to cut back the PWC changes now. I just can't grasp what is going on - at least I have some new babies and will hopefully boost the population if that survive, the tank itself is so much cleaner without all of those snails. There are plenty of tiny baby snails, but I assume they won't make much waste and I will take them out when they are bigger. Lastly, I forgot that I used to have an Indian almond leaf in the tank. When that pack ran out I didn't re-order. Could that have caused an issue? Should I add them back? Thanks Emma for the food recommends - I will try them. With all going on here with the COVID19 I haven't been to a store to do an lfs test but will as soon as I can. I have been vacuuming regularly each week. I have to be so careful now with the tiny babies - can't afford to lose any!
Thanks all - hope everyone is healthy and safe!

 

Hi!
Well, despite those couple of unfortunate deaths, it really does sound as though things have turned a corner. I'm so pleased for you!

Whatever that chemical reaction that was lowering the ph of the long term water in the tank (i.e. when you were only doing those very infrequent water changes) seems to have been countered by the fresh water from your tap bringing it back up.

Yes, I'd definitely agree to cut back on the part water changes to what we all do (or certainly most of us!) and do 10-15% once a week. Keep up with the weekly vacuuming too, don't worry if you suck up the babies, just study the removed water really carefully (or turn the little bag inside out in some removed water if you got the Marina Gravel Vac) you can net them and pop them back in the tank, they'll be fine. I found 7 shrimp living in my external filter on Sunday, imagine what the current through that must be like, a little trip up a siphon won't do any harm!!

Re the food, I really don't agree with the idea of only feeding a couple of times a week, especially when there are babies. The thing is, we all know what works for us. Some advice out there is just not helpful, definitely don't feed too much each day, and a fasting day (aka too tired/I forgot!) is fine but in my experience, the shrimp benefit from having a varied, regular source of food. Do keep using the powdered regularly too, as the babies won't come out of hiding to eat pellets. Of all the ones that I mentioned, I'd definitely say prioritise the Bacter ae, they will love you for it! And the almond leaves, I'd suggest that you get more, I very much doubt it the lack of them caused any of the problems, but, I think I they're a great thing is have in the tank.

Now finally, the snails!! Babies or not, I say, get them out!! Honestly, I can't see any advantage to them, when I was eradicating mine (can't remember if I told the tale here of the 3 beautiful Ramshorns that rapidly turned my tank into a seething mass of snails...!) Anyway, literally, every time that I saw one on the glass, I'd stop what I was doing and get it out. It took weeks, but I finally did it. Its laborious, but, you'll get there in the end!

It's really nice to hear that things seem to be going better, as I said a few posts back, it's not always a straight line, but it honestly does seem that things are settling, I do hope so.

Re corona, yes, hope all is ok with you too, London is pretty quiet, which is very strange, but it's good that people are following the advice.

Please keep us updated when you have a chance, it's always nice to hear how things are going!

All the best,

Emma

 

Thank you Emma for all of the support and help – even if I end up with a dead tank, you’ve been amazing! I ordered the Bacter AE food and some more almond leaves. When researching the top reasons aquarium shrimp die, number three is always overfeeding so I guess I was worried about that. I’ll go to once a day because of the babies but maybe just cut the portion a bit. I haven’t ordered the new vacuum yet. It wasn’t available with Prime shipping in the US but I’ll keep an eye out for a price change. I have a method for if I suck up any babies - on Sunday, after vacuuming the tank, I spent 45 minutes getting the 7 babies I vacuumed back into the tank safely. I’ll cut the water changes to weekly as you suggested and hopefully all stays on the upswing.

Stay safe as well – cheers and will keep you posted!

 

HI again!
Just one very quick (I promise!) thing that I forgot to mention about the Bacter ae, everyone is in agreement that the recommended amount to use is WAY too much (I don't want you to run into more problems!)

For your tank, you'd probably need a tiny tiny pinch, about the amount the size of a couple of grains of sugar if that makes sense.
Have a search on here and you'll see lots of threads about it.

Keep your portions small and you won't overfeed, I think it's a bit like the difference between eating one cookie a day and eating a whole pack of them daily!☺
No need to thank me, if we've helped your colony, that's thanks enough!
All the best,
Emma

 

HI Emma - just a quick update. I had no dead shrimp for 4 days, then found 3 dead the next morning. I have at least 6 tiny, tiny babies swimming around and my berried females is about to burst. I had a question regarding the Bacter AE. I used a very small pinch like you suggested, however, the powder just floated on top of the water. Do I need to stir it up first? I tried that a few days later but the powder is not visible in the water and I can't see if they are eating any. When I use the baby shrimp powder, they instantly start picking through the sand looking for it. Any help on how to better use this food would be great - thanks!

 

HI again!

Just before getting on to the Bacter feeding (Yes, I've got some tips!) I'm just wondering if you've noticed any pattern in that 'few days=no deaths, then multiple deaths on the same day' because I remember that you had that before.

Is it related to the PWC days for example? Or towards the end of the week when the water is at its oldest? It's probably nothing, but I just wondered if there was some sort of weekly pattern.

Re the Bacter, lots of people do just drop the pinch in and it apparently does eventually sink. Most (and this is what I do) tend to pop a pinch in a little pot, I use a little plastic shot glass, then mix that up with a little tank water to make a kind of soup that you then pour into the tank. When I feed it to my otocinclis in a different tank, I pop it in a jug then use a turkey baster to get water from the tank, mix it up, then use the baster to 'shoot' it into different areas of the tank.

When you do it like this, you'll probably notice your shrimp start to actively graze straight away and certainly the next morning, they'll be all over the tank eating the biofilm that it creates.

Hope this helps!

Please keep in touch, it's great that there's berried females and babies and it does seem that the deaths are decreasing, when you think back to how things were, hopefully soon there'll be no more deaths (apart from old age) and your colony will build up again.

All the best,

Emma

 

I forgot how big your tank is but for my 10, I use 1/4 of the scoop take a glass of tank water out and mix it with the water. Then pour the water back in. I do this once a week and do not feed anything else that day.