Rcs Keep Dying In My 10 Gallon

So I have been struggling to keep rcs alive in my 10 gallon. I purposely set up up this tank for rcs but I’ve been losing atleast two shrimp a week.
These are parameters:
Temp 69-74 nighttime-daytime
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph 7.4
Gh 2
Kh 3
TDS 210
I have plenty of moss and live plants as well as hiding caves for them. I added a few chilI Rasboras this week but the rcs have been dying long before I added these guys in. Any ideas? Please any advise will help. I thought these shrimp were easier to breed but I have had no such luck.

 

Have you been adding anything to the water (ferts, etc)? How many shrimp do you have right now? The parameters don't look like something that would be killing them off 2 a week IMO.

 

I had the same problem, lost 15 shrimp in a bit over a week...I was advised to use RO water, not a death since, although yours doesn’t seem as bad as mine (parameters etc.)

 

This happened with my first batch as well. Bought 10 and lost 10 within 3 weeks. However found some babies after the last one died. I ended up modifying my water parameters. My KH was zero and my GH was off the charts (I had a bad test kit). My TDS was over 500. I raised my KH to 3 and my GH is now at about 4 and TDS is around 350 - 400. Bought about 40 RCS from a local breeder off of Craigslist about 5 weeks ago and haven't seen any deaths yet. I believe my water parameters were so far from the original batch, they couldn't handle it. Basically they would molt and die.

 

I believe your water could be a little on the soft side I like to keep my kH an gH a little higher with my RCS. I don't know the exact parameters now but I'm pretty sure its over 2 and 3.

 

I think recommended is KH-2, GH-6, TDS between 250-350. However, young shrimp will adapt much better than adults will. As long as you keep your parameters somewhat in check and pretty stable, you should be fine.

 

This happened with my first batch as well. Bought 10 and lost 10 within 3 weeks. However found some babies after the last one died. I ended up modifying my water parameters. My KH was zero and my GH was off the charts (I had a bad test kit). My TDS was over 500. I raised my KH to 3 and my GH is now at about 4 and TDS is around 350 - 400. Bought about 40 RCS from a local breeder off of Craigslist about 5 weeks ago and haven't seen any deaths yet. I believe my water parameters were so far from the original batch, they couldn't handle it. Basically they would molt and die.

How did you raise your gh and kh?

 

I had the same problem, lost 15 shrimp in a bit over a week...I was advised to use RO water, not a death since, although yours doesn’t seem as bad as mine (parameters etc.)

I use RO water and a little bit of dechlorinayed tap to remineralize to keep it between 210-230 tds. Should I increase tap water to raise tds?

 

How did you raise your gh and kh?

It was my own fault. I had a bad test kit for KH\GH and I thought I was way high. So, I was using RO water when my water was already pretty soft. Once I figured out my test kit was bad and my water was way too soft, I returned to using tap water to raise my KH\GH (tap is KH -3 and GH - 8).

 

Have you been adding anything to the water (ferts, etc)? How many shrimp do you have right now? The parameters don't look like something that would be killing them off 2 a week IMO.

I don’t add any ferts because my substrate is doing a pretty good job on ya own. I started with 12 lost 5 added 10 lost some more and so on resulting in only 4 left . I have a sponge filter and a HOB filter as well

 

I use RO water and a little bit of dechlorinayed tap to remineralize to keep it between 210-230 tds. Should I increase tap water to raise tds?

Not sure, I don’t have a tds tester and only strips for my gh and kh, I know I need to order, I just plan to do 30% wc with ro weekly to the original tap water I used, my test strips already lowered everything...I’m new to this too

 

Update: I woke up to another dead shrimp I’m not sure what I should be doing but I think I am going to try raising my tds and see if that makes a difference on the remaining fish.

 

Hey, your water is really soft for rcs. It can work but the probability is not in your favor. I would try out Bees, they like it soft.

 

Hey, your water is really soft for rcs. It can work but the probability is not in your favor. I would try out Bees, they like it soft.

Even with my high ph? I thought bees needed a lower tds?

 

Hey, it might be that others have completely other experiences with this but I had several tribes crystals with ph 7.5, kh 4 and gh 8. After moving into a new town with same ph but gh 12, kh 8 my tribes died on me. So sad.

But now I have BabaultI and RCS and that's fine too.
That being sad, Bees are in general more fragile, there is never a guarantee. Tribes from big markets could be bred in ph 6 and kh 0, the chances to breed them at home are slI'm in such a case.

If you find a way to harden your water like suggested in the thread it should be fine too.

Greetings