20 Gallon Tank Why can’t I keep neocaridinas alive?

[hazyvonne]

I have an established 20g tank that’s about a year old. As far as fish are concerned I have 3 otos and 15 neon tetras in there. It’s quite heavily planted, the substrate is sand but most of the ground is covered in moss. About 9 months ago I put 15 blue dream/velvet shrimp in there. Over the first couple of months, I lost all but 3. Those 3 seemed to be doing great though. They grew very big and didn’t seem to have any issues (never any babies though - but I can’t tell the gender). So I figured maybe whatever was wrong before is now gone since they’re doing so well. So I went to my LFS and bought 5 cherry shrimp. Within 48 hours of adding the cherry shrimp my 3 blue shrimp died (why?!?). Since then 2 of the cherry shrimp have passed. The other 3 are still fine. I have no idea why this is happening. The only fertilizers I use are Flourish root tabs and aquarium coop Easy Green which are both shrimp safe. I do weekly water changes of about 20%. Here are my parameters:

Ammonia = 0, Nitrites = 0, Nitrates = 5-10ppm, Temperature = 75F, PH = ~7, GH = 70-90ppm, KH = ~70ppm (~4 dkH)

 

[JustAFishServant]

Woah...that's weird. I presume your tank is fully established?

Maybe the fish are attacking them? I've heard of neons doing such things.

To my knowledge, females usually live longer and are MUCH bigger and more colorful than male neocaridina. Maybe you bought a ton of males and they were already old??

 

[86 ssinit]

No idea why these last 3 died. Probably stress of the new shrimp. Shrimp are tough to get started. It took me 21 shrimp till they started producing shrimplets. I added 7 at a time every 2 weeks. Probably had 10 left when the first females got berried. Next any fish in the tank will cause stress. You can add fish once the colony has started and you’ve got about 50 shrimp. Rule of thumb with fish is if it fits in their mouth they will eat shrimp.

 

[StarGirl]

Are the squiggles "less than" ? If it is you have very soft water. Maybe Caridina shrimp may suit your water better.

 

[hazyvonne]

Thanks, everybody, for your replies! I was told elsewhere that I might have messed up by not drip-acclimating them to the tank. I just floated the bag and slowly kept adding more tank water over the next couple of hours. That might have caused the initial batch of them to die (as well as the newest ones). That, of course, still does not explain why my established 3 blue ones suddenly died (unless it was the stress of new shrimp added, as was suggested here). I won't add any more shrimp for now - clearly, something is not right and I don't want the poor things to suffer until I figure it out.

 

[86 ssinit]

I acclimated mine the same way you did. I’ve had shrimp for about 5 yrs now. They’ve become very popular and are being bred in many different water conditions. So they are adapting. Don’t think your acclimation is the problem. I think your main problem is the neon tetras. Causing too much stress for the shrimp. Maybe start a 5g shrimp tank. Once established and you have a breeding colony you can add the culls to the 20g.

 

[MasterPython]

If you want to try again see if a local person is selling rather than a pet store. That way you know they will breed in your tap water.

 

[AP1]

Did you notice how the initial shrimp died? If we could identify this as a molting problem then the answer is probably soft water and you might be better off going for Caridinia after perhaps softening water.

 

[Cherryshrimp420]

PH is a bit low. You'll want to find neos grown in pH 7 water. Usually from caridina breeders.

Neos from hard alkaline waters will have a hard time in your tank

 

[SterSter]

After drip acclimating you could try reducing the amount of water changed in your tank. Shrimp like stability, so the sudden water parameter and temperature of many large frequent water changes can cause molting.

If the shrimp aren't ready to molt a white ring will appear around their carapace and they will eventually die. That's how it was for me and my shrimp

My thoughts are that your 3 blue shrimp died because of a sudden change in water parameters after adding the cherries. If you did a water change after adding the cherries it would be especially stressful for them. The cherries would have succumbed for the same reason.

There could be other factors to why your shrimp died such as age, improper nutrients, stress, unstable/improper water conditions, or temperatures. Often it is a combination of factors rather than one factor that lead to death.

I agree with your plan to drip acclimate. Drip acclimation gives the shrimp more of a chance to get used to the new water parameters-increasing the likelihood that they survive long term in your tank.

If you ever wish to keep Neos again make sure that after drip acclimating to give them plenty of nutrient foods and vegetables. Let that moss in your tank grow out, and if you wish squeeze an old filter sponge in the tank to spread biofilm everywhere for them every so often for them and their babies to eat.

Hope this was some help and I wish you luck in your shrimp journey!

 

[OuchWorm]

I have an established 20g tank that’s about a year old. As far as fish are concerned I have 3 otos and 15 neon tetras in there. It’s quite heavily planted, the substrate is sand but most of the ground is covered in moss. About 9 months ago I put 15 blue dream/velvet shrimp in there. Over the first couple of months, I lost all but 3. Those 3 seemed to be doing great though. They grew very big and didn’t seem to have any issues (never any babies though - but I can’t tell the gender). So I figured maybe whatever was wrong before is now gone since they’re doing so well. So I went to my LFS and bought 5 cherry shrimp. Within 48 hours of adding the cherry shrimp my 3 blue shrimp died (why?!?). Since then 2 of the cherry shrimp have passed. The other 3 are still fine. I have no idea why this is happening. The only fertilizers I use are Flourish root tabs and aquarium coop Easy Green which are both shrimp safe. I do weekly water changes of about 20%. Here are my parameters:

Ammonia = 0, Nitrites = 0, Nitrates = 5-10ppm, Temperature = 75F, PH = ~7, GH = 70-90ppm, KH = ~70ppm (~4 dkH)

Did you use a shrimp-specific water conditioner? There might be copper in your water that kills the shrimp off.
Otherwise, it could be softness. I recommend adding some cuttlebone into the water! The weekly water changes might also be stressing the shrimp out, causing them to molt too often.
However, I agree with the other people that the fish might be your biggest problem! Fish + stress