Shrimp Habitat

[Hippoherder]

I had 6 cherry shrimp in a new 8 gallon shrimp habitat by themselves for about a week. The tank had been previously cycled for a couple of weeks by guppies. I introduced 9 Crystal Red Shrimp and 6 Rianbow shrimp. This evening I watched all the cherries and all but 2 of the Rainbows drop dead. I removed all the Crystals and surviving Rainbow shrimp to another tank. Tested the wated 0ppm nitrate and 0 ammonia. Temp has been a consistent 23.

What the what??? Any insights?

Thanks

[corrosionjerry]

Shrimp need a fully cycled tank.... are there any plants in your tank .... if not plant it with a bunch of cheap stem plants and you should be fine. The temperature is a bit on the high side for shrimp

[Wingin' It]

Shrimp are super easy to kill...Some people have the touch, some people have done all the trial and error, some people are just freakin' lucky...I for one have been to the dark side on the shrimp boat...they always die on me, from now on i'll save my money for Shrimp at Red Lobster

[BettaFishMommy]

shrimp definitely need an established tank, not one that is relatively new/recently set up.

i've not had the best luck with shrimp either, mostly due to them becoming snacks for my fish but the last lone male cherry is doing pretty good since i moved him over to the betta's 2.5 gallon. might have to get some more for this tank

Edited December 31, 2010 by BettaFishMommy

[Vallisneria]

Shrimp are definitely delicate, especially the fancier varieties like CRS. They need a really established stable tank and even then they can die for no reason.

I've personally found cherry shrimp to be quite hardy though. I've kept them in a variety of tanks from unheated, no filter, super dirty with barely any water changes and even a tank I tore down but left a bit of water and the gravel 2 weeks later some shrimp were still alive in there. The only thing I've noticed that really kills mine quickly is if there is chlorine/chloramine in the water.

But then there is the fancy shrimp like CRS. I can breed cherries/green like no bodies business but I can't keep a CRS to save my life. I've killed hundreds of dollars worth as I keep trying. Another thing that kills CRS is the water parameters. Unlike cherries they dont' do to well in our hard water. So be aware of the water parameters of the tank they are coming out of. The seller might have kept them in a lower ph and quickly putting them into calgary water will kill them.

Keep trying. Sometimes keeping shrimp is hit or miss.

[Hippoherder]

One odd thing that happened after I introduced the CRS and Rainbows...the Cherry shrimp all went as high up on the tank as they could go - right at the waterline. None of the other shrimp did. I don't know what to think of the shrimp habitat as it doesn't have any mechanical agitation to the water. it has an internal filter that gently moves the water but the water generally looks static. I've never had a tank that didn't have some surface agitation of the water.

The 29 gallon tank that now have the shrimp along with a bunch of guppies, snails and one yoyou loach (and overgrown with plants) was started uncycled with unconditioned tap water and 4 cherry shrimp. They seemed to do ok in that, although the temp was a bit lower 70F.

Since I have gotten back into the hobby I have met a lot of resistance to using carbon in my filtration. I'm not sure why. I thought it kept the water quite clean. My water quality was good this go around but do you think the shrimp will be ok with carbon in the filtration?

[jvision]

You can try carbon, just make sure you change it regularly - if you're just using a small amount, I'd replace it every week. When carbon is 'full' it leaches the crud back into the water - that's the big reason why I don't use carbon. I do very little filter maintenance, so I want to keep it as simple as possible.

[corrosionjerry]

If I were you I would just use a sponge filter and keep it real simple / with a few guppies and shrimp and lots of plants it should be plenty good.

[gBOYsc2]

Is it possible the shrimp could have been exposed to some copper? Shrimp are very sensitive to copper and it will kill them. Did you by chance medicate the tank with something containing copper? Perhaps an ich med?

[Hippoherder]

Is it possible the shrimp could have been exposed to some copper? Shrimp are very sensitive to copper and it will kill them. Did you by chance medicate the tank with something containing copper? Perhaps an ich med?

No medication, only the introduction of the new shrimp. Everything that wasn't a CRS took a beating in less than 24 hours after that.

[Ishkabod]

From everything i have read even the smallest amounts of copper can be enough to kill the shrimp so unless you know for 100% that nothing in your tank or in your water supply is being contaminated or ever has been contaminated with copper then your best bet is to buy a test kit. It may be a bit pricy to get a really really good one but if you spend the money and find copper then you might be able to pin down the source and stop further contamination rather than spend allot of money on new expensive shrimp that keep on dieing.

One thing you mentioned is the shrimp were at the top of the tank from the start and that the filter you have has very little surface agitation. The only thing that comes to mind is there isn't enough air in the water to suppor the extra bio load and the less hardy shirimp needed more and so they suffocated. It's a possibility. Check to see how energetic the shrimp in the tank are currently. Reading about shrimp one person states that most shrimp breeders use sponge filters which cause allot of surface aggitation but just a small amount of in tank flow so that the shrimp can actually move around without struggle.

In one of my tanks to increase ovygen without increaseing flow i tilted the spray bar at the top of the tank up and had it hit the glass lid and drip down.

Good luck

L

[Hippoherder]

From everything i have read even the smallest amounts of copper can be enough to kill the shrimp so unless you know for 100% that nothing in your tank or in your water supply is being contaminated or ever has been contaminated with copper then your best bet is to buy a test kit. It may be a bit pricy to get a really really good one but if you spend the money and find copper then you might be able to pin down the source and stop further contamination rather than spend allot of money on new expensive shrimp that keep on dieing.

One thing you mentioned is the shrimp were at the top of the tank from the start and that the filter you have has very little surface agitation. The only thing that comes to mind is there isn't enough air in the water to suppor the extra bio load and the less hardy shirimp needed more and so they suffocated. It's a possibility. Check to see how energetic the shrimp in the tank are currently. Reading about shrimp one person states that most shrimp breeders use sponge filters which cause allot of surface aggitation but just a small amount of in tank flow so that the shrimp can actually move around without struggle.

In one of my tanks to increase ovygen without increaseing flow i tilted the spray bar at the top of the tank up and had it hit the glass lid and drip down.

Good luck

L

I am pretty sure copper isn't the issue but it does make good sense to get the kit and check. I thought it might be the O2 levels but I thought the requirements for shrimp were ridiculously low (people have 100's of them in a plain 10 gallon tank). The guy at the pet store told me 150 could easily be in this tank, but that doesn't make sense to me without better airation. At the moment I have 6 gupies in there and they are doing fine. In my 29 gallon tank, which is over planted and has a biowheel filter the shrimp swim around the tank like fish. They are very active.Oh well, live and learn.

Thanks for all the input everyone

[Hippoherder]

I dismantled the nano shrimp habitat today. I am chalking it up to a live-and-learn experience. Anyways, I found 2 rainbow shrimp that managed to survive that were hiding themselves pretty well. After getting a better understanding about cycling a tank I don't think there was any chance it was fully cycled. Aside from that it looks like it was mostly my ignorance of the setup, which was greatly influenced by the salesperson I was getting information from. I'm sure someone must have good luck with it but in hindsight -(a little wiser and a little poorer.) the nano just seems like a bad idea, especially at the price point.

[Ishkabod]

Live and learn Basicly i follow one rule of thumb and that is double check whatever a sales person tells you. There are those that really know their stuff and those that are there just for the job and have picked up bits and pieces of information along the way and some of them supplement that information with conjectiure and sometimes the information they base that on is completly wrong but they know how to throw a good sales pitch and sound like they know what they are doing.

If you want I'd start again. Plant some plants for safety. Keep the Cherries in the tank after a cycle and check your parameters before you add anything else. If there is a hint of ammonia or Nitrite then don't chance it. Double dose with stability and keep dechlorinating with prime.

Good Luck

L

[nanmer]

I thought I would put my 2 cents worth ... actually it was a lesson that cost me a lot more! I had a healthy tank of a ton of Endlers and approx. 50 Cherry shrimp. I did a water change and watched the Endlers die off one by one, next was the Cherry shrimp. All died in about half an hour. Hubby, who has no idea about fish stuff discovered the cause, the water conditioner had gone rancid. I learned to always smell the conditioner before I use it. Not sure if this was the problem with your Cherry shrimp?