How To Keep Crystal Red Shrimp Right?

[skyamigo]

Hi, I bought Crystal Red Shrimp from local about two month ago. Everything was fine the first month. but for pass month they start to die one by one slowly. about one die in 2-3 day (so I lost about 10 in pass month). can any one tell me what's wrong??

Edited April 1, 2011 by skyamigo

[jcgd]

Can you give us any more info? Tank size, temp, ph, gh, kh, water change schedule, food, etc. It's hard to just guess.

[Ron]

Can you give us any more info? Tank size, temp, ph, gh, kh, water change schedule, food, etc. It's hard to just guess.

Agreed definitely need your water parameters first. I would also double check the water parameters of the individual you got the shrimp from.

[AvianAquatics]

Thats why I hate them lol, still pretty shrimps though.

We do need more information on the shrimps like jcgd said. Also if you are suspecting disease, visit:

http://www.shrimpnow.com/content.php/134-Shrimp-Diseases-Bacterial-Infection

It is also beneficial to visit http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/forum.php as this is a shrimp forum, you might get more help

[Caprichoso]

My Crystal Red experience....

I got my 6 Crystal Red's from Big Al's a few months ago. Initially, they were in my established 30g low tech with tetras, corydoras, cherry shrimp and amano shrimp. Filter was AquaClear 150 and I use 2 sponge inserts and 1 layer of bio rings. There was also an airstone. I had a gravel bottom, malaysian drift woods and different plants and mosses(not a planted tank by any means but a few). I do 45-50% water changes every week with de-chlor tap water and the shrimp were eating tetramin sinking pellets and any flake food that fell to the bottom. The tank temperature at that time was 79F and I keep lights on for about 10 hours. . No pH adjustments, no other special considerations.

I have moved them over to their own 5g tank a couple of weeks ago. The filter is just the small one that came with the tank. It has some measly looking biomedia which I plan to ramp up a bit with some bio rings and I also added a small sponge filter. I bought the Fluval black shrimp substrate, put in a few mosses, some ground cover, 1 plant and some drift wood. I also lowered the tank temp to 76F. I also changed their diet to Fluval shrimp pellets, Critter Crumbs and blanched zucchini. I feed them 2x per day in small amounts. So far they seem happy but initially, I was worried about the environment change and new substrate. This is a brand new set up. I did not use any biological filter or water or anything from the other tank. I just added Prime for de-chlorinator and Stability bacteria starter for 7 days.

Yes, the tank was uncycledwhen I added the shrimp. Don't rage on me, please....Apparently, with this special substrate, you don't need to cycle the tank. I'm still doing water testing just to make sure of coarse.

Everything is looking great so far. I just wanted to share this info to show what I'm doing and maybe it can help someone out. I think the main thing with these shrimp is that they like really clean water, temp obviously isn't as important and they eat everything I give them. I decided to get a bit more finicky with their food and temperature because I'm hoping to breed them. I was looking at them really closely the other day and I think they are all FEMALES, d-oh! LOL, well I guess I'll just have buy some more and wait and see what happens. As far as keeping them, they have been comparable to my amano and cherry shrimp as far as requirements goes.

Good luck fellow shrimpers!

Edited April 2, 2011 by Caprichoso

[BigWater]

My Crystal Red experience....

I got my 6 Crystal Red's from Big Al's a few months ago. Initially, they were in my established 30g low tech with tetras, corydoras, cherry shrimp and amano shrimp. Filter was AquaClear 150 and I use 2 sponge inserts and 1 layer of bio rings. There was also an airstone. I had a gravel bottom, malaysian drift woods and different plants and mosses(not a planted tank by any means but a few). I do 45-50% water changes every week with de-chlor tap water and the shrimp were eating tetramin sinking pellets and any flake food that fell to the bottom. The tank temperature at that time was 79F and I keep lights on for about 10 hours. . No pH adjustments, no other special considerations.

I have moved them over to their own 5g tank a couple of weeks ago. The filter is just the small one that came with the tank. It has some measly looking biomedia which I plan to ramp up a bit with some bio rings and I also added a small sponge filter. I bought the Fluval black shrimp substrate, put in a few mosses, some ground cover, 1 plant and some drift wood. I also lowered the tank temp to 76F. I also changed their diet to Fluval shrimp pellets, Critter Crumbs and blanched zucchini. I feed them 2x per day in small amounts. So far they seem happy but initially, I was worried about the environment change and new substrate. This is a brand new set up. I did not use any biological filter or water or anything from the other tank. I just added Prime for de-chlorinator and Stability bacteria starter for 7 days.

Yes, the tank was uncycledwhen I added the shrimp. Don't rage on me, please....Apparently, with this special substrate, you don't need to cycle the tank. I'm still doing water testing just to make sure of coarse.

Everything is looking great so far. I just wanted to share this info to show what I'm doing and maybe it can help someone out. I think the main thing with these shrimp is that they like really clean water, temp obviously isn't as important and they eat everything I give them. I decided to get a bit more finicky with their food and temperature because I'm hoping to breed them. I was looking at them really closely the other day and I think they are all FEMALES, d-oh! LOL, well I guess I'll just have buy some more and wait and see what happens. As far as keeping them, they have been comparable to my amano and cherry shrimp as far as requirements goes.

Good luck fellow shrimpers!

Wow, thats a lot of great information, filtration filtration filtration. You have to remember these little guys originally live in streams in Japan, and asia. CRS need a little lower temps around 23- 25C to happy, although you can go cooler. There is tons of information on the net just start surfing and reading.:thumbs:

[ShrimpsRUS]

My Crystal Red experience....

I got my 6 Crystal Red's from Big Al's a few months ago. Initially, they were in my established 30g low tech with tetras, corydoras, cherry shrimp and amano shrimp. Filter was AquaClear 150 and I use 2 sponge inserts and 1 layer of bio rings. There was also an airstone. I had a gravel bottom, malaysian drift woods and different plants and mosses(not a planted tank by any means but a few). I do 45-50% water changes every week with de-chlor tap water and the shrimp were eating tetramin sinking pellets and any flake food that fell to the bottom. The tank temperature at that time was 79F and I keep lights on for about 10 hours. . No pH adjustments, no other special considerations.

I have moved them over to their own 5g tank a couple of weeks ago. The filter is just the small one that came with the tank. It has some measly looking biomedia which I plan to ramp up a bit with some bio rings and I also added a small sponge filter. I bought the Fluval black shrimp substrate, put in a few mosses, some ground cover, 1 plant and some drift wood. I also lowered the tank temp to 76F. I also changed their diet to Fluval shrimp pellets, Critter Crumbs and blanched zucchini. I feed them 2x per day in small amounts. So far they seem happy but initially, I was worried about the environment change and new substrate. This is a brand new set up. I did not use any biological filter or water or anything from the other tank. I just added Prime for de-chlorinator and Stability bacteria starter for 7 days.

Yes, the tank was uncycledwhen I added the shrimp. Don't rage on me, please....Apparently, with this special substrate, you don't need to cycle the tank. I'm still doing water testing just to make sure of coarse.

Everything is looking great so far. I just wanted to share this info to show what I'm doing and maybe it can help someone out. I think the main thing with these shrimp is that they like really clean water, temp obviously isn't as important and they eat everything I give them. I decided to get a bit more finicky with their food and temperature because I'm hoping to breed them. I was looking at them really closely the other day and I think they are all FEMALES, d-oh! LOL, well I guess I'll just have buy some more and wait and see what happens. As far as keeping them, they have been comparable to my amano and cherry shrimp as far as requirements goes.

Good luck fellow shrimpers!

Wow, thats a lot of great information, filtration filtration filtration. You have to remember these little guys originally live in streams in Japan, and asia. CRS need a little lower temps around 23- 25C to happy, although you can go cooler. There is tons of information on the net just start surfing and reading.:thumbs:

Im going to jump in here with something....I have had BAD experience with shrimps and Bettas using PRIME! Killed all of my Bettas in 2 days, when I used it for their tanks.

I also know others that have had die offs and have been using Prime...don't know what it does, but something the shrimps don't like.

I only use Amquel+ for my water topups, and I don't change my water unless I detect ammonia in it (which I have never had happen) I keep duckweed floating on the top for the nitrates/nitrites and use Fluval Stratum soil too. I found however that the PH does go back up over 7 after a few months with this soil....so might want to check your PH. CRS are very susceptible to PH swings and they also don't like very warm water....where they come from the streams can be very cold.

You are also feeding them WAY TOO MUCH! They don't need to eat that often...I feed once a day every other day, but I alternate my food...Hikari Shrimp or Crab Cuisine, Mosura Bio Plus or Gravidas, Special food, Hikara algae wafers, and even an Oak or Katappa leaf.

My tanks all have babies and berried females in them. Could be the shrimps you purchased were already getting old (they only live about (12-18 months) so could have been on the far end of that range. Just some thoughts.

[ckmullin]

Upon researching CRS with the almighty google...I've noticed a trend. More people are saying they are having a problem with prime and dieoffs with their CRS. Dunno why...neither did any of those other posters but an interesting tidbit of info I think.