Ghost Shrimps Don't Like My Tank.

[cainechow]

Tank stats:

• 10 gallon w/3 gallon sump
  
• Full HC carpet, Water sprite background (13 week dsm)
  
• PPS fert program
  
• 24-25.5 C
  
• weekly-ish 20% WC using RO/Tap water combo
  
• 8 ghost shrimp and dwindling
  
• 10 emerald eye rasboras
  
• Water tests show very low to no nitrates, nitrites, ammonia when tested by the store
  

I'm having a bit of a hard time with the ghost shrimp I got from Petland. My ghost shrimps don;t seem to want to come out to play even during feeding time. Mostly they sit around. The ones at the store are very active.

They were doing well when I first got them and it was just the plants and the shrimp. I added 6 Emerald Eye Rasboras a week later. After 2 weeks I started getting maybe 2 shrimp deaths per week and then 4 weeks later I had 6 of them die within a couple of days. I'm guessing the big death had to do with my CO2 dropping out causing a big PH shift then after I got my CO2 going again, another big PH shift. But even then, the slow drop rate has me messed up. I'd like to get everything more stable before switching up for more 'spensiver shrimps. The rasboras are doing just fine.

Ideas? Comments? I'll take anything

Thanks

[SuperGuppyGirl]

Hows the emerald eyes with them? I have 9 of them and mine can be little devils when they want, they like to bump my mystery snail off the wall of the aquarium

[cainechow]

The emerald eyes don't seem to have issues with the shrimps. They'll sometimes compete for food at the bottom of the tank, which I find weird because supposedly they are middle/top dwellers, but in general they seem to leave the ghosties alone. I assumed that there would be lots of places for the ghosties to hide if they were feeling harassed.

The picture below is early on. The sprite now reaches the surface so there is a lot of cover. One of the females is berried with eggs under her. I'm hoping she'll make it so I'm looking for any tips anyone can toss my way.

[jvision]

Is there a reason why you're using RO? I'm not seeing a reason for it, and the reduced hardness may (big maybe) be what's hurting your shrimp.

I'm from the school of KISS - keep it stupidly simple. The only time I use RO is if I'm trying to get some difficult fish to breed, and don't bother messing with the water the rest of the time - even my 'soft water' fish get tap water most of the time.

[cainechow]

I was using RO because I was dealing with brown diatoms and trying to make them go away faster. Going tap will help keep the PH buffers up too and reduce PH swings from CO2.... I'm gonna give it a go. Do you treat or age your tap water?

[jvision]

I just add Prime

[jcgd]

The ph swings from co2 wont really be reduces. Straight RO or really low kh can increase the risk of ph crashes but as far as your co2 concentration to ph drop relationship - it's pretty linear.

1 drop in ph due to co2 = 10x the co2 concentration (or pretty close)

That's why we usually aim for 1ph drop. Water usually has 2-3ppm when well airated so if you drop the ph by 1.0 you will have 20-30ppm.

So:

Tank one has ph of 7.8 and 5dkh. You drop the ph to 6.8 with co2 and the co2 level will be about 20-30ppm.

Tank two had ph of 7.2 and 1.5dkh. You drop the ph to 6.2 and co2 level will be about 20-30ppm.

Tank three has ph of 6.6 an 0dkh. This tank is just plain risky as it has no buffer ability and the ph can easily crash.

Not sure why the shrimp are dying. Maybe the tank is overstocked... maybe they don't have enough food, maybe they are molting and not making it. Not really sure what to tell you. No minerals in the water would be my best bet assuming you haven't been reconstituting the water and have been using straight RO.

Hope this helps.

[cainechow]

PH and CO2 wise, my drop checker dropped right into blue from green for about 2 days and then when I fixed my CO2 it was back into green again. So there was a bit of a swing there. I'm going to try going tap for a while since the brown diatoms are done their thing. I bet Petland is happy that I have you guys so that I won't be exercising their do-over policy so much. Not that they haven't factored that in already.

Would it be too shocking for the livestock if I do say daily 20% water changes?

[Jayba]

I like Justin's suggestion about reconstituting the water. Pure RO water has zero hardness. Shrimp need some hardness in order to maintain shells, moulting etc.

I would mix in 30-50% tap water, just to keep some minerals in the water. It also will reduce PH swings. Or add a buffer to the RO water.

Best of luck.

[cainechow]

I did a smallish water change with tap water yesterday and the shrimps seem to be doing better already. Let's see if they continue to respond positively.

[cainechow]

The ghosties seems to have gotten better after a few water changes and a sump clean but were still quite sluggish and mostly sitting around. Today after my HC trim, I dropped a bag of Purigen in my sump for some polishing. I also pulled out a dead shrimp that must have been hiding among the roots of one of my water sprite for something like a week. Surprisingly, the shrimps have been very active running around scavenging and digging up food missed by the fish. I wish I hadn't changed so many things all at once today so that I could know what made the big difference for the shrimp.