The Planted Tank Forum banner

Fire Reds Trouble

3K views 27 replies 7 participants last post by  nvladik 
#1 ·
Evening all. Need some here, as my fire reds are dying suspiciously. A few days ago found one female dead, followed by a male next day. Two days (today) dead berried female. I am not sure what's going on, as there's plenty of algae in the tank to munch on and water params seems fine. Water tested with API test kit.

PH - 6.8
Amonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - ~30ppm
KH - 4
GH - 4
TDS - 156

Temp is at 72.

Help, thoughts, ideas appreciated.
 
#4 ·
you are probably having failed molts. You need to get that TDS to 200+ GH to 5-6 and get your KH down 0-2 max Also shrimp do not like nitrates, so do some small water changers until that is gone. You could bump your PH up a little too.
 
#5 ·
early warning signs are the nitrates spiking.

are there snails in the tank?

how is the tank filtered?

running an airstone?

have you dosed calcium in the last 30 days?

what are the foods being fed? frequency and size of feedings?

any snails in the tank?

any molts seen in the last month?

Amanos or fish or any other tank mates in the tank?

how long have you had these guys in the tank?

just so you know, i use straight NYC tap + Prime and about 16 drips of fluval shrimp supplement or 19 drips of shirakura ca+. I dose borneo wild Vita, shield and stout weekly....
 
#8 ·
Snails - yes, 3 decent size nerites.

Filter is eheim 2076 with original media.

No air stone - lots of water agitation, I mean lots, noisy

I have not dosed Calcium, will look into that actually.

For food, I've been adding Indian Almond Leads (otos love them more), barley pellets (2-3 twice a week), Hikari Algae Wafers for otos that shrimp love, and Shirakura algae vafers for shrimp that otos love. I was adding 1-2 wafers twice a weel but slowed down recently as they are not eating it all.

No other tank mates, 3 netires, 5 otos, 3 CPD's. No other shrimp.

They've been int he tank for about 5-6 weeks. Issues only started a week and a half ago, after I added nerites, could that be it?
 
#9 ·
I should also mention I haven't been chancing that much water. Inly did 1 25% water change per month, but I am adding about a gallon of water daily as it's a rimless 75G, with lots of agitation, so evaporation is an issue.

I see molts daily. Some days looks like the entire population molted, like a dozen at the same time.

Thanks guys for all the feedback.

And there's one more death this morning.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Should also mention I re-verified nitrates reading with a brand new test kit - same thing, less then 40, even closer to 20ppm.

I am also dosing CSM+B and KSO4 (i believe it's KSO4) at about 1/3 of Tom's EI guide once a week. Could it be the CU in CSM+B that's causing the problems?
 
#21 ·
So some good news this morning. I raised GH and temp by 2 degrees yesterday and no new deaths. So thanks everyone for ideas.

Have another question I need help with. One of the cherries has a very visible white line where the shells connect, is this normal? Crappy iPhone pic, but the vertical line is visible.

 
#22 ·
Its a sign that he is molting soon. best to add some calcium asap to ease transition out of the old shell. also ease up on the dosing until the mystery deaths stop... do you dose anything specifically for the shrimp? they need supplements to stay healthy and colorful. trouble happens when they cant source what they need from the environment or foods .
 
#27 ·
So far, I've been very disappointed with my Fire Reds.
I spoke to you regarding them... And you didn't listen.

Morning all. I have two more deaths in the tank, looks like 100% confirmed as molting issue as I saw one female trying to molt for an hour with no success. Even tried to help by giving here something more solid to grab on to.

At this point GH was upped, I added a small piece or coral for calcium. More calcium or is there anything else I should try?
calcium montmorillonite. If you can pickup in little neck, I'll give you a bag to save your shrimp. We can talk shrimp too.
 
#26 ·
Morning all. I have two more deaths in the tank, looks like 100% confirmed as molting issue as I saw one female trying to molt for an hour with no success. Even tried to help by giving here something more solid to grab on to.

At this point GH was upped, I added a small piece or coral for calcium. More calcium or is there anything else I should try?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top