Hey guys, recently I got a shipment of 46 (40 regular order) of these shrimps. I have found 5 deaths already and tested my paramters. 0 nitrates, ammonia, and nitrites alone with a 6.6 ph. I got them shipped to me on Thursday which was 3ish days ago and all the shrimps are big adult sized but no molting issue. Can someone explain to me how or why they are dying?
Yup drip acclimation and everything, how much of a die off do I expect to have. they were priority shipped over the course of a day via usps. bag was leaking. and do you think I need an airstone? I dose Co2 Excel daily
I vote for the fact these are adult shrimps. They are way more difficult to accept changes .
My shrimps were all juveniles when they were shipped to me. Even with USPS Express, it usually take 12 days for the parcel to arrive. No DOA, even though I have some loss in the week following, but very few...
I'd quit adding the Excel. I received a dozen adult fire red cherry shrimp shipped overnight about 5 weeks ago. After a drip acclimation they adjusted well. I had 2 berried shrimp within a week and two more a week later. I've now got dozens of shrimplets. I had stopped dosing Excel before adding the shrimp since I'd read that lots of folks seemed to have trouble with it. After a few weeks I tried reintroducing the Excel slowly since there were also lots of people who said they used it without a problem. After about 4 days of a 1/2 dose of Excel I had my first death. I stopped the Excel again and have had no deaths since. Not conclusive evidence for sure but it was enough to convince me that my plants would just have to do without the Excel.
Maybe, USPS are rough with packages and I have still berried females but just want to stop the deaths if it's on my fault . Wish for the colony to start as they are a very nice addition to the tank I have
I'd quit adding the Excel. I received a dozen adult fire red cherry shrimp shipped overnight about 5 weeks ago. After a drip acclimation they adjusted well. I had 2 berried shrimp within a week and two more a week later. I've now got dozens of shrimplets. I had stopped dosing Excel before adding the shrimp since I'd read that lots of folks seemed to have trouble with it. After a few weeks I tried reintroducing the Excel slowly since there were also lots of people who said they used it without a problem. After about 4 days of a 1/2 dose of Excel I had my first death. I stopped the Excel again and have had no deaths since. Not conclusive evidence for sure but it was enough to convince me that my plants would just have to do without the Excel.
Can't say as I've never tried just dumping them in. Drip acclimation has always worked well for me. I usually test the PH of the shipping water before I start and add about 2 drops per second, removing a bit of water periodically, until the PH matches what's in my tank. Not that the PH is all that important but it's just an easy thing to test and indicates to me that the shrimp are now in water that is a close match with the tank. Usually this takes about an hour. Maybe it's not necessary but it's not difficult and I've never lost anyone in the process so I'll probably continue to do it this way. I also make sure the room and the tank are fairly dark during the process.
Do you use tap water or ro? I had a a couples batches of shrimps slowly die on me until I switched over to ro water, now I don't have a problem. I guess they don't like something in my tap, even though everything I tested for was okay.
I bought an ro filter from purewaterclub. But if you only have one tank and its on the small side you can also buy ro water from places like Walmart for 35 cents. Or you can get distilled water almost any grocery store.
Sorry for all the questions....just trying to help...
-What size tank?
-What is the temp?
-What else is in the tank?
-What type of filter?
-How long has that tank been running?
Neos are pretty hardy, so there has to be something going on. It could be the Excel. Maybe the ph is too low? Although they should do ok in 6.6, maybe they came from a tank with something much higher. I know you drip acclimated, but it could still be an issue. Did you have something in that tank before....maybe you dosed medication?
I am curious about what else you have in there though. Maybe there is a rock or something that has metals in it.....
Size:46
Temp:76
Filter: Fluval 50 gal hob.
What else is inside: 2 albino cory cats, 2 glass phantom catfish, 5 neons, 5 harlequin rasboras and 2 snails I been tryin to get rid of (babies) the rest are plants substrate, and 30+ rcs/sakuras. Substrate is petrified wood, 2 big driftwoods, flourite and eco complete with mscellaneous plants and pebble stones from petsmart all washed
Tank: 1 month
No medication, just IAL
The GH/KH seem fine. It must be something in your source water (Copper maybe?). Other possibilities are an aggressive fish or disease of some sort, but I would bet that its something in your source water.
Your best bet if you want to keep shrimp is probably to buy a reverse osmosis unit and reconstitute with Salty Shrimp GH/KH+. It has the perfect minerals for neocardina shrimp. That's what I do since my tap water is SUPER hard. Found that out the hard way.
I've been googling for questions about my own RCS deaths, and OP's situation sounds depressingly familiar to mine. @DesignZ where did you purchase your shrimp from? I got mine from Bob's Tropical Plants. Started with around 20 adults including 2 berried females, and then over the course of 3-4 weeks I was left with 6 surviving adults but the babies were hatched thankfully.
My tank parameters are relatively the same. 77F, 0 Ammona/Nitrite, 5-10 Nitrate, around 8.0 pH (far more alkaline than your water, but I hear RCS have no problem living in this). For a brief period, I was unable to dose Flourish Excel daily and the shrimp thrived without me. They also survived a brutal move with no deaths, but once inside a new tank that's been relatively stable for two weeks, I'm seeing random deaths. Mostly adults that are dying, babies seem to be unaffected.
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