BKK Money Pit *Mystery Deaths*

[rodcuda]

A shrimp frenzy is usually a good thing!!!

[Betta Maniac]

Having a bit of a crap day. Found one of them dead. *sigh* Immediately checked everything. Water is perfect. *double sigh* I hate mystery deaths. They freak me out.

[speedie408]

monitor temp and I'd do a 20% WC just for precautionary measures.

[Betta Maniac]

Temp is 68-69. I did a 10% change. I'll go do another one. He was listless, and then just dead. *grrr* Now I'm staring at them all, terrified they're all gonna die.

[rodcuda]

How long have they been in the tank now? And how long were they in the breeder? Stress?

[Betta Maniac]

They were in the breeder for about a month. Have been in the tank for about 48 hours. Stress could be to blame. I know it's not uncommon to lose shrimp when moving them about. It still just freaks me out. I've retested the water and now done another water change (which of course I'm worried will further stress them).

But the params are PERFECT. Dang it all!

[rodcuda]

Hopefully that's all it was, but that would be a pretty non-stressfull move.

[Betta Maniac]

They all looked fine this morning, but then they all looked fine the day before the mystery death too. Ugh. The tank has a bag of Purigen and a UV filter running too (I really am paranoid, but clearly for a reason!).

[Betta Maniac]

Hoping to not curse myself, but so far no more mystery deaths. Just lots of molts and seemingly happy shrimp cruising about the tank. *fingers crossed*

[Betta Maniac]

Apparently when I moved them over I also transferred a few newborn CBS. It's too early for Big Momma to have released any babies yet, but I see at least three little bitty CBS crusing around the tank.

[Betta Maniac]

No real updates. Big Momma seems to have molted while still berried and she now looks a little ragged (like some of the shell didn’t come all the way off in places). So I’m now feeling *really* paranoid about her. Hoping once the shrimplets are born she’ll molt cleanly.

[speedie408]

Betta,

Molting while she's holding eggs is not a good sign. This means the water params have gone from hard to soft, or soft to softer. This is why it's important to keep water params stable (not saying that you aren't).

Have you done any large water changes as of recent?

[Betta Maniac]

Water is super stable (I'm using RO and the Nutrifin Cichlid Conditioner, the TDS stays btwn 196-203 and I test it daily). I don't do large changes. I top off about 1c. pure RO a day and then once a week I change about 10% (carefully matching it to the old water in TDS and temp). Won't even do that this week, as I don't want to do anything that might bother her.

I'm hoping this is just because she's still so very small and young to be berried at all (she's really not very big, less than half an inch still). She was SUPER annoyed with the males coming at her. Like ENRAGED. She tucked herself into the sponge filter and sent them flying out if they dared to invade her little groove.

I should add, the others all appear to be molting without any problems, and no more mystery deaths after the first one.

[speedie408]

Betta,

It may be as you say then. If others are doing well, just monitor her. Glad to hear there's no more deaths.

[Betta Maniac]

I do a head count every day when I get home from work. She's got her 3 favortie places to hang out down pretty solid. Though I couldn't find her last night and was freaked out. But there she was this morning, back in "her" groove on the sponge filter.