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Am I killing my shrimp?!

4K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  garfieldnfish 
#1 ·
Hey guys!

I bought 2 RCS from my LPS a couple months ago and since then, they've been happy and active (even reproducing twice), until now. Over the span of the last two weeks I have found 3 dead shrimp laying on the substrate with what looks like no legs, just the body. The first two I shrugged off because I saw one with no "grabbing" legs (assuming something went wrong during molting) and expected it to starve to death.

I did change a few things recently (which doesn't help finding the cause) and I'm not sure if they have caused said deaths. The shrimp were by themselves until I added an Otto and 2 Peacock Gudgeons 4 weeks back. The Otto quickly rid the tank and leaves of diatoms and most algae. The Gobies laid and hatched 3 times (the male never comes out of his cave, unless to chase off the female) and they seem totally fine. I have seen the female poke at a shrimp every once and a while and the shrimp freaks out and skirts around the tank. I've only seen this three times or so. I only feed the Gobies (frozen bloodworms, mosquito larvae from my backyard, and they snack on every last one of their fry) because I figured there's enough plant detritus and algae for the shrimp and Otto to thrive (there's quite a bit, too). The other thing I changed was starting the EI dosing method. I previously dosed Flourish, Flourish Excel, and Flourish Potassium. I now (going on 3 weeks) dose 1/16 tsp KH2PO4, 1/4 tsp KNO₃, 1/16 tsp K2SO4, and 1/16 tsp CSM+B. They're all dosed 3x a week, with the CSM+B on seperate days, with 4mL of Excel everyday. The plants are responding really well to the new dosing, all besides my hairgrass which never really grew at all. I do 50% water changes every Friday. The last thing is I've seen 2 Planaria on the glass, but none since then which was 2 weeks ago. I've heard these can interfere with shrimp during molting. There's a bit of detritus worms in the water column but the female goby snacks on all of 'em.

I don't see any other reason why the shrimp would be dying besides what I've listed. If you have any ideas, it's greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time!

Tanks specs:

20 gal long
Aquaclear 30" t5 dual fixture w/ one colormax and one 6700k bulb
8 hour photo period
2 20 gal HOB filters (cleaned every other WC)
WPG - 1.8, high intensity
Plants are growing in Eco-complete. I can't vacuum the Eco substrate because I fear I'll uproot my plants and the un-rooted hairgrass. Instead, I just vacuum the regular sand I have on the left side of my tank.


Water parameters:

pH - 7.4-7.6
Ammonia - 0-.25pp
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 80-120 ppm (a bit high, I know. Should I possibly reduce the amount of KNO₃ I dose?)
KH - 60-80

Plants: Anubias Nana, some Java moss, a Red Flame, Ludwigia, Dwarf Hair Grass, 3 Amazon Swords, some Hygrophila Angustifolia and some Wisteria.
 
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#2 ·
The red flags to me are the high nitrates and possible ammonia at .25ppm. Everything else you can get away with. Not to say every cherry shrimp can survive EI dosing, excel, and large water changes but I know many people that do that with shrimp and have no problems.
 
#5 ·
i agree it's your nitrates for sure. but also temp could be a factor as others have mentioned. Can you post it for us please?
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the replies! I keep my temp around 78-80 degrees Fahrenheit. With the high nitrates, should I back off on dosing Potassium Nitrate, or even stop it completely? Does that even effect nitrate levels? I don't know what else would cause high nitrate levels.
 
#7 ·
I would do a water change and try to bring it down to less than 40 ppm. 2 50% water changes two days apart should bring it down that level.

Stop dosing nitrates until it stabilizes. The problem with doing the EI method is it becomes too much if the plant mass is not there and you do not do the weekly water changes. I am doing EI but less the Nitrates because my plant mass is small that the nitrates stay almost at level PLUS I only plan to do water changes twice a month or once a month (trying to save water).

I always use EI method as a baseline then I tweak it as a I see fit.
 
#8 ·
I will do my weekly 50% water change on Friday and until then, dose no Potassium Nitrate. After the WC I'll check the levels and if it's still too high then I'll wait another 2 days and do it again like you said. Will they make it until then, or should I call an emergency and change it today? I'd hate to lose anymore. Thanks for your help!
 
#9 ·
As an aside, if you find dead shrimp with no legs, it could be a sign that fish have been at them. Some fish may be too small to attack and eat a live shrimp, but will pick their legs off one by one and wait for them to die. I've seen this happen.
 
#10 ·
When a shrimp dies it quickly disappears starting with the legs. Could be your fish or the other shrimp took the legs off after death or the fish did as Ghia suggested. I had some of my CPDs go after shrimp and dismember them.
 
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