All of my juvenile Super Tigers are hanging out at top, pic inside

[beedee]

Over the past few days, I noticed that some of my Rili's and STS have been randomly hanging out at the top of my tank, at the waters edge.

I havent done any drastic changes to my tank, just the occasional 1.5g water change (did one yesterday). It has been well established for nearly a year now. I don't really dose anything at all, just using root tabs, and the occasional one pump of iron midweek. Flora consists of flame moss, taiwan moss, and dhg, substrate is yubao. I don't test my GH and TDS, so I dont have those numbers for you, which I'm going to assume, are critical to assess my current situation.

A little bit about these shrimp. The STS were all born in this tank, the mama died a couple weeks later, and from what I've counted, I have around 10 survivors, all of which are in the juvie stages of their lives now. I counted 9 of them in the pic below.

Well, I just came home from dinner and saw this.



All but one of my STS are hanging out at the top. My cO2 is in check, and is just over 1bps. Food is fed every other day, I rotate between Borneo Grow, Kens Veggie Sticks w/ Calcium, Hikari Crab Cuisine and Borneo Barley. Water temp has been pretty steady around 68-70˚. I use an AC20 for filtration, and have it on the side of the tank, so it gets nice flow across the entire tank, bounces off the far wall, and circles back around.

Please help, I'm getting worried that this isn't a good sign.

[Bananariot]

Uhh do you have a co2 indicator? even if its 1 bps, it may be cuasing the shrimp to seek o2, explaining why they're running to the surface.

I would decrease it immediately.

You really should get a test kit that'll give us information about water conditions....
we need to know....

ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
ph
gh
kh
tds

Also there may be a high iron count idk, so you should check that out too.

[gtu2004]

it doesn't look a good sign and you're right.

i would turn off the CO2 as well. Do a water change again.

[beedee]

I'll test my water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, stay tuned.

I do have a drop checker, and it is a sold green, more on the dark side of things.

[hedge_fund]

Originally Posted by gtu2004

it doesn't look a good sign and you're right.

i would turn off the CO2 as well. Do a water change again.

Yup, that's exactly what I would do at first. Stop the CO2 and see what happens.

[beedee]

ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-0
ph-7.8 (tap water, treated with API conditioner)

i dont have kits for gh, kh, tds.

i will turn off co2 right now.

[hedge_fund]

Originally Posted by beedee

ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-0
ph-7.8 (tap water, treated with API conditioner)

i dont have kits for gh, kh, tds.

i will turn off co2 right now.

7.8 is a bit high for tigers so that might also play a factor. Whatever is going on, they are literally trying to escape your tank. If you had a KH kit then you'd be able to calculate the Co2 ppm. Not sure if you are serious about shrimp keeping but get yourself a GH/KH kit (comes together) and the TDS meter. Both are fairly cheap.

http://shrimpkeeping.com/ <--- check that out.

[beedee]

thanks hedge.

well, turning off the c02 seems to have had a positive effect, as the shrimp are no longer hanging out where they were in the pic.

i know its a stretch with that 7.8ph, the one thing i think i had going for me was that th babies have made it this far, about 1.5 months or so. just wishful thinking i suppose.

[Bananariot]

Its definitely the CO2 then

[hedge_fund]

Originally Posted by beedee

thanks hedge.

well, turning off the c02 seems to have had a positive effect, as the shrimp are no longer hanging out where they were in the pic.

i know its a stretch with that 7.8ph, the one thing i think i had going for me was that th babies have made it this far, about 1.5 months or so. just wishful thinking i suppose.

If you have water ready then do a partial change too...you want to add some oxygen in there. They were literally suffocating.

Good luck.

[tobystanton]

You can run as much Co2 as you want you just need surface agitation.

[beedee]

thanks again, i'll do another 1.5g water change!

i really appreciate the prompt replies.

should i just quit using co2 altogether then?

[beedee]

Originally Posted by tobystanton

You can run as much Co2 as you want you just need surface agitation.

i do have the HOB on the side, which is providing nice flow across, and a bit of surface agitation. should i lower the water line so that the waterfall actually breaks the surface of the water?

[tobystanton]

You really need more then just a hob, it really helps to have a spray bar, I run co2 till my drop checker is yellow and the shrimps are fine because of the gas exchange surface agitation provides.

[HypnoticAquatic]

you can run co2 but you have to do it in SMALLER ammounts, this is why high light tanks dont do well with shrimp. one bps doesnt mean much as if its a small tank vs large tank there is a huge difference in volume of water and with doing a 1.5g wc im guessing is a 10g tank or something small, in that case you might have to go like 1bubble every 4 sec or so maybe even less if you want them to be breeding, this is why most people dont use co2 on these tanks.

mine is set @ 1bubble for 4 sec on a 20L and i can still see a drop in ph of about .4 i dont want much as i really want the shrimp, its just there to help out the plants even with that little ammount i still can see o2 being made and rising to the surface. fauna will show better signs than a dropchecker can tell you you just have to learn to read those signs, swimming at the top gasping for air is one of the last ones btw. if your tank is needing that much co2 your light is WAY to much for the tank & shrimp, then its time to down grade the output if that is the case. happy shrimping