[jslmsca]

Hi,

Here are the particulars:

20g tank - 5 weeks old
ammonia, nitrite - 0 mg
nitrate - 0 mg (just did the test and was surprised although I just did a 25% water change on Sunday)
temp - 72F
ph - 7.6 to 8 (I can never get a good reading by looking at the color)
Nutrafin Aqua Plus to treat the water during water changes
Nutrafin Cycle (once a week)
Flourish Excel (every day)
Flourish Iron (every second day)
Flourish Trace Supplement (twice a week)
6 Cherry Red Shrimp (added after two weeks)
10 Neon Tetras (added after three weeks)
30+ tiny snails

I did some pruning Monday evening and Tuesday evening found one Cherry Shrimp dead. After removing it, I dropped in an algae tablet hoping it would get the others to come out but only the snails enjoyed it. This is unusual behaviour because normally the shrimp come out for this treat.

I thought maybe I unrooted toxicity during my trimming of stemmed hornwort, but according to the water tests, that wasn't it.

I made a surprise stop home at lunch to check on the tank. One is hiding behind the heater, another is slowly moving in a plant. The other three are nowhere to be found.

I assume they are getting enough to eat. I feed flakes to the neons once or twice a day. Some of it gets to the bottom although there may be competition with the snails. Once a week, I feed brine shrimp to the neons. Usually the shrimp are more active than the have been the last three days or so.

The pH may be high but it's my water and I assumed it would come down with a build up of bacteria. Plus, they were doing really well for a while. The Neons are not showing any problems.

I'm out of ideas as to what might be the problem and am worried that there may be something lurking that could cause a bigger issue soon.

Thanks.

 

[HypnoticAquatic]

neons will harrase them if they dont have enough hiding spaces, also they will eat them if they can fit into there mouth, so when adding them you should try and let the cherrys build up a colony then add them so even if they pick some off you stillh ave a good stock left, but its hard to say not knowing if they have enough cover or are just getting stressed out by the neons.

 

[GeToChKn]

I would say too much Excel maybe. Every day is way too much. Even the directions don't call for that much I believe.

 

[GeToChKn]

As for trying to get up a good breeding stock of cherries, I ended up spliting my 20gal long tank with a tank divider. Shrimp on 1 side, neons and dwarf frogs on the other.

 

[jasonpatterson]

It's really hard telling. With only 5 shrimp in a 20 gallon tank, you'd be surprised at how easy it is for them to hide, even being bright red. Especially if the fish have been picking at them they will be very subdued during the daylight hours. I recently pulled 5 adult bumblebee shrimp out of a tank I'd have sworn contained none. I hadn't seen any of them in at least a month.

Also, as long as you're dosing excel according to the instructions (which do call for daily or every other day dosing) you're fine. It won't hurt the shrimp at all at those levels.

 

[jslmsca]

Thanks for the information.

I'm dosing 2.5 ml/day of Flourish. Since I don't have CO2, I think this is necessary. The plants seem to be doing okay and like I said, the shrimp were okay with this regime for three weeks.

I think the Neons have come to the realization that they're the kings of the tank and may have gone after a shrimp. :icon_frow

 

[VeeSe]

I would say too much Excel maybe. Every day is way too much. Even the directions don't call for that much I believe.

They do call for that much.