CPD mysteriously died

1259 Views 12 Replies 6 Participants Last post by FewestKitten896, Apr 15, 2014

FewestKitten896

Discussion Starter · Apr 10, 2014

I usually come home from lunch and enjoy a quick look at my tank and count my inhabitants to make sure they were all there. I had 5 CPD's at midnight last night and came home from lunch to find a preggo ghost shrimp enjoying a nice CPD burger. I didn't have time to check my water params but I usually do my water changes either tonight or tomorrow with 30%-40% PWC.

I can't figure out what might have happened. I keep my tank at 75 degrees and feed a mixture of NLS Small Fish (5 Days/Week), some Omega Flake (5 Days/Week-just sprinkle a little bit crushed up with the NLS) and Frozen Baby Brine (1 Day/Week). I checked my params last week and all my params were fine.

My inhabitants include 5 White Clouds, now 4 (CPD), and 3 ghost shrimp (two male and 1 female).

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Art by Stef*

· #2 · Apr 10, 2014

I never trust a ghost shrimp. Especially a hungry pregger.
I seen them yank young guppies right out of the air...er...water.

Still check all other possibilities though.

-Stef*

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garfieldnfish

· #3 · Apr 11, 2014

Could be the CPD died and the shrimp just found it. Would be my guess. CPDs don't live all that long. Mine are breeding and the colony is always a nice size but sometimes one dies. This could just be old age. If the others are acting normal I would not stress out too much. 30 - 40% water change seems a lot to me. How large is your tank? You do not have a big bio load by any means.

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FewestKitten896

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 11, 2014

garfieldnfish said:
Could be the CPD died and the shrimp just found it. Would be my guess. CPDs don't live all that long. Mine are breeding and the colony is always a nice size but sometimes one dies. This could just be old age. If the others are acting normal I would not stress out too much. 30 - 40% water change seems a lot to me. How large is your tank? You do not have a big bio load by any means.

Yeah I am guessing this one just up and died and the shrimp found it to be an easy snack. My tank is only a 10 gallon but mostly likely only an 8 gallon with dirt and gravel substrate. I was only doing 1 gallon water changes and then increased to 2-3 gallon changes and noticed a lot better growth with my plants. My water does have a trace of ammonia out of the faucet but did a test on the tank water yesterday and parameters are fine. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, <10ppm of nitrates. pH always stays in the high 7's to low 8's.

My wife thinks I need some more colorful fish so I am going to add some guppy's to the tank for her and will eventually get a larger tank in the next few months.

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water-kitties

· #5 · Apr 11, 2014

Mine spar on occasion, usually its harmless. Once though, I found one with an infection near its eye from an injury and it died very shortly after by the time I saw it. Just another possibility depending on your school.

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lamiskool

· #6 · Apr 11, 2014

nothing really to do with this case but man I have one lucky CPD, all my tanks have lids on them but has a small opening in the back for the filter/heater and while I was looking at one of my tanks thats next to my CPD tank I see one CPD in it! This means it had somehow jumped out of the small opening and luckly jumped right into the tank next to it lol I have found two CPD who have jumped and dried up and died so this is one lucky CPD, moved him back to his proper tank yesterday

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garfieldnfish

· #7 · Apr 11, 2014

Did you cover the hole? I found that my shrimp like to escape too. I covered all openings with craft canvas taped over the holes. No more escaping from my shrimp tanks.

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lamiskool

· #8 · Apr 11, 2014

garfieldnfish said:
Did you cover the hole? I found that my shrimp like to escape too. I covered all openings with craft canvas taped over the holes. No more escaping from my shrimp tanks.

cant really cover it as I need the opening to put in my filter/heater

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FewestKitten896

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 13, 2014

Well I ended up going with 5 neon tetras. This should fill my capacity until I get a larger tank. I just bought a house today also so I can finally upgrade my little 10 gallon to a larger tank and will keep the 10 gallon as my CPD only tank.

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FewestKitten896

Discussion Starter · #10 · Apr 15, 2014

Another one just died over the night. I have came to the conclusion that I am going to have to try another food. I only have 3 left and one of them seems quite plump but the others seems extremely skinny. I have tried feeding flake food, NLS Small Pellets, baby brine shrimp and only the larger one seems to take any of it. Yes I have a lot of fish competing for food but it seems like they go next to it and ignore it. Is there any other ideas that I can use. I was thinking about frozen microworms or fronzen daphnia?

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Veritas

· #11 · Apr 15, 2014

i've had some bad luck with CPDs getting really skinny and dying lately as well. One day they seem fine, then they get really skinny and die shortly after.

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garfieldnfish

· #12 · Apr 15, 2014

Do you have access to live grindal worms or scuds? Mine go crazy over that. If you lived closer I could give you one of my cultures. Frozen daphnia is ok too. But mine have no problems with flakes or small pellet food either. They really eat everything. I wonder if your PH might be a little high for them as well. Mine are in 7.0 and some even in a black water tank. Also did you ever deworm them? They might have internal parasites if they were wild caught. Prazipro is a good de-wormer for fish.

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FewestKitten896

Discussion Starter · #13 · Apr 15, 2014

garfieldnfish said:
Do you have access to live grindal worms or scuds? Mine go crazy over that. If you lived closer I could give you one of my cultures. Frozen daphnia is ok too. But mine have no problems with flakes or small pellet food either. They really eat everything. I wonder if your PH might be a little high for them as well. Mine are in 7.0 and some even in a black water tank. Also did you ever deworm them? They might have internal parasites if they were wild caught. Prazipro is a good de-wormer for fish.

I don't believe I do but I haven't gone around to the LFS to ask them. I do have a fairly higher PH around 8 and relatively hard water. Seems like a lot of Kansas water is relatively hard and high pH due to all the limestone around. I have thought about ordering a culture but I think my wife would freak out. When I had a lizard she freaked about my cricket breeding adventure. I never dewormed them and am unsure if they were wild caught or tank bred. I might give that frozen daphnia a try tonight and see if that sparks some sort of appetite.

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