[CoolhandLocke]

Tank is well established, probably 90-120 shrimp total...too hard to count the babies lol. I have been losing maybe 1-2 a month to what I assume is natural causes or just weak shrimp...really nothing major.

I have found several "half shrimp" in the tank though and have yet to figure out why. It's been oranges so far, never any tigers or cherries in the other tank, but this morning my one lone snowball shrimp (a ride-along) kicked the bucket at around 6months old. She was our favorite, and very lively to be honest. Looked healthy always ate well, etc.. This morning I found the back half of her in the tank with the oranges picking on the part where her head should have been.

Same thing will the 5-6 "half shrimp" deaths I've had over the past year. Usually find other shrimps going cannibal on them, and the top half is always gone.

Even bought some green shrimp from a seller last month, and got a red looking half-shrimp in the bag with the greens. I know it was a green as I was one short, but the seller didn't respond on the shortage or the half shrimp so the mystery remains.

I'm assuming it's something with the molting or lack of minerals possibly or is it just a fluke?

Water temp is around 74-76, PH should be around 7.2-7.4 haven't checked the GH or KH in awhile but will do that this evening along with the TDS. Mainly 60-70 oranges in the tank with 10 or so big tigers, 5 greens, and 12 of the wild type neo's. Some cories and pygmy cories as well, but they all get along well.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, hated to lose "******" especially being as she was a female and never crossbreed with the oranges. RIP - ******...

 

[AVN]

Shrimp don't cannibalize their kind while alive. She was dead or was stuck in the middle of a molt when they started eating her. Sometimes when the water is too hard, (too many dissolved carbonates) shrimp have trouble breaking out of their exoskeleton, and end up stuck in their molts and getting eaten.

A side note: you got a wide spread of shrimps in there, I would lower the PH a bit to make all of them happy. Neos are happy in 7 but Tigers like it around 6.5, 7.4 is way too high.

I'm also betting your KH and GH are too high.

 

[sbarbee54]

Tigers love 6.8-7.4. But my guess is you are getting failed molts. I would check you KH and GH

 

[CoolhandLocke]

Shrimp don't cannibalize their kind while alive. She was dead or was stuck in the middle of a molt when they started eating her. Sometimes when the water is too hard, (too many dissolved carbonates) shrimp have trouble breaking out of their exoskeleton, and end up stuck in their molts and getting eaten.

A side note: you got a wide spread of shrimps in there, I would lower the PH a bit to make all of them happy. Neos are happy in 7 but Tigers like it around 6.5, 7.4 is way too high.

I'm also betting your KH and GH are too high.

I'm about a day past due for a water change even though my levels are fine. Need to do that today, then I'll run the full gauntlet of tests tomorrow when things settle and see where I'm at stats wise.

I agree the ph is to high for them to love, and while they are fine in it (hardiest shrimp I've ever seen) I would like to lower it a bit for breeding purposes. Haven't lost any of the new ones in the current conditions (old ones weren't great stock), but 7.4 is definitely not ideal by any means.

Any suggestions on a good range to keep all these guys in across the board with GH, KH, TDS, and PH?

Knew they weren't cannibals (on live ones) figured they were just chowing down on the leftovers. The tigers are pretty darned ferocious and aggressive at times though. Have had to run one off of a pygmy cory once, and they often pull food away from the other shrimp and swim away with it.

 

[AVN]

Shrimp are hardy, and will tolerate most water conditions as long as they are allowed to adapt, but good enough isn't as good as perfect, you know?

In perfect conditions shrimp are more active, show their colors more, are healthier, and breed much more prolifically than if they were housed in semi-ideal waters.

Like sbarb said, Tigers like it harder than other Card species, and Neos do too; but for OPTIMAL health and happiness you should try to lower it to around 6.5-7.0. Your KH and GH should not be above 3.

If your KH is too high that means there are too many dissolved carbonates, which might be the reason for the failed molts.

 

[sbarbee54]

Tigers and neos do fine together, should be kept I would say no lower than 6.6 and no higher than 7.8, I would do a GH of 5-6 and KH 0-3. GH of 3 is to low really for Neos and Tigers, that water is to soft. TDS of 180-300 depending on where you get them from.

My exact conditions on my OEBT and BTOE are 7.0-7.1 GH5 KH0-1 TDS 200

 

[AVN]

^ +1

 

[ThatGuyWithTheFish]

TDS is useless IMO/IME. Plenty of people keep CRS in EI dosed tanks with TDS 400-500. I haven't used my meter in months.

 

[sbarbee54]

Key word there, keep. You can keep a kid in a closet but it is not healthy or good for them. For CRS to do well i would go from 160-220. TDS is huge, direct reflection of your GH and KH in the water, as well as many other things