[Trojan]

I've had this tank going for a few months now. Never had any deaths until recently. I have 6 neo shrimp now and 6 crs. I went away for a week and my roommate said 2 neos died.

Today I looked over and saw this shrimp spaz out for about 10 minutes. It looked like he was trying to molt, but would intermittently look paralyzed on the substrate between spaz outs. I was pretty sure he was going to die.

There were bands of clear developing on this shrimp for the past couple of weeks. I'm wondering if these shrimp died because they could not molt. I have been seeing less molts recently.

I am worried about my beautiful new crs.

Please help!

 

[Trojan]

Oh, and a crs was picking at it as it starting to lay very still

I wonder if I should just leave it in there as a source of high quality food for the next 24 hours

 

[GeToChKn]

What are you parameters? There is a small window to dial for neo's and crystals to be happy as they usually like different water, so you really have to know your params and try and tune them in for both to be happy. A failed molt, sounds like the gh or kh is too low in the water for the neos. Raise it too high and the crs will have trouble molting.

Leaving it in there is fine if it's a molting issue or old age, etc, I usually let my shrimp eat the dead ones. If it's an infection though, then you don't want to.

 

[Trojan]

I don't know my dh or kh i don't have the kits. I want to buy them though if it will help my chance at breeding my beautiful crs. I should post some pics.

I'm pretty darn sure ammonia and nitrite are 0.

I could test nitrate.

 

[dougolasjr]

Also what size tank do you have? I would go out and get test kits ASAP.

 

[ravensgate]

Yeah you need to test nitrates. And if you are going to have CRS you reeaaally need to have a GH and KH test kit. The spazzing, laying still, spazzing again, then dying sounds like a failed molt but that's literally just one thing that could cause that behavior.

 

[Trojan]

5.5 gallon ada mini m

 

[dougolasjr]

I wouldn't leave any shrimp that die in a small tank. I would pull out just to keep any chance of ammonia going up or giving pest snails an extra source of food.

 

[musician71604]

Yeah, I would pull out the dead shrimp.

 

[Trojan]

copy that. i ordered gh and kh test kits. should be here soon. I won't be able to test until next monday though because I am going out of town over the weekend.

 

[plamski]

You should buy API complete test kit-$20-30 Wal-Mart. There are PH, GH, KH, Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite test.

 

[Merth]

never heard of API complete test kit, but master test does not include gh and kh

 

[ravensgate]

Yeah, I had to get the GH and KH separately as it doesn't come with the Master Test Kit (which is about $20 and probably what you are thinking of Plamski). That one comes with Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH and High pH Range and that's it.

 

[binbin9]

get a TDS meter for like $16 bucks, along with the other test kits for PH GH and KH and your approach to clean water will drastically change.

TDS can be a good indicator of how clean your water actually is. Some consider it more important the PH.
http://www.plecoplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3480

 

[acitydweller]

Shrimp keeping is meant to be fun and not a chore or cause for anxiety. There is a deficiency in knowledge and either gh or calcium in their diet and or the water column. Buying shrimp without knowing almost guarantees near death.

Invert care require knowledge of gh, kh and ph. The gh and kh tests aren't part of the api master test kit. This, tds meter, thermometer and gh and calcium supplements are all fundamental equipment to have in this hobby.

Be a responsible hobbyist. Don't buy any shrimp if proper care cant be afforded. Rushing this hobby costs lives, time and $. I encourage everyone to read up, talk to people and learn the ropes before diving in. Learn your tap water params and see if an ro unit is compulsory or not for this hobby in your region. If you are close to NYC, consider coming out to the monthly swap meet. Most of us keep a variety of dwarf shrimp, crayfish, nano fish and weedy plants. Make friends, learn and enjoy.

 

[acitydweller]

For consideration, go back to the individual whom you purchased these shrimp for their advice...

 

[Trojan]

I got my test kits. I will do a thorough test of the water later today. It's been awhile, I know, but I was away from home for several days.

Also, something awesome happened, sort of. One of my crs looked as if he was dead on the bottom, with the same look of the neo shrimp, but he was not spazzing out. It looks as if his legs were trying to molt exactly like the neo shrimp, and as if he couldn't molt (the rest of his body does not look like it is ready to molt). Something is clearly off with my calcium and perhaps other levels in my tank and this will eventually kill all my shrimp if not corrected.b

Anyway, think the shrimp was already dead I poked it a few times with my net and it would try and jump away for a moment then stop. I eventually as a last ditch effort grabbed the shrimp out with the net and pulled off what looks like an extra pair of 1/2 molted legs from the dieing shrimp. I ended up breaking off 90% of the legs, because they were deformed from the attempted molt. Anyways, not being able to crawl this shrimp has been living, albeit without any legs, only 1 or 2 stumps. Amazing.

At this point I am going to test my water and try to make all corrections necessary, hopefully in time to rescue this wounded crs. I have also lost a few more neo shrimp. The only ones that have survived have been two from an f1 batch. All second generation shrimp, except maybe one have died at this point.

 

[Merth]

Gh is probably too low and or nitrates too high