[Quiet Professional]

I am a bit concerned about my nano tank. When ever the largest of my female RCS are berried I come home to find them dead later on. I do dose my tank with excel, but very sparingly. The endler fry are unaffected as are the rest of the shrimp and adult fish. It always seems to be the largest of my females when they are berried. This is a pic of her when I fished her out, her sides where black and the eggs were gone. I'm just not sure what to think.

 

[ddrfreak_tung]

maybe she couldnt molt and got stuck within the exoskeleton. have you seen empty shells around the tank?

 

[Quiet Professional]

yeah they always shed two days or so after a water change

 

[ddrfreak_tung]

what about your water parameters, what do you feed them, what's in the tank?

 

[mordalphus]

a black shrimp like that usually indicates a bacterial infection of some sort.

They should be opaque on the inside or completely light pink by the time you fish them out.

 

[Quiet Professional]

Tung: I don't go crazy over testing water parameters. I test every other month or so, and it has always been preferable results. However I suppose another testing wouldn't hurt, I know thinks could always happen. They whole tank gets Hakari mini pellets. The tank mates are 1 oto, trio of endlers, 1 assassin snail, 2 tiger shrimp, 1 amano, 4 RCS, and one celestial pearl danio.

Mordalphus: I watch my tank for an hour a day or so. The night before I didn't see anything like that. Would a Bacterial infection act that fast in the tank or affect the other fish? Everything looks normal.

 

[diwu13]

It could be the excel you are dosing. I believe if you do a search on this forum it is up for debate whether it causes deaths or not.

 

[jasonpatterson]

I've not had a cherry die and produce anything other than a pink corpse... I'd have to second the bacterial infection idea. The missing eggs are no great mystery. Once the shrimp dies they are tasty treats for anyone who happens along (other shrimp.)

 

[zdnet]

I am a bit concerned about my nano tank. When ever the largest of my female RCS are berried I come home to find them dead later on. I do dose my tank with excel, but very sparingly. The endler fry are unaffected as are the rest of the shrimp and adult fish. It always seems to be the largest of my females when they are berried. This is a pic of her when I fished her out, her sides where black and the eggs were gone. I'm just not sure what to think.

ISTM her eggs were still there. Since only the largest of the berried females were affected, I wondered whether it was a case of accumulated poison. If you can, stop Excel dosing to see if things improve.

 

[Quiet Professional]

Yeah I will stop the dosing. IDK the craziest thing is that it is only one female at a time, always the largest, always berried.... This is the third time now, however, this time I was able to get to her body before she got snacked on. So the blackness is new.

 

[ddrfreak_tung]

Maybe there's a unknown pest in there, I had dragonfly nymphs before and they tend to go after pregnant n tiny shrimplets since theyre mor vulnerable. Check to see if you have any hitch hiker