Shrimp dying left and right

When shrimp start moving to the top of the water and remaining there, that usually indicates a lack of oxygen.

What msnikki said or they are trying to get out, because adding the cory's would over stock your tank and create ammonia spikes, especially adding them at the same time. I would do a water change, and increase the water changes.

I have anacharis growing like crazy so I assumed that my Oxygen levels were good enough

The bad thing is that I have a drop checker but I never bought any solution to put in it. I'm also way to busy to try and cook some up.

(Nue) My ammonia levels are fine, I check them often when I check my water. I'm gonna run to my house for lunch and pickup my pump and a stone to see if that makes them settle down.

Anytime, you introduce new livestock to a tank, the ammonia levels will spike as the tank is not use to handling that kind of bio-load at first. Adding 10, even small, would cause an ammonia spike in your tank. However, RCS, I have noticed, can live in just about anything.

If you have co2 running, I would just add an airstone, or do something that will cause surface agitation to make sure oxygen is ok. If the die offs are occurring at a time your photo-period is off, then it means that you are basically suffocating them to death as minimal oxygen is in the water.

Well, My tank conditions are still perfect, I have added a bubble stone for oxygen, I do not have any ammonia in the tank and I still have shrimp dying daily.

Does anyone else have any ideas as to why my shrimp might be dying on a daily basis? I also put the bubble stone where they were bunching up and they moved to another spot at the top of the tank and stay in a group. There are a few that are still roaming around the bottom but the majority stay in the group near the top of the tank.

I did add a sponge intake on my hob filter which seems to be working fine with no issue. But this was added over 2-3 months ago and the shrimp situation has only been happening in the past 2 weeks.

Any input is appreciated.

panther685 said:

Well, My tank conditions are still perfect...

Click to expand...

Did you take Nitrate readings
I don't see them posted

Yes. I have the test strips and I don't have any readings that are out of the ordinary. all of my levels are right where they need to be. Nothing near the stressed level on the strips.

If you could post the values, that would be best.

However, I would like to add that test strips are not always the most accurate of test kits, as they are liable to poor storage conditions, handling, etc.

Darkblade48 said:

However, I would like to add that test strips are not always the most accurate of test kits, as they are liable to poor storage conditions, handling, etc.

Click to expand...

+1 to that.

ph 6.8
kh between 0-40 marks low
gh 75 soft
nitrite 0
nitrate 0-10

My water stays the same because I use bottled water and have been using it for about a year now with no issue.

I have a drop test kit at home I'll bring and play with but I've checked these strips against it and they are dead on.

7 dead shrimp at once is definitely something to worry about. I would have done a water change for sure.

Your parameters look completely fine. Having 7 die off overnight, and them staying at the top really indicates co2 overdosing. I am honestly stumped. Unless you are not using declorinator, I have no idea.

Also, I had forgot to mention that when I look really close at them, their shells seem to be very very shiny? I don't know if that helps.

It's kind of sad because I can see some of them swimming around and I can tell that they are going to die because their insides are turning white even before they die.

I will be leaving for a business trip all of next week so I was hoping to get this figured out by tomorrow.

Do y'all think I should load some carbon in my filter just in case it's some kind of chemical poison in the tank?

I'm going to have someone stop by to feed them 2x next week but I would hate to come back to a massacre.

you could make your own drop checker solution by buying distiled water and addind sodium bicabonate until it reads 4 dkh
i know its not perfect but better then nothing
i would lower your co2 until you know what your ppm is
do a water change , changes
add carbon untill you can figure it out

I forgot to add a very important part, this is a low tech tank and I am not injecting co2. I've added a bubble stone so there is no way it's oxygen related. I'm sure my plants will suffer but I just need these guys to last while I am out next week.

I think I'm going to add some carbon while i am out next week. Hopefully it'll absorb what ever is in the water.

Adding the carbon may help and is a good idea. I am not sure what the issue is.

Just a few random thoughts, since all the basics have been covered...

Is there any chance that tank decor, rocks, substrate, etc might be leaching copper into the water? some rocks and ceramic glazes contain copper which is toxic to shrimp.

Other thought: overfeeding shrimp can cause some problems, and some foods contain copper also.

Honestly this is a shot in the dark, but anything to help.

The amount of copper in food is so minimum that it wouldn't cause much issues. But, overfeeding can lead to an ammonia spike as it decays. But he tested it, and there is none.

All I can think of, is that the tank was dosed with some type of treatment that isn't shrimp safe. But again, not sure.

thats good to know I worry about the copper content in my foods, but if it is that minimal, sweet!

Yeah after reading this thread im at a loss on what the problems is. The signs point to a water issue, whether its toxins or an imbalance in o2.