[sns26]

Hi all,

I started up a new 57g tank about five weeks ago. I seeded it with established filter media, waited about 3 weeks to stock it, then started small with a couple of RCS. Those guys did fine, so about two weeks ago I added ten amanos and a half dozen otos. The amanos have started dying off like flies. My first guess was water quality, of course, but the ammonia is zero, and the RCS and otos are doing fine. In my experience, both of those are way more sensitive to bad water than Amanos.


What could be going on? The only "symptoms" I've seen is occasional jerky twitching and darting about.

Here's some other info:

• Substrate is aquasoil
• Running pressurized CO2 aggressively, but Otos aren't gasping
• pH is about 6.4 when the CO2 is going
• Nitrates are 10-20 ppm
• Phosphate is 1-2 ppm
• Using Seachem Flourish for micros
• Not dosing excel
• High light
  

Any ideas?

 

[Wasserpest]

IME RCS are more resilient than Amanos. One thing to check would be Ammonium/Nitrite levels. Another likely possibility is that you are just gassing them. 6.4 is a fairly low pH for Amanos. Not saying they can't live at that level, but they might do better a bit closer to neutral.

 

[sns26]

After all the work I went through to build a kick-ass CO2 reactor and needle-precise regulator...I have to dial it back? And give up on the pretty end-of-day pearling? Say it ain't so. My plants may revolt.

But seriously: I thought Otos would be more sensitive than RCS or Amanos. And I must admit that I can't be sure what my actual CO2 levels are. I can't read those pH tests very well. But my drop checkers are pretty yellow.

 

[sns26]

Ugh, it's still happening. Twitchy shrimp that start arching their backs, then turn red then die. And CRS and fish that seem to have no issues at all. What is going ON?!? Could it be the trace dosing (Seachem Flourish?)

 

[tetra73]

What is the color of your drop checker? Looks like CO2 poisoning. As long as you can keep the color lime green on the drop checker, your Amanos should be fine.

 

[sns26]

Drop checkers - I have two, are both lime green, no tinge of yellow. (I.e. if I weren't having shrimp trouble, I'd push the CO2 up a bit.) I measured kH at 2.5, pH around 6.5, so that is in the green zone for CO2.

Again, though, every other critter in the tank is fine--Otos, CRS, espe's rasboras...no problems with any of them.

 

[Danimals]

RCS are pretty hardy and there's tons of conditions that they can live in that would probably make any other type of shrimp keel over.

A pretty safe rule to go by is to not gas any tanks that may hold shrimp you care about, even if you're extremely knowledgeable about C02 and all that other stuff...at the end of the day it's just another series of variables that can go wrong in addition to all the others inherent in every fish tank.

And even if you're technically within survivable parameters...creatures like shrimp are still a lot more temperamental and there's the completely logical possibility that your drop checkers are just plain off.

 

[sns26]

RCS are pretty hardy and there's tons of conditions that they can live in that would probably make any other type of shrimp keel over.

But these are CRS, not RCS (what annoyingly similar acronyms!)--which I'm told are much more delicate than cherries, and more delicate than amanos.

 

[msjinkzd]

Did the new ones do poorly as well?

I just am at a loss as to what (if it was ferts) would be gettign the amanos and not your crystals.

 

[sns26]

Did the new ones do poorly as well?

I only added a few of the new ones to this tank. I want to see how they do before I send others to their deaths. So far so good, but the previous die-off happened slowly over the course of weeks.

 

[zergling]

When I had random amano deaths a few years ago, I read of two possible reasons -- copper overdose and calcium deficiency.

You'd have to be dumping a crazy amount of Seachem Flourish to copper overdose the tank. I'm currently doing 15mL on my 65g every other day, no problems with amanos.

Calcium deficiency shouldn't be a problem if you're dosing GH booster. Do you have snails in the tank? How are their shells? I've had snails with almost clear shells in my high-light pressurized CO2 tank before, prior to switching from potassium sulfate to GH booster.

Also, your pH and CO2 should be ok. In my tank, my pH drops all the way to 6.2 when CO2 is on. My tank water is at 7.7 if I put some aside to de-gas / age for 48 hours.

 

[sns26]

I'm not dosing booster, but GH is 7, KH is about 2.5.

I'm going to let some water d-gas for a while and see what the CO2 is like. But the drop checkers can't be that far off.

 

[zergling]

Yeah your GH sounds like it doesn't need any boosting LOL!

Also, you should also see if the tank has more CO2 than it can handle -- the amanos will be swimming and darting around, periodically hitting the surface.

 

[sns26]

Found another shrimp cocktail today--and that is after I left the CO2 entirely off for a whole day. AAARGH. And I really need those amanos. I'm starting to get a bunch of hair algae.

 

[studentclimber]

What's the temp in the tank? The CRS seem to tolerate higher temps than the amanos will for me. The ottos never seem to care what the temp is (within reason) as long as it does not change fast.

 

[jkan0228]

I have a 22 amanos in my 95G with a ph of 5.5-6. EI dosing and only 1 died due to shipping.

 

[sns26]

What's the temp in the tank?

Temp is 73 degrees or so.

I have a 22 amanos in my 95G with a ph of 5.5-6. EI dosing and only 1 died due to shipping.

pH while CO2 is on is about 6.4. After a day with the CO2 off it is about 7. I bet it will go a bit higher if I leave it off another day.

I watched some of the living shrimp closely. They seem to be moving their arms and mouthparts around an awful lot, but not walking around as they do it (which the amanos in my other tank do) and not obviously going after food. It's all very frustrating since the Espeiis, otos, and CRS seem totally happy.

 

[msjinkzd]

its especially frustrating to me since you got your stock from me!! I wish I had an answer! I guess if the ones in the "new/other" tank do ok, you will know itsaproblem with that display

 

[jkan0228]

its especially frustrating to me since you got your stock from me!! I wish I had an answer! I guess if the ones in the "new/other" tank do ok, you will know itsaproblem with that display

If you're talking to me. it's okay. Haha but I think you were talking to the OP. Pm coming.

 

[sns26]

its especially frustrating to me since you got your stock from me!! I wish I had an answer! I guess if the ones in the "new/other" tank do ok, you will know its a problem with that display

Don't worry Rachel--I'm guessing this problem has to do with me, not the shrimp. I saw them looking happy and healthy in your fish room. I put most of them in the "safe" tank upstairs because I wanted them to live, not because I was testing them.