Dr Mike Oxgreen
Member
Hoping someone can tell me what I've done wrong, and why my blue cherry shrimp seem to have suddenly died.
I started setting up my 25 litre nano tank at the end of November, and cycled it by using ammonia. By late December, the tank seemed fully cycled (ammonia would disappear within a few hours) and I planted my plants (HC, Glosso, hair grass, Pogostemon erectus, crypt wendtii brown, Anubias nana 'mini', and some sprigs of hornwort taken from the pond). I started doing large 80% water changes every couple of days to reduce the high nitrate level that had built up during cycling.
Just over a week ago (8th Jan) I added the first livestock: 3 otocinclus, 9 blue cherry shrimp and 1 chili rasbora (I ordered 8 rasboras but sadly 7 were DOA and have been refunded). I found a shop a few days later that had chili rasboras so added 6 more, so I now have 7. I also added a single bamboo shrimp.
Everything seemed fine, although I decided that the 9 shrimp were rather 'lost' in the tank. So on Friday (15th Jan) I drove up to Sharnbrook Shrimp and bought a dozen of their blue velvet shrimp. I acclimatised them over a couple of hours by transferring a few tablespoons of tank water ever 15 minutes or so. After releasing, the shrimps all seemed okay for the rest of the day.
When I got up on Saturday morning, the shrimps seemed to have largely vanished. I did a 30% water change and some general cleaning, and when the lights went on the shrimps were conspicuous by their absence - it was very difficult to find any, although I did find a dead one that had gone pink. I found another dead one this morning (Sun), but can't see a mass of dead bodies. There should now be about 20 of them in there, but I have to search to find any. Shortly after adding the new shrimps, they were quite prominent and occasionally cruising around the tank, but now I can only see one or two lurking amongst the Glosso.
It's worth saying that the bamboo shrimp has permanently hidden itself since it was added, and has never even opened its fans, let alone engaged in normal filter-feeding behaviour. I am concerned for its survival.
Someone advised me yesterday that my tank temperature (25°C) was on the upper limit, so I've reduced to 23°C. I use a mixture of rainwater and tapwater to give KH 4° and GH 6°. I treat new water with Tetra Aquasafe.
Some details of my setup:
Tank size: 25 litres, but probably only 20 litres of water.
Filter: Eheim 2211 external canister, rated at 300 litres per hour I believe. Water returned by Lilly pipe and seems to give good circulation.
Heater: Hydor external inline, set to 25°C but now reduced to 23°C.
CO2: Pressurised, with inline diffuser. Drop checker is permanently green. Good 'mist' while lights are on, and oxygen bubbles rising from HC and Glosso.
NH3/NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: about 20 mg/l
KH: 4°
GH: 6°
pH: 6.5
Fert: TNC complete
So what's gone wrong? Why have all the shrimp, including the first batch, done a disappearing act overnight?
By the way, I know that my 200W heater is way overpowered for the tank, so to eliminate the risk of it sticking on I will be installing an STC-1000 temperature controller. Waiting for that to arrive.
I started setting up my 25 litre nano tank at the end of November, and cycled it by using ammonia. By late December, the tank seemed fully cycled (ammonia would disappear within a few hours) and I planted my plants (HC, Glosso, hair grass, Pogostemon erectus, crypt wendtii brown, Anubias nana 'mini', and some sprigs of hornwort taken from the pond). I started doing large 80% water changes every couple of days to reduce the high nitrate level that had built up during cycling.
Just over a week ago (8th Jan) I added the first livestock: 3 otocinclus, 9 blue cherry shrimp and 1 chili rasbora (I ordered 8 rasboras but sadly 7 were DOA and have been refunded). I found a shop a few days later that had chili rasboras so added 6 more, so I now have 7. I also added a single bamboo shrimp.
Everything seemed fine, although I decided that the 9 shrimp were rather 'lost' in the tank. So on Friday (15th Jan) I drove up to Sharnbrook Shrimp and bought a dozen of their blue velvet shrimp. I acclimatised them over a couple of hours by transferring a few tablespoons of tank water ever 15 minutes or so. After releasing, the shrimps all seemed okay for the rest of the day.
When I got up on Saturday morning, the shrimps seemed to have largely vanished. I did a 30% water change and some general cleaning, and when the lights went on the shrimps were conspicuous by their absence - it was very difficult to find any, although I did find a dead one that had gone pink. I found another dead one this morning (Sun), but can't see a mass of dead bodies. There should now be about 20 of them in there, but I have to search to find any. Shortly after adding the new shrimps, they were quite prominent and occasionally cruising around the tank, but now I can only see one or two lurking amongst the Glosso.
It's worth saying that the bamboo shrimp has permanently hidden itself since it was added, and has never even opened its fans, let alone engaged in normal filter-feeding behaviour. I am concerned for its survival.
Someone advised me yesterday that my tank temperature (25°C) was on the upper limit, so I've reduced to 23°C. I use a mixture of rainwater and tapwater to give KH 4° and GH 6°. I treat new water with Tetra Aquasafe.
Some details of my setup:
Tank size: 25 litres, but probably only 20 litres of water.
Filter: Eheim 2211 external canister, rated at 300 litres per hour I believe. Water returned by Lilly pipe and seems to give good circulation.
Heater: Hydor external inline, set to 25°C but now reduced to 23°C.
CO2: Pressurised, with inline diffuser. Drop checker is permanently green. Good 'mist' while lights are on, and oxygen bubbles rising from HC and Glosso.
NH3/NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: about 20 mg/l
KH: 4°
GH: 6°
pH: 6.5
Fert: TNC complete
So what's gone wrong? Why have all the shrimp, including the first batch, done a disappearing act overnight?
- Are they simply hiding?
- Have I stocked with shrimp too early?
- Poisoning? Copper? I certainly haven't used anything with copper, and the plants have had lots of water changes since being planted.
- Could there be something in either my tapwater or the water from my rainwater butt causing problems?
- Are my water parameters unsuitable? Was that person right about the temperature?
By the way, I know that my 200W heater is way overpowered for the tank, so to eliminate the risk of it sticking on I will be installing an STC-1000 temperature controller. Waiting for that to arrive.
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