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My shrimps are dying

sai_786

sai_786

Member
Joined
27 Nov 2023
Messages
104
Location
INDIA
Hi guys here with this post I am sharing you my planted aquarium in that daily I am loosing some shrimp in it and my water parameters are
Water RO And re mineralized with seachem equilibrium
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Ph7.2
Gh 107.4 (6degrees)
TDs 290
Soil Ada
Fertilizer Seachem
Weekly water change 50%
Kindly Help me
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New video by PM Narendhar

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TDS is, I think, advised as closer to 170 for shrimps. Is the ADA soil an issue perhaps? And what GH says about stability.
 
AlecF said:
TDS is, I think, advised as closer to 170 for shrimps. Is the ADA soil an issue perhaps? And what GH says about stability.
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Ya due to Gh low I have re mineralized them and I use Ada soil
 
ElleDee said:
What kind of shrimp? How long have you had them? Are they fully grown? Where they locally bred or imported? How old is your tank? Are you running CO2? (Your linked video is not working for me.)
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Its neo caridina its been a 3 months old and its almost adult and its locally bred and my tank was established in October 2023 yes I run co2
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New video by PM Narendhar

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My initial suspicions in order of perceived likelihood are 1) your shrimp are having trouble adapting to your tank, 2) you are introducing fatal instability when you do water changes, or 3) your CO2 is causing a problem. I don't run CO2 myself, so I can't troubleshoot that possibility.

In general, adult shrimp do a much worse job at adapting to a new environment than juveniles. Even if your parameters are well within the usual range for neocaridina, if they are different enough from the water the shrimp are used to it can be fatal. This process can be slow and drawn out with sporadic deaths over a couple of months. Your best bet is to hope the shrimp breed before they die, because their offspring will be native to your water and won't suffer the same fate. I went through this with my original neocaridina and it was terrible because I tried so hard to get everything right. The descendants of the original 16 have made a huge and thriving colony that gives me no trouble, but the beginning was very discouraging.

As for water changes, you can do big ones as long as the water you replace is almost the same as the water you remove. Additionally, I have heard that some shrimp colonies are more sensitive about small changes than others. It's quite common to see experienced shrimp keepers do changes of 10% or less and add the new water very slowly, but then you also see planted tanks filled with shrimp that do huge water changes without thinking twice. I started out very conservative (remember, my originals kept dying), but I do big water changes now without issue. I do use a TDS pen to make sure there's no big swing, but mostly I think my particular shrimp aren't that sensitive? Not everyone has that experience though.

I'm not a master shrimp keeper, just someone who went through a tough time and did a lot of reading trying to fix it. Others may have a different diagnosis for you.
 
ElleDee said:
My initial suspicions in order of perceived likelihood are 1) your shrimp are having trouble adapting to your tank, 2) you are introducing fatal instability when you do water changes, or 3) your CO2 is causing a problem. I don't run CO2 myself, so I can't troubleshoot that possibility.

In general, adult shrimp do a much worse job at adapting to a new environment than juveniles. Even if your parameters are well within the usual range for neocaridina, if they are different enough from the water the shrimp are used to it can be fatal. This process can be slow and drawn out with sporadic deaths over a couple of months. Your best bet is to hope the shrimp breed before they die, because their offspring will be native to your water and won't suffer the same fate. I went through this with my original neocaridina and it was terrible because I tried so hard to get everything right. The descendants of the original 16 have made a huge and thriving colony that gives me no trouble, but the beginning was very discouraging.

As for water changes, you can do big ones as long as the water you replace is almost the same as the water you remove. Additionally, I have heard that some shrimp colonies are more sensitive about small changes than others. It's quite common to see experienced shrimp keepers do changes of 10% or less and add the new water very slowly, but then you also see planted tanks filled with shrimp that do huge water changes without thinking twice. I started out very conservative (remember, my originals kept dying), but I do big water changes now without issue. I do use a TDS pen to make sure there's no big swing, but mostly I think my particular shrimp aren't that sensitive? Not everyone has that experience though.

I'm not a master shrimp keeper, just someone who went through a tough time and did a lot of reading trying to fix it. Others may have a different diagnosis for you.
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Hey really thanks a lot for taking time to educate me mate love you I shall make partial water change and hope my TDs is high and pH is high so first and Fore most I shall reduce them and update you love you
 
sai_786 said:
Hey really thanks a lot for taking time to educate me mate love you I shall make partial water change and hope my TDs is high and pH is high so first and Fore most I shall reduce them and update you love you
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I don't think your parameters are the problem! Swinging parameters are likely responsible for your problems in the first place, and chasing the "ideal" water will likely do more harm than good. You should focus on stability.
 
ElleDee said:
I don't think your parameters are the problem! Swinging parameters are likely responsible for your problems in the first place, and chasing the "ideal" water will likely do more harm than good. You should focus on stability.
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Yes I am working on it and trying to reduce the TDS in first place and seems some Ph is high too
 
ElleDee said:
I don't think your parameters are the problem! Swinging parameters are likely responsible for your problems in the first place, and chasing the "ideal" water will likely do more harm than good. You should focus on stability.
Click to expand...
This is it! Listen to @ElleDee - @sai_786 , while your TDS is certainly on the higher end, keep in mind it’s the swings that mostly cause troubles with shrimps. You can change all the water you want in a shrimp tank as long as you make sure the tank water and WC water hardness and TDS is approximately the same. Measure your TDS before WC and make sure your WC water is not deviating more than say 10%. With shrimps you want to make changes slowly. A question that I think no one asked is what you are feeding your shrimps?

For what it’s worth, I currently keep happy Tangerine, Cherry, Tiger and Crystal red/Bee shrimps at 4.5 dGH, 0.5 dKH, pH 6.2-6.3, TDS 80 / 160 uS/cm, 22-23 C. I feed with algae wafers, protein and mineral sticks, Kale and peeled Zucchini, add botanicals on a regular basis. It’s been a very, very long time since I saw a prematurely dead or struggling shrimp in my shrimp tank.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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MichaelJ said:
This is it! Listen to @ElleDee - @sai_786 , while your TDS is certainly on the higher end, keep in mind it’s the swings that mostly cause troubles with shrimps. You can change all the water you want in a shrimp tank as long as you make sure the tank water and WC water hardness and TDS is approximately the same. Measure your TDS before WC and make sure your WC water is not deviating more than say 10%. With shrimps you want to make changes slowly. A question that I think no one asked is what you are feeding your shrimps?

For what it’s worth, I currently keep happy Tangerine, Cherry, Tiger and Crystal red/Bee shrimps at 4.5 dGH, 0.5 dKH, pH 6.2-6.3, TDS 80 / 160 uS/cm, 22-23 C. I feed with algae wafers, protein and mineral sticks, Kale and peeled Zucchini, add botanicals on a regular basis. It’s been a very, very long time since I saw a prematurely dead or struggling shrimp in my shrimp tank.

Cheers,
Michael
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Thanks mate I feed algae wafers and some vegetables like broccoli carrot spinach etc I shall and I am using ro water only but to raise the Gh to 4 I have used to Equilibrium from seachem that's the issue but even after changing the water to 50% the TDS is still 220 hope there might be a problem with soil its new ADA soil established by November 2023 kindly advice me how to fix this
 
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sai_786 said:
Thanks mate I feed algae wafers and some vegetables like broccoli carrot spinach etc I shall and I am using ro water only but to raise the Gh to 4 I have used to Equilibrium from seachem that's the issue but even after changing the water to 50% the TDS is still 220 hope there might be a problem with soil its new ADA soil established by November 2023 kindly advice me how to fix this
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Just by stop using Equilibrium and instead use food-grade Gypsum Salt (CaSO4) and food-grade Epsom Salt (MgSO4) you can make a huge dent in the TDS (reduce it by around 40 ppm for your 4 dGH target). It's likely your soil is still leaching - and will do so for a while (I am not too familiar with ADA soil). There is no other way around this as far as I can tell than just keep changing water regularly until it eventually stabilize... don't get too caught up on hitting a specific TDS... as long as you are in the 100-150 ppm range (200-300 uS/cm) it should be fine. The reason my TDS is so low (relatively) is because I also fertilize my densely planted shrimp tank very leanly.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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MichaelJ said:
Just by stop using Equilibrium and instead use food-grade Gypsum Salt (CaSO4) and food-grade Epsom Salt (MgSO4) you can make a huge dent in the TDS (reduce it by around 40 ppm for your 4 dGH target). It's likely your soil is still leaching - and will do so for a while (I am not too familiar with ADA soil). There is no other way around this as far as I can tell than just keep changing water regularly until it eventually stabilize... don't get too caught up on hitting a specific TDS... as long as you are in the 100-150 ppm range (200-300 uS/cm) it should be fine. The reason my TDS is so low (relatively) is because I also fertilize my densely planted shrimp tank very leanly.

Cheers,
Michael
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Can I reduce or adjust the TDS of my RO water to match with 4dkh
 
sai_786 said:
Can I reduce or adjust the TDS of my RO water to match with 4dkh
Click to expand...

Keep your dGH at around 4 with a Ca Mg ratio around 3:1. The dKH (alkalinity) doesn’t matter to your shrimps as long as your pH wont fall through the floor (< ~6.0). That’s all. You got all the advice you need on this thread to be a successful shrimp keeper - keep re-reading and have patience 🙏

Cheers,
Michael
 
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MichaelJ said:
Keep your dGH at around 4 with a Ca Mg ratio around 3:1. The dKH (alkalinity) doesn’t matter to your shrimps as long as your pH wont fall through the floor (< ~6.0). That’s all. You got all the advice you need on this thread to be a successful shrimp keeper - keep re-reading and have patience 🙏

Cheers,
Michael
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Thank you Michael
 
I have been following this thread as am also new to keeping shrimp. Great to learn together.
My little tank has a 25w Aquael Ultra. I have two and use the 2nd to heat the water change water to the same temperature prior to adding to the tank. I chose this heater as its one of the smallest I could find on the market that also displays the temperature.
I also wanted two for if one fails I have a backup.
Edit: my tank is set to 23.
 
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