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RCS just dying

Mark Allen

Mark Allen

Member
Joined
20 Aug 2016
Messages
106
Location
Southampton
Hi all,

I put a job load of RCS in my 60ltr tank and all but one are dead.
Their backs split and showed white across it. From a Google search they couldn't shed their shell?

Temp 24, pH 7.4, gh and kh are in limits. I added tantra mineral stone. They had moss. I don't use RO water.

They never really fed from putting them in, a couple did. But they swam around etc...

Then in days their backs split.

My only thing left is CO2, I've read it's a no no and others say it's fine so i cannot be sure.

I have 1 left out of the whole lot. I guess he's a tough one.
 
Sounds like from your description they couldn't adapt to your water parameters very well. How did you acclimate them? What's your gH at? Is your tank fully cycled? Any hint of ammonia and nitrite will give you grief

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Within limits...?

As in, did you measure Kh, Gh? pH, tds? What readings did you get? :)
 
Ph = 7.4
GH and KH I dont remember. I wrote it down but lost the paper. I can retest. I just remember it was in limits.
The LFS water they were in was pH 7.4 as well, but RO water.

As for acclimatising, I spent ages putting a tiny amount of water in every 10 minutes. I did read about the drip method, but thought a little bit over a few hours would be just as good.

Tank was cycled, but not mature (i.e. 6 months +) but I witnessed the ammonia and nitrite spike, nitrate rise and ammonia and nitrites were a 0. Just like I do on any tank. All fish in there are fine.
 
Our water is hard, live in Southampton. But it wasnt over limits. Ill test it again tomorrow and post results.

Perhaps RO water would be my cure though?
 
Yeah white possibly the cure. Im thinking of keeping them too but our water is quite hard near Leicester

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Certainly sounds like moulting issues so I'd check tds gh and kh as others have suggested.
 
ok, I retested the water.

KH 120-180 ppm / 6.7 - 10.07
GH 180 ppm / 10.07 ppm
TDS - I have a meter at work I can bring home to test it.

From reading your link from above our water basically killed them. So much different informaiton on the internet. I read the wrong stuff it turns out.

My worry is my GH test is at the top of the scale too. It matches the colour, but potentially could be over a bit more still.

Seeing that I have too harder water, would you recommend RO water of rain water? I may get a little 12ltr tank and keep shrimp in there totally seperate from everything else
 
Sorry I'm confused.
The thread & OP say Red Cherry Shrimp (RCS)
The link regarding care is for Crystal Red Shrimp (CRS)
The former will tolerate a wider range of water parameters than the latter.
 
Ah yeah, so my limits are OK but maybe not ideal as at the top.

To confirm, I'm referring to RCS
 
That kh is really high. be interested to see tds as I go more by that. You could cut your tap water with ro to drop the readings.
 
Mark Allen said:
ok, I retested the water.

KH 120-180 ppm / 6.7 - 10.07
GH 180 ppm / 10.07 ppm
TDS - I have a meter at work I can bring home to test it.

From reading your link from above our water basically killed them. So much different informaiton on the internet. I read the wrong stuff it turns out.

My worry is my GH test is at the top of the scale too. It matches the colour, but potentially could be over a bit more still.

Seeing that I have too harder water, would you recommend RO water of rain water? I may get a little 12ltr tank and keep shrimp in there totally seperate from everything else
Click to expand...

what inhabitants are in with the shrimp? They could be interfering with moulting, definitely a good idea to set-up a separate tank for your shrimp; if only to breed them and have your own supply :)
 
Here are my parameters and I have no issues for your reference:

- Neocaridina (RCS): 4-8 gH (150 - 250 TDS), 2-3 kH, pH 6.0 - 7.2, Pressurized CO2
- Caridina (CRS/CBS): 4-7 gH (150 - 225 TDS), 1-2 kH, pH 6.6 - 7.2, No CO2

It varies quite a bit because I'm a bit lazy when it comes to matching water going in with water going in. My tap water is about 10-20 TDS, since it's summer time right now I keep topping off the water and it slowly increases. When I do WC in my larger tanks I forget to add more equilibrium back in so the gH drops low sometimes, but I always increase it back up slowly to what I want.

Did you witness ammonia/nitrite spikes while you had them in there? If so, that's most likely why they passed. Neos are usually pretty hardy in terms of gH/kH but from my experience any nitrite/ammonia and they are done.
 
I had some white cloud minnows, as it said they were safe with them. I had 6 of those. All in a 60ltr tank, so quite spacious.

I never noticed a spike, but I wasnt testing it 2/3 times a day. How often would you have to test to notice the spike come and go?

I read that RCS dont load the bio that much, so I wasnt too worried about putting a load in. Perhaps it was a bio load shock as the tank was only supporting 6 minnows.
 
White cloud minnows will eat shrimplets so I wouldn't say shrimp safe. They may even take juveniles. Had the tank cycled before you added the shrimp? adding 10 to 20 shrimp to a 60l wouldn't cause a spike but you didn't specify how many you added at one time?
 
Thats annoying, I read on a shrimp site they were. Internet is full of duff info.

10 from the LFS, then 20 from a local breeder as so much cheaper.
 
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