Cherry shrimp cracking in half. PLZ HELP
- Thread starter Bfishin3
- Start date
I believe there may not be anything wrong with the shrimp. They may just be molting (normal), but when still soft (very shortly after shedding), the pleco, the tetras, or both may be making meals out of them, leaving pieces and shells around. Just a hunch.
Some molting issues are due to probs with gh. Check ur gh.
It's referred to as white ring of death and is a molting issue. Either not enough protein in the diet or insufficient gh/kh or calcium issues. I have heard that a good quick way to help is feed blanched kale. Kale contains high levels of calcium and magnesium and other micronutrients. Shrimp need a diet high in protein 45%+. Other ways to help increase calcium effectively are cuttle bone and baked egg shell finely ground into powder and added sparingly to the water.
I was also thinking a lack of calcium in the water, calcium carbonate is deposited in the exoskeleton after shedding and helps the shells harden.
It appears you have a HOB filter, so you could put a porous bag of crushed aragonite in, or under the overflow of the filter to add calcium to see if it helps, or simply add some to the substrate. This especially helps if your tap water is low in alkalinity.
If the tap water is normally moderate or high, it could be that just upping your water change schedule and volume could help.
Your plants could be using the tap water buffer quickly, and producing carbon dioxide which further exhausts the available calcium in the water for the shrimp, and more frequent water changes could keep it high enough.
If your tap water is low in alkalinity water changes may not help, so then the aragonite or some other calcium supplement may be needed.
Calcium balance in crustaceans: nutritional aspects of ...pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › ...
It appears you have a HOB filter, so you could put a porous bag of crushed aragonite in, or under the overflow of the filter to add calcium to see if it helps, or simply add some to the substrate. This especially helps if your tap water is low in alkalinity.
If the tap water is normally moderate or high, it could be that just upping your water change schedule and volume could help.
Your plants could be using the tap water buffer quickly, and producing carbon dioxide which further exhausts the available calcium in the water for the shrimp, and more frequent water changes could keep it high enough.
If your tap water is low in alkalinity water changes may not help, so then the aragonite or some other calcium supplement may be needed.
Calcium balance in crustaceans: nutritional aspects of ...pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › ...
Ok thanks alot I'm trying everything I've been feeding blanched kale and trying to give a little more protein
