So at a CCA meeting in november, I got 10 small cherry shrimp from an auction.
not the best color, but they were fun to watch as they swam around and ate algae.
The tank was mature, I had a fish in it before. I also made sure the water was in good condition for the shrimp beforehand.
My water is good for them, it has a lot of iron, no copper. It is also very hard.
The temperature is also good, about 75F.
They were fine until now, swimming fine, eating, molting, no signs of any illness or anything.
Now, all of a sudden, they are just dropping dead on the spot.
One red one (more red than the others) was just sitting on the sponge of the filter picking things off. The night before it was walking around looking for food, swimming around the filter picking at algae. I looked at it in the morning.
I come back from school and look at it, it's still in the same spot, but not moving anything. I poke it lightly with a straw (I know shrimp will dart away from any unfamiliar object that touches them) and it just flops over on to the sand below, dead and pale.
Nothing else wrong with it other than the fact that it was pale and dead.
I did a water change thinking it was something with nitrates. I do a 50% water change, and find two more dead. same thing, just dead on the spot they were last, pale. It's a small tank, so I net all the remaining shrimp out and test the water- it reads no nitrates or ammonia.
yeah that was a dumb move, doing the water test after the water change, but I was just trying to see if the water was safe for the shrimp to be put back in.
I put the shrimp back and they get back to their normal routines of swimming around looking for algae.
Today I find one shrimp that was eating algae off of a small plant. pale, frozen in place. I poke it with the straw, and it wouldn't move. Dead.
Anyone know what's happening?
tank is a 1.5 gallon planted tank with a hang on back filter, now only 6 shrimp.
not the best color, but they were fun to watch as they swam around and ate algae.
The tank was mature, I had a fish in it before. I also made sure the water was in good condition for the shrimp beforehand.
My water is good for them, it has a lot of iron, no copper. It is also very hard.
The temperature is also good, about 75F.
They were fine until now, swimming fine, eating, molting, no signs of any illness or anything.
Now, all of a sudden, they are just dropping dead on the spot.
One red one (more red than the others) was just sitting on the sponge of the filter picking things off. The night before it was walking around looking for food, swimming around the filter picking at algae. I looked at it in the morning.
I come back from school and look at it, it's still in the same spot, but not moving anything. I poke it lightly with a straw (I know shrimp will dart away from any unfamiliar object that touches them) and it just flops over on to the sand below, dead and pale.
Nothing else wrong with it other than the fact that it was pale and dead.
I did a water change thinking it was something with nitrates. I do a 50% water change, and find two more dead. same thing, just dead on the spot they were last, pale. It's a small tank, so I net all the remaining shrimp out and test the water- it reads no nitrates or ammonia.
yeah that was a dumb move, doing the water test after the water change, but I was just trying to see if the water was safe for the shrimp to be put back in.
I put the shrimp back and they get back to their normal routines of swimming around looking for algae.
Today I find one shrimp that was eating algae off of a small plant. pale, frozen in place. I poke it with the straw, and it wouldn't move. Dead.
Anyone know what's happening?
tank is a 1.5 gallon planted tank with a hang on back filter, now only 6 shrimp.
