I have no idea why my ghost shrimp keep biting the dust. I have been doing normal water changes 1 once a week, i only lightly dose with khso4 and some microferts. But every time i add more shrimp they last 1-3days max and i come in and they are solid white and dead. What can be causing this? I had shrimp for a year or so and it’s just recently this has happened. I also dose the liquid co2 stuff but have cut that way down to once or twice a week at 5ml for my 60gal. Any light on this matter?

Thanks

Seachem Excel (CO2 stuff) contains glutaraldehyde, which is definitely not good for shrimp. I really can't say how sensitive shrimp are to this stuff -- you can easily find more info on this on the internet. Perhaps light doses are fine.

My shrimp seem to go into a let's-congregate-in-the-corner-and-not-eat funk when my nitrates get to around 50ppm or above. Within 2 minutes of completing a 50% water change, they are back into action, eating again. I cannot say for sure that the nitrates are causing this, but my WCs fix something. This has not happened to me in months, mostly because I cut down on KNO3 dosing, substituting K2SO4.

well i stopped dosing the liquid co2 and most of them seem to be making it this time, i havent dosed any ferts in a few days just to see if that may also be causing it. I am going to dose today except for the liquid co2 and will see how it goes.

I dose EI in my 180 and my shrimp are fine.......I have Amano and some cherries, so I think you will be okay with your nutes.

I think it was the excel as this has caused issues for others..........

As long as you keep up your weekly WC you should be okay from an overdose standpoint........

CRS's are the most sensitive species I know of to NO3.
They are in bred like crazy and sensitive to ions.

and yet here we have a noted CRS breeder using EI and has no issues:


I've gone to 160 ppm or a tad higher for over a week with a few Amano deaths.
Far higher than you should have if you keep shrimp.

Generally, all you do is dose a little less and if the plants are effected, add a bit more KNO3 is all. The other thing is do more water changes, just like breeders do with Discus.

These are common sense approaches.
However, as you can clearly see, the CRS's are fine and breeding in profusion in Rain's tank's.

What ferts do u put in ur CRS tanks? - Page 2 - The Planted Tank Forum

I'd suggest using culls, then go from there, acclimate very slowly also, so they are use to higher TDS's from all the ferts we add etc, not just dump them in all at once like many folks do.

I've never had any issues with Cherries or Amano's, and that's after many years......

I'll try some CRS's but I have more toxiciology related interest with them.

Regards,
Tom Barr

could overdosing traces kill the little guys? Someone mentioned that too much copper or iron may kill them.

Don't know about iron but copper can kill them.

Question is, how much trace and what specifically.
There is no data on this and folks like myth making, fear based aquarium keeping etc.
But when I question them, suddenly they act like they know everything, but resort to personal semantics and ego rather than doing a darn thing to measure and test

I got some more CRS for this reason and can do such test now. Be a bit before I get culls, but I can measure Copper very well and most nutrients.

I'll use a pair of small bare bottom tank without plants.
This way I know it'll be due to the ferts alone vs the control(no ferts).

I'd figure if you like shrimps, and bred them, want to learn more about them, then you need to know the real limits. You also should take care and have some ethics about testing them as well. Lose a few to save many.

They are culls anyway.

So it's not like you are taking them away from nature, or not getting any good use from them. Keeping them for your own personal enjoyment is hardly ethical in and of itself

Shrimp slavery

Regards,
Tom Barr

lol shrimp slavery... never really looked at it that way

Well I keep losing my ghosts when I add them and I haven’t been dosing excel.

My other question would be, does excess CO2 kill them? If the fish are not acting funny i am assuming that my co2 is not too high, and since co2 rises I would assume the bottom of the tank were they live should be relatively ok, but in any case can excess co2 kill them?

I doubt that your CO2 is killing them.

We may be missing the obvious here, but you are not overfeeding them, are you? I don't know much about ghost shrimp, but CRSs have eyes bigger than their stomachs. I killed a few by putting pellets in my tank specifically for them. Later, I heard that overfeeding can kill them and started letting them find their own food in the form of algae and from left over fish food scraps. I haven't had a loss in a long time since then.

Another possibility: I did once kill a bunch of CRSs with copper, and the remnants of that copper lasted a month or two in my tank. Done any ich eradication with copper-based medicine recently?