My Completed 5.5 gallon RCS Tank

[KingMaddog]

My shrimp are getting their color back! I snapped a couple pics of females I spotted today that are carrying eggs. I counted about 6 or 7 pregnant shrimp.

About the cloudiness of the water..... I changed filters and my wife threw out the old media before I could stop her so my tank is going through a mini cycle.

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[Fresh2o]

Regarding the improved coloration, maybe it's the diet or perhaps they are getting settled in and comfortable. That's great.

 

[KingMaddog]

I woke up this morning to most of my RCS dead on the substrate. I don't know what happened. If the ones I have left don't survive, I'm gonna clean this 5 gallon tank and put it away. I will be getting a 10 gallon to try again with all fake plants and black sand for the next try at getting a good colony of RCS. I'm sad that a lot of them still had eggs under their belly.

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[ClearVision94]

Shrimps are highly sensitive to ammonia. When the filter was changed, that removed most of the bacteria needed to keep ammonia levels down. If it was a new tank then it's not good for shrimps. They need aged tanks to survive.


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[KingMaddog]

Well all my shrimp died off. I am now planning a new 10 gallon RCS tank.

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[RadMax8]

Why get a different tank? You had a really neat setup here!

The "mini cycle" might have been a little larger than you thought, and as was stated before shrimp are very sensitive to ammonia. I would maybe just toss some food in there to rot, thus feeding the bacteria, and then test your water. When you see 0 ppm ammonia, add some more shrimp!

Good luck!

 

[KingMaddog]

Why get a different tank? You had a really neat setup here!

The "mini cycle" might have been a little larger than you thought, and as was stated before shrimp are very sensitive to ammonia. I would maybe just toss some food in there to rot, thus feeding the bacteria, and then test your water. When you see 0 ppm ammonia, add some more shrimp!

Good luck!

That would be a good idea but all my plants except for the aponogeton have died too. I had no luck with live plants. I plan on going with a 10 gallon with black gravel and fake plants.

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[Prawfishy]

I don't think I've ever heard of any success in no live plant shrimp colony. I'd try moss. A ton of moss. those are impossible to kill. Leave your tank in a place in the house that has indirect lighting, a sponge filter and 20% weekly water change should be just fine.


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[Aquaman-13]

This is my 5.5 gallons rimless low tech tank with a HOB filter and dual T5 lighting. It is stocked with 12 red cherry shrimps, 2 otos and there would be 10 SS grade CRS in less than two days. As for plants I have java fern, java moss and crypts. If I have success with it its beacause I let it cycled with celestial pearl danios for about a month before adding the shrimps. It does 2 years now that I have this tank and I never had an issue. I think you should retry with your 5.5 but let it cycle with small hardy fish before adding any shrimps.

 

[Aquaman-13]

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