Ammano Shrimps keep dying

[gazjones20]

HI, over the last few weeks i have bought numerous amano shrimp and cherry shrimps for my tank. they all seem to last a few days before they start behaving wierd and then die. They start to lie on their sides and twitch quite a bit before jumpin up and swimming off before repeating the process again. I have tested my water numerous times and my local fish shop have tested the water and cant seem to find any problems with it. I recently tested for copper and its zero. I dont have any fish that would harm them and i have plenty of live plants in there. I have a rock shrimp in there and he is doing fine. Cant seem to figure it out and would appreciate any advise.

Thanks

 

[bs6749]

What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels in the tank?

 

[BigJim]

What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels in the tank?

+1

Shrimp are rather sensitive to water quality.

 

[7Enigma]

My most likely guess would be acclimation issues. What is your typical acclimation procedure for introducing new fish/inverts? Typically you want a slow acclimation, and doubly so for sensitive inverts such as shrimp. I would recommend removing 1/2-2/3 of the water in the bag, then float the bag in the tank. Every 15min or so add 10-20% of the total bag volume to the bag with tank water. keep doing this for at least an hour and then add the shrimp in. Alternatively (and better IMO) you can setup a drip acclimation where you use a small piece of tubing to slowly drip water from the tank into the bag containing the shrimp (insulate the bag so the temp is similar). This is a much gentler method but requires a bit of work to get the right flow rate.

Bottom line is you want a very slow transition in both temperature and chemistry from the old water to the new.

 

[mgamer20o0]

the level of copper that kills them tends to be lower then what will show up on tests. ever treated with ich? copper pipes in the house? though its prob the water.

 

[7Enigma]

the level of copper that kills them tends to be lower then what will show up on tests. ever treated with ich? copper pipes in the house? though its prob the water.

I had that same thought until I saw he had a rock shrimp in there and it seems to be fine. I don't know anything about rock shrimp, but if they are similar to other shrimp inverts copper is likely not a problem. I don't think they can get "acclimated" to copper like they can higher levels of dissolved solids.

 

[bs6749]

Copper pipes aren't going to kill off the shrimp. I've kept higher grade CRS/CBS and used tap and RO mixed and they have done just fine, not to mention my RCS, yellow shrimp, and snowball shrimp, which get straight tap. All copper pipes and lots of iron in the water. No water quality related shrimp deaths.