Brown or Black patches on NeoCardina Shrimp

[JavierLW]

Does anyone know what these brown patches are that are either behind the eye of my shrimp or sometimes on the top near where the saddle is?

Ive had these shrimp for about 6 weeks and it's initial colony of 7 has grown to at least 20 and I have seen no deaths. So I am not sure if this just normal like a bad molt, or it's the food they are eating, or something else?

I used to think maybe it was lack of oxygen but I recently got a air stone.

It could be maybe because my TDS got out of hand and got as high as 510ppm, maybe due to using a Magic Shell and Mr. Turtle, along with de-clorinating tap water and the initial cycle.

I have sense got it down to just below 300, by diluting it with RO water and sometimes using GH/KH+ Remineralizer.

Water Parameters Currently
--------------------------------

Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 0
Nitrate - ~10
PH - 7.4
KH - 3 (usually between 3 and 4)
GH - 14 (was up to 25 when TDS was near 500)

Thanks to anyone who has seen this before, this is my first time keeping shrimp.

 

[Autumnsky]

Looks like it could be this
see item #7 Chitinolytic bacterial disease, Shell disease, Brown spot disease, Black spot disease, Burned spot disease, Rust disease
https://www.aquariumcreation.com/blogs/news/freshwater-shrimp-diseases

It would be ideal to get the water parameters under control too.

Water changing schedule, small amounts more frequently to keep from having large swings in the parameters.

Pay attention to how much and what you are feeding. The shrimp will need a food with good minerals in it.

They do not need large amounts of food, and old food build up in the substrate is not good and you should clean it.

TDS measures everything - all dissolved solids, which cna include ferts and water conditioner, so you aren't sure what exactly what is in the mix. That is why the Kh and GH are useful to know .

As you saw in your tank, there was high GH.

Try doing a GH test of your tap water and compare the difference. It might help you to see if there was buildup in the tank from the additives you put in the tank, or it could be from the tank water evaporating and then adding more tap water to replace it.

Ideally you can use RO to refill evaporation as long as you are still doing regular water changes. Tank still needs minerals and doing water changes helps that. More so if you have plants and don't fertilize.

 

[JavierLW]

Thanks, it could be that. On some of the shrimp like my largest female that has been berried 2 or 3 times already, she had it and it eventually went away, I am thinking as I got the TDS down (and thus got more of the extra non-GH/KH ingredients).

But a few have it like this one that I took the picture of, and I was always curious.

At the beginning of the tank, I used all tap water. Our tap Water in Milwaukee is pretty hard to begin with, and then of course adding dechlorinater creates extra TDS.

So for the past month or so I have been purely using RO Water.

Everyday as long as the PH and KH are still decent, I have been replacing a Gallon with RO Water.

But for normal 15% water changes or when the KH seems to get too low, I have been remineralizing the RO Water with GH/KH+.
Usually to where it registers at 150TDS which means it's 50KH and 100GH according to the ratio on the container.

Either way brings the TDS down and I figure by now it's probably gotten rid of most of the garbage hopefully.

I do fertilize the tank with Aquarium Coop's Easy Green twice a week, I have a LOT Of plants. Nitrates are always pretty low (10) by themselves so I figure it needs it, and Phosphates have been 0 for a long time.

I only feed the shrimp specifically twice a week and usually with Shrimp King's Complete. I only give them one pellet each time. The rest of the time they mainly just forage for algae and biofilm.

I have 8 Scarlet Endlers as well, and I feed them twice a day with a large variety of food, but usually just a tiny bit at a time. They have small little mouths and I have to crush everything and they usually eat for a couple minutes and then they go back to their usual social behavior.

Sometimes food falls down to the shrimp, but if I over do it I usually scoop it back up in the net if I can.

I think I really noticed this phenomenon the first time I did a water change with tap water. I was doing the method where you add the declorinator into the tank directly and then added the water, with the idea that the declorinator works instantly.

I also didnt have a air stone until this week, so I was relying on the plants for oxygen and the tank is a low flow sort of tank due to the endlers dont like to get blown around too much.

Looks like it could be this
see item #7 Chitinolytic bacterial disease, Shell disease, Brown spot disease, Black spot disease, Burned spot disease, Rust disease
https://www.aquariumcreation.com/blogs/news/freshwater-shrimp-diseases

It would be ideal to get the water parameters under control too.

Water changing schedule, small amounts more frequently to keep from having large swings in the parameters.

Pay attention to how much and what you are feeding. The shrimp will need a food with good minerals in it.

They do not need large amounts of food, and old food build up in the substrate is not good and you should clean it.

TDS measures everything - all dissolved solids, which cna include ferts and water conditioner, so you aren't sure what exactly what is in the mix. That is why the Kh and GH are useful to know .

As you saw in your tank, there was high GH.

Try doing a GH test of your tap water and compare the difference. It might help you to see if there was buildup in the tank from the additives you put in the tank, or it could be from the tank water evaporating and then adding more tap water to replace it.

Ideally you can use RO to refill evaporation as long as you are still doing regular water changes. Tank still needs minerals and doing water changes helps that. More so if you have plants and don't fertilize.

 

[Autumnsky]

It sounds like you have started to adapt to what you need. I once had a white crayfish and it got a large patch of the blackish and after a few molts it was completely gone. So maybe as well it is more on the outside of the shell and will molt off. I would remove any molts to get the bscterua out of the tank.