Cant figure it out, Shrimp and Snails die.....except

[brandon12777]

Hey Everyone,

I finally got to the point of asking for help. Got back into the hobby at the beginning of the year after being out for years. I have a 20g tank the and I cant keep some RCS, Ghost, or Amano Shrimps alive. I also cant keep MTS snails or Ramshorn alive. The MTS is really a mystery because they always seemed to survive everything in the past. I would think maybe I just have a problem with inverts and some chemicals in the tank. It is a planted tank with Eco-complete and I use a little ferts in the first few weeks but got such crazy algae spikes I stopped. Also the plants are doing great without any ferts. I reason I know it's not just a invert issue is the Dwarf Mexican crayfish is thriving like a champ and the bladder snails breed enough to feed 3 pea puffers.

I have never seen the pea puffers eat or even go after anything other than the bladder snails. It's certainly possible they got the other snails but I kinda doubt it. When I put the MTS and Ramshorns in they looked ok for a short period then seemed to just die off. The Ramshorns actually lived a longer than the MTS by a decent margin.

I have tried on 3-4 different occasions to add RCS, Ghost and Amano shrimp. Did a real slow drip acclimation and everything. Right away the next morning there is a corpse or two or one stuck to the overflows. Sometimes I would free the stuck shrips only to have them just get stuck over and over on the overflow almost like they couldnt control themselves. Then again just corpses and corpses over a couple days until they were all dead. I think longest I have had a shrimp survive is 7-10 days.

Sorry of the long first post, I couldn't remember the old forums I used to frequent and this one seems really solid. Please let me know your thoughts, I am totally baffled.

Thanks,
Brandon

 

[Autumnsky]

Welcome to the community, sorry you had to have a problem to join in.

That shrimp problem sounds very discouraging, and could get expensive.

We can try and help figure out the problem.

Is the tank brand new or a used tank?

If it is a used tank, copper might have been used to treat ill fish before you got it. Or if you used any medication containing copper since getting the tank.

The Dwarf cray is bigger and maybe the traces are enough to kill the smaller more sensitive shrimp, and the DC is larger and not as sensitive. Just a thought.

Starting with the water, what are the parameters?

Ammonia
Nitrite
NitrAte

pH

TDS / Total Dissolved Solids

GH /General hardness

KH/ Alkalinity / Carbonate hardness / Calcium

Did you use any additive for algae control?

What kind of ferts did you use?

What did you do to cycle the tank? Are you familiar with the nitrification cycle?

There is a really useful article link in my signature to help when You are getting started with a new tank / or new to hobby. Get you the basics of the nitrification cycle. Some additional links will be in there as well.

 

[TMaier]

Any symptoms? Like not crawling right, listing to the side, falling over. Like they are drunk?

 

[brandon12777]

Welcome to the community, sorry you had to have a problem to join in.

That shrimp problem sounds very discouraging, and could get expensive.

We can try and help figure out the problem.

Is the tank brand new or a used tank?
Brand new IM Nuvo 20

If it is a used tank, copper might have been used to treat ill fish before you got it. Or if you used any medication containing copper since getting the tank.

The Dwarf cray is bigger and maybe the traces are enough to kill the smaller more sensitive shrimp, and the DC is larger and not as sensitive. Just a thought.

Starting with the water, what are the parameters?

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
NitrAte 0


pH 7.6-8.0? I hate ambiguous colors

TDS / Total Dissolved Solids 894, off the charts?

GH /General hardness almost 200ppm

KH/ Alkalinity / Carbonate hardness / Calcium Only have test for KH 200ppm

Did you use any additive for algae control? Nothing really, mostly reduced lights, cleaning and water changes.

What kind of ferts did you use? Flourish and Flourish Excel, not at the same time and only 2-3 doses before I decided I didnt need it.

What did you do to cycle the tank? Are you familiar with the nitrification cycle? Yes, I used to have several Cichlid tanks 2 75g and 2 125g. This is really my first small and truly planted tank. Cycled with ammonia probably took 3-4 weeks dont remember. Tank filtration now is really really good. I dont think I've ever even seen any Nitrates, I do 25% WCs every Sunday.

Super big thanks for everyone's thoughts first time trying inverts(other than MTS I couldn't kill).

 

[libertybelle]

Wow that tds really stands out. That’s like 3-4 times the maximum range I’ve seen listed for cherries. I don’t have a meter myself so I didn’t even know what my tank is at but it seems like if they number is real it’s a pretty likely culprit for what’s making your shrimp not be able to acclimate to your water.

Is your tap / other tanks also that high of tds?

 

[Autumnsky]

Yes, very high TDS and if you check your tap water and it is the same or close, you might consider using RO / RODI! And a remineralizer.

 

[brandon12777]

Tap is 600. I guess I'll start using like 3/4 RO/DI and 1/4 Tap or some ratio that gets the TDS down to 100-150.

Thanks I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

[brandon12777]

Any symptoms? Like not crawling right, listing to the side, falling over. Like they are drunk?

That is a good description of how they act for sure, also getting stuck on the overflow grates too. Constantly.

Got my TDS down to 300 now. Been doing little 5-10% changes. Do you think the TDS could be the answer for the snails too? The MTS really surprised me on an old Cichlid tank I ran ONLY tap water ever and there was about a million MTS in there.

 

[TMaier]

Mine died from heavy metal poisoning from the substrate. Black Diamond Blasting sand. Anything grazing off the substrate was impacted. It did not show up in water tests. My nerite that grazed off plants and glass was not impacted. Only substrate grazers. Heavy metal impact the nervous system. They start acting drunk until they just fall over and can’t go anymore.