Pumpkin shrimp dying.

[calfishguy]

Hi everyone.

I am at a loss here and don't know what I'm doing wrong. Last Wednesday I received 15 pumpkin shrimp. After 2 days in an insolated box and in a breather bag I had 1 DOA. Since then 4 additional shrimp have died. Almost one per day. They were drip acclimated for 3 hours and are housed in my 29 gallon tank alone. The tank has an ac 30 and fluval c3 both with sponges over the intake. My ammonia is 0 nitrite 0 nitrates 5 and pH 8. The tank is cycled and kept at 80°F. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

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[calfishguy]

Hey guys I found yet another deceased shrimp today. I retested the water and its the same. I really don't know what to do next.

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[fishyd]

Do you know the parameters of the tank they came from? It's most likely the difference between where they were raised and yours. Can be finicky sometimes.

I have blue velvets, started with 12 and had only 4 or 5 after about a month. That was February? or march... I easily have a few dozen now. I think just give them some more time, try to keep the water as clean as possible and keep an eye on them. I'm no expert though, just my thought and experience...

 

[Fishfur]

I would say that tank is a bit too warm for shrimp. Most shrimp prefer it cooler than 80.. I keep most of mine close to 72, and they can take it much colder than that too. Might try lowering the temp, gradually.. not more than one degree every couple of hours, to 74 or 72.

Also have you checked GH and KH, or TDS ? If your water was much higher or lower, for any of these, that could be the problem as well. TDS can be checked with a TDS meter, you can get them on Ebay, not terribly costly. GH and KH is a test kit, usually just one for both.

Ideally, you'd check the GH and KH of the water they arrived in and try to make sure your water is close to that. Drip acclimating is the ideal and it's supposed to help the shrimp deal with differences in these parameters, but it may be that there was a big difference in one or more of these parameters that is making it harder for them to adapt.

Since you won't have their shipping water any more, maybe you could ask the supplier what his GH and KH, and TDS are ?

Just out of curiosity, are these adult shrimp or juries ? If they are adults, it is a sad truth that they don't handle shipping nearly as well as juvie shrimp do. Juvenile shrimp usually have a much higher survival rate than adult shrimp do.

 

[calfishguy]

I would say that tank is a bit too warm for shrimp. Most shrimp prefer it cooler than 80.. I keep most of mine close to 72, and they can take it much colder than that too. Might try lowering the temp, gradually.. not more than one degree every couple of hours, to 74 or 72.

Also have you checked GH and KH, or TDS ? If your water was much higher or lower, for any of these, that could be the problem as well. TDS can be checked with a TDS meter, you can get them on Ebay, not terribly costly. GH and KH is a test kit, usually just one for both.

Ideally, you'd check the GH and KH of the water they arrived in and try to make sure your water is close to that. Drip acclimating is the ideal and it's supposed to help the shrimp deal with differences in these parameters, but it may be that there was a big difference in one or more of these parameters that is making it harder for them to adapt.

Since you won't have their shipping water any more, maybe you could ask the supplier what his GH and KH, and TDS are ?

Just out of curiosity, are these adult shrimp or juries ? If they are adults, it is a sad truth that they don't handle shipping nearly as well as juvie shrimp do. Juvenile shrimp usually have a much higher survival rate than adult shrimp do.

Thanks for the reply.

I have been doing research on the ideal temperature for shrimp and find anything from 72-80 with their breeding range being from 75-78. Those of course are just what i have found. I have since lowered the temperature to 78 and that seems okay. Do your shrimp breed at 72?

I unfortunately do not have a tds meter or a gh kh test kit. I may swing by my lfs later in the week and buy one though.

The shrimp I received were juvies and seem to be doing okay. I found 4 alive and well at the bottom of my filter despite the fact that there is a sponge on the intake. It has since been replaced with a better thicker denser foam. I also have a few berried females now so I believe that the ones who died were just stressed from the move. I hope that is what happened anyway. I'll keep you guys posted on what happens.

 

[Fishfur]

I find shrimp enjoy having a sponge to feed on. I usually have either a sponge filter or a sponge intake cover on the power filter, as they seem to like picking food off sponges. But I also used to find up to twenty shrimp inside my Aqua Clear mini ever time I cleaned it. This was despite a sponge on the intake. How they were getting in I never did find out, but I never once had one die as a result. I learned to hold the filter over a bucket and tip out the water slowly, to catch all the shrimp. Then I'd carefully remove the filter material and find a few more inside that. No idea why they found the filter so attractive, but they did. They weren't Neos though, these were a dwarf fan shrimp species, Atyopsis spinipes, about the same size as Neos.

You're probably correct that shipping stress was the main reason for the deaths. There's no way to know how a shipment is handled once it leaves the supplier, and since I used to work for Purolator, I have seen how some loading crews handle freight. I doubt the Post Office is much different. I've seen boxes being used to play a dockhand's version of football, when the supervisors weren't around.

My shrimp bred prolifically at 72 - 74. Due to issues with my landlord, since April I've had my tanks in my bedroom, which is my warmest room. So my tanks were much warmer than usual, even though I use multiple fans to cool them down. There were a few days it got to 80 and a few it got to 90, which scared me, I was sure I'd lose some. No losses, but also, no new berried females until it cooled off some.

But if you have berried females, that's great. Hope they have lots of nice babies for you.

 

[calfishguy]

I found yet another dead shrimp this morning. I only have 4 left now.