RCS critical, need help

[Rcguerra]

Let's not make this a big deal, but I would love to learn to avoid it in the future:

A pair of red cherry shrimp were given to me and placed on an aquacube 7.5 gallon. They were doing well, eating their algae, playing arround, being active.

I har to rescape my cube with ADA Aquasoil, so to avoid the exposure to ammonia I placed them on my empty 39Gallon breeder. Treated water, good temperature, but very little green for them.

I immediately added a few plants as floaters and today I received a nice tennis ball size moss in the mail.

Well, 24hrs has passed, and they seem very weak. They are slow, the male was already belly up even though he is still alive. There is a stone pumping air, I don't believe it is O2 levels being low, but could be it.

I added a freshly cut zuquini (sp.?), they ignore it.

The female is so lethargic I can touch her if I can.

Any suggestions?

 

[maxwellag]

Have you tested the water in the tank? What is the temperature? It definitely sounds like the issue is not too-little oxygen.

 

[Rcguerra]

Parameters are identical to what they are used to. Water temperature is 79F. I believe they are starving due to lack of algae for them. I will come up with something within the hour. If it is not food, no idea...

 

[maxwellag]

If you're worried about food, throw in some flakes for them. They're scavengers so they will eat most anything that they can find.

 

[Rcguerra]

I have no flakes. My only fish is a betta and he only eats live food and miocardiac muscle fibers (bovine heart).
I am doing an emergency water change on the tank that is cycling.

 

[Rcguerra]

(Double post, please ignore)

 

[Rcguerra]

Thank you for your help. They were starving to death. The tank did not have enough algae for them.

I place them on a tank that is only 3 weeks old, with new filter, new everything and Amazon Aquasoil. The ammonia is going off of scale on tests, but I did a 75% water change and place them there.

Within 5 minutes, they both showed a spot on their dorsal region. If my theory is correct, that is the result of a feast after almost 30 hours with limited or no food.





Before, on breeder tank





Now

 

[Rcguerra]

Close enough.

 

[maxwellag]

I am just trying to make sure you're aware that they can survive on things other than just algae. Again, they are scavengers.

 

[Rcguerra]

Yeah, I know. I should have something as a backup plan. It is pretty hard to scavenge from glass.

Now I am stuck with daily water changes 'til the tank cycles, or I can try to capture them and place them back on the breeder tank with some kind of food for them.

If WC grow old quick, at least I managed to identify what it was...

 

[DrMandM]

They love sinking algae waffers, you can buy a small pack of these at a petsmart relatively cheap

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I think they just went through a lot of stress with all the changes in a short period of time. Shrimp like clean water but love stable water so I would turn away from water changes over 20 percent.

 

[Mogurako]

I place them on a tank that is only 3 weeks old, with new filter, new everything and Amazon Aquasoil. The ammonia is going off of scale on tests, but I did a 75% water change and place them there.

Aquasoil is designed to give off ammonia so it can be used to cycle a new tank. In my experience its best to wait 3+ weeks before adding any stock to a new tank with aquasoil even when the tank is heavily planted.

I think they just went through a lot of stress with all the changes in a short period of time. Shrimp like clean water but love stable water so I would turn away from water changes over 20 percent.

I do 50% water changes on all my shrimp tanks weekly and have noticed no ill effects and have experienced 0 shrimp deaths since I have started the 50% a week routine. If you were keeping higher end Caridina then I would shy away from large changes like that but with Neocaridina it's perfectly safe.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Aquasoil is designed to give off ammonia so it can be used to cycle a new tank. In my experience its best to wait 3+ weeks before adding any stock to a new tank with aquasoil even when the tank is heavily planted.

I do 50% water changes on all my shrimp tanks weekly and have noticed no ill effects and have experienced 0 shrimp deaths since I have started the 50% a week routine. If you were keeping higher end Caridina then I would shy away from large changes like that but with Neocaridina it's perfectly safe.

I've also seen people just top off with no water changes with success. I personal only do 10 percent a week and also zero deaths. But that wasn't the point of my post.

The reason I bring it up is when I saw him doing frequent 75 percent water changes as well as jumping them from tank to tank. Which is obviously stressful to the shrimp. Which could of been the reason for his problem.

 

[Rcguerra]

Thank you for al the angles. I will consider doing 20% PWC often while the tank is not fully cycled.

 

[aluka]

yea, i dont think it was a food issue. mostly shock from being moved.

 

[Autumnsky]

Maybe the acclimation process wasn't good.

 

[Rcguerra]

Would the signs of poor acclimation take over 24hrs to show?

Maybe that's what it was then...

Thank you for all the help. They are both fine now.