Hi all, I’m fairly new to fish-keeping, and brand new to shrimp keeping, and I’m experiencing some problems with my brand new cherry shrimp in a 2.5g planted bowl. Please read my post, and reply, as any advice would be helpful and I’m fairly lost for clues.
Just over a month ago, I acquired a new bowl, which I planted quite nicely with some dwarf hairgrass, Monte Carlo, and a Java fern. I let the tank cycle for around a month and then decided to get some shrimp.
A week ago today 15 lovely red cherry shrimp arrived to my door, all alive. I knew that they had had a rough journey, as shipping had been delayed, so they had been in transit for around 2 and a half days. As soon as they arrived, I floated the bag in my tank to get the temperature right, and slowly began to acclimate them with makeshift drip acclimation- I put a few drops of tank water in every minute or so with a pipette. Eventually I released them and they all seemed happy, feeding on the algae in the tank and grazing on the Java fern. I was delighted.
The shrimp all seemed happy and were grazing, but not too interested in the food I bought them, although they would take my other fish food out of my tweezers and eat it.
I did not see any dead shrimp in my tank for the first 6 days, but I could usually only count around 9 shrimp- I assumed this was because they were hiding. On the 6th night someone accidentally turned off the heater for around 2 hours, and the tank fell in temperature by around 1.5C, before I turned the heater back on. I did not see any dead shrimp, so went to bed soundly. Today I woke up in the morning to see a dead shrimp in my tank, to my horror. I tested the water and all parameters were ok- apart from Kh and Gh- both way too high(kh around 15 and Gh around 8) ! In the evening I found another dead shrimp nestled in the dwarf hairgrass. I was devastated.
I have not been adding anything to the tank so have 3 main theories about what might have happened:
1. The stress from the temp change the night before killed them
2. The initial stress killed them and I did not find them until later
3. The high hardness has caused some issue and killed them
I also worry that the water may lack oxygen, or that there are some toxins such as copper in the water, but I don’t see how this could happen?
I’m aware the tank is a little overstocked but that was the only amount I could find from this seller- and it was meant to only be 12 anyway…
It would be ok if the dying stopped there, but I’m worried that more could perish…
Any help would be amazing.
Just over a month ago, I acquired a new bowl, which I planted quite nicely with some dwarf hairgrass, Monte Carlo, and a Java fern. I let the tank cycle for around a month and then decided to get some shrimp.
A week ago today 15 lovely red cherry shrimp arrived to my door, all alive. I knew that they had had a rough journey, as shipping had been delayed, so they had been in transit for around 2 and a half days. As soon as they arrived, I floated the bag in my tank to get the temperature right, and slowly began to acclimate them with makeshift drip acclimation- I put a few drops of tank water in every minute or so with a pipette. Eventually I released them and they all seemed happy, feeding on the algae in the tank and grazing on the Java fern. I was delighted.
The shrimp all seemed happy and were grazing, but not too interested in the food I bought them, although they would take my other fish food out of my tweezers and eat it.
I did not see any dead shrimp in my tank for the first 6 days, but I could usually only count around 9 shrimp- I assumed this was because they were hiding. On the 6th night someone accidentally turned off the heater for around 2 hours, and the tank fell in temperature by around 1.5C, before I turned the heater back on. I did not see any dead shrimp, so went to bed soundly. Today I woke up in the morning to see a dead shrimp in my tank, to my horror. I tested the water and all parameters were ok- apart from Kh and Gh- both way too high(kh around 15 and Gh around 8) ! In the evening I found another dead shrimp nestled in the dwarf hairgrass. I was devastated.
I have not been adding anything to the tank so have 3 main theories about what might have happened:
1. The stress from the temp change the night before killed them
2. The initial stress killed them and I did not find them until later
3. The high hardness has caused some issue and killed them
I also worry that the water may lack oxygen, or that there are some toxins such as copper in the water, but I don’t see how this could happen?
I’m aware the tank is a little overstocked but that was the only amount I could find from this seller- and it was meant to only be 12 anyway…
It would be ok if the dying stopped there, but I’m worried that more could perish…
Any help would be amazing.
