# Red Cherry Shrimp Twitching



## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Siphon out 3 gallons from your 29g tank. Drop the shrimp into the bucket/temporary tank with an airstone & sponge filter if you have one.


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Thanks for the quick reply epicfish! But unforunately the few that i managed to save and a few other twitching ones didn't make it. Something in my 10g must have done a good job killing them 
Based on my prior experience, i'm ruling out my DIY CO2, copper and stress. I do have some small areas that have some rotting plant matter, I convinced myself that it wouldn't have any significant impact on the water paramaters but i guess i might have been wrong. Probably ammonia poisoning.


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## CKJ (Oct 3, 2008)

When I first had gotten my shrimp I hadn't done a water change in I couldn't tell you how long. You have no idea how just by looking at a tank how the parameters are. Heck I have mollies and neons and baby mollies and some other fish and plenty of healthy looking plants but my nitrates and ammonia were off the charts! I did a huge water change before even putting them in the tank and did water changes almost every day for a week to get my water paramiters back to normal and a good gravel vaccuming and I was shocked at how much poo and un eaten food that was in the gravel! 

Shrimp are way more sensitive to changes in the water and are from the sounds if it the first indicator that there is a problem.

I'd deffinately get a api master test kit when you can and test your waters, ph, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.

I wish I had paid more attention to my water conditions but I had just assumed since I hadn't had a fish death for several months my water had to be fine.

I use tetra aqua safe and i've been using that for many years now and my shrimp that I got here in the sns seem to be ok with it. That's my only experience so far with dechlorinators. Some of my shrimp are even berried now and i've had them almost 3 weeks now.

Good luck with your shrimp!

Keep us posted.

Cindy


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## oblongshrimp (Jul 26, 2006)

Are you able to test the CO2 levels using a drop checker? Do you have any other fish in the tank? It sounds like it could be the CO2 levels were to high. The other possibility is that you were transferring them from hard tap to much softer RO water. I have had something similar with amanos before.


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## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

IME and from what I have seen from what others with shrimp have posted, it is pretty difficult to get excessively dangerous c02 levels with a DIY system. I have seen the opposite. Trying to get consistent stable, adequate, c02 levels with a DIY setup. I could be wrong though and I guess the levels that would not be considered excessive for fish or plants may be for shrimp, given their smaller size. I have DIY c02 in my 10 gallon with some amano shrimp and I change the brew every two weeks. I have not noticed any effects on the shrimp for excessive c02, but perhaps cherry shrimp are more prone due to their smaller size. 

When you say that you acclimitized them, did you drip acclimitize them like this:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...cts/45608-my-drip-acclimitization-set-up.html


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## theemon (May 22, 2008)

Im Not A Shrimp Expert, But That Sounds Like A Clasic Fish Water Problem, Extream Shifts In Water Perimeters, I Did It Once.


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

CKJ - I'm most likely going to get a test kit for ammonia, NO2, NO3 before i get anymore shrimp..don't want to cause anymore unnecessary deaths. I also noticed that there is a lot of debris and mulm when i siphon the gravel on occasion. I guess it's safe to say that what's safe for fish might not be safe for shrimp since they are much more sensitive.

oblongshrimp - It's sad to say but i have no means of testing any aspect of my water, including CO2. I had 3 otocinclus and 5 neon tetras but i moved the tetras to my 29g before adding the shrimp, in fear of any harassment or consumption of the shrimp. I've actually had RCS in my tank before but my method of diffusing the CO2 wasn't as efficient so my dissolved CO2 concentration might be higher now than before. 

Homer - I kind of agree that it's difficult to reach dangerous levels with just DIY CO2, but i do have some abnormal algae issues (BBA) which result from low or fluctuating CO2 levels, so i'm fairly convinced that this isn't the primary/only cause. I used an airline tube, but instead of using clamps and whatnot i had this air flow control valve that came with an air pump i purchased. I just attached that to the end of the tube and i was able to reduce the drip rate substantially. 

thememon - Wouldn't the 2 hour long acclimation period that i put the shrimp through have adjusted them to the water paramaters of the tank water?

I'm actually suspecting a few causes myself for the shrimp massacre. 
1) I actually added a lot of salt to the tank about 2-3 weeks ago when one of my neon tetras fell ill (to some unknown disease, it is isolated in its own tank now). I read somewhere that that could possibly kill shrimp? But since then i've done two to three 10-20% water changes. 
2) Right after i added them to the tank, after acclimating, i dosed flourish trace, KSO4, and KHPO4. Could the stress from the move together with the copper in the flourish have done something?
3) I do have a lot of organic matter around, and a lot of decomposing plant matter..that probably means i have high levels of ammonia/nitrates/nitrites? This seems to be the more dominant cause IMO.
4) Possibly excessive CO2 but i'm not too convinced of this one. 
5) A combination of the aforementioned possible causes?

Anyway, thank you guys very much for your replies, i will definitely learn from this experience and hopefully have a successful colony in the future.


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## CKJ (Oct 3, 2008)

I sure am sorry for you losses! But it's good to learn from your mistakes and my mistakes and everybody elses mistakes. This is a great place to learn all three and plenty more!

If your tank is cycled i'd at least test for ammonia and nitrates. Plant matter, fish poo, and excess food can really add up even when the tank looks clean. Doing much larger water changes can really help. It took me about a week of probably every day doing a 50% water change to get things back to normal!

Good luck to you and keep us posted!

Take care!

Cindy


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## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

Gamexeater, if you have a 5 gallon tank and room to set it up, for your next batch of cherry shrimp, just set up the 5 gallon with lots of java moss and floaters,pool filter sand substrate, low light, no c02, no fert dosing. Basic sponge filter with cycled sponge. Make it a cherry shrimp tank only. My guess is that the shrimp will multiply like crazy and you will find yourself laughing all the way to the bank if you decide to sell the extras.


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## boltp777 (Jan 16, 2009)

or maybe when you were putting the shrimp into the tank some water got on the outlet and it was shocking them in the tank thats what the twitching might be the shrimp getting shocked or it could have to do water parameters and the tank not being mature enough i would basically go with what homer simpson said.


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## CKJ (Oct 3, 2008)

I love that idea too Homer! I'd love to do that too! I think something like that would be perfect for my desk. Would that same Idea work with a 2 1/2 gallon and just gravel and java moss? Of course I don't want anything to happen to the betta that's currently in it but someday if that would work i'd love to do that!

What do ya think?


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## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

CKJ said:


> I love that idea too Homer! I'd love to do that too! I think something like that would be perfect for my desk. Would that same Idea work with a 2 1/2 gallon and just gravel and java moss? Of course I don't want anything to happen to the betta that's currently in it but someday if that would work i'd love to do that!
> 
> What do ya think?


I put some cherry shrimp including shrimplets in my 3 gallon tech as per my sig, If they survive 3+months, then I would say, you probably could do it with a 2.5 gallon. 

What I really want to try someday is to set up a 5 gallon Dwarf Aquatic Frog tank only. The only plants in it would be java moss, duck weed or water lettuce. Perhaps, I may even be able to get them to breed. No ferts, low light, simple sponge filter. Dwarf Aquatic frogs IMHO are one of those really interesting and fascinating creatures. I had on in a 1 gallon bowl with a peppered cory catfish. The bowl was unplanted and it had dual filtration. I did do my water changes weekly and fed every other day(no food on weekends). And believe it or not the frog and catfish survived 7+ years. It was also the main attraction with my clients and especially their kids. The kids were amazed and fascinated that a frog could live underwater like that.


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Thanks for the condolences. My tank IS cycled and has been for several months, unless you can somehow uncycle a tank by adding plants and stuff  So i was too lazy to take out the shrimp carcasses and i discovered the two otos left in the tank started suck on them 
Anywho, i'm actually slowly starting a 5.5g project of my own in which i wanted to keep a RCS colony hehe. Just need the tank pretty much. But my supply of java moss is low as i had a huge chunk die out on me because of neglect, i'm trying to revive a bit of it and it's slowly but surely growing back. The plan for the 5.5g was to make it a natural planted tank..but ya still a work in progress.
boltp777 - My hands were kind of in the tank as well..it would have been very unpleasant if there was electricity passing through the water O.O But it could have been a possibility, hard to tell without being able to test my water.
Thanks a lot Cindy and Homer (and everyone else too :wink, your support and advise has helped me a lot


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## CKJ (Oct 3, 2008)

:fish:Hope your java moss comes back for you! Keep us posted on your 5.5gal shrimp project!

I'm seriously thinking about doing that too! I must go price some tanks now!

Take care!

Cindy


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Thanks Cindy  i SHOULD be going to get my tank tomorrow afternoon, so i'm excited about that


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## mointhehouse128 (Feb 1, 2009)

If your Flourish Trace has high amounts of copper or you put a lot of it in at a time...then maybe it could kill your shrimp...because thats what happened to me.


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## bulrush (May 7, 2007)

Did you solve your shrimp issue? If not, PM me. I've had RCS for 3+ years with no problems. I've also been selling RCS for 3 years online. I'm also an Assistant for Inverts on Petfish.net.


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

mointhehouse128 - ya that might have been a cause to the death :s but i have no means of being sure now since they are all dead already 

bulrush - Well i pulled out a lot of the plant mass in my tank yesterday and vacuumed a lot of debree from the gravel, hopefully that will make the tank a more shrimp friendly environment. I probably won't get anymore shrimp for a while until the tank settles in more. Unfortunately, I'm also in Canada, so the shipping and what not is going to blow my budget. But i appreciate the offer


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## CKJ (Oct 3, 2008)

Did you get your tank yet?


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Yes i did!  I was meaning to update but i was so busy with hw and everything. 
It's a 5.5g @ $11.99. I just need to find some sorta lighting system (i have the bulbs already, 2x 13W 6500k Compact Flourescent (Spiral) bulbs). Not sure if i'm going to try and build a canopy (like in this thread http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/diy/59726-20-extremely-easy-no-wiring-diy.html) or if i'm going get two lamps and let them hang over. My sister found these cheap gooseneck lamps at walmart for $6. I might just pick up a pair of those use those. Also need to pick up a heater. 
I guess i should start another thread, since this is sort of irrelavent to this thread. I will probably start the thread later when i have all my materials and equipment ready to go.


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Just thought i would post a quick update to let whoever still cares know that i'm still going to start a journal for my 5.5g tank, just haven't had the time to do so in a detailed manner but i've been taking pictures of my progress  Lots of pictures. Maybe sometime next weekend =s
Just "started" the tank today so really excited for that 
-Daniel


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Alright, this is for you Cindy xD

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/p...urnal-aquascaping-attempt-56k.html#post808922


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