# Please help! Red cherry shrimp dying!



## Beginner101 (Jan 17, 2016)

Hello, I am new to owning shrimp and it is off to a terrible start. I bought 6 cherry shrimp today, 5 "adults" and one small baby. Within about an hour of adding them to the tank, 3 of them are on their sides not moving. The rest are just very lethargic...not moving at all and not picking at anything like normally. The 3 on their sides are not 100% dead, their little legs are kind of moving.

A little more information about my tank:
-6 gallon fluval edge
-I don't have any of the water parameters(I know I should) but the temp is about 78 degrees Fahrenheit 
-there are plenty of live plants
-there are 6 glowlight danios and 2 otocinclus in the tank
-the tank has been running for about 3 weeks

Also, I feel awful about this but I didn't exactly acclimate them. I let the bag sit on top of the tank to even out the temp. I thought if I added water that it would freak them out and stir them all up. After about 30 mins of them "acclimating" I took them out with a net and put them in the tank. I was told that they are hardy so I thought it wouldn't bother them. At first all was well and they were swimming around, but then I went to check on them and one was upside down and then he would almost spasm up and then float back down. 

I feel just awful about this, I really don't want them to die. Is there any chance they could bounce back?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## Fish_wiz (Dec 20, 2015)

Is it possible to get a water sample test? You can run to your LFS or Petsmart to buy at least the easy strips or Petsmart can test it for free. How are your other fish? Tank seems young for shrimp. Is it fully cycled?

Until then its hard to say what is a possible cause and how to address it. 

Going off of what you described, I feel like they're going into shock from the acclimation. Not much you can do in my experience if this is the cause.


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## mooncon1 (Oct 12, 2011)

shrimp do not take changes well at all.you need to check water perimeters


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## Beginner101 (Jan 17, 2016)

I'm definitely going to buy a test kit tomorrow. All my other fish are doing fine and I thought everything was cycled. I feel terrible about this...maybe I'll just stick to fish. Should I do a water change? 

Another thing, the girl at my LFS used water from a different tank to fill the bag, then just dropped the shrimp in from the net. Maybe all the different waters they were in caused this.

Thank you both for your replies

Another question, if shrimp are so sensitive, how would you do water changes? And when would you think my tank would be "old enough" to introduce shrimp again?


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## Matuva (Jun 8, 2015)

Shrimps are very sensitive to water parameters.

As you focused, water parameters from seller's tank are probably not the same than yours, and, even though these were hardy red cherries, just dropping them in their new tank is a good process to just kill them.
They probably died from a water osmosis shock.

You have to acclimate them to their new home. Best way is "drop by drop" from tank to the bag, but at least you can put them with the water they come in a small bowl, then add a few of water from their new tank in the bowl, let's say a 1/4 of a regular glas each time.
Do that every 20 mns during 2 hours and it should work.

This is how I do for mines and that woks fine.

As for water changes, I do mines only when necessary, but some like to change around 10% every week...


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## mooncon1 (Oct 12, 2011)

On my 150 gallon discus tank I change 50% of water every week,the tank does have shrimp in the sump and some in the tank.I run co2 and it is heavily planted so it is very stable.The sump is huge and I also run an eheim 2262 on it so I have plenty of media.On my 75 gallon shrimp tank if I do a 50% water change I get a shrimp die off,the worst was in the hundreds of dead shrimp.On my 10 gallon shrimp tank I do 10% to 20% per week with remineralized ro water.The point I'm trying to make is shrimp can live in a lot of conditions as long as there consistent.I always acclimate shrimp over a 3 to 5 hour period like matuva said slow and easy.


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## bsherwood (Nov 22, 2007)

I am on my second go round of raising shrimp.

the first attempt was really by accident. A friend gave me about 5 RCS and I put them in a 72bow...they were the only thing in there other than a few plants. I basically ignored them and they multiplied like crazy. I probably had about 300. Then I needed the tank for my angel fry and the rest is as you would expect. they became lunch.

This time around I have a 55 dedicated to RCS and CRS. my RCS are thriving and multiplying. the CRS are alive but not breeding....I have read quite a bit and I frequent this forum but I really believe that a person needs to find what works for them after following some basic guidelines.

I take a really long time to acclimate my shrimp. I don't do 5 hours like others have stated but I am sure I am in the 3-4 hour range.
I keep my temp lower than 78, right now I am at 74 but that shouldn't have made them be dead....

If I had to guess, given what we know- I would say shock did it....


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## myswtsins (Nov 1, 2008)

Too much, too fast, in all acpects. How can you know if the tank is cycled without testing it? I'd agree with shock being the cause of death. Could be acclamation shock or even ammonia shock with that many animals in that small of a tank in that short period of time. A good liquid test kit is essential. You'll never regret buying it, I promise.


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

Temp should probably be 70-75, not 78 if you can manage it. I used to get a lot of shrimp deaths I suspect are from acclimation until I did 1drop/3seconds or less overnight.


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## [email protected] (Jan 8, 2010)

With no testing I doubt your tank has fully cycled .


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## Beginner101 (Jan 17, 2016)

Hey everyone, thanks for all the answers and advice. I have come to the conclusion that it was probably shock. I went to my LPS today and did a water test and everything was perfect, the guy said it was probably the lack of acclimation that killed them. So I decided to buy 1 single shrimp to test everything out. I got home and did the drip method for a good 3.5 hours, then put him in the tank and everything looks good! Again, I feel bad about what happened to the other ones but now I know better for the future. If this shrimp survives the next week, then I'll definitely go out and get more!


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## bsherwood (Nov 22, 2007)

Be happy! you can purchase shrimp locally- This past week in north dakota temps have hit -40. I dare not ship in anything until I can be assured it will not be an icecube


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## Virc003 (Dec 3, 2011)

I didn't see that anyone else addressed this yet; cherries are hardy compared to other shrimp, not other fish. Mostly all shrimp are delicate on the overall scale of aquarium fauna. 

I've also found I had trouble with cherry deaths when my ph was consistent ly below 7.0. Now thatmy water is above 7.0, I've had no problems. This took me dozens of shrimp deaths to figure out. So don't feel too bad about a handful.


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