# Cuttlebone for shrimp tank?



## mztee (Mar 5, 2014)

I'm having a bit of a problem with my shrimp molting and the only conclusion I have so far is lack of calcium and was planning on getting a cuttlebone for my 5.5 gallon shrimp tank. I don't know how much of the cuttlebone im suppose to put in it either and would greatly appreciate it if someone could help me out. Also I was going to get it from petsmart but the cuttlebone they sell is for birds so I don't know if that will make a difference or if I need one especially for shrimp. Also will this effect my water perimeter? 

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## ChadO (Apr 2, 2009)

I have some in my neo tanks. You're looking at the right stuff, it does come from the bird section of the store. I put in about a 1.5x1.5 inch square or so. I see them munching on it from time to time. I haven't noticed any param changes - it certainly hasn't hurt anything. I'd start with small pieces and observe a while. I wouldn't expect immediate changes either. It's a slow, gradual effect.

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## wicca27 (May 3, 2009)

what kind of molt problmes are you having? can you list parameters or are they in another thread? as for cuttle bone i used it more for my snails than shrimp. in the low ph snail shells need it or they will get pitted. i just break a small bit off and drop it in the tank. just keep a check on gh,kh, and tds. you might need to do an extra small water change a week depending on your current parameters.


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## mztee (Mar 5, 2014)

Thanks, I was hoping the cuttlebone would work maybe within a week but oh well and yes I have that problem in another thread - link below 

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=585649

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Thanks for helping out, no one really replied to it so I'm kinda stuck on just trying out different things until I get it right 

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## wicca27 (May 3, 2009)

i would not use cuttle bone. they not able to molt possible to much calcium in their food. the shell looks like it is cracking but they cant get it to separate. have you seen any molts from them? are they clear or more solid white? is it whole body or just bits here and there. as for the moss ball it wont hurt anything in the tank. lots of shrimp people use them


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## mztee (Mar 5, 2014)

Nothing I feed them has calcium in it except the white pellet from biomax but that I just recently bought, it hasn't even been a week yet so I don't think that's the problem. They do molt but almost on all the ones that died have only molted the body part and their head molt is stuck. Their molt is pretty see-through to me but not completely. I have seen a full molt once or twice though. 

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## 52149 (Feb 26, 2012)

mztee said:


> Nothing I feed them has calcium in it except the white pellet from biomax but that I just recently bought, it hasn't even been a week yet so I don't think that's the problem. They do molt but almost on all the ones that died have only molted the body part and their head molt is stuck. Their molt is pretty see-through to me but not completely. I have seen a full molt once or twice though.
> 
> Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk


I gonna ask the same question Wicca asked you. 

Post your water parameters. 
Ph, Tds, gh, kh, temp, etc. 

What are you feeding them? How often? Usually if one molts and the shell is still there eventually other shrimps will pick up on it and eat it for calcium nutrition. I get mineral rocks. I would stick to shrimp products.


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## mztee (Mar 5, 2014)

I have more info on my other thread 

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=585649


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## mztee (Mar 5, 2014)

Actually I don't think I'll get the cuttlebone anymore since I just noticed that the fluval Mineral thing has calcium. So now I'm thinking it's probably my tds? I've never tested for that yet and right now that seems like a possible cause. Tds for my tank might be too high since I use trap water and have a lot of things that could effect the tds.


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## ChadO (Apr 2, 2009)

Wicca27 had a good point, I mainly put it in for the benefit of my snails, not the shrimp. Hasn't done any harm for the shrimp, but my main reason was for the snails and getting that little extra calcium boost. I may try snail jello next, though.


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## mztee (Mar 5, 2014)

Yea I was going to use them so that my shrimps could get some calcium off it since I thought that might be the problem with them not being able to molt


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## mztee (Mar 5, 2014)

Update- so I tested my tds and it was shooting through the roof at 436ppm. I did a little test and found out that my tap is at 163 and then by adding prime to it, it jumps to 196. On top of that the mineral supplement I used from fluval bumped it way up to 295. But I don't get it since my gh was maintained at 5 and kh was at 3-4.... If I don't use the supplement they won't have any gh?


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## MSG (Jul 16, 2012)

High TDS doesn't always = instant death.
I have a friend who's had a low tech "jungle style" planted shrimp tank using eco-complete that's had high TDS since day one. It's ranges from 2000-2500. I've attributed the high numbers from the use of aquarium salt for the previous "finned" inhabitants. We used a $40 meter & a $100+ meter to verify the results. 

That tank has been running for about 8 months now & the assorted sakura shrimps seem healthy, very active & doing fine in there every time I've observed the tank. 


Also how are you dosing prime for the water changes? On the prime bottle I switched out the OEM bottle cap with a fliptop one. I only add maybe 2-3 drops of prime before I fill up the 3G water cooler jug & I never notice a huge increase or decrease in TDS.


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## mztee (Mar 5, 2014)

But I've pretty much ruled out everything else and this seems to be the only problem so far. I'm going to try to lower it and instead of using the supplement I'm going to try the cuttlebone and see if things get better from there


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## mztee (Mar 5, 2014)

I don't think prime is the problem, I think it's the mineral supplement that's make the tds go high


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