# Overfeeding shrimp....or......?



## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

How large is this tank? Depending on the size 1/4 maybe too much and it may be nitrate poisoning and not overfeeding. I don't know if you could overfeed a shrimp. I mean I think they're capable of controlling how much they eat. I mean all I see my shrimp do is pick at everything they see and try to eat it :-D.

Check your nitrites, nitrates and possibly ammonia. But all your other shrimp seem fine so I don't know. BTW what shrimp is this?


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## Chrona (Feb 25, 2007)

Oops, I feel dumb for leaving out the obvious extras, lol.

RCS, ammonia/nitrites - 0, nitrates - 20 ppm (pretty steady at 20 ppm because I don't put in the full EI dosage for nitrates)

10g tank, 77 degrees, 12 shrimp, maybe.....40 ramshorns? 2 big MTS that I can see. 

It's hard to tell if the other shrimp are fine actually, because I can't see them except on rare occasions (like yesterday, when I saw 5 in a clump). All I know is that this particular one has been the most active up till now.


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## crazie.eddie (May 31, 2004)

It may have reached it's full lifespan already, though it's hard to tell. Or it may have just been still stressed out from the shipping. I would keep an eye on the rest of the shrimp and note everything you have/will do in the next few days.

I don't remember Prime nuetralizing copper. I just it know it does nuetralize chlorine/chloramine and ammonia. Do you shake the bottle of Prime before pouring it it? I remember reading a thread here that a person had experienced shrimp deaths when they did not shake the bottle. I've never experience that issue, since I always shake the bottle. Also, what are the parameters of the water straight from the tap?


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## Chrona (Feb 25, 2007)

I believe it says neutralizes heavy metals on the bottle, so I assumed that copper was included. However, I did not shake the bottle, so that may be it too. Tap water parameters (after 24 hours) are 4 dgH and 3dkH. pH is 7.4, no ammonia/nitrite/nitrates.

Will keep a note of what happens over the next few days. Thanks for the help guys!


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

Was the RCS a female? If it was dark, solid red, then it may be the case that it is old. Very red RCS means very old RCS.


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## Chrona (Feb 25, 2007)

Not solid red, but definitely close to it, and yeah, it was a dark red. I guess we'll have to wait. Maybe I'll make a shrimp only tank :icon_neut


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## Owen Stubbs (Mar 20, 2007)

Hey Chrona - you were a big help to me when I first got my son's tank up and running, so I am personally sorry to hear you are having problems. I am no expert, still learning this stuff too. You have a far more sophisticated setup than my son's tank. I CAN say that we are running a much higher PH - 7.2 easy, perhaps 7.4 or even slightly higher. Temps also slightly higher, sometimes exceeding 80F. I have read plenty about people keeping nitrates below 20ppm. but have read nearly as many messages of higher nitrates. We do not do EI dosing, but do add weekly Flourish and daily Excel.

I personally do a 2 gal WC on a 10g every 5-7 days. I add 2ml prime (shaken, not stirred!!! hehehe) to the bucket first. I then run the water source (bathtub) for a minute or 2 before filling a bucket with water that "feels" about right temp wise. This has nothing to do with the copper pipes - this is flushing water that has been standing for awhile, and most importantly, discharging any deposits from a water heater that might be ejected after non-use. To think that copper pipes are actually disolving copper into the water is absolute bunk!!!!! There MIGHT, and I emplasize, MIGHT be trace copper in BRAND NEW pipes, but there is NO WAY water drawn through copper pipes is going to be a contamination source. Junk in the water heater - maybe. Anyway, I then let that sit for a few hours with an airstone in it, which accellerates room temp acclimation, aerates, and should, in theory, also help with chlorine disappation. Drain off about 2g in one bucket, immediately add the new water. Have never noticed any change in behavior of the inhabitants, and certainly no deaths.


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## Chrona (Feb 25, 2007)

Thanks Owen. I would try to get the pH higher (since I inject CO2), but it would require adding quite a bit of baking soda during each water change and I wasn't sure if I wanted to go down that road again. If this doesn't seem to pan out though, I'll get a secondary low tech tank and put the surviving shrimp in there.

In any case, I just checked up on them with the lights off (using an LED light) and I can see 4 of them out, though my vision obviously sucks in a dense tank with only an LED light. They are moving kinda slow, but they seem to be doing ok. The berried one that looked like it was going to die earlier today appears to be fine now. Regardless, I'm still hooked on shrimp, lol.


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## Owen Stubbs (Mar 20, 2007)

Chrona - there is another discussion here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/g...-best-way-start-tank.html?posted=1#post422369 in which I was asking Rex Grigg about pH reductions and fish health resulting from CO2. While the discussion was focussed on fish, and not shrimp, it is Rex's opinion that pH lowered as a result of CO2 has no impact on fish health. I would think one could conclude that the same is likely for shrimp. Anyway, good luck and I hope it works out for you. FWIW - I easily have 2 dozen, and probably more, in a 10gal. I can rarely count more than half, although, when I feed them these shrimp pellets I received from Tundragirl, a huge percentage come out of hiding.


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## bulrush (May 7, 2007)

Probably your only problem was the red one was an old female, who was stressed out from being shipped.


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

sandiegoryu said:


> Was the RCS a female? If it was dark, solid red, then it may be the case that it is old. Very red RCS means very old RCS.


Very red RCS does NOT mean very old RCS! It could mean that, but usually doesn't. It means it has good pigment and thus means good genes, occasionally means good food. Age has nothing to do with color after a certain time in RCS. (Example is baby-Adult, Color should deepen)

I would agree that it was probably stressed for one reason or another. If it was an old Female or not I can't tell you since you said it was not dark red.

Best of luck,

-Andrew


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