# Shrimp keep dying



## Jess611 (Mar 19, 2018)

I have a ten gallon cycled tank with 6 (now 2?) blue velvet shrimp and two tiger nerite snails. It is cycled with 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 20 nitrate and heated to 78-80 degrees ph is about 8. It’s been set up for two weeks now with a sponge filter, gravel, drift wood, java moss, and java ferns. About a week in to the shrimp living in the tank I found one dead. Now I found another one dead and now I can only find two alive. I did learn that my well water has about 20 nitrate in it so I started buying spring water and doing small water changes everyday replacing it with spring water. Does any one have any clue why my shrimp keep dying?!?


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

id lower the temp to about 75-77F. 
20 nitrate is fine id think, plus you have your plants absorbing that nutrients lowering it slightly. Instead of doing your small water chances, do a 50% WC every weekend (like sunday or Saturday, every week so goes my schedule). 
What kind of drift wood do you have? not wild collected is it? (like from your backyard). 
Do you know your GH/KH?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Welcome to APC! Did you use a dechlorinator, like Seachem Prime?


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## Jess611 (Mar 19, 2018)

The drift wood was from my LFS and was in a tank with healthy looking shrimp. I was doing small water changes till I got my nitrates under control with the spring water what are those tests? I know the water is pretty hard here but I figured that would be ok with shrimp. 

I have been using prime with every water change. 

We are also getting a copper test.


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## Jess611 (Mar 19, 2018)

hoppycalif said:


> Welcome to APC! Did you use a dechlorinator, like Seachem Prime?


Thanks so much! I hope you guys can help I hate seeing all of my shrimp die! I've had two successful tanks and Idk why this one is giving me so many issues!


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

with any shrimp you need (and all shrimp are different.) to know your calcium levels, and the hardness is of your water. that's what GH/KH is for.


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## Jess611 (Mar 19, 2018)

DutchMuch said:


> with any shrimp you need (and all shrimp are different.) to know your calcium levels, and the hardness is of your water. that's what GH/KH is for.


Ok thanks! we are looking into getting those and a copper test.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

sound epic! Make sure to tell us your results once you get them. that will help a Bunch!


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## Jess611 (Mar 19, 2018)

DutchMuch said:


> sound epic! Make sure to tell us your results once you get them. that will help a Bunch!


Ok so I got the copper test in the mail and my tap water is testing .25ppm. But my tank is testing 0ppm. I'm guessing this is because of all the water changes. However, I'm worried that the copper has leached into my driftwood. Is that possible? More test results to come. Hopefully soon.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

i wouldn't think it would have Leached into your driftwood no... 
As for what levels of copper are poisonous to shrimp, i dont know the answer to that. I know inverts are Extraordinarily sensitive to copper.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

My understanding is that you need a healthy biofilm culture to maintain shrimp tanks and you just can't so this in 2 weeks.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

ah, didn't read the 2 week part. agree 100% with the above comment.


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## Jess611 (Mar 19, 2018)

BruceF said:


> My understanding is that you need a healthy biofilm culture to maintain shrimp tanks and you just can't so this in 2 weeks.





DutchMuch said:


> ah, didn't read the 2 week part. agree 100% with the above comment.


Sorry if I was unclear. It's had the shrimp in it for two weeks. Before that it was a tank for an ADF that I had for 4 years that passed. We cleaned the tank out and re-cycled it for about a month. There are TONS of Java ferns as we have had those for 4 years as well as alge growing on the glass, sponge filter, rocks and driftwood. I've also been suplimenting with a protein rich shrimp pellet. Maybe one every couple days.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I had a similar problem . I put shrimp in a tank I thought was well cycled and they all died. People told me it was all kinds of chemical problems. The next time I tried putting them in a mature tank with fish and they flourished. A tank I add all kinds of fertilizers to and it was no problems. I have 100s of them now. A few months later I tried them again in the original tank I had wanted to keep them in and now they are doing great. I kept trying to figure this out and all I could conclude is that it really came down to mature biofilms. The only food I ever feed them is flakes.


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## shrimpgal (Feb 27, 2014)

so shrimp dont like hot water it doeesnt have enough oxygen in it ,lower your temp 10 degrees and add an airline


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## tiger15 (Apr 9, 2017)

Shrimp are sensitive to heavy metals, which are present in our tap water in variable concentrations depending on the condition water is dispensed. The source of metals came from our household copper pipes and lead zinc alloy solders used to join them. A way to minimize metal leaching is to avoid hot water which dissolve metals better than cold water, and avoid first flush water in the morning or after returning from vacation as stagnant water in the pipe dissolve more metals than running water. Most dichlorintors have the ability to bind heavy metals but only within certain range, and plants can uptake and bind some metals. New homes with newer pipes leach more metals than old homes and there is not much you can do about it. At the end, only testing can tell if you have metal problem,but unfortunately, only limited test kits such as copper and iron are available to consumers and testing of more extensive metals requires sending samples to lab at high cost.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Another option is to run your water through a house carbon filter (dual stage). It'll remove metals and chlorine too so no more dechlorinator.


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## tiger15 (Apr 9, 2017)

I don't think installing a whole house carbon filter for the sake of a shrimp tank is a practical solution if you are not already planning to do so. A practical solution is to prefilter with plants, say if you already have a planted tank set up, take the water out of the planted tank to fill the shrimp tank instead of directly filling with tap water. Since plant uptake of metals isn't instantaneous, transfer the water that is at least a day old. Don't worry about the metals in the micros you dose to the planted tank because commercial micros rarely carry enough metals to harm inverts. Your legitimate concern should be zinc, copper and lead in your piping.


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