# yellow shrimp deaths?



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

i have a 2.5 gallon tank with a dwarf four leaf clover carpet, so yesterday i bought some ottos from petsmart and put them in, they're fine, and i also refilled the evaporated water, today when i came home i saw two dead yellow shrimp of the 6 i have, and naturally i was like :twitch: because they aren't cheap shrimp... well i threw them out, and i saw a third one on its back lying there, it was like twitching, it was moving its flippers but not the front arms will it be okay? also i noticed 3 shedded shells in the back right next to each other... did the other 2 die from shedding? or was it the ottos? or is it water chemistry, the other 3 i have are fine and not stressed out because they still have a deep yellow coloring. please help, i plan on getting more of these shrimp but if there's something wrong i don't want numerous deaths and my money flying to heaven.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

and also i sprinkled some hikari first bites into the tank for some baby fry... i haven't fed the shrimp for a few weeks because they had plant matter to eat and i saw food in their stomach tracts...


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## James0816 (Oct 9, 2008)

Couple things come to mind here.

- Water parms were off when you added the new water
- Small tank = higher TDS (Total Disolved Solids). High TDS is very bad for shrimp.


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## JohnPaul (Aug 28, 2006)

Shrimp on their back twitching is usually a sign of some type of poisoning. When you say you "refilled the evaporated water," what sort of water did you use? Tap water? Did you treat it with a comprehensive dechlorinator? Did you by chance wash your hands with soap and maybe not quite rinse all the soap completely off your hands and then put your hands in your bowl? Did you or anyone spray Windex (or any other similar type of product) near the bowl recently?

Is there a filter in the tank, and is it cycled? You can often get 100% shrimp deaths with even the tiniest amount of ammonia or nitrite present. Even nitrates should be kept low, very low--ideally under 10 ppm though most _Neocaridina_ species (like Yellow shrimp) can at least survive higher levels.

Those are some of the things that initially come to mind.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

the tank is filtered with a sponge filter (not that great of a filter but :/) has a heater and bright lights. i haven't been keeping up on my water changes so maybe the concentrations got too high? the water was the usual tap water treated with aquasafe and i poured in a little bit of 7.0 buffer and some organic waste break down chemical as well. the tank has been running great for a couple of weeks now, so great in fact that i forgot to change water... well i'm pretty sure its a water param now and i've done a water change, i was hoping the carpet would start sucking all the wastes up but i guess it doesn't replace real work...


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## loj04 (Aug 17, 2003)

I have a 2.5 gal tank too in my office at work. I also did a water change of about 30% that had been left for 8 hours or so out, and I lost about 40% of my red cherries in the tank. Mine looked like they had inflamed gills.

What I suggest is to do actual water changes, as in take water out and replace (leave the chemicals out).

Now, what I do is take a 2 L container, fill it up, leave it for a week to age, then replace the water. Refill the 2L container for it to age. You don't have to be that on time with refills, but try to do it at least every 2 weeks.

Haven't had any losses since and my RCS seem to be happy (if a little small), and they are breeding fine with 40+ shrimp in the tank.

I have a crappy undergravel filter as well, but my tank is literally half full with Java moss that seems to keep the nitrates under control. You might want to add some mosses and some lights to soak up extra nutrients.


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