A Few Questions

[FishIsReadyForTakeOff]

Im not new to the aquarium thing. Ive had my tank for two months and ive had about 7 fish throughout my life that ive had for months each. I just didnt know where to post this. I am however new to shrimp and i have a few other questions. I didnt know where to post this.

I got a shrimp from petsmart. Shes pregnant. I didnt notice until i got home. I feel bad if i let the babies die though. So i had a few questions.i tried looking it up but everything didnt get to the point for me.

1. If i put her in a separate tank, would it absolutely need a filter?

2. Exactly what should i feed the babies when theyre born? Like what exact plant.

3. When they babies detach from the moms legs, should i put the mom in the tank, and when would i put the surviving babies in the tank?

4. In about how many days would they take to hatch if they were dark brown? Just curious.

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I was also wondering something. A few weeks ago i cleaned my tank. I put them all back in the tank, but only two lived. The other three randomly died, and i have no real reason why. Were they in shock? I dont know.

Also i got a few fish from petsmart on saturday to replace the ones that died. One of them died today simply because he never ate anything since i got him. He just stayed at the top and swam in circles until he gave in. It was strange.

 

[fluttermoth]

Im not new to the aquarium thing. Ive had my tank for two months and ive had about 7 fish throughout my life that ive had for months each. I just didnt know where to post this. I am however new to shrimp and i have a few other questions. I didnt know where to post this.

I got a shrimp from petsmart. Shes pregnant. I didnt notice until i got home. I feel bad if i let the babies die though. So i had a few questions.i tried looking it up but everything didnt get to the point for me.

1. If i put her in a separate tank, would it absolutely need a filter?

2. Exactly what should i feed the babies when theyre born? Like what exact plant.

3. When they babies detach from the moms legs, should i put the mom in the tank, and when would i put the surviving babies in the tank?

4. In about how many days would they take to hatch if they were dark brown? Just curious.

Honestly, they're best left in the main tank. If you want some babies to survive, make sure they have plenty of hiding places. Live plants are best, as they also provide food for the shrimplets.

 

I was also wondering something. A few weeks ago i cleaned my tank. I put them all back in the tank, but only two lived. The other three randomly died, and i have no real reason why. Were they in shock? I dont know.

Also i got a few fish from petsmart on saturday to replace the ones that died. One of them died today simply because he never ate anything since i got him. He just stayed at the top and swam in circles until he gave in. It was strange.

Every week, you should be siphoning out some of the water (about half), using a gravel cleaner. Then you refill with warmed, dechlorinated water. You should also clean the stuff inside your filter in some old tank water never under the tap. There is no need to take the fish out of the tank for this.

You should think about buying some test kits so you can monitor the water conditions. It's nearly always 'bad' water that causes fish to die.

 

[Ch4rlie]

What kind of tfish do you have?
 
Some species of fish will eat shrimps easily while other species will leave the shrimps alone.
 
Also what kind of shrimps did you get?
 
Main points you need for shrimps is plenty of hiding spots to help them settle, this can be in form of plants, caves, wood, rocks etc.
 
Shrimps pretty much like any plants, though i would think you would like generally easy to care for plants which are usually java moss attached to rock or wood, java ferns and anubias are all decent little plants to have for shrimps.
 
Shrimplets will eat the same stuff as adult shrimps really so no need to add anything specially for them. They will eat micronutrients from plants and substrate as well as any leftover fish food and algae.
 
And one last point, imho, best to have several shrimps in one tank rather than a single one, this will help stop inbreeding.
 
As for fluttermoth's comments about weekly water changes, this is spot on advice, shrimps are more particular about water quaility so best to do as advised.
 
Test kit for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate as well as pH is pretty essential for new fishkeeper, whilst you say you have had a fish tank for 2 months, this is still in new fishkeeper territory so I would advise you to get a test kit, a liquid based kit rather than a paper strip dip kit which can be very inaccurate.

 

[Gruntle]

I'd like to know what you did when you cleaned your tank. Without knowing anything, you may have made either of the mistakes I made when I was starting out.
 
1. Washed out the filter media (cartridges, sponges etc) in tap water, which killed off enough of the bacteria to cause an ammonia spike.
2. On advice from a LFS, replaced the filter media because it was dirty. This is where your beneficial bacteria is most likely to be, replacing the cartridges/sponges means that the LFS makes another sale, but more importantly it means your tank has a vastly reduced capacity to process ammonia (waste from the fish) and poisons them.
 
Other than that, depending on your fish, a sudden sharp change in the water temperature (just guessing again) may have killed them.
 
Fish dying from Petsmart (and other big chains) is unfortunately quite common. You could take it back to them with a water sample and ask if it was unhealthy when you bought it, I don't live in the U.S. but I think I've read here they may have a replacement policy.