Crs Help Please - Dying Every Couple Of Days

[Curiosity101]

Ever since I got them they've been dying in singles once every couple of days. I'm down to 5 of my original 11 and can't for the life of me work out what's causing it.

The 'ambiguous' theory I'm going with is that the tap water is causing them problems (despite the fact that it's shrimp safe having looked at my water board results).

I have super soft water (gh 1-3 max), low nitrates, extremely low chlorine. I use seachem prime conditioner. The tank is pH 6.5, ammonia+nitrites 0, Nitrates 10-15 before water change.
They're being fed a shrimp specific diet of boiled spinach and hayashi red bee shrimp food.
The die offs aren't occuring specifically after water changes and there are blue tiger shrimp in the tank with them. They are seperated by a divider but share the same water and filtration....

Someone please tell me what it is I'm doing wrong. I'd love to keep CRS with my blue tigers but I'm really at a loss.

Edit: Just to add the decorations are various bits of bogwood and plants with a single resin ornament, all have been in my tank for ages so I know there are no residues of copper etc and just to point out again... there are other shrimp in there with the CRS.

 

[scobie140]

I used to use my seachem prime on my shrimp tank but suffered occasional losses then had a mass die off one day after a water change, sine then i changed to intra pet tap safe for the shrimp tank as when i read the prime bottle it never said anything about removing/making safe the metals in the water. Plus its easier to get the correct dose as its no where near as concentrated for the smaller tank. I could be wrong but since i changed over the shrimp have been doing fine

 

[Curiosity101]

You may have a point on the water conditioner... I'll try n do a google and see if I can dig anything up.

 

[Curiosity101]

Hmm, it's a bit 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. And as stated my blue tigers are fine. I'm going to say it probably isn't seachem prime.

from seachems site

...It will also detoxify any heavy metals found in the tap water at typical concentration levels...

 

[scobie140]

Ahh well there my theory out the window, i think my problem could have also been down the concentration of the seachem with the volume of water being changed being so low. Now i'm super paranoid every week doing the water change on that tank as i only have 1 big female and two smaller ones left but about 12 males. Hope you find a solution soon before any more deaths

 

[loraxchick]

just a guess but could it be from stirring up the substrate during waterchanges cuseing small(undetectable) amounts of ammonia. shrimp are very sensitive.
just a thought.
hope you find a solution.
cheers

 

[Curiosity101]

just a guess but could it be from stirring up the substrate during waterchanges cuseing small(undetectable) amounts of ammonia. shrimp are very sensitive.
just a thought.
hope you find a solution.
cheers

No stirring so probabaly not. I swipe the syphon over the top due to it being pretty sandy. Plus they are dying periodically every couple of days... not after water changes/decor movement etc etc.

I've even run carbon in the tank for a few days since the deaths started and that's not helped.

 

[PDSimon]

I know you mentioned copper, but have you tested for it? these shrimp get super sensitive don't they so maybe theres a really small amount that they're sensitive too?

 

[RoMeO]

what temps do you have. I have lost 2 crs this week (1 with eggs) to high temps. Also might be worth investing in some deionized RO water. Try also buffering your water with montromilinite clay but only a tiny bit as it goes a long way. I also find 40% water changes work well once a week.

Here is my tank and it works well apart from the crs i lost this week which put me in a mood for day or two

My link

 

[AstonN24vantage]

how big is your tank?

 

[Curiosity101]

60l tank, was a 27/8C for a few days during the hot weather. It's now at 26. RO water seems to be a recurring suggestion and makes me think I'll just avoid restocking CRS. Thanks for the montromilnite clay thing. I do have a very low KH

Oh and I do 40ish % changes a week.

 

[RoMeO]

between 21-23c is a good temp. I get my crystals from here http/www.shrimpking.co.uk/

you can usually purchase RO water from a local fish shop if your not interested in a filter for yourself... well worth investing in... benefits all round and they last for years.

 

[Curiosity101]

Mine are are 25C which is optimum temperature for breeding. (Someone did some research on it). And I got mine from shrimpking
Also I know I can purchase RO water, but the problem will be transporting it as I wont necessarily always have a car.

 

[RoMeO]

if you get something like this di resin chamber with a tap adapter and a couple of meters of 1/4 inch ro pipe feeding straight into your water bucket or tank and this will take most of the crap out of the tap water however it wont last as long without being connected to an ro system but the resin is cheap as chips to buy when it runs out anyway. doing it this way wont work out any more expensive than buying water conditioner and is probably cheaper in the long run... just change it twice a year.

 

[Curiosity101]

Isn't that for use with RO water? Not tap water...

Eitherways I've been chatting to the guy. I think I'm going to switch to bottled water as I can get it delivered to my house with the weekly shop it's a little bit more expensive but it's something I'm happy to pay as it'll not be THAT expensive. It really just depends which brand of bottled water I go with. I'll be need around 20ltrs a week so I'll just do some maths. He suggests aqua pura so I may go with that but I've asked if he's ever used own brand spring water as that is significantly cheaper.