Alexander1702
New Member
Hello hello one and all, I'm calling in for some much needed assistance. I'm relatively new to the hobby, but have been keeping aquariums (poorly) on and off since I was young. But these days, I'm trying to take things a bit more seriously.
I've had my little 4 gallon aquarium at the foot of my bed for a while now, and I've been keeping amano shrimp in it for about 2 or 3 months. I figure they have a lower bio load, so they would be a little more forgiving when it comes to cleaning (not to say I don't already do weekly water changes. I love my children) They have been happy and healthy for a long while now, molting well and eatin good. They bring me great joy
I've also recently (within the last 2 weeks or so) been attempting to add in a few cherry shrimp. I had them relatively successfully when I was younger and I'd love to keep em again. I haven't had luck acclimating all of them, but a few have stuck around so far. I think I really just need to home the skill set of shrimp acclimation, they're so damn fragile.
I realize this post is already drawing long, but I'm just trying to cover all my bases here. Long story short, they've all been happy and healthy for the last week or so. One of the cherries even molted without any complications, so things were looking good. Notice how I use the past tense there?
It's not the shrimp-pocolypse or anything, but I lost a cherry overnight. Not too shocking. But I lost an amano as well! One of my treasured, well lived and well loved big boys. I was deeply concerned to say the least.
So here I am. I did a bunch of obligatory water measurements this morning, but nothing looks out of the ordinary. All seems to be well, and so I'm wondering if anybody could help me out here in diagnosing my issue. Seems beyond my knowledge of tanks so far. I haven't made any large changes, I did a 1/3 water change on Thursday that's about all I can think of. The only thing that comes to mind as noticeable is that my copepod population, who usually keeps to the substrate, seems to have exploded over the last day or two. All over the glass and my dragon stone. I don't know why, and from what I heard they're not dangerous, but it's the only change I've seen. I trimmed some of my crypts last night as well, but I'm not sure what effect that would have. Anybody who might know how to stop this happening again when I return from work tonight? It would be devastating to find another one of my big amanos had passed alongside his brother.
Any and all help is appreciated. I'll provide as much of my tank specs as I can below. Thank you for reading my excessive and rambling concern post.
(The amano is still alive, but just barely. I separated him just to be safe, as I'm not sure he'll make it in the end anyway.)
3.7 gallons
Ammonia: 0.0-0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 0.0 ppm
pH: ~7.4
GH: ~140
KH: ~180
Temp: 76° F
(I don't have anything currently at my disposal with which I can test for chlorine or anything of that nature. Currently working on it)
Meds and ferts:
-Tetra Easy Balance Plus
-Seachem Acid buffer
-Seachem Equilibrium
-Seachem Neutral Regulator
-Aqueon Aquarium plant food
-Seachem Flourish advance
I haven't made any sudden changes to my water parameters, and to my knowledge there haven't been any Temperature snaps. All is being treated as just another water change, just another cleaning, just another feeding.
Any and all help is deeply appreciated. Many, many thanks
-Alexander, a deeply grateful fish keeper
I've had my little 4 gallon aquarium at the foot of my bed for a while now, and I've been keeping amano shrimp in it for about 2 or 3 months. I figure they have a lower bio load, so they would be a little more forgiving when it comes to cleaning (not to say I don't already do weekly water changes. I love my children) They have been happy and healthy for a long while now, molting well and eatin good. They bring me great joy
I've also recently (within the last 2 weeks or so) been attempting to add in a few cherry shrimp. I had them relatively successfully when I was younger and I'd love to keep em again. I haven't had luck acclimating all of them, but a few have stuck around so far. I think I really just need to home the skill set of shrimp acclimation, they're so damn fragile.
I realize this post is already drawing long, but I'm just trying to cover all my bases here. Long story short, they've all been happy and healthy for the last week or so. One of the cherries even molted without any complications, so things were looking good. Notice how I use the past tense there?
It's not the shrimp-pocolypse or anything, but I lost a cherry overnight. Not too shocking. But I lost an amano as well! One of my treasured, well lived and well loved big boys. I was deeply concerned to say the least.
So here I am. I did a bunch of obligatory water measurements this morning, but nothing looks out of the ordinary. All seems to be well, and so I'm wondering if anybody could help me out here in diagnosing my issue. Seems beyond my knowledge of tanks so far. I haven't made any large changes, I did a 1/3 water change on Thursday that's about all I can think of. The only thing that comes to mind as noticeable is that my copepod population, who usually keeps to the substrate, seems to have exploded over the last day or two. All over the glass and my dragon stone. I don't know why, and from what I heard they're not dangerous, but it's the only change I've seen. I trimmed some of my crypts last night as well, but I'm not sure what effect that would have. Anybody who might know how to stop this happening again when I return from work tonight? It would be devastating to find another one of my big amanos had passed alongside his brother.
Any and all help is appreciated. I'll provide as much of my tank specs as I can below. Thank you for reading my excessive and rambling concern post.
(The amano is still alive, but just barely. I separated him just to be safe, as I'm not sure he'll make it in the end anyway.)
3.7 gallons
Ammonia: 0.0-0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0.0 ppm
Nitrate 0.0 ppm
pH: ~7.4
GH: ~140
KH: ~180
Temp: 76° F
(I don't have anything currently at my disposal with which I can test for chlorine or anything of that nature. Currently working on it)
Meds and ferts:
-Tetra Easy Balance Plus
-Seachem Acid buffer
-Seachem Equilibrium
-Seachem Neutral Regulator
-Aqueon Aquarium plant food
-Seachem Flourish advance
I haven't made any sudden changes to my water parameters, and to my knowledge there haven't been any Temperature snaps. All is being treated as just another water change, just another cleaning, just another feeding.
Any and all help is deeply appreciated. Many, many thanks
-Alexander, a deeply grateful fish keeper