My Cherry Army Gone!?

[Mikaila31]

My 20gal high planted tank houses 150-200 cherry shrimp. I did a water change 10 days ago they were there. I just got done doing another water change, I found 4 dead one in its death rows and less than 50 are still alive. Well over 100 are uncounted for! I don't know what happend, below are my water stats. The only difference I can see it ph and KH are different, cuz I turned up my CO2 last week to help fight some algae. Normally ph=6.8 and kh=8.

PH=6.4
Ammonia/nitrite=0ppm
nitrate=15ppm
GH=10
kh=9-10
PO4=.1ppm

Any ideas what might of happened?

 

[iSnail]

Are you sure they are not hiding underneath bogwood and decors? My shrimps sometimes have mood swings and hide inside the bogwood cave for a long time. Other times, they are everywhere. Were the dead ones big females? I find they are more vulnerable than the males.

 

[Liam]

Dont really know unless the Co2 was too much but then you would see them stressed and trying to leave the tank, swimming at the top etc. I guess if some died the ammonia spike could kill others making ammonia worse again and starting a vicious cycle. As iSnail said they are good at hiding. I would change more water and check for bodies. If you have another tank then put a few in that even a planted big tub outside would be fine for enough to restart a colony if something has gotten into the tank that is killing them.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

If 100 shrimp died and you didn't see them you would have a huge ammonia spike already.

I think they're just hiding really well.

 

[Mikaila31]

I'm so angry at myself now . I've been so busy with collage registration and high school graduation, I neglected to check on the tank. CO2 was through the roof and I'm luck I didn't lose my fish as well. It was 3 times what it should of been. I checked under things and around things and took in consideration the shrimp I didn't see...... 50 is a high estimate . My last count in May was 160 shrimp caught when I had to tear the tank down. I'm not surprised I didn't get an ammonia reading. The fish and snails probably made quick work of the dead ones and the tank was choked with plants. I did a large water change and turned the co2 back down. The $20 I paid for 20 shrimp 2 years ago kept me going for a long time, I'll have too buy some more and start over again. I'm still gutted..... killed over 100 shrimp ........ I'm going to be hating myself for a week at least. Also the fact that I turned the co2 up to help control the algae and ended up killing the majority of my algae eating shrimp makes me more upset!

 

[Wolfenrook]

If you aint seen the stinking (very important this, as the poor so and so could just be moulting. lol) corpse it aint dead is my new motto these days. I don't even know how many cherry shrimp I have in my big planted tank, all I know is that I find a few baby ones in my filter whenever I clean it out, and that I regularly see 2 young uns, a male and a very large red female most of the time.

Shrimp are masters of the art of hiding!

Ade

 

[Mikaila31]

CO2 was 109-119ppm! It was suppose to be 40 at the most. When I was cleaning the tank I only had to fish one out of the bucket, normlly its around ten. Only found 1 baby in the filter instead of a couple dozen like I normally do. Counted 6 just looking into the tank this morning.....it use to be around 30. The ones I found dead where definetly dead shrimp, they still had their coloration and one was twitching .

 

[Wolfenrook]

Ouch, that is a seriously lethal quantity of CO2 you had there! Ouch.

Ade