Shrimp Dying

[Ada]

Hi
So I have a 10l aquarium and I started out with 18 shrimp
6 Red Cherrry
6 Bloody Mary
6 Fire Red Sakura
pH is around 7
Temperature between 22-25°C
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate 0
KH 8
GH - unknown might be too low

So I had the tank cycled for about a month before adding the shrimp.
I had the shrimp for few weeks now and from last monday 4 shrimp had died 3 cherry and 1 bloody mary

One seemed to by dying today aswell but its still alive and seemes better. It was lying on its side around 5-6 hours ago only moving legs and tail from time to time and now its moving more and when I poke it it wants to run away so thats a good sign.

I had several molts so I have no idea if those few couldn't molt.

My pH was too high so that could be one possibility

Also I have a water softner installed in the house so I think it might be lowering the GH so is it possible that this could be causing the deaths? And how can I make it a bit higher.

They eat high quality shrimp food and I add Dennerle nano crusta mineral for better molting.

How to prevent more deaths?

 

[Essjay]

What type of water softener do you have? Some types swap the 'hardness' minerals for sodium and this is not good for aquatic creatures. If it is this type, there should be a bypass tap for drinking water - use this tap water instead of softened water.

 

[Ada]

What type of water softener do you have? Some types swap the 'hardness' minerals for sodium and this is not good for aquatic creatures. If it is this type, there should be a bypass tap for drinking water - use this tap water instead of softened water.

Im not sure exactly but we put salt in it so it could be the one youre talking about and we do have a second tap for drinking water. Ill test it against the other water tomorrow and see what happens.

 

[Colin_T]

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for a week. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Do not use water that has been through a household water softening device. If it's an ion exchange unit it will simply replace calcium and magnesium with sodium, which can cause problems.

Do not use hair spray, perfume, deodorant or any other spray or chemicals in the room near the tank.

Make sure you don't have any moisturising cream, perfume, oil, grease or anything else on your hands when you feed the shrimp or do work in the tank.

Don't use anti-bacterial soaps before working in the tank because they leave a residue on the skin that kills fish and shrimp. Rinse hands and arms with water before working in the tank.

Make sure you use a fish only bucket to do water changes. Do not use any bucket from around the house because they might have chemical residue in that can kill the shrimp.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Do the deaths seem to be after water changes or just randomly? If after water changes do smaller changes more frequently. The only deaths I have ever had were after changes. Good luck!

 

[Essjay]

Most people recommend smaller volume water changes but more often for shrimp-only tanks. However as mine are a tank with fish they get weekly 50% water changes and they don't seem to come to any harm.

 

[Ada]

The deaths were random there was no water change or anything.

So far I have no more deaths.

I will try to do water changes with the other water and see how it goes.

It is a small tank so I will do water changes more gradually.

I will update after a water change and testing

 

[Ada]

So I tested the waters and the drinking tap water is too hard
So I decided to mix both of them when changing the water.
I only tested with test strips as for some reason the liquid doesnt work.

I used JBL test strips and the range is between <3 and >21
So the normal tap water shows to be <3 and the drinking tap water is >21
So I mixed it so it is around 7 which is in the ok range.

 

[Essjay]

Don't use the 'softened' water for mixing with the hard tap water - it contains sodium which you need to avoid. In order to make the unsoftened tap water softer you need a source of pure water such as reverse osmosis, distilled or even rain water if you can collect it without any contamination (pesticides blowing from nearby fields, pollution from industry etc)

 

[Ada]

Don't use the 'softened' water for mixing with the hard tap water - it contains sodium which you need to avoid. In order to make the unsoftened tap water softer you need a source of pure water such as reverse osmosis, distilled or even rain water if you can collect it without any contamination (pesticides blowing from nearby fields, pollution from industry etc)

I would never think that keeping shrimp is so complicated.
I was planning to go to a fish store to get the water so I might go somethime next week.
Im also looking for a bigger tank around 20L so its gonna be easier to keep.
This one is way too small and almost impossible to clean the gravel properly. Before I manage to clean the gravel half of the water is gone

I read a lot about people adding iodine to shrimp tanks to help with molting any comments about that??