Shrimp Dying?

[Bristol]

So I got about 6 Cherry shrimp recently from a local shop & Havent seen any of them since putting them into the tank last week, until today I found two bodies.

I have now heard that the flourish excel by seachem can kill them!! Is this true? The same store I got the shrimp from told me to get the flourish!

If it is what else can I use for my plants?

Also any idea where is the cheapest place to get the shrimp?:smile:

[Shelley]

Are you sure you found bodies? Shrimp moult often.. its the only way they can grow. Its very common for them to moult soon after being intorduced into a new inviroment. I dont know a thing about Flourish as I dont use it. I find my cherrys very forgiving about water conditions, I have read that some shrimp are very picky about nitrates.

[thegrandpoohbah]

I see in your other post that you are in Richmond. That being the case you should contact a member here by the name of Mykiss. He always has red cherry shrimp for sale among numerous other things. Invertabrates are, as a general rule, very sensitive to ammonia, nitrites and copper. Is the tank still cycling? If you post your tank specs and water parameters we'd be better able to offer you advice.

[Bristol]

Thanks for the replies! Yes I am in Richmond and will PM mykiss now - Thanks!!

It isn't cycling tank has been up and running for over a year now, I will do a water check tonight and post here.

Maybe I am wrong and they did just moult? I sucked them up with the Siphon......Is it normal to not see them around for a bit?

[Melody]

If there are fish in the tank they are often less brave, especially at first. I think a moult is a real possibility. Otherwise I would check the parameters. Apparently Flourish can kill the Shrimp if it is OD'ed, but otherwise it seems fine.

As for Mr. Mykiss, he has all sorts of great stuff and is a highly respected seller. :smile:

[hp10BII]

First time I saw a moulted shell, I thought it was a dead shrimp too. Very rarely do I find a dead shrimp unless it jumped out of the tank. Tank inhabitants usually get them before I find them. If the "dead shrimp" looks ghostly white and "empty" it's a moulted carapace (shell). I leave them in the tank...it's a source of calcium for your shrimp.

Flourish Excel is really a carbon replacement if you are not adding any CO2, so not a true fertilizer that adds macros, N, P & K and trace elements. Keep to normal doses and you should be fine, but you may need a more comprehensive plant product like Flourish (regular) if your plants are not doing well.

[Bristol]

First time I saw a moulted shell, I thought it was a dead shrimp too. Very rarely do I find a dead shrimp unless it jumped out of the tank. Tank inhabitants usually get them before I find them. If the "dead shrimp" looks ghostly white and "empty" it's a moulted carapace (shell). I leave them in the tank...it's a source of calcium for your shrimp.

Flourish Excel is really a carbon replacement if you are not adding any CO2, so not a true fertilizer that adds macros, N, P & K and trace elements. Keep to normal doses and you should be fine, but you may need a more comprehensive plant product like Flourish (regular) if your plants are not doing well.

Wow thanks for the information!!!
I have the C02 but not the tank kind, just the Red sea one which uses the refill canister - I just got this last week, I also have Flourite as a base and then I add the Flourish excel & then Coralife for lighting- what else do you think I should add to keep the plants healthy?

Thanks again!

[hp10BII]

Wow thanks for the information!!!
I have the C02 but not the tank kind, just the Red sea one which uses the refill canister - I just got this last week, I also have Flourite as a base and then I add the Flourish excel & then Coralife for lighting- what else do you think I should add to keep the plants healthy?

Thanks again!

You may not need anything else - if you're adding CO2, you may not even need the Excel. I grow plants, but I'm not a "planthead". I'm fish first, then plants to support the fish. If your lighting is intense ie. 3 watts per gallon or greater and you have demanding (high light loving) plants and lots of them, you will need a general based fertilizer. If you like Seachem products like Flourish Excel then you can start using Flourish. Just plain old Flourish:

http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Flourish.html

How big is your tank and what kind of plants have you planted or planning to plant? People with large tanks can save money by dosing chemicals you can buy from Hydroponic stores ie. Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Phosphate, Potassium Sulphate and trace elements. Maybe those same plantheads can help you there...it was too much work for me so I use a commercial based fertilizer instead.

[Bristol]

The tank is 40 gallons, and to be honest Im not sure what kind of plants are in there :wideeyed:

I just went to the store and asked for a few plants - I will try re-searching and see what I can find on the ones I have.
Thanks again for the help!

[Soggybottom]

I have a few tubs of dry chemicals but usually end up using a commercial preparation due to laziness :)
I dose it as per the directions on the bottle, but I go by the size of the waterchange rather than the size of the tank so I'm probably dosing at 1/4 what they say. I'm trying to keep it low maintenance right now. If I were to go full strength I'm pretty sure the tank would go crazy...

[Gramma]

I wouldn't worry yet about them being dead. I bought some Japonica Amano Shrimp for both my tank and my daughter's. I bought them to clean up the green hairy algae when I was first cycling my tank. As there was no fish in the tank yet, they were out and about right away. However the ones I put into my daughter's tank went into hiding as she had lots of fish. It took quite a while before they ventured out.

I have a CO2 canister on the back of my tank. I also use Flourish and everything appears to be fine.

[Soggybottom]

Just to keep in mind what hp10BII said:

Flourish is a complete fertilizer. Flourish Excel is meant to be used in addition to fertilizers as a carbon supplement, and contains no 'essential' nutrients. It is suspected by some that the latter product harms shrimp, though it also sounds to me like they may well be still alive in there somewhere, any sightings yet??

[zapisto]

how your shrimp doing ?
i am a crustacea fan , and have a lot specie , and would like to see more people with shrimp :)