Help with a few dead RCS, not CRS ...

[kidslikefish]

Got home from work today and noticed 5 dead shrimp in the tank (5.5 GAL heavy planted - bought from Eklikewhoa).  All were mature shrimp.  No other dead ones found and all others are eating and acting normal.

Some background:

Did a 30% water change yesterday evening.  Water was tap treated with AquaSafe that had been sitting out for 48 HRS.  Added a small amount (less than instructions) of Excel with the water change.   Have done the same thing weekly and haven't ever had a problem.  Cleaned inside glass with a razor blade and thinned out a few plants (that did gently disturb the substrate a little).

Checked water this evening.  PH 7.8   Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate all registering 0 ppm (using a fairly new API Master Test Kit - bought maybe 3 months ago).

Filter was off when I got home (it was working last night) it stopped at some point and could have been off for up to 14 hours, gave it a good cleaning and it's back in order.

So, any ideas on what would cause 5 to die at the same time given the information I provided, do I need to check something else ?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Help with a few dead CRS

Was the lights off? if the lights went out and the filter was off for a long period of time it could have been depletion of o2.
With the water changes I like to use Amquel+plus or Seachem Prime....there have been some people having problems with other de-chlorinators and inverts.
With the Excel did you dose the Day1 dose or the "Following days" dose...on day1 I believe you dose 5ml for 10g and after that it's 5ml per 50g.
pH seems a bit high for that tank since I had it, what is the pH/hardness of your tap water? The tank has Aquasoil and Powersand so that usually brings it down quite a bit.
Sometimes it could be that they are old....


Oh, and it's RCS which is RedCherryShrimp and not CRS which is CrystalRedShrimp.

[kidslikefish]

Re: Help with a few dead CRS

Oops on the RCS/CRS, I've had CRS on the mind a lot lately.  Been reading all about those and doing some research and have almost convinced myself that I need a new 20-GAL long from Santa that I'm going to use as a CRS tank.

Lights were on, they run on a 10-hour timer.  I'll pick up some Seachem Prime this weekend and start using that.  I used the 5ml per 50gal on Excel, I use a baby's medicine dropper to measure the small doses and mix 1 ml for 10 gal and use that in both my 20 gal planted and RCS tank.  

Just checked the PH of the tap water, looks to be about 8.2

[PlanB]

Re: Help with a few dead CRS

Ironically, it may have been the fresh water change that did them in. That would explain why the pH was slightly higher than it should have been, though I don't think that range would have been deadly for cherry shrimp. I believe many water conditioners recommend making sure the there's adequate aeration after initial usage because of oxygen depletion so if the pump was off... The good news is if that's the case, it was just a perfect storm of bad luck and probably won't happen again.

[kidslikefish]

Re: Help with a few dead RCS, not CRS ...

That was my thought also, combination of the water change and the filter going out , but I wanted to see what those with more experince than I thought also, mainly if I was overlooking anything that I shuold check.   filter has been back on for about 5 hours and everything looks normal, all the shrimp are very active right now.

[nacra99]

Re: Help with a few dead RCS, not CRS ...

Yea... sometimes mystery die-offs just happen and you never know the cause.
Seems like your water parameters are ok.
I was suspecting heavy metals in the water, but since your remaining shrimp are doing ok, i guess not.
How about water temperature? Is the tank heated? If not, the temp fluctuations over the past week might be enuff to stress anyone.

Excel sometimes make my shrimp woozy... It should be dosed daily with small doses rather than weekly with one large dose.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Help with a few dead RCS, not CRS ...

The pH, though not super high it is harmful if the pH in the tank was really low before the water change and then spiking from the water change.

Any drastic/instant change in any water parameter is harmful in one way or another.

[PlanB]

Re: Help with a few dead RCS, not CRS ...

That's why I do tiny water changes in my shrimp tanks--to keep from having drastic changes in water parameters. I test the water regularly to make sure things stay constant and healthy.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Help with a few dead RCS, not CRS ...

Using aged water tends to help too...or you could just go all out and use RO/DI....which really sparked the CRS when I had them...

[kidslikefish]

Re: Help with a few dead RCS, not CRS ...

No additional deaths to report after that first group of 5.  Everything seems to be back to normal and the shrimp are all happy now !!  

Forgive the ignorance, but what is RO/DI ?

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: Help with a few dead RCS, not CRS ...

(Reverse Osmosis/Distilled) Where i come from its called Active Transport, but here they call it REVERSE Osmosis.