Rodan76 Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Hey guys so i need some help identifying what might be going on with my shrimp. There are 2 in my tank that have lost so much white that they are starting to turn red-ish under their shells. Is it bacterial? they have been this way for a while.. one is in the middle of this photo all discolored and almost brown, the other not pictured is much more red. I am about to set up a new tank and tear this one down to start over because too much weird stuff is going on in this tank. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! my tank parameters are:ph - 6-6.5 (it's hard to read but in the lower 6's)kh - 0gh - 6TDS - 200-230 temp 73 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Red/orangish tissue is seen time to time in crystals. What is causing it to be seen is the white fading. My expertise are neos, so hopefully someone is able to answer your question on improving the white again. Usually fading color is caused by stress. Rodan76 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julianzh Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 What kind of food you feed them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodan76 Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 What kind of food you feed them? Shirakura Ebi Dama Special is the main thing i give them, i recently cut down alot on their feeding regime because i think i was overfeeding them, but sometimes i giving them BW multipara, BW frenzy or Barley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woopderson Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Something like this happened at one point with my blue bolts. The colours faded to the point that they were all white/brown, with some transparency. My issue: Ammonia spike caused by decaying plants in the filter, then resulting in huge nitrate spike. If your colours have faded like that, something in the water is stressing them out. Check your filter, test ammonia/nitrates/nitrites. Check your filter and see if there is any build up. Maybe give it a light cleaning with RO and a toothbrush. Note about your TDS: I keep my CRS/Blue Bolts at around 130 TDS. Perhaps it is too high? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodan76 Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Something like this happened at one point with my blue bolts. The colours faded to the point that they were all white/brown, with some transparency. My issue: Ammonia spike caused by decaying plants in the filter, then resulting in huge nitrate spike. If your colours have faded like that, something in the water is stressing them out. Check your filter, test ammonia/nitrates/nitrites. Check your filter and see if there is any build up. Maybe give it a light cleaning with RO and a toothbrush. Note about your TDS: I keep my CRS/Blue Bolts at around 130 TDS. Perhaps it is too high? sound advice. thank you i will check the filter, check ammonia etc. This sounds stupid but i don't want to make it worse...if ammonia etc are high, do i just do a huge water change? like 50% or more? i have a ton of plants in the tank so it could be them breaking down.. do i try to add more bacteria to water column maybe to combat an ammonia spike? Something is definitley bumming them out because they are not the most active bunch.. i recently started using purigen per suggestion from hyoushoku and the water looked alot better, but i after that i am not sure what else could keep things crappy for them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodan76 Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 and another random dumb question...i usually remineralize my water to a gh of 5 and the tds is around 135ish (if i remember correctly)...since my tds is so high in the tank, when i do the next water change, should i use the remineralized or maybe do a change with just straight r/o? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woopderson Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Glad to help! If your ammonia is high, do water changes. But don't do huge ones. Drastic changes could do more harm.I would say put in a bit of Seachem Prime to help with the Ammo for now, and then water change over time. For my spike I did the following: - Dosed Seachem prime to lower ammonia immediately - Inspect all equipment for issues/buildup to locate source of problem - 10% water changes each day, dripping in to bring down the remaining nitrate and ammonia, allowing shrimp to adapt - test every day for all parameters You will see improvement after a couple days once you find the source if it is an ammonia/nitrate issue. If after all that stuff they are still unwell, and all your parameters are in check, then remove the purigen to see if it is the cause. Yeah I would just add pure RO for now to bring the TDS down. Another question: What substrate are you using, and how old is it? Rodan76 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodan76 Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 cool thanks. btw i don't think the purigen had anything to do with it since they were already sad before i put it in...i was just mentioning that i thought it helped a little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woopderson Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Ahhh ok, I gotcha. Try the stuff I listed above, and keep us updated. I really hope you are able to solve it, it's always sad to see our shrimps this way. On the off chance: If your buffering substrate has had the biscuit that could also do it. I have heard some horror stories of substrate giving up the ghost, and releasing all kinds of bad stuff that has built up over time. In which case its a good thing you have that new tank coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodan76 Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Will do..i appreciate your input. i think at this point if i can't get it solved by the time the new tank cycles i'll tear it down and try again...the key is keeping them alive while the new tank cycles! aye yay yay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woopderson Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 No problem, glad to help! Will do..i appreciate your input. i think at this point if i can't get it solved by the time the new tank cycles i'll tear it down and try again...the key is keeping them alive while the new tank cycles! aye yay yay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyeGuy411 Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 How long has this tank been set up? I have read many similar stories on some other forums. The culprit in almost every case was the substrate was exhausted of minerals. I saw that hyoushoku answered many questions on these forums. He said the shrimp need trace minerals from their food and also dissolved in the water column. One remedy without doing a full tank reset is to dose Excel Trace every other day. I started this on all my Super Fire Red tanks and all the shrimps colors became deeper and the overall look of the shrimp improved. Rodan76 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodan76 Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 How long has this tank been set up? I have read many similar stories on some other forums. The culprit in almost every case was the substrate was exhausted of minerals. I saw that hyoushoku answered many questions on these forums. He said the shrimp need trace minerals from their food and also dissolved in the water column. One remedy without doing a full tank reset is to dose Excel Trace every other day. I started this on all my Super Fire Red tanks and all the shrimps colors became deeper and the overall look of the shrimp improved. It's been running since late july so i wouldnt think the substrate would be exhausted already...my only thought on that would be that it was caribsea ecocomplete and i added some bw fulvic to the tank to keep it buffed around 6.4...would they counteract enough to kill the substrate already? Also i'm not sure that ecocomplete has any buffering qualities, just to help cycle faster. I do have some duckweed int here too and i keep reading how they steal the trace minerals...should i pull them from the tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyeGuy411 Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 I saw some posts from hyoushoku saying the substrate can be depleted within a few months. The one tank I started dosing first just had aquarium gravel and the shrimp were pale and had matte shells. Now they are super bright red with super glossy thicker looking shells. It took two weeks before I noticed a difference its been a month now and they look great so I started dosing Trace on all my tanks. Rodan76 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodan76 Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 ok cool i have some trace so i will give that a shot as well after checking the other other parameters. i'll keep you all posted. thanks! woopderson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenteam Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 ecocomplete is inert so it does nothing for your PH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodan76 Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 ecocomplete is inert so it does nothing for your PH. i thought so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodan76 Posted December 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 Update: Checked parameters: Ammonia 0-.25ppm Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 i had rigged a piece of sponge to put on the intake of my canister filter so i removed that to help with the flow. I did 2 25% wc over the last 2 days with just r/o water ( not remineralized) to bring down the TDS. TDS was brought down to about 155. Dosed with Prime and Trace raised TDS up to 183. Removed the Duckweed and floaters from the tank. Shrimp immediately were much more active, this morning when i checked on them they have all moved from the corner they normally just hung out in and have spread out more through the tank. they are now forraging closer to the filter intake area. So far so good.... Jadenlea and countryboy12484 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted December 7, 2014 Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 BTW, I love the star wars reference in the title of this thread. RyeGuy411 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodan76 Posted December 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 BTW, I love the star wars reference in the title of this thread. Thanks I was hoping it would not be lost [emoji2] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk RyeGuy411 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyeGuy411 Posted December 7, 2014 Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 . Thanks I was hoping it would not be lost [emoji2] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk It wasn't when I saw the title I chuckled. Rodan76 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woopderson Posted December 7, 2014 Report Share Posted December 7, 2014 Glad to hear, Rodan! Keep your eyes on the tank. These are the parameters you're looking for. RyeGuy411 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodan76 Posted December 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 so i noticed today that my kh has spiked significantly. I assume this would be to dosing with the trace? the r/o water i have been using for wc are at 0 kh. the color has started to come back a little on that discolored guy, but now i am concerned with the kh levels...it is now around 7kh stop dosing the trace and maybe another water change to lower the kh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyeGuy411 Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 Trace won't effect kH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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