sarah Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 I have a 10 gallon tank with red cherry shrimp. Started out with 10 and now have approximately 10-15 adults and a huge number of juveniles (all sizes, from newborn to almost mature). It is difficult to count them since 1/3 of the tank is full of overgrown java moss. As far as I can tell, everyone seems healthy and happy, and I have observed no deaths in the past 6 months. But I have very few adults. Do they just take many months to grow and mature, or is there a problem that is preventing the babies reaching adulthood? We do have planaria, so I have ordered a planaria trap from Han to try to decrease their numbers. If that doesn’t work, I will try the fenbendazole route. I use aged tapwater treated with Prime and Replenish, and I periodically add Azoo vitamins and minerals. My water parameters are stable as follows: pH 7.2 Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate 0 Temp 76 Copper 0 I have been getting different values for KH and GH every time I use my test kit (API), and the strips also give different readings from the kit. Can anyone shed any insight on this? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metageologist Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 The shrimp will take a few months to mature to adult hood. Your paramiters seem fine. As far as plinaria go they have been known to kill shrimp even abults. I would not waste the time on a trap it will never get them all just get the treatment and be done with them. have a gneiss day sarah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 You also may want to check TDS. Cherries can take high TDS, but too high and the babies don't do well. One person found out his TDS was 1000+. Adults were alive, but babies were disappearing and he didn't know why. Also, how many in what size tank, and how often do you feed? It may be there's not enough biofilm food. sarah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah Posted March 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 I don't have a TDS meter, but will look into purchasing one. Is there a decent inexpensive one available on amazon that you recommend? I can't count them because most are hidden in the moss, but I can usually see about 10-12 mature adults and loads of juveniles of all sizes. The more I look, the more tiny babies I find. The tank is 10 gallons, and I feed them 2x/week. This is not a tank in my home, so I can only feed them 2x/week. Usually I drop in a couple mini algae wafers or a cube of homemade "snail jello" (calcium powder, veggies, organic veggie baby food, algae wafers, gelatin). Occasionally I feed a stick or two of Ken's veggie calcium sticks. They never really swarm the food, but they will wander over and graze eventually. Yesterday I tried a piece of blanched zucchini, which was a bust. I have a ton of moss in there, and they seem to graze on it most. I have just ordered a sampler pack of Han's foods, so maybe I will find something more appealing to them. I also took Metageologist's advice and changed the planaria trap order to the No-planaria meds. Hopefully that should clear up that issue without killing any of the babies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 I just buy the cheap meters on Ebay. With my clumsiness, absent mindedness and butterfingers, the cheapies do well for me. LOL Meta's advice is good as far as medicating the tank. Get 'em all. The trap only traps some, and they repopulate. sarah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citycode01 Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 I don't think tds is the problem, with high tds you would have a high ph. The parameters looking great, even nitrate 0, cherry shrimps are hard as a brick. I have my cherry shrimp tank for about 6 months too I started with about 20 shrimps and I still don't have a lot of adult shrimps maybe 30 or 40 and around 200 (just rough guess) of yang shrimps 7-15mm and tiny babies. I think it's normal you just need to be passion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OMG Aquatics Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 "I don't think tds is the problem, with high tds you would have a high ph." That is not true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chibikaie Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 Uh, yeah, I've had TDS 650 and pH 7.2 - that's just not how those work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citycode01 Posted March 28, 2015 Report Share Posted March 28, 2015 Ok not always. What I was trying to say is the hard water has hight tds due to dissolved Ca, Mg and CO3 salts and ph of hard water is higher then 8. It is till possible to have other organic and inorganic solids dissolved in the water not effected hardiness but this is very rare for tap water. I have a chemistry degree it was long time ego but still remember something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
35ppt Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 As you say, it can be hard to see all the shrimps with the plants in there. Don't panic. I think the trap is good for determining if you have planaria. You may not see them, but throw that in there with some food it in, will entice them out of their hiding spots. Then you will know you need to treat with NoPlanaria or fenbendazole. Since you already switched your order, in the future, you can made a DIY trap or use a piece of food as a bait, to check for their presence. Bear in mind there are a lot of 'worm' like things you may find, and not all of them are bad. Most people recommend the HM brand TDS meters. The TDS-EZ should be good enough, from what I've read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah Posted March 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 As you say, it can be hard to see all the shrimps with the plants in there. Don't panic. I think the trap is good for determining if you have planaria. You may not see them, but throw that in there with some food it in, will entice them out of their hiding spots. Then you will know you need to treat with NoPlanaria or fenbendazole. Since you already switched your order, in the future, you can made a DIY trap or use a piece of food as a bait, to check for their presence. Bear in mind there are a lot of 'worm' like things you may find, and not all of them are bad. Most people recommend the HM brand TDS meters. The TDS-EZ should be good enough, from what I've read. Thank you all for your input/suggestions! Yes, I am 100% sure they are planaria. Unfortunately, I think it is a fairly bad infestation. There are quite a few clearly visible on the moss and gravel even when the lights are on. And I really don't overfeed, so I don't know why they are so abundant. I will treat with the "Planaria Zero" (is this the same as NoPlanaria?) once it arrives - but I am very nervous about harming all the babies. Can you recommend a dosage that will work on the worms but not affect the baby shrimp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
35ppt Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 I believe they are the same ingredient, betel nut, IIRC. Not sure on dosage. I noticed hydra were affected immediately, so I think a lower dose works on them. (I thought I had planaria but it turns out I didn't.) You could try a reduced dose and see if it affects planaria, then increase if needed, if you wanted to be overly safe. Product may be light sensitive (I don't recall), so keep your lights off, and be sure you have decent tank aeration. Be ready with carbon to remove the product after a few days. And of course a water change, along with a vacuum of the debris. I've used NoPlanaria twice, so I'm not an expert, but nothing gave me the impression that I had to be super careful with dosage or duration. It's pretty hard to keep track of shrimps in a planted tank (i.e. counting), but hopefully you could see if babies are acting abnormally. However , considering how well RCS reproduce in general, even if you lose some now, the population should recover. But I understand your trepidation - I was the same way. In fact, I did remove some of the shrimp to a temporary tank (breeder box) when I treated one time. Turned out to be unnecessary, and potentially stressful to them to be in that less than ideal tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah Posted March 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.