# Help My RCS dieing



## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

6 weeks ago I've got 20 RCS (all adults) in my 7 months old established, heavily planted Gal tank. Since then I already lost 8 with 3 loosing past week after I introduced drift wood for them to hide and breed under. I can not figure out why they dieing as my fish (guppies, neons, rummy noses and guramies and amano shrimps)) don't bather them at all. All 8 dead RCS I found untouched intact and in perfect conditions. I have RCS before (they got eaten by swordtail that I removed) and they never died on me. But this ones dieing too often. Here are my watter conditions:
Ammonia - 0
GH - 180
KH - 30
PH - 7
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 40
Temp - 25C
Any help is appreciated !!!


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Your nitrates may be a bit high for your shrimp.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

I am no shrimp expert an new to shrimps myself but curious if it has something to do with thier molting and being vulnerable turning then to other tank mates and them say not getting enough nutrients or calcium? Not sure if that along wiht some tank stress could be causing them to pass away.

What size tank is this again? The 10gal or something larger? How often are you doing water changes on the RCS tank? Have you done a water test before the water change and then after the water change then monitor the tank a few days and then do another water test later when you're watching the RCS and taking notes at each water change so you can note what's working/what's not, etc?


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

Darkblade48 said:


> Your nitrates may be a bit high for your shrimp.


It should not be so critical I had CRS and RCS with higher nitrates.

They might be very stressed because of moving ...


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

Maybe its because of driftwood. Before without dw they lived happily right? then after putting it they are dieng?


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Where did you acquire the driftwood from?


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## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

had this happen to my entire colony of Cherries.
Back then it was bacterial infection: the whole body would turn whitish, instead of see-through, they become translucent. This I dealt with by removing all of the infected ones. 

Another thing that happened to me was a lack of oxygen. Stick a sponge filter or airstone in there for air movement which facilitates water movement.
Although I think it's a little late to save the rest, try some new stock (lots of people are selling RCS around).


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Beijing08 said:


> had this happen to my entire colony of Cherries.
> Back then it was bacterial infection: the whole body would turn whitish, instead of see-through, they become translucent. This I dealt with by removing all of the infected ones.
> 
> Another thing that happened to me was a lack of oxygen. Stick a sponge filter or airstone in there for air movement which facilitates water movement.
> Although I think it's a little late to save the rest, try some new stock (lots of people are selling RCS around).


I've been to his place a few times before. If he's talking about his 10gal he's got an air stone in there opposite of the power filter for movement. What would cause a bacteria outbreak? Excessive trapped food in the gravel? AFAIK he is using gravel in both his 1g & 10g and I think has a 20gal.


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## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

then it's a mystery. Cherries can live inside power filters...mine did.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

No this is 10 GL, I installed a drift wood a week ago from local BAs. It was in my friends fish tank for a week to loose the watter coloring. I lost shrimps before installing driftwood 5 before and 3 after. I do 25% watter change every week. It something to do with stress or molting. 3 months ago I bought 4 fire cherry shrimps and lost two in the first month. 2 months ago I bought 3 CRS and lost two in first 3 weeks. Now cherries. Looks like some adaptation issue or so. I feed my fish 2 times a day and enough food that it also pushed down for bottom eaters, including cherries to eat. I usually don't see a lot food left on the gravel. I also use gravel cleaner when I change my watter. I have AC20 filter with special sponge filter on top of intake and air stone in my 10Gl as well. I know that RCS are most hardy from all shrimps. Since I've got them as adults may be they are on the end of their life spend or so. I'm not sure what bacteria I could get as all my remaining cherries are very red for girls and little lite red for boys. Their color is perfect. And the last shrimp that I saw dieing was extremely red before it died as it was trying to molt. Also all my fish is well and my 9 amano shrimps that I have there for 3 months now are all well and growing like crazy. The only other possibility that together with the fish and other shrimps it's not enough space for them ?


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

> No this is 10 GL, I installed a drift wood a week ago from local BAs. It was in my friends fish tank for a week to loose the watter coloring. I lost shrimps before installing driftwood 5 before and 3 after. I do 25% watter change every week. It something to do with stress or molting. 3 months ago I bought 4 fire cherry shrimps and lost two in the first month. 2 months ago I bought 3 CRS and lost two in first 3 weeks. Now cherries. Looks like some adaptation issue or so. I feed my fish 2 times a day and enough food that it also pushed down for bottom eaters, including cherries to eat. I usually don't see a lot food left on the gravel. I also use gravel cleaner when I change my watter. I have AC20 filter with special sponge filter on top of intake and air stone in my 10Gl as well. I know that RCS are most hardy from all shrimps. Since I've got them as adults may be they are on the end of their life spend or so. I'm not sure what bacteria I could get as all my remaining cherries are very red for girls and little lite red for boys. Their color is perfect. And the last shrimp that I saw dieing was extremely red before it died as it was trying to molt. Also all my fish is well and my 9 amano shrimps that I have there for 3 months now are all well and growing like crazy. The only other possibility that together with the fish and other shrimps it's not enough space for them ?


Ok I'm just throwing this out here to see what the answer is as perhaps it could play a part. Can you explain your proceedure on how you introduced the shrimp to the tank? What in detail was your proceedure to acclimating your shrimp? 15min bag float then add 1/4 of the water inside the shrimp bag amount of water from the main fish tank then wait 15mins then repeat 4 more times till you have 100% water exchange? Or slow 2-3hr drip acclimation?

Just wondering if (asking others here as well) if the acclimation stress could have held over for a while if done incorrectly and still stressing the livestock combined with the livestock trying to settle in, in the tank and the other inhabitants in the tank?


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

AquaNekoMobile said:


> Ok I'm just throwing this out here to see what the answer is as perhaps it could play a part. Can you explain your proceedure on how you introduced the shrimp to the tank? What in detail was your proceedure to acclimating your shrimp? 15min bag float then add 1/4 of the water inside the shrimp bag amount of water from the main fish tank then wait 15mins then repeat 4 more times till you have 100% water exchange? Or slow 2-3hr drip acclimation?
> 
> Just wondering if (asking others here as well) if the acclimation stress could have held over for a while if done incorrectly and still stressing the livestock combined with the livestock trying to settle in, in the tank and the other inhabitants in the tank?


for 30 min bag with shrimps floating in the fish tank and after I open it and put shrimps in (with the watter from the bag). In case of RCS that I've got I did not put the watter from the bag in as it was some green color I did not like, after 30 min of bag floating I put them in the net and after to the tank. I've done same procedure with all my fish and lost only 1 ottocad from all my livestock (still have 2 alive and well)


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

*Drip acclimatization*

Look at the picture attached.

I placed new shrimps into a box (just poured all water from a store bag fast)
Then I used air tube with air stone on one side and check valve on another side. These things just give me very slow current.
Using this approach I was adding some tank water into a box with shrimps during several hours and removed excessive water from a box. At the end almost all water is the box is a tank water.
Then I caught shrimps by a net and put them into the tank.

Note that aquarium on the picture doesn't have a heater, so I should not equalize temperature. In case aquarium water is hotter than a room, I keep shrimp box in a bucket with required temperature water.


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

igor.kanshyn said:


> Look at the picture attached.
> 
> I placed new shrimps into a box (just poured all water from a store bag fast)
> Then I used air tube with air stone on one side and check valve on another side. These things just give me very slow current.
> ...


Ahh I see you do a slow drain method. I do drip and 15min with 1/4 water into the bag then another 15mins for 3x till 100%. Tho for more risky/expensive stuff I do drip over a few hours. Never used the check valve method. Then again never owned a check valve before as I've always kept my air pump above tank level unless air can snake up.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

AquaNekoMobile said:


> Ahh I see you do a slow drain method. I do drip and 15min with 1/4 water into the bag then another 15mins for 3x till 100%. Tho for more risky/expensive stuff I do drip over a few hours. Never used the check valve method. Then again never owned a check valve before as I've always kept my air pump above tank level unless air can snake up.


10 X One Way Check Valve Co2 Aquarium Air Pump Airline for $2.5 including delivery. It's a cheap but useful thing, get some.

Check valve just make a slow water current. Another simpler way to archive this is a knot on a tube


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

igor.kanshyn said:


> Look at the picture attached.
> 
> I placed new shrimps into a box (just poured all water from a store bag fast)
> Then I used air tube with air stone on one side and check valve on another side. These things just give me very slow current.
> ...


Very interesting I need to call you on that Igor, so you can explain to me in more details as I'm not clear from the picture how this method works. Also I would apply this method for more sensitive shrimps like CR'S. But RCS, when I bought them first time (over 4 months ago), the guy who sold me then told me to float the back in the fish tank for 30 min and after release them. And also I receive two as a gift my friend just drooped them to my fish tank without any acclimatization. At that time I did not lost any RCS for 3 months, after that they got eaten by swordtail, whom I already removed. But for some reason it did not work for my second batch of RCS that I've got 6 weeks ago


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

igor.kanshyn said:


> 10 X One Way Check Valve Co2 Aquarium Air Pump Airline for $2.5 including delivery. It's a cheap but useful thing, get some.
> 
> Check valve just make a slow water current. Another simpler way to archive this is a knot on a tube


AquaNekoMobile, we can buy them and split between us as I don't think you need 10 and 5 will be good enough for me


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

ppaskova said:


> AquaNekoMobile, we can buy them and split between us as I don't think you need 10 and 5 will be good enough for me


Tempting. Very tempting. I only need 2-3 myself as I'm planning on doing DIY co2 tho there is a shop just north of me that has check valves for $1.50 which is ~$1.00-3.00 cheaper then BA's.

Haha.. swhhhheeaat that Ebay shop sells slingshots as well. Haha...Interesting all the items that seller is selling. Hmm.... nice items to hack apart to DIY and resolder.


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

igor.kanshyn said:


> 10 X One Way Check Valve Co2 Aquarium Air Pump Airline for $2.5 including delivery. It's a cheap but useful thing, get some.
> 
> Check valve just make a slow water current. Another simpler way to archive this is a knot on a tube


I just do the knot drip method. I guess if you want it to look more cosmetically better then yah the check valve would look better. I'm just more function over form.


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