actually i put a few pieces of cherry shrimps into the tank, but they all died in few days time..... but the ottos and galaxy rasboras are perfectly fine though, any idea what's wrong?

If you suspect the rusting metal steel mesh killing your shrimps , you can take it out and house it in a bucket with some RO water and put in together with a shrimp to test.
As there is just too many reason shrimps sudden death, although the main killer normally is pesticides/fertilizers leeched plants.

The shrimp can really eat the entire day!


Attached thumbnail(s)

do you mean house the rusted wire mesh together with RO water to test? hmm, i gotta try, but any idea where can i buy RO water? my house don't have RO water.

i suspect this is the reason, all of them died =(
don't think so about fertilisers, i didn't dose anything at all, cycled for about 3 weeks before introducing the shrimps in to the tank.

RO should be sold at those water filters suppliers like Diamonds, Ekans, etc etc.

i suspect ammonia could be the culprit

feed too much they will die yo

Yes bro. Next time I'll split the sticks before feeding.

tank fully cycled lor. didn't feed much also, should say i didn't even feed the shrimps yet.

Test for copper perhaps?

maybe i shall do that....

Hi tehoice. 3 weeks is not cycled lol.. Some tanks can even take longer, depending on your filter. Cannot be considered safe for shrimps.
It also depends what kind of shrimps. Yamatos are tough, 3 weeks may be okay. Cherries no. 6 weeks is more like it. CRS are more sensitive.

I experienced cherry deaths at over a month. At first I also thought it was copper, but in the end its due to new tank syndrome..

This post has been edited by davido: Jan 23 2016, 06:57 PM

TDS is rubbish check for GH.
TDS is only useful when u mix RO water with HAGEN other than that it doesnt reflect anything.

No, I don't use mineral additives to set GH/TDS. I don't believe in those because last time I used GH/KH+ in my old tank, but it causes shocks during WC. I believe last time I couldn't keep my CRS alive because my water parameters was unstable during the WC period. Also noticed that when I did a 50% WC in my current tank, 1 CRS died the next day. This makes me think CRS needs the water to be stable - rather than ideal.

My tap water TDS is 70. Did a 25% WC today. My TDS was 155 after WC. Then I pumped in the ferts - TDS went up to 165. I pump in ferts every day. Yes, now I will monitor TDS.
Ok, will set temp to 24C.
My ADA soil is about 9 months old now. Not sure how many KGs, but its generally 3 inches thick.

Btw some updates. Just spotted my Tiger shrimp last night. Just discovered she's berried again. hehe.. This means the first batch must have hatched, and the babies must be hiding in the moss, so I don't see them.

Sorry for poor picture quality because this was taken at night. She comes out only when the lights are off, and usually at night. Not sure why she's so shy and I didn't want to use flash. Now I need to start counting the days.



Attached thumbnail(s)

I'm also trying to get rid of this Cyclops in my tank. The fishes cannot reach them because they are in the grass and beneath the rocks. Any advice appreciated.

Anybody want Cyclops? I can give to you if you want to cultivate as fish food. Yes, seriously.

shrimp doesnt need plants to live, plants need ferts and shrimps are sensitive to chemicals. i have went to few shops in shanghai and Those RMB xxxx grade tank u will never see 1 plant inside , bbs.tropicana.cn (can see china shrimp forum) and also easy for their owner to scoop out the louya grade one

TDS- IMO is shit , unless to mix water with RO and hagen . it doesnt reflects GH value and can be influenced by so many things .dont be over concern with tdsi. unless u using RO water because the TDS value for ro water always will be 0 and when u add HAGEN to 100 tds the gh will always be 4-5.

and i really recommend this product for shrimps 硬壳素 ， i dont sell this and i dont know the english name for it, but from my experience it makes the shrimp recover quicker after it has molted + the shell turns more shinning!

Oh no. I just add in some aged biohome add soil and shrimps together. It's running for a week now. And I'm acclamatising some new shrimps today. Hope I don't get new tank syndrome.

Bro boonseng. My gh was 3. And advise?

Did a bad thing. I did the drip method to acclamatise the new shrimp I bought. Went out for dinner and came back to see the container overflowed. Worse still got stomach ache samore. Quickly dry the floor and pour the contents of the container in the tank. Then I rush to do my business 😁, came bk and look at the new shrimps. I bought 3 but counted 2 only. Panic I checked the container. True enough 1 was left behind. Luckily still alive 😅 Phew. Hope no permanent damage 🙈

Wow congrats!