# Other Aquarium Forums > Fish Care, Nutrition and Water Management >  Help with shrimp tank

## Jetxx

Hi guys, I'm new to shrimp keeping. 

Recently set up my planted tank and cycled it for about a week, tested to see if everything is ok, did a 50% water change before ackimating and putting in the shrimps,. These shrimps were from a worm infested tank with no substrate. Had worms might be because of bacter ae and also my wife and daughter overfeeding.. I cleared the worms by filtering them out over organic no bleach tissue. 1 week into the new tank, they started dying.. on closer inspection the shrimplets innards are pinkish, can't really see on the adult shrimps. I read on google that it's a bacterial infection of micrococci and when I see pink, it's probably far too gone to help with treatment.. Hope someone can shed some light as to what is happening with them and possible cures or its something I didn't do right. Substrate is Gex shrimp and plants.

My water parameters

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 5.0ppm
Ph 6.6

Attached photos of my tank and the worms which I cleared. Googled the worms and it seems like detritus worms. Roast me for not keeping the hatchery properly.. I'm sorry..

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## zong021

Hi there,
Currently, you can dose it with non-copper medicine (though i don't remember seeing any shrimp medicine before) and monitor them. Take note if there are anymore infection in the healthy ones. Unfortunately, prevention is better than cure in shrimps. I also think that it is more cost effective to restart your shrimp colony. Do clean up the tank to prevent linger bacterial infection!
It is hard to know what went wrong without knowing the situation in the worm infested tank. Although hardy, neocaridina do not like water parameters changes especially temperature. Some people do drip acclimatization for shrimps (ultimate fail-safe method in my opinion). When i used to keep neocaridina, i just float the bag of shrimps in water for 30-60 min then scope them out and put them in my tank.
Every tank with substrate probably have detritus worms. When you can see them means they are breeding like crazy due to overfeeding. You can feed the detritus worms to most fishes actually.

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## Jetxx

Ic, I do drip acclimatization for all of them. Maybe I'll start by doing water changes everyday. Or add some hydrogen peroxide..

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## aero

No dont add hydrogen peroxide.
I had this before.Immediately dispose of shrimp that have the symptoms.They wont make it.Make sure u clean out yr tanks and use indian almond leaves. High temp here in sg plus overfeeding def will cause disaster.
I had a whole colony except one wiped out by this.(100+)
Mosquito rasbora will eat the worms otherwise no planaria might work. Planaria=worm??
If want to try medication do it in a seperate tank.

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## Jetxx

Is Indian almond leaves ketapang leaves for Bettas?

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## Jetxx

> Hi there,
> Currently, you can dose it with non-copper medicine (though i don't remember seeing any shrimp medicine before) and monitor them. Take note if there are anymore infection in the healthy ones. Unfortunately, prevention is better than cure in shrimps. I also think that it is more cost effective to restart your shrimp colony. Do clean up the tank to prevent linger bacterial infection!
> It is hard to know what went wrong without knowing the situation in the worm infested tank. Although hardy, neocaridina do not like water parameters changes especially temperature. Some people do drip acclimatization for shrimps (ultimate fail-safe method in my opinion). When i used to keep neocaridina, i just float the bag of shrimps in water for 30-60 min then scope them out and put them in my tank.
> Every tank with substrate probably have detritus worms. When you can see them means they are breeding like crazy due to overfeeding. You can feed the detritus worms to most fishes actually.


Unfortunately, I can't see the innards if the adults. So just doing large water changes close to the current water parameters for the time being. Well good news is that no shrimps passed on today. Will monitor and update as the days goes by

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## aero

yep ketapang leaves.The shrimps love to graze on it and has anti fungal as well as anti bacterial effects.generally for mine it starts out as a white line at the gut area in abdomen.So sorry for the late reply!

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## Jetxx

Thank you all for the information! I will try to add half a leaf on the next water change. After a few days, only 1 more passed on and it's a big one. I hope it's just due to age. Have seen quite a bit of melting by several shrimps. So hope all is well!

By the way, anyone have readings on their Singapore tap water parameters? Mine seems to be very weird.

Ph - 8.4
Ammonia - 2.0ppm
Nitrite - 1.0ppm
Nitrate - 20ppm

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## aero

U used API master test kit?Ammonia rlly high.Ph on high side also but our tap water is alkaline.

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## Jetxx

Yeah it's the API freshwater master test kit. I was surprised at the results too. 

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## aero

> Yeah it's the API freshwater master test kit. I was surprised at the results too. 
> 
> Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk


Did you use anti chlorine or no?Where do you live?I have the same prob again too after clearing out the tank last time I wonder if they came with the shrimp 1+1 package.

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## Jetxx

Yeah I do use anti chlorine. I live in Tampines area. The new development side. What's shrimp 1+1 package?

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## aero

Shrimp with disease lol.Did u test after using anti chlorine?

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## NyX

Can I suggest you don't do a huge water change as shrimps are very sensitive to huge water parameter changes.
And your tank are pretty new so I suggest you cycle your tank for about 1 to 2 months for the Nitrifying bacteria to colonize around your tank and HOB filter.
Does your HOB filter has bio media for the bacteria to colonize? do you have a chiller? Your Nitrite level should be as low as possible, your plant should be able to do the job after it is fully grown.
Do you have a chiller? What is your tank temperature? I assume you are keeping cherry shrimp? The temperature range should be between 25 to 27 Degree Celsius, preferably 26 Degree Celsius.

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## Jetxx

> Shrimp with disease lol.Did u test after using anti chlorine?


Oh. Lol 1 + 1, makes sense. I don't have the liquid test for chlorine, but I have tetra test strips and it shows 0.

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## Jetxx

> Can I suggest you don't do a huge water change as shrimps are very sensitive to huge water parameter changes.
> And your tank are pretty new so I suggest you cycle your tank for about 1 to 2 months for the Nitrifying bacteria to colonize around your tank and HOB filter.
> Does your HOB filter has bio media for the bacteria to colonize? do you have a chiller? Your Nitrite level should be as low as possible, your plant should be able to do the job after it is fully grown.
> Do you have a chiller? What is your tank temperature? I assume you are keeping cherry shrimp? The temperature range should be between 25 to 27 Degree Celsius, preferably 26 Degree Celsius.


I'm now doing 10% water change every 4 to 5 days and top up every day. Right now, ammonia and nitrite at close to non existent and nitrate at 40ppm which is high..

And no I don't have a chiller. My only filter media in my HOB is a coarse sponge and charcoal pouch. Which I replace 2 weeks apart from each other.

My tank temp is about 26 on the surface given the cool weather we are having these few days. And yes, I'm keeping cherry shrimps.

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## NyX

> I'm now doing 10% water change every 4 to 5 days and top up every day. Right now, ammonia and nitrite at close to non existent and nitrate at 40ppm which is high..
> 
> And no I don't have a chiller. My only filter media in my HOB is a coarse sponge and charcoal pouch. Which I replace 2 weeks apart from each other.
> 
> My tank temp is about 26 on the surface given the cool weather we are having these few days. And yes, I'm keeping cherry shrimps.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk


I suggest you buy Seachem DeNitrate as your bio media to replace the sponge and charcoal for your Nitrifying Bacteria to grow? 
Your Inflow sponge should be able to filter all the junk for your shrimp to snack on.
And try and get some bacteria liquid for your tank for example AquaVitro Seed.

hope I could help you to minimize your shrimp death.  :Very Happy:

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## Jetxx

> I suggest you buy Seachem DeNitrate as your bio media to replace the sponge and charcoal for your Nitrifying Bacteria to grow? 
> Your Inflow sponge should be able to filter all the junk for your shrimp to snack on.
> And try and get some bacteria liquid for your tank for example AquaVitro Seed.
> 
> hope I could help you to minimize your shrimp death.


I was looking through and was thinking of the following:

Brightwell Aquatics NitratR
Seachem DeNitrate
Seachem Tidal Matrix
Nitra-Guard Bio Cubes Titanium
RIO Nitrate + Nitrite Pad

My inlet flow is fine mesh and it gets clogged easily, but worth it to prevent hatchlings swimming in.

I'm currently using fritz 7 for bacteria.

Any advice is helpful!

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## NyX

I only use Seachem DeNitrate for small flow filter and Seachem Matrix for high flow filter, other brand I don't really trust much.
Since you are using HOB filter just buy a small bottle of Seachem DeNitrate to replace all your medie, remember to wash it before using it.

I think Coarse filter sponge is better then fine metal mesh for your inflow? I always clean the inflow sponge weekly in the past.
And I suggest you might want to invest in small canister filter so you can put in more media and do less cleaning.

And you might want to search up AquaVitro Seed and AquaVitro Remediation as your liquid bacteria dosing.
Seed is for Nitrifying Bacteria to propagate and Remediation is for breaking down bio-load.

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## Jetxx

I see. Do I need to put them in a bag? Or just chuck them all in? Which canister filter do you recommend? Haha hopefully its budget enough.

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## aero

Plants will absorb nitrates.Can try eheim second hand around $50 for empty and $70-80 for one with media.

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## Jetxx

> Plants will absorb nitrates.Can try eheim second hand around $50 for empty and $70-80 for one with media.


My hair grass doesn't seem to be doing well. It looks pale rather than the solid green. Maybe that's why nitrates are accumulating.. Thanks for the tip!

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## NyX

you don't need a bag as they are big enough to stay inside. What's your budget? and your tank size?

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## aero

> My hair grass doesn't seem to be doing well. It looks pale rather than the solid green. Maybe that's why nitrates are accumulating.. Thanks for the tip!
> 
> Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk


How much current is there?Got co2/ferts?Can always try floaters but they grow too quickly for me.

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## Jetxx

> you don't need a bag as they are big enough to stay inside. What's your budget? and your tank size?


Budget 50 odd.
Tank size about 8 liters.

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## Jetxx

> How much current is there?Got co2/ferts?Can always try floaters but they grow too quickly for me.


How to measure current? On the surface, it's about the strength of a wash basin tap at 1/3 open.

I have some duck weeds though. It went from about 6 to now I dunno how to count. Haha

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## aero

> How to measure current? On the surface, it's about the strength of a wash basin tap at 1/3 open.
> 
> I have some duck weeds though. It went from about 6 to now I dunno how to count. Haha
> 
> Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk


Duckweed is blocking out light perhaps.Current seems ok.Generally measured by flow rate of filter but is variable.Lighting?And 5 gallons or 20 litres should be min for shrimp as theyre more sensitive than fish in general.

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## Jetxx

> Duckweed is blocking out light perhaps.Current seems ok.Generally measured by flow rate of filter but is variable.Lighting?And 5 gallons or 20 litres should be min for shrimp as theyre more sensitive than fish in general.


The duck weeds are only covering about 1/15th of the surface and being pushed around by the current, so light is getting through. Lighting using a LED light, white and blue lights, only got the product model X5.

As for tank size, I only am allowed that 1 foot space.. sigh..

Attached a photo. On picture the green looks nice, but in actual, it's more brown and pale green. 

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