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Does anybody know why they dying? The only visible sign I see, is that they turn white/yellowish and then die. I have lost three in two days

Can it be that my water is too hard (it´s hard water with high ph)?

I only have two left but they don´t look good

The water isn't hard enough or they need iodine(reef iodine)


Kim

Ghost shrimp are very good indicators of declining water quality. I'd suggest you check your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels first. You say the water is hard, but do you know how hard, and what the pH is? All shrimp require hard, alkaline water with iodine and calcium readily available.

If all the above parameters are in order, you may have metals present in your water. Copper is one of the worst for shrimp, and can leach from your water pipes. I'm assuming you didn't dose the tank with ANY meds. Inverts can handle very few medications.

Sometimes there are just "bad" batches of shrimp, that don't do well. And, depending on how long you've had them, they may be old. I don't think they live much longer than a year.

Last edited by Georgia at 28-Apr-2005 12:12

I just bought 10 GS and I am having the same problem. At the LFS it was almost a full tank of dead ones but a few jumping around. I bought every live one which was 10, so far three have done this already, mind you the LFS's conditions were hardly "okay" to start with. My conditions are prestine to what they had. There is also three mammas in the tank, I am worried to do a slight change on my tank seeing there only a day old.

The leeaching taps are a myth in my mind and just silly (no offence=p) but I don't say that is it, however I do think the other two things stated could be right. Bad batch, or bad water....IMO

Keep me updated on your GS.

Angel Eel

I now have 0 ghost shrimps left

My parameters are: Nitrate 40
Nitrite 0
Total Hardness 300
Alkalinity 180
PH 8,4
Ammonia 0

It´s exactly 1 month since I got them, and they (5) have died in three days.....

Thank you for the replies I just wonder if I wont to buy new ones....

Copper can definately leech from water pipes. I used to live in a house where it was all copper piping, and the water out of the tap was BLUE and very metallic smelling and tasting. I'd have to let it run for several minutes before it ran clear.

Most homes don't have copper piping throughout, like I did. But many have copper pipes from the street to the house. And a lot of times hot water runs through copper pipes from the water heater. At least around here.

It's not my first suspicion, but ghost shrimp are sensitive of even very low copper levels.

Bettan,

I'm not sure what happened to your shrimp. Maybe try another store and see if their's are a better quality. Or try Amano shrimp, which is what I have. They are much hardier.

Last edited by Georgia at 29-Apr-2005 09:52