# RCS not doing well :(



## Arcteryx

Hi folks,

Got a bunch of RCS last weekend and they've not been doing well in my Ebi... 1 or 2 dying off a day and I'm kind of perplexed as to why.

pH 7.2
Temp 78
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20
gH 5
kH 3

I do have quite a bit of brown diatoms right now. I've socked my Nanofilter with a bag which has really slowed down the flow. I added an Elite power filter last night with an airline to add more flow & oxygen, but too soon yet to tell if that's having an effect.

Tank's never been medicated.

I've got a few that're very active and bounce around the tank doing their thing, but a whole bunch hide between the filter and the wall.

Very puzzled. Any ideas?


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## theinnkeeper

The weak will die off and the strong will survive to repopulate.


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## Arcteryx

theinnkeeper said:


> The weak will die off and the strong will survive to repopulate.


So I should be expecting a die-off of some sort? It wasn't really what I was anticipating. I mean, I'm down to 50% of the original lot... and they die pretty violently too. Just fall over on their back, twisting, bucking and twitching before they stop. I feel awful seeing it happen. That can't be normal.


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## 2wheelsx2

Arcteryx said:


> So I should be expecting a die-off of some sort? It wasn't really what I was anticipating. I mean, I'm down to 50% of the original lot... and they die pretty violently too. Just fall over on their back, twisting, bucking and twitching before they stop. I feel awful seeing it happen. That can't be normal.


Nope. That's inaccurate. The weak will die off if conditions are not ideal. Is it a shrimp only tank? If so, I am surprised that your nitrates are at 20. What are you feeding them? What's your substrate? How are you buffering your GH/KH? What's your filtration? A few more details would help. I had problems keeping RCS when I started until I figured out to add some moss to let the shrimp pick away at the moss for food and for shelter. Plus my rainbowfish were eating them.

Edit: I just reread this and saw your twitching comment. Sounds like they are being poisoned. Any rocks in the tank? How do you change the water and how much and how often (ie, aged, Prime, tap, 50% once a week etc.).


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## Arcteryx

2wheelsx2 said:


> Nope. That's inaccurate. The weak will die off if conditions are not ideal. Is it a shrimp only tank? If so, I am surprised that your nitrates are at 20. What are you feeding them? What's your substrate? How are you buffering your GH/KH? What's your filtration? A few more details would help. I had problems keeping RCS when I started until I figured out to add some moss to let the shrimp pick away at the moss for food and for shelter. Plus my rainbowfish were eating them.
> 
> Edit: I just reread this and saw your twitching comment. Sounds like they are being poisoned. Any rocks in the tank? How do you change the water and how much and how often (ie, aged, Prime, tap, 50% once a week etc.).


I have ten or so dwarf cories in there. 
Feeding them a combination of Hikari sinking algae wafers, spirulina flake food, even some of the Fluval shrimp granules that came with the Ebi
Substrate is Fluval Shrimp Statrum
Buffering GH with Seachem Equilibrium
Buffering KH with Seachem Alkaline Buffer
Filtration is a Fluval Nanofilter turned right down with a filter bag over the intake

No rocks.
I have a piece of driftwood with moss on it - that Malaysian wood which I bought from King Ed, I'm its original owner and it's never been medicated - it DOES stain the water slightly brown though.
Water change with Prime-treated tap once a week, temp brought up to match the tank before I put it in, also match kH and gH
Tank is planted with wisteria, bacopa, and one other stem plant I can't recall right now

I'm going to take out the driftwood tonight to take it out of the equation.

It's the really violent twitching that spook me. Pygmy cories seem fine though, and they don't bother the shrimp at all. Just spoke to someone at home and they just watched another one die 

Sigh.


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## ilam

How are you matching the temperature? by using heated water from the tap directly? that might be your problem.


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## Morainy

I agree that the twitching and sudden deaths sound like an environmental problem, like some kind of poisoning or a too-sudden change in environment (pH or temp, say). 

Is the Fluval Shrimp stratum new? The only time I had shrimp losses were when trying cherry shrimp into an Ebi with new Fluval shrimp stratum. I never found out if that was the problem, but I've got shrimp in the same tank now with a different substrate, well aged, and they are fine. Brown diatoms suggest your tank is relatively new. The diatoms will not bother the shrimp, but if your tank is new the Fluval stratum may still be altering your pH. Maybe you can test your pH just after a water change and then a day later, see if there's a difference. The pH could be swinging.

In my experience, cherry shrimp are fine in unfiltered tanks or filtered tanks. They don't care if the flow is fast or none at all. I've got them in both kinds of tanks right now. They will love the plants that you put into your tank, everything you have for their setup seems very thoughtful. 

I would stop using the kH buffer, only because I've never personally used it and shrimp seem quite happy with the Seachem Equilibrium, which you are adding. Maybe switch away from Prime for such a small tank, to Aqua Plus or Fluval shrimp water conditioner, something where it's easier to measure for small tanks. 

Cherry shrimp are very low care, in my experience, and will adjust to a lot of conditions as long as the conditions don't change too rapidly. It's so stressful when shrimp or fish die -- but hopefully everything will settle down in your Ebi soon.


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## 2wheelsx2

I agree with Maureen. I have an Eheim 2213 in my 20 gallon and my RCS are multiplying like rats. In my 46 bow, I have an Eheim 2075 and an HK1050 powerhead and the RCS are also like rodents in there. I change only 10% of the water at a time in the 20 gallon and 50% at a time in the 46 bow. The 20 gets aged water while the 46 gets tap with ClorAm-X (very similar to Prime). The shrimp does seem to multiple faster in the 20 though. When you put the tap in, is it splashed in? Do these deaths occur after a water change? I ask that because I can think of 2 things with water changes: Copper pipe and rapid degassing of the tap water. How many times a week are you changing the water and how much do you change?

I wouldn't worry about the wood as I've had the same wood from KE in my 20 gallon and my RCS bred like crazy in there too.


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## Arcteryx

Allright, I'm going to age some water in a bucket with a heater & airstone and do a 50 water change, see how that goes. 25 wc's for a couple of days after. Wish the shrimpies luck!


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## Arcteryx

2wheelsx2 said:


> I agree with Maureen. I have an Eheim 2213 in my 20 gallon and my RCS are multiplying like rats. In my 46 bow, I have an Eheim 2075 and an HK1050 powerhead and the RCS are also like rodents in there. I change only 10% of the water at a time in the 20 gallon and 50% at a time in the 46 bow. The 20 gets aged water while the 46 gets tap with ClorAm-X (very similar to Prime). The shrimp does seem to multiple faster in the 20 though. When you put the tap in, is it splashed in? Do these deaths occur after a water change? I ask that because I can think of 2 things with water changes: Copper pipe and rapid degassing of the tap water. How many times a week are you changing the water and how much do you change?
> 
> I wouldn't worry about the wood as I've had the same wood from KE in my 20 gallon and my RCS bred like crazy in there too.


I stopped doing WC's as I was getting a couple of deaths, and the deaths continued, so probably something in there already - and I was only doing 15% then. I mixed Prime into the water out of the tap that has been warmed and then put it in. I'm going to switch to aged water, see how that goes. At this point I don't have much to lose - might as well try to save the rest of the shrimp.

BTW through all these the cories are peachy and doing totally fine. I guess they're not as sensitive to whatever is affecting the RCS's.


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## 2wheelsx2

Arcteryx said:


> I stopped doing WC's as I was getting a couple of deaths, and the deaths continued, so probably something in there already - and I was only doing 15% then. I mixed Prime into the water out of the tap that has been warmed and then put it in. I'm going to switch to aged water, see how that goes. At this point I don't have much to lose - might as well try to save the rest of the shrimp.
> 
> BTW through all these the cories are peachy and doing totally fine. I guess they're not as sensitive to whatever is affecting the RCS's.


If the cories are doing fine I would say that it could be metals. Inverts are more sensitive to metals. This is one of the those frustrating things in fishkeeping. I watched some discus slowly die off over several weeks while my cories, plecos and tetras were all spawning continuously. Never did figure out the problem but eventually it stopped and now there are no problems. If your tank is fairly new, you may want to wait until it matures a bit before replacing the shrimp.


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## Arcteryx

2wheelsx2 said:


> If the cories are doing fine I would say that it could be metals. Inverts are more sensitive to metals. This is one of the those frustrating things in fishkeeping. I watched some discus slowly die off over several weeks while my cories, plecos and tetras were all spawning continuously. Never did figure out the problem but eventually it stopped and now there are no problems. If your tank is fairly new, you may want to wait until it matures a bit before replacing the shrimp.


That occurred to me too. But I'll go down that path if I can't save the ones I have now. Let the whole diatom issue blow over at the same time, practice some patience, and just let things settle down...


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## 2wheelsx2

Yep, get a couple of otos to eat the algae and also mature the tank for you.


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## Morainy

Hi Arcteryx,

I found a thread about how Fluval stratum lowers pH. It was written by someone who lives in an area where the water has a higher pH than in Vancouver. But, what I'm wondering is if the pH in your tank is moving rapidly between water changes (no matter how much water you change). I'm not a scientist, but I'm thinking that with new Fluval Stratum, the pH might be dropping over the 24 hours between water changes. Then, you change the pH by adding fresh water, then it swings again. If that's the problem, then it might help to just stop doing the water changes. (Which could also be the exactly wrong thing, of course, if the problem is something else, like ammonia!)
My Fluval stratum experiment!


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## Arcteryx

Yeah, I had thought of that too and I think I read the same link... stopped doing water changes 3 or 4 days ago, shrimpies still going to the Red Lobster All You Can Eat Shrimp Deal In The Sky 

Appreciate everyone's help on this BTW. I guess that's one of the challenges of the hobby, just seems awful that things have to die when I make some kind of mistake or error somewhere.


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## 2wheelsx2

Since you're buffering with Equilibrium and Alkaline buffer, I doubt that's your problem.


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## Morainy

Sorry about what's happening, Arcteryx. Sometimes, there are just so many possibilities that we can only guess. (And we might guess wrongly because it could have been something that had nothing to do with our tanks). One thing I have learned with shrimp is to only introduce one shrimp for 2 days before adding any others to that tank, if it's never had shrimp before. Once there are shrimp living in it happily, you can add lots without any problem at all (usually).

Where did you get the filter sock for your Ebi, by the way? I've got eensy weensy shrimplets in my Ebi now and I'm wondering if I should do something about the filter, too.



Arcteryx said:


> Yeah, I had thought of that too and I think I read the same link... stopped doing water changes 3 or 4 days ago, shrimpies still going to the Red Lobster All You Can Eat Shrimp Deal In The Sky
> 
> Appreciate everyone's help on this BTW. I guess that's one of the challenges of the hobby, just seems awful that things have to die when I make some kind of mistake or error somewhere.


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## stonedaquarium

Arcteryx... 

alot has mentioned about water parameters... the thing i would be more concerned about is (1) your nitrates being too high, and (2) could also possibly be a bacterial infection. Based on what you mentioned about them dying and twitching...? If you have a shrimp that died, do you take the dead ones out ? a bacterial infection is a creeper... meaning one or two mystery deaths while having ideal water conditions... it spreads pretty fast... i would consider treating with maracyn plus... its shrimp safe  hope this helps


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## Morainy

That's interesting, stonedaquarium. I didn't know that shrimp were prone to bacterial infections!



stonedaquarium said:


> Arcteryx...
> 
> alot has mentioned about water parameters... the thing i would be more concerned about is (1) your nitrates being too high, and (2) could also possibly be a bacterial infection. Based on what you mentioned about them dying and twitching...? If you have a shrimp that died, do you take the dead ones out ? a bacterial infection is a creeper... meaning one or two mystery deaths while having ideal water conditions... it spreads pretty fast... i would consider treating with maracyn plus... its shrimp safe  hope this helps


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## Flygirl

Will Maracyn (or any erythromycin medication) play havoc with the biological filter?


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## Arcteryx

Morainy said:


> Where did you get the filter sock for your Ebi, by the way? I've got eensy weensy shrimplets in my Ebi now and I'm wondering if I should do something about the filter, too.


It's a filter bag that I found at IPU - it just _barely_ stretches out and fits over the nanofilter - almost covers the whole thing although the top is left open, but there's no way for anything to squeeze into the filter's intake.

It was cheap too @ $6 or $7.


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## Arcteryx

stonedaquarium said:


> Arcteryx...
> 
> alot has mentioned about water parameters... the thing i would be more concerned about is (1) your nitrates being too high, and (2) could also possibly be a bacterial infection. Based on what you mentioned about them dying and twitching...? If you have a shrimp that died, do you take the dead ones out ? a bacterial infection is a creeper... meaning one or two mystery deaths while having ideal water conditions... it spreads pretty fast... i would consider treating with maracyn plus... its shrimp safe  hope this helps


Yeah, the deaths that happen when I'm watching, I fish out right away. The ones that don't, I fish out when I see their corpses. Usually after the kids point it out with wailing and hysterics... my god, it's bad enough the shrimp are dying out but with the kids... gah!!!


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## Morainy

I looked up shrimp diseases online and now I'm a little paranoid, since fish and shrimp can pass diseases on to each other. How can you tell the difference between a molting shrimp and a diseased shrimp? (Wouldn't want to siphon out a molting one; wouldn't want to leave the diseased one sitting there.)


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## SpeedFactor

i have the exact same problem with my shrimp as well... i hope we figure it out soon, good luck!


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## stonedaquarium

Pics would normally help... if a shrimp looks like opaque (kinda hard to describe, but it looks like there is a milky color to the shrimp) then most likely its a bacterial infection, another to look for is the part where the head separates from the body if there is a small gap + the shrimp looks lethargic and opaque, more or less its a bacterial. If you see molted shells and having mystery deaths... i would think it more of bacterial rather than molting problems. molting problems can be solved by adjusting the hardness of the water... try going for GH of 4 to 5 or TDS of 230. for RCS  then again RCS and other neocardinas are pretty hardy... yet despite their hardiness a bacterial infection can easily wipe them out.


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## Arcteryx

SpeedFactor said:


> i have the exact same problem with my shrimp as well... i hope we figure it out soon, good luck!


Man, sorry to hear that. Believe me, I feel for you.

I haven't had deaths for a couple of days... but who knows... at any rate I've bought a couple of otocats and they're busy mowing up the brown diatom algae, I'm going to let the tank settle down for another few more weeks before adding any more shrimp or maybe the 10 or so I have left will begin to add to the population on their own.


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## SpeedFactor

yeah, the wierd thing with mine is that everything will be good for a week and all of a sudden they will start dying again 1 by 1... im thinking i over feed them and maybe have a nitrite spike or something...


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## stonedaquarium

try maracyn plus, heavy aeration, and try a major water change after that clears up all the residual bacterial. and you should see your shrimps recovering.  having some almond leaves during the treatment also helps


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## BettaGuy

Hey! Hope things are doing better. I'll just add/reiterate a few things I feel are very important for shrimp keeping. I wanted to say that no matter how you age the water, you must check for copper. Bring a water sample to a local pet store, the ones I have gone to will do a free water inspection for you. Back when I worked at Noah's Pet arc on Broadway, I would do copper inspections for customers. Some customers come in with VERY high copper readings above 1ppm. Even 1ppm is probably going to make your shrimp sick. There are different companies that sell faucet purifiers, like Britta, that can be replaced every month or so and usually cost around $30.00. Prime from Seachem also claims to remove copper to a certain degree, but this amount depends on the other metals and organics in the water. Check out the attached link. Prime and heavy metals - Seachem - Aquatic Plant Central

Shrimp cannot handle leaps in water parameters in pH, temperature and so-forth. Do not use warm water from the faucet as this tends to increase metal concentrations. Rather, use cold water that is then heated by another heater*as I see you have been recently doing* that has been sitting for at least 24 hours to allow for gas to settle and match tank temperatures. Also, I noticed that you use equilibrium. I have also used this product with good results, however, I have noticed that it has a tendency to drive the pH up. I would highly suggest that every time you do a water change that you try to keep concentrations of equilibrium the same when you reintroduce it to the tank. Do not chuck equilibrium into the tank. Carefully mix measured amounts into the new water first. If you are going be doing larger water changes for shrimp, for example, above 15%, match all water parameters, and reintroduce the new water SLOWLY to at least allow more sensitive organism to slowly acclimate to the new parameters should anything be different as a method of caution. Also, I would not suggest overdosing on equilibrium, as I believe neither cories nor cherry shrimp require hardness above 100ppm, and both species would probably be fine with lower levels.

Also, in terms of 20ppm nitrates, I would suggest feeding less. 20 ppm isn't dangerously high, but it is creeping up that direction. Cories do need to be fed more frequently than shrimp, and I can't remember how many of those you have, but I certainly would suggest that you do not overfeed. I would only feed once a day, if you are not already doing so, in non-indulgent amounts. For the shrimp, you need not feed more than they can finish in a couple of hours. They are scavengers. If you have plants that are thriving,*aka not decaying and adding nitrates*, I'm sure they would help alleviate a little of the nitrates and offer good grazing/stress reducing grounds for shrimp.

Those are just a few things on the top of my head. I'll write down more if I think of it. 
Best of luck!

Mike


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## stonedaquarium

If you plan to increase hardness (GH ) to your tank... i would use African Cichlid booster instead of equilibrium... or if you want more shrimp specific ones... Mosura mineral plus and ebiken Tate both are great products for increasing water hardness.


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## BettaGuy

Also, I recall that you recently bought the RCS. It is possible that the shipment from a store was new, and they recently suffered trauma getting acclimatized to the store's water. The added stress of another move to your home would weaken them further, especially if they were not acclimatized slowly. Older shrimps don't acclimatize as well as younger shrimp as a general rule.


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## Arcteryx

Hey thanks guys - appreciate all the water change tips; I made a couple of changes to my routine and bought some gear to pull it off. So now I have a bucket downstairs with water aging at all times, airstoned & brought up to temp with a heater. I did a major water change after matching as many of the parameters as possible (pH, temp, gH, dH) and have had no casualties for 3 days, so cross my fingers for the rest of them!

I noticed that thing with the older shrimp vs younger shrimp - I bought two batches, the younger batch have largely survived, and a couple of babies that hitched a ride in with the older batch are also still alive. It was mostly the older shrimp that were decimated.


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## stonedaquarium

newly born shrimplets... are pretty much bullet proof... lol... the only thing i can see decimate shrimplets is fish in the tank ... lol


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## Arcteryx

I think one of the things I need to do is work on the process I use to acclimate them; I drip acclimate inverts to my SW tank and they all survive, probably the same for my FW shrimp. I may have taken "hardy" too much at face value when I got into these. 

At any rate, the survivors I have are fairly energetic and lively; one of them molted successfully yesterday, which I take as a good sign, they're busily scampering about the tank now doing their thing. I think I'll hold off on buying any more stock for at least a couple more weeks, see how they get on and let the tank settle down even more.

Also like my two otocat additions, even though one of them is a fantastic skulker and is really hard to find!

Back to looking for something to take up the mid to high water level in my tank for later on. Maybe those threadfin rainbows...


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## stonedaquarium

Arcteryx, are you planning on breeding them and setting up a colony? If you are i would suggest you keep it as a shrimp only tank. Cherries, are pretty hardy and in my humble experience never had much issues with acclimatizing... one thing i would do is test the PH and GH of the water they were originally in and compare it to the parameters in my tank. If they are more or less the same. I would just dump them in and they would be fine.... one tip i can give if you are wanting to acclimatize them is to just to water top ups for the first couple of weeks. I just followed this regime for my CRS and i have not had a single CRS death, in fact 6 of them are already berried in a 5 gal tank. which some would say is too small for CRS. If you are serious about shrimp keeping and breeding... one good piece of equipment to have is a TDS meter. I believe Mykiss has some for sale... or you can get one at home depot... 

good luck and keep us posted on your tank.


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## Arcteryx

I'm not sure, but nothing's happening for another few weeks while I wait and see how the remaining shrimp do, and let the tank settle down. I'll sort everything else out after, I guess? Thanks for the idea on the TDS meter, maybe that'll be a good investment.


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## stonedaquarium

They are great to have and they dont cost too much


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## jiang604

The cherries Arcteryx got was from me.

It was probably because of old age. The cherries were meant to be used to put outside this month as part of my ebiken club but its still too cold. I've done straight outside hose water (essentially tap) 100% water changes and they still survive with no signs of any deaths. Its not Arcteryx acclimation problem that did them in. Send me a text Arcteryx and i'll arrange a time with you most likely after the 13th. Very busy... hate getting older too many things to do. I'll give you some more babies and young juvies.

Best Regards,
Frank

PS: TDS meter from patrick is a very good investment and i'll explain to you when you come see me.


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## Arcteryx

Hey Frank, appreciate that! I'll text you sometime after the 13th to set something up - just assumed it was something on my end that I must have done wrong! Regardless now have better procedure in place re:water changes which I needed to have anyways. The remaining shrimp are doing great otherwise


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## jiang604

Arcteryx said:


> Hey Frank, appreciate that! I'll text you sometime after the 13th to set something up - just assumed it was something on my end that I must have done wrong! Regardless now have better procedure in place re:water changes which I needed to have anyways. The remaining shrimp are doing great otherwise


you can text me a time and day. I maybe able to make some time on 15,16,17 i haven't planned out my schedule for those 3 days yet. so i can work around it.

Frank


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## Arcteryx

jiang604 said:


> you can text me a time and day. I maybe able to make some time on 15,16,17 i haven't planned out my schedule for those 3 days yet. so i can work around it.
> 
> Frank


K, will do. Cheers!


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## Morainy

That's really interesting, Frank. I had no idea that cherries were so hardy that they could tolerate water changes without conditioner. Do you think that conditioner is bad for them? I use Nutrafin Aqua Plus or whatever it is, maybe erring on the side of more is better than less.



jiang604 said:


> The cherries Arcteryx got was from me.
> 
> It was probably because of old age. The cherries were meant to be used to put outside this month as part of my ebiken club but its still too cold. I've done straight outside hose water (essentially tap) 100% water changes and they still survive with no signs of any deaths. Its not Arcteryx acclimation problem that did them in. Send me a text Arcteryx and i'll arrange a time with you most likely after the 13th. Very busy... hate getting older too many things to do. I'll give you some more babies and young juvies.
> 
> Best Regards,
> Frank
> 
> PS: TDS meter from patrick is a very good investment and i'll explain to you when you come see me.


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## jiang604

Morainy said:


> That's really interesting, Frank. I had no idea that cherries were so hardy that they could tolerate water changes without conditioner. Do you think that conditioner is bad for them? I use Nutrafin Aqua Plus or whatever it is, maybe erring on the side of more is better than less.


outside hose water = TDS 11 basically no hardness but when keeping them outside the aphids that fall in the water they just eat their shells to gain the calcium. I also use nutrafin but vancouvers water is so good. slight chlorine won't hurt. I remember in the summer when we took the GVRD watershed tour the guide took out a 10 gallon tank and said that the amount of chlorine added to the water system was 1 drop in a 10 gallon. Also keep in mind when i put them outside its usually beginning of spring like actual spring when its over 10 degrees at the very least. They will survive perfectly fine outdoors and they grow HUGE in size just like kois being able to grow larger in large bodies of water. Prime I've tested TDS and its off the charts but correct me if I'm wrong but it might be cuz its sulfur based? But either way I don't think conditioner is bad for them. I haven't had a problem with nutrafin myself.


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## Morainy

Oh, that is fascinating, Frank! I never thought of keeping cherry shrimp outside. That sounds like so much fun! I love that they get calcium from aphid shells. One of our trees on the boulevard is essentially an aphid factory. I should hang shrimp bowls on its branches. <grin>


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## jiang604

Morainy said:


> Oh, that is fascinating, Frank! I never thought of keeping cherry shrimp outside. That sounds like so much fun! I love that they get calcium from aphid shells. One of our trees on the boulevard is essentially an aphid factory. I should hang shrimp bowls on its branches. <grin>


The current location of Ebiken Studio which I will open up to public once I'm finished with everything. Theres an italian plum tree thats FULL of aphids as well. You can litereally see aphids and molts falling off the tree during the summer. If you want color to improve as they usually turn brownish then up the TDS to about 100 and less coverage for them so that they will thicken up with the sun beaming on them.


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## Atom

Very informative thread. I can't seem to keep cherries alive for very long either. I've had them for a year and have yet to see any breeding.


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## stonedaquarium

jiang604 said:


> The current location of Ebiken Studio which I will open up to public once I'm finished with everything. Theres an italian plum tree thats FULL of aphids as well. You can litereally see aphids and molts falling off the tree during the summer. If you want color to improve as they usually turn brownish then up the TDS to about 100 and less coverage for them so that they will thicken up with the sun beaming on them.


great advice from the shrimp guru himself...


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## Arcteryx

I had another successful molt yesterday which I'll take as a small victory - so after all that drama & much gnashing of teeth, things are starting to look pretty well! I'll still keep a close eye on things though.


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## Morainy

Hey, that's excellent news, Arcteryx! Shrimp don't have to do much to make us happy, do they? Just small things, like not dying in the night!


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## Arcteryx

Morainy said:


> Hey, that's excellent news, Arcteryx! Shrimp don't have to do much to make us happy, do they? Just small things, like not dying in the night!


Believe me, quite happy to be death & drama free  The two babies are starting to venture out more and more, and the juvies are noticeably picking up some size. Hopefully the start of a long and worry-free relationship!


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## Arcteryx

Just wanted to say "Thanks Frank!!!" for the replacement shrimp; I think the shrimp in the tank got a boost in confidence from the increased numbers and all of a sudden they've been very active swimming about and exploring the tank. But the even better news is that I've seen some babies, not sure if they bred in my tank or got a start before they got here, but it's all been very satisfying to see 

Fat otos, happy shrimp, now all I need are the pygmy cories to be a little less shy and.... ah, what the heck. 2 out of 3 ain't bad 

Got a TDS meter too - I'm reading 299 on it. I'll have to sort out what I'm putting in that's pushing the value that high.


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