# Babies Not Growing Up



## covertune (Aug 10, 2012)

I've got a Fluval Ebi tank dedicated to Pumpkin Orange shrimp and in the 4 or 5 months it's been running I've only seen two dead (adult) shrimp. There have been tons of babies born.. I'd guess at least 50.. yet my colony doesn't seem to be getting any bigger, so I can only assume that the babies are dying off for some reason.

Substrate is the Fluval Stratum, there's one piece of driftwood, and a handful of live plants (and now that I think about it, the plants are growing incredibly slowly). I was doing water changes weekly to start, but now I do changes every 2 weeks with top ups in between.

Temp is 78*
GH is 3 (I do have to buffer to get it up to this level)
TDS stays around 120ppm

I feed Fluval Shrimp Granules once or twice a week as well as Ebiken Ei twice a week.

Any thoughts?


----------



## Bobsidd (Dec 28, 2012)

Assuming you've tested ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and they are all ok, I'd say reduce your water changes and feeding. 10% a month water change is probably good if you are not over feeding. I basically just top off my shrimp tanks with de chlorinated water and change water very infrequently. Baby shrimp are very sensitive to changes in water, so less is generally better. 

How large are your water changes when you do them?

Also GH could be higher (say 6-9 - do any changes gradually) and neos also like a little KH


----------



## covertune (Aug 10, 2012)

10% a month? Wow, alright, I'll give that a shot. I realize that I was doing pretty massive water changes.. this tank is smaller than my 10g, but I was taking out almost the same amount of water, which was probably at least 30% - oops!


----------

