# Shrimp's population decreasing



## keitarosan (Apr 21, 2010)

i noticed lately that my shrimp's (CRS and RCS) population is declining really fast. no new berried female unlike in the past and the adults are dying on a regular but normal basis. the ones dying are the really old ones.

i don't see anything quite abnormal on my water params except that the ph is always somewhere 6.0-6.5. i was thinking of putting in a block of mineral block (found that on ebay) as i thought there's something to do with the water being so soft. 

one more thing, the nerite snail (and some other snails) have very brittle shells. you can't pick them up with your hands without curshing them. the nerite has a visible cracks on its shell and some part of the shell looks like it was nibbled by shrimps. any feedback?


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

i noticed the same thing with my shrimp tank, but i think it's because i never did water changes and all i did was top up the water. After i gave it a good cleaning and did water changes i started to notice them getting berried..

that's my situation, yours maybe different


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

sounds like u need to raise your hardness if the snails cant build the shells the shrimps are prolly dying when trying to molt, i think most of the shrimp keepers here recommend to use equilibrium and some also add the shrimp lab mineral rock
i have a little chunk of that shrimp mineral block too u can come pickup for free if u like i dont need it anymore


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## keitarosan (Apr 21, 2010)

ok, i'll tyr that one out mferko. i'll schedule a pickup. 

nick, that's what i'm doing too. i don't do wc, only top up but everytime i do wc (once a month). i still don't see berried females.


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

yea that's what i'm saying.. i didnt start to see them until i started doing water changes regularly... but it could be a bunch of different things


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## rescuepenguin (Apr 21, 2010)

My colony of yellows, with some CBS and CRS were doing great while I was doing a 10% water change every couple of days, When I stopped doing water changes (after the car accident and I couldn't lift), they died off. I recommend doing a 10% every few days.

Steve


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

Up the hardness, I use African Water Conditioner, I was having death's during molts like mferko said. My brother just does top offs with this monthly and he has very little deaths and a growing population.


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

Good points about water changes and hardness. In my shrimp only tanks I use a _little_ human-grade oyster shell.
Another factor may be population levels. At a certain point, things slow down. Adding new shrimp from a different 'line' and regular harvesting help keep the population stimulated.


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## keitarosan (Apr 21, 2010)

yeah, in breeding could be another factor. what is human-grade oyster shell and how do you use it?


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## Kei (May 4, 2010)

little human-grade oyster shell
and shrimp lab mineral rock

is it the same?


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## keitarosan (Apr 21, 2010)

what is human-grade oyster shell??


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

I believe you can go to T&T or the superstore and get those oysters there and just eat\"chuck" them and clean the shells to use for your aquarium.


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## keitarosan (Apr 21, 2010)

thought so.... now, i'm assuming that the shell must be at least cut or crushed. or not.... as long as it fits in the filter, correct?

on more thing, my buddy who once kept a marine tank has a couple of dead hard coral skeleton (hammer coral). can i use that for the oyster shell purpose as well?


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## Plazma (Jul 6, 2010)

Well my tank is setup as a communiy 90g heavy heavy planted ,all smaller type fish only various tetras ,lots of bottomg feeders cories ,varous bristlenose plecs etc and the explosion of shrimps in this tank is insane.There are quite a few very large masses of moss etc 

Taking one of my tops of i can easily 20-30 shrimps in any given area and these are only what you can quickly see with the naked eye.

They are always active anywhere in this tank feeding alongside all the fish including the plecs when there are zuchinii on the bottom or wafers

I can stick my hand in the tank and they freely climb onto your hand or fingers and start feeding or attemping to get food from you ,its to the point i hand feed em since they all come to the top to grab flakes that are floating.

I swear when they notice the lid is open they being to swarm over to the area i am


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## keitarosan (Apr 21, 2010)

Plazma said:


> Well my tank is setup as a communiy 90g heavy heavy planted ,all smaller type fish only various tetras ,lots of bottomg feeders cories ,varous bristlenose plecs etc and the explosion of shrimps in this tank is insane.There are quite a few very large masses of moss etc
> 
> Taking one of my tops of i can easily 20-30 shrimps in any given area and these are only what you can quickly see with the naked eye.
> 
> ...


nice one. glad to know that.


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## Plazma (Jul 6, 2010)

I dont put any thing in the tank its just planted with eco complete for soil ,they are simply thriving


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## keitarosan (Apr 21, 2010)

so what's the ideal water parameters for shrimps? say... rcs, crs and green babaulti comm tank.


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