RCS dying?

So I have a had a 10gal dirted planted tank foing for a few months. No filter just heater and lights. Stock originally was 5 Neon tetras, trumpet snails and 6 RCS. Said stock was put in 2 month ago when I first started the tank. The shrimp have been dying at the rate of about 1 a week. Everything is fine and then an hour later one is laying on its back legs up(sometimes twitching). Only do a partial water change about once a month as the tank is so heavily planted ammonia always reads 0ppm. PH is 7.4 and I am feeding flakes every other day. Thoughts on what I did wrong(all RCS are now dead)?

I'm no shrimp expert but maybe their isn't enough calcium available for them, especially since they'd be competing with the snails for it.

I have crushed oyster shells in the tank. Should I have something else?

I'd do a larger water change to start with.  In cases like these I can do an 80 - 90% water change and get away with it.  Heavily planted tanks tend to weather large water changes better, in my experience.

Checking the GH and KH couldn't hurt.  Shrimp don't require much calcium - far less than snails, so that's probably not the issue, but it's possible.  My neocaridina are kept in tanks with GH anywhere from 3 to 8 degrees.  I also keep my tanks at a KH of 3 to 9 degrees.  RCS don't seem to care how high the KH gets, in my experience, but I'd keep the GH below 8 as I've had problems with them in tanks where the GH is boosted too high (for platies in my case).

Do you treat the water when you do changes?  I assume so, but if not, adding some prime couldn't hurt - that'll take sanitizers and heavy metals out of the equation.

I've had issues with RCS in dirted tanks in the past, but those were the result of PH crashes for the most part.  How big were the shrimp when you added them to your tank?  Larger shrimp don't acclimate well.  It could just be they've been headed downhill since you added them due to acclimation shock.  I've lost a ton of shrimp due to acclimation in the past - smaller is better for sure.

shrimp were all 1/2" to 3/4" We started out not using a conditioner as we were going for a natural tank. However once the first shrimp died we started using API StressCoat in case our water had significant copper content.

We dont do much water changes as this tank seems by far the most stable PH and ammonia seems to be non existant(plants I suspect). I am wondering if its a light deficiency. We have 2 amazon swords that have leaves that now all but block out the light for everything else. Do shrimp require a certain amount of light?

It's pretty unlikely copper is the problem.

Nope, light isn't an issue. I've had shrimp grow up from hatchling to adulthood inside canister filters in the past.

3/4" is a bit large, but not too bad for acclimation.

How are your nitrates? No nitrite I assume?

Were all your shrimp bought at the same time? You could have just gotten a bad batch...

kingneptune wrote:Were all your shrimp bought at the same time? You could have just gotten a bad batch...

Indeed. Shrimp that will survive in one tank don't necessary do well in another, regardless of size. And if they came from a store there may have been transit stress involved. Shrimp do travel better than fish, but they're not indestructible.

I've killed several whole bags of shrimp I've received by mail over the years, and I've had many acclimate just fine. It's really hit and miss.

Mystery Shrimp Death can be very difficult to root-cause.

Could it possibly be age? I had a large enough (and old enough) population in one of my tanks before that I would see a dead shrimp once every week or two.

I got them from the sumner fish store. Tank they came from wasnt the cleanest. I am not sure. Only smallest shrimp was a lil bigger then half the biggest shrimp so I dont think it was age. Nitrates and Nitrites were all nominal. Like I said this tank is PERFECT except these damn shrimp dying. Snail population is exploding, tetras are fine I think(first time having neon tetras) I even dumped a betta in there 2 weeks ago. The only noticable thing wrong is the plants being choked out by the amazon sword leaves blocking light! Bad batch you say eh? @$5/pc bad batch is kinda not acceptable to me, you know what I mean? Yes they are not $100 shrimp but I have had 31cent ghost shrimp in a african cichlid tank last longer then this. Meh.. thanks for the help guys I will just wait and buy from another vendor and hope it was just bad luck.

It's quite possibly just bad luck. I purchased my RCS from ebay and didn't have any problems with them. Then I purchased 6 blue pearls from ebay (many years ago) and they all died within a couple of weeks.

If I were you I'd try buying a larger quantity from a local seller, or online if you can't find anyone close enough. At I wouldn't get less than 15 to start out a new colony, with 25 being preferable. $5 each is highway robbery for RCS, but folks pay a lot more per shrimp for some of the fancier species. It's part of the risk we take as aquarists.

If you find yourself down in the Olympia area I can hook you up with a bunch. They're not taiwan reds or anything, but they're healthy.

I find myself in lacey alot... might drive a few more exits to take you up on that offer. I have a qualm with Olympic Arms I have to deal with anyways.

I think there could be a few issues.

One, they might not be getting enough food. The tetras probably eat everything before it sinks down far enough for the shrimp. Plus, the shrimp and the MTS compete for food.

Shrimp really excel with a varied diet. They love to forage, so occasionally adding some blanch veggies or spirulina algae really makes a difference!

In my personal experience, I find that my shrimp do the best with freshwater some sort of aeration. Without an airstone, sponge filter or power head they all sort of just stand around.

Lol never standing around. The tetras chase them around the tank if they thought the shrimp had something good. I always made sure to feed excessively and would not feed the next day if food was still on the bottom.

Chiisai wrote:I got them from the sumner fish store. Tank they came from wasnt the cleanest. I am not sure. Only smallest shrimp was a lil bigger then half the biggest shrimp so I dont think it was age. Nitrates and Nitrites were all nominal. Like I said this tank is PERFECT except these damn shrimp dying. Snail population is exploding, tetras are fine I think(first time having neon tetras) I even dumped a betta in there 2 weeks ago. The only noticable thing wrong is the plants being choked out by the amazon sword leaves blocking light!  Bad batch you say eh? @$5/pc bad batch is kinda not acceptable to me, you know what I mean? Yes they are not $100 shrimp but I have had 31cent ghost shrimp in a african cichlid tank last longer then this. Meh.. thanks for the help guys I will just wait and buy from another vendor and hope it was just bad luck.

Just one more item...Nitrites should be 0 and nothing more. Just something else to consider.

Chiisai wrote:Lol never standing around. The tetras chase them around the tank if they thought the shrimp had something good. I always made sure to feed excessively and would not feed the next day if food was still on the bottom.

If the tetras chase them around the tank, could they be nipping at them or causing them too much stress?  The betta as well? One of my bettas is relentless when it comes to chasing down shrimp.

Betty wrote:
If the tetras chase them around the tank, could they be nipping at them or causing them too much stress?  The betta as well? One of my bettas is relentless when it comes to chasing down shrimp.

That's a good point. Certain fish don't mesh well with shrimp regardless of size, especially if there's a shortage of hiding spaces.

I'd add a filter and some oxygen. With a betta in there he's probably hunting them down and taking legs as a trophy

binbin9 wrote:I'd add a filter and some oxygen. With a betta in there he's probably hunting them down and taking legs as a trophy

This is kind of a catch22 - the plants like more CO2; the fish and inverts like more O2. A good compromise might be a pump to circulate the water to add a little, but not too much surface agitation; I do this in my 20g Walstad where I keep RCS and H. Formosa.

Apart from that, I run sponge filters in most of my tanks and I still manage healthy plant growth in each one.