The Last Shrimp

Hi AdyDnt

I'm by no means an expert, but things that come to mind are:

calcium stones/blocks – shrimp maybe failing to moult if these are not in the tank;
water hardness – too hard or soft;
traces of copper or other meds in the tank – shrimp seem to be very sensitive to these.

Also, if you have one of the more sensitive species, these can be more demanding in terms of water/substrate – I mean crystal reds or blacks etc. Ordinary red cherries should be much hardier.

Sorry if this isn't much help. I suppose the other possibility is that they were just a weak bunch of shrimp?

Hello AdyDnt,

It is also two months since I too stocked my Shrimpery. In that time I have lost 5 of my original 8, and another one looks ropey. These shrimps were bought in 2 batches of 4, from two different MA's. They were bred somewhere in Asia, and by the time I put them into my newly cycled tank, they had already experienced at least 3 different water qualities in their short lives. It seems to me that Cherries don't like being moved - perhaps it's the stress? Also, check any shrimp breeder's website, and read their complex acclimatisation procedures! To me, this alone indicates a concern.

 Like Sue, I am fortunate in that about 30 shrimplets have been left behind, and they are thriving and growing rapidly. Perhaps, having a "mature" tank is also important, so that the microscopic life that they enjoy can develop?

Keep on trying, we will get there eventually,

                                                  Skittler

I would try the carbon just in case there is something the shrimps don't like. I assume your dechlorinator also removes metals? They all seem to do that, but I need to check.

I was told the white line is a failed moult, either lack of calcium or shrimp-specific bacteria in the tank. Since my GH of 6 is high enough for them, you hard water should certainly be OK. It's things like crystal shrimp that need a low GH.
I didn't find out about beta g until after the last shop bought cherry shrimp had died so I can't say for certain that it is responsible for my now thriving colony. Bacter ae is supposed to help the growth of the biofilm so that would be good to use in a new tank. My shrimps went into a tank that had been running a couple of years with fish (which were moved to another tank so they didn't eat the shrimps)

In your position I would go and find a shop with berried females ie females carrying eggs (or maybe two different shops as they should be from a different gene pool) and get two berried shrimps, one from each shop. With cherries, the eggs are easy to see. Since two of us have had success with tank born shrimps, it is worth a try.


I have hornwort draped through a piece of redmoor wood in my tank, the shrimps love climbing through it.
But unless you are 100% certain that any plant you buy is shrimp safe, you need to run a carbon filter with the plants for several days before putting them in with the shrimps. A bucket is fine for this if you don't have quarantine tank. A number of plant breeders treat their plants with snail killer which also kills shrimps. Carbon will remove it.

I did test for Gh an Kh and the result was higher than what the instructions state for shrimp keeping so I'm pretty sure I can rule out water parameters. Off the top of my head my dechlorinator is King British, I'm sure it says it removes metals. I have a large catalpa leaf in the tank but to be fair I don't think they've been eating it that much, I was thinking of swapping it for pieces of bark from one of the mail order shrimp places.

Lol you are a goldmine of information though for us newbies