grade SS crs dying - one a week...help?

[absinthe_fi]

hello

i'm losing at least 1 CRS per week and i'm unsure of what to do.

the water parameters are fine, the temp is at a constant 23C...i'm trying to observe what might be the possible issue and i've somewhat speculate that it might be that after the shrimp has molted, it just dies a few hours later.

i do have a problem with hair algae appearing in that particular tank, but, that can't be an issue can it?

any suggestions or thoughts appreciated

[absinthe_fi]

in a last minute panic and an attempt to salvage what grade SS i still have, i took 4 of the best looking ones...the ones that appear to be healthy, normal and have the best white/red into my grade s+ tank temporarily...

the SS babies seem to be fine, some of the adults seem to be losing colour though...the ones that have been dying are adults and a couple have been 1cm in size...

and to make matters worse, i will be going on holiday for 1 month to south east asia and not sure what sort of instructions i should be telling the person who will be taking care of my tanks - specifically for the grade ss tank...

[gr81]

what about NO2-, NH3, NO3?

[absinthe_fi]

ammonia at 0
nitrite at 0
nitrate close to 0
pH 6.7
temp 23C

i found another adult dead this morning...i've noticed that some of my crs, the white is see through...going to take action and seperate them now...i'm wondering if this is the disease which was affecting high grade CRS that i remember reading about a few months ago...

[bandaiban]

I don't know why mines are dying either. Everything was perfectly fine and all of a sudden over 4 night i lost around 20. I didn't do anything different. I called my brother and asked him, he seem to be having the same problem. But he wasn't losing as much as me. I am down to my last 10 CRS. I hope you find whats going on with your CRS, because i could probably be having the same problem.

[Optimus Prime]

Your water parameter seem like normal, but why shrimp still dying...
Have u tried to do some water change?
Or did u introduce any new thing into your tank?
Are you sure your testers are in good condition?

[absinthe_fi]

hello

yes my testers are in good condition, i have liquid and also dip sticks and they both have pretty much the same readings. i use seachem liquid tests and tetra dip stick tests.

i do water changes almost every other day, very small amount...15%. when i do water changes, i treat the water with seachem prime first, then add flourish excel and flourish (for the plants). this is the case with all my crs tanks, the 2 other tanks i have are fine...the CRS are doing well. just my grade SS tank has this problem.

nothing new was introduced to the tank, but, today when i was cleaning..i did take out some fissidens which were growing on stainless steel mesh. i just took it out just in case it was the mesh doing something...otherwise, the only things in the tank are some mosses, fissidens, driftwood and pellia.

i feed them the same things as i've been feeding all of my CRS...shirakura pellets and twice a week they get organic (grown with no pesticides by my husband's grandmother) boiled spinach.

again, i'm baffled as to why they are dying...since everything else is pointing to good living conditions for these shrimps...

[Bracun]

Hi, absinthe_fi

The problem may come from fertilizer - flourish. Even though the cu component in flourish is very low. But excessive of cu in the water content may kill any invertebrates including shrimps.


James

[sayshrimp]

Should have replied sooner. I had the same problem. All 38 died, one a day or so. As a last resort, I transfer my last 2 to another tank. I should've done it sooner. I'm starting all over again. No one knew what the problem was.

[gabeszone247]

Hello,

I was having the same problem before with my tank, and found my GH-KH where too low. I added some crush coral to my filter 2213 about 2 hand fulls and havent had any problems since. Try it out. Also I got rid of those sponge filters that hook up to the air units, and went with an under gravel filter. The only down side is you cant really plant stem plants.


Gabe.