A question for people that keep freshwater

[WVNed]

I have a 20 long freshwater tank with some plants and shrimp. I am trying to grow the shrimp.
I never had success with marine shrimp until I started adding a trace element package to my marine tanks. This was back when I ran my tanks on tap water so I assume there is something lacking in it that inverts require. These ghost shrimp seem to be having the same symptoms.

Is there something similar for freshwater tanks you would recommend.

Ghost shrimp eating a white worm. I am growing them too.

I am asking because I am seeing very few molts in the tank and it appears the largest shrimp are passing away slowly. That is what my marine shrimp used to do.

Disclaimer. I am keeping these to feed my tiny fuzzy lion. They are the only thing I have found he will eat. I apologize if that upsets you.

 

[Magellan]

Are you adding Flourish to the tank?

 

[WVNed]

Are you adding Flourish to the tank?

I am adding nothing to the tank. It was started with tap water and is toped off with RODI water with an ATO I had laying around. I feed them marine pellets and white worms because thats what I want in them when I give them to the lion fish. I also give them a bit of Tetra flakes a few times a week. It doesn't seem to have a problem growing green stuff.

 

[Waters]

I have always kept shimp in all of my planted tanks without any growth issues. I never dosed anything except normal plant ferts. Maybe try switching up the food you are using to feed them?

 

[nept2n]

Hi How old is your setup? I started my 80g freshwater tank in January of this year. I added amano shrimp cherry shrimp and blue velvet shrimp. This was 3 month into the setup. I lost quite a few but to my surprise the blues and reds have multiplied in the tank. All I've done was keep my parameter in check. I dosed flourish but I also injected C02 for my plant growth (at the beginning only). Your freshwater system looks great If you parameters are in check I would be patient.

 

[Magellan]

My freshwater tank really took off when I started giving it Flourish more regularly. It contains iodine in trace amounts, which is important for the inverts.

 

[WVNed]

This started as a 10 gallon tank to keep feeders. I kept losing a lot of shrimp. I decided to upgrade a bit so I used a tank I had, added growing media, a cheap LED light, a few plants and a sponge filter. It has the nicest looking rosy minnows I have ever seen in it. I bought them to feed to the eel. They are too large now. I added 100 shrimp from eBay to this tank and only lost 2. I feed 3-4 every other day to the lion and it is time to order more.
11-18-19

so it is a little over a month old.
It's in the fish room with the other stuff back in the corner

 

[sfin52]

I agree with flourish. I also dose my tank with that.

 

[Magellan]

I run carbon and biomedia as well for filtration, in addition to the sponge. Flourish also helps prevent algae :)

 

[Malifry97]

The low amounts of molts makes me think it’s Maybe a calcium deficiency...maybe try feeding Hikari Crab and shrimp pellets once a week or so or dosing some calcium

 

[LadyMac]

Ghost shrimp can actually be several different species. That being said I’ve found that in soft water they can’t molt. My water is naturally soft so I don’t even try any more. Flourish will help the plants but not really the shrimp. Look into supplementing them with some shrimp foods. Zucchini, repashy foods, especially shouldn’t green, and pellets. I know it’s important to gut load the food but it won’t really help if the food is malnourished.

 

[WVNed]

I shall seek some Flourish today. Petco has all manner of foods and is 5 minutes away.
I am sort of following what I read by someone that grows these but they get theirs from the wild in Florida so I am sure they have access to the water they live in.

Thank you

I admit I am sorely tempted to add a tiny amount of Kent Essential Elements to the tank and see what happens. I occasionally add tap water to the make up water for minerals.

 

[Malifry97]

I shall seek some Flourish today.

Thank you

I admit I am sorely tempted to add a tiny amount of Kent Essential Elements to the tank and see what happens. I occasionally add tap water to the make up water for minerals.

I don’t really think flourish is the solution...I think maybe soft water/calcium deficiency is your problem

 

[Magellan]

Ah, I only use tap water! @LadyMac has spoken, she is the freshwater guru, definitely listen to her lol

I just know I don’t have any issues with my setup.

 

[LadyMac]

I don’t really think flourish is the solution...I think maybe soft water/calcium deficiency is your problem

I believe this as well. You can try to add a tums to the tank to raise the calcium. Use the fruit ones. Just one, probably once a week depending on the amount of shrimp you have.

 

[Peace River]

Omega One shrimp pellets is an alternative to Hikari shrimp pellets. I have used them both but the Hikari has a bit of copper which always makes me nervous for shrimp.

 

[LadyMac]

Ah, I only use tap water! @LadyMac has spoken, she is the freshwater guru, definitely listen to her lol

I just know I don’t have any issues with my setup.

Lol thank you but hardly THE guru.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Have a colony of about 50 red cherry shrimp in my planted.(honestly i have no idea how many lol)

only things i dose are for the plants, ph is around 6.2. I do not Use flourish, its expensive lol.

feed is cobalt flakes, live brine, beef hearts, peas and blood worms. On a Varying schedule. The shrimp i kept before were amanos that lived for about 4 or 5 years.

tank itself is around 10 years old give or take a year or 2.

I also did not have luck with glass or grass shrimp. They are cheap but not long lived ime, this maybe because i had no idea the species or care requirements. None of my fish go after the rcs, which are even smaller so was not predation.

shot from some time ago after a heavy trimming, that i should have cut more.

 

[nept2n]

I shall seek some Flourish today. Petco has all manner of foods and is 5 minutes away.
I am sort of following what I read by someone that grows these but they get theirs from the wild in Florida so I am sure they have access to the water they live in.

Thank you

I admit I am sorely tempted to add a tiny amount of Kent Essential Elements to the tank and see what happens. I occasionally add tap water to the make up water for minerals.

Ned I live in Florida, Miami to be exact and our water is not the greatest. Our water company uses chlorine and chloramine so I filter some of the water R/O with carbon block to kick out the chloramines.
This has been running less than a year. I started it up late February.

 

[Quietman]

Agree with @LadyMac but I didn't know I did until just now. Have Fuval Spec V for a 4-5 years now. Bought 5 Amano shrimp then and now have 1 left.

Didn't do anything special consistently to the tank although it did have CO2 for a while, been rebuilt once, have added Flourish and carbon and iron but stopped a couple years ago and since last year been topping off with RODI and replacing water with RO output (not DI). So now my plants are doing much, much better with the lower TDS (tank runs about 120 TDS now) instead of previous 400+.

Unfortunately my Amano used to thrive in the hard water, molted all the time. Now granted they're not supposed to live 5 years but tell that to them. Went from 4 to 1 in a few months with lower TDS, plus they're like really, really old. So like combo between stress of TDS change and age.