Scott
Non-member
My tank is two months old and by most accounts doing pretty well.
But I can't seem to keep shrimp alive.
I started with a peppermint to clear up some aiptasia. He did his job and ate it right up. More on him in a bit...
Not long after I added the first peppermint, I enjoyed watching it so much that I added a cleaner shrimp. It died in about 8 days. In that case, it died mid-moult. It was sort of half out of its old shell and it stopped there. The next morning, it was crab food. I talked about it with my LFS folks and we chalked it up to a bad moult, one of those things, especially since the peppermint was fine.
About three weeks later, the peppermint shrimp died.
I replaced it with another peppermint a week or so later, and it lived about a week. It was belly up on the bottom this morning before the crabs found it.
I do a water change every few weeks. The two peppermint both died three-four days after a water change. Could be coincidence.
I've checked nitrates, nitrites, pH and all seem good. To double-check, I brought some water, both from the tank and a sample of my new water to the petstore. They said both are fine. Very little nitrates (0-20 range), no nitrites, pH is good. He did say that the water is hard, but since everything else is doing ok, it's difficult to blame that. The only red flag there is that I use my well water which is quite clean, but has tested with some copper (from the house pipes).
Everything IS doing well. Clown and Cardinal fish are happy. Several LPS corals are thriving, open and as big as ever, and softies are happy.
I do occasionally lose a snail or hermit, but that's one at a time, nothing epidemic. (and there's that pesky Eunice worm that seems to be contributing to that death toll)
Any thoughts? I love having shrimp, but I don't want to put another in without trying something to fix the root cause.
But I can't seem to keep shrimp alive.
I started with a peppermint to clear up some aiptasia. He did his job and ate it right up. More on him in a bit...
Not long after I added the first peppermint, I enjoyed watching it so much that I added a cleaner shrimp. It died in about 8 days. In that case, it died mid-moult. It was sort of half out of its old shell and it stopped there. The next morning, it was crab food. I talked about it with my LFS folks and we chalked it up to a bad moult, one of those things, especially since the peppermint was fine.
About three weeks later, the peppermint shrimp died.
I replaced it with another peppermint a week or so later, and it lived about a week. It was belly up on the bottom this morning before the crabs found it.
I do a water change every few weeks. The two peppermint both died three-four days after a water change. Could be coincidence.
I've checked nitrates, nitrites, pH and all seem good. To double-check, I brought some water, both from the tank and a sample of my new water to the petstore. They said both are fine. Very little nitrates (0-20 range), no nitrites, pH is good. He did say that the water is hard, but since everything else is doing ok, it's difficult to blame that. The only red flag there is that I use my well water which is quite clean, but has tested with some copper (from the house pipes).
Everything IS doing well. Clown and Cardinal fish are happy. Several LPS corals are thriving, open and as big as ever, and softies are happy.
I do occasionally lose a snail or hermit, but that's one at a time, nothing epidemic. (and there's that pesky Eunice worm that seems to be contributing to that death toll)
Any thoughts? I love having shrimp, but I don't want to put another in without trying something to fix the root cause.
