# Help with lethargic Cherry Red Shrimp



## Roroco (Apr 19, 2013)

I have a planted, 12 gallon Fluval Edge community tank. I have had RCS in there for a while and they were very active grazing on everything in the tank. One of the shrimp is berried too. Since I made a couple changes they are now huddled all together and very lethargic. They just don't seem to be eating (at least during the day at least). 

The change that seems to impact them instantly was adding Baby Dwarf Tears to the tank. They came on a metal 3x5 mesh that I cut to fit and planted. The mesh looked to be aluminum and thus I thought should be safe. 

The other change was adding a pressurized CO2 system. I am running it at less than 2 bbs though. I am still running an airstone to keep the oxygen levels up since the Edge doesn't have much free water surface area. 

Here are the specs after the CO2 was added

Ammonia 0 (been this way for 3 weeks)
Nitrite 0 (been this way for 3 weeks)
Nitrate 0 (been this way for 3 weeks)
pH 6.8 - 7.0 (Dropped from 7.6 after CO2) 
kH 2.5 - 3
gH 7

From this it looks like the CO2 ppm is 11-17. 

I only lost one CRS and I think it was because I was overly aggressive when I first ran CO2 the first day. But 4 days later, the shrimp are still lethargic and not acting the way they did before. 

Any thoughts from anyone? Outside of waiting to see if they assimilate to the new plants and CO2, I am not sure what to do. Maybe add carbon back to my filter for a short term?


----------



## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

They may be lethargic because there's not much else for them to eat. Have you been feeding them?

The biggest telltale sign of stress is loss of color, but it would seem that the 2 I can see have good color.


----------



## Roroco (Apr 19, 2013)

Gizmo said:


> They may be lethargic because there's not much else for them to eat. Have you been feeding them?
> 
> The biggest telltale sign of stress is loss of color, but it would seem that the 2 I can see have good color.


Their color hasn't changed. I have tried feeding them algae wafers, but they don't touch them. Even when they were healthy, they didn't car for them all that much. I also added a blanched carrot once and they ignored it too. 

Normally, they are all over the driftwood and plants and I believe they have plenty to eat since the (unwanted) snails in the tank seem to be flourishing.


----------



## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Shrimp also need things with protein. I feed mine shrimp pellets and golden pearls.


----------



## Roroco (Apr 19, 2013)

susankat said:


> Shrimp also need things with protein. I feed mine shrimp pellets and golden pearls.


I'll order some shrimp pellets to try out.


----------



## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

And red cherry shrimp don't eat snails, at least not the bladder snails nor Malaysian Trumpet snails I have, even the babies.

Mine LOVE blanched zucchini and loach pellets. I have about 100 in my 10 gallon and I feed them every other day.


----------



## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Easies way to check is to eliminate one thing at a time. The RCS are sensitive to excess carbon more than fish are so turn it off for a day or two
and see what happens. You can cut it to 1bbl per sec also after you see if it effects them when you turn it off. I think I would allow 3 days
to get it all cleared out(the above normal level) before I made up my mind that it was the Co2 which was effecting them though.
"They" say that stainless steel is ok for the tanks but I'm skeptical as when I first got into tanks years ago "they" were strictly against ANY metal(s) in there.


----------



## Roroco (Apr 19, 2013)

Raymond S. said:


> Easies way to check is to eliminate one thing at a time. The RCS are sensitive to excess carbon more than fish are so turn it off for a day or two
> and see what happens. You can cut it to 1bbl per sec also after you see if it effects them when you turn it off. I think I would allow 3 days
> to get it all cleared out(the above normal level) before I made up my mind that it was the Co2 which was effecting them though.
> "They" say that stainless steel is ok for the tanks but I'm skeptical as when I first got into tanks years ago "they" were strictly against ANY metal(s) in there.


I was running it at 1bbs. I moved it down to 1 bubble per 3 seconds for now.


----------



## shaguru (Oct 5, 2015)

I had the same problem twice with a couple of die offs each time. 

I finally figured out the cause - I had a mosquito problem so I used insect repellent. 

The air pump pumped all that stuff into the tank.

I recommend an immediate 50% water change if this happens to anyone.

They started being active after 2-3 hours, but 3 had died.


----------

