Shrimp's population decreasing

[keitarosan]

i noticed lately that my shrimp's (CRS and RCS) population is declining really fast. no new berried female unlike in the past and the adults are dying on a regular but normal basis. the ones dying are the really old ones.

i don't see anything quite abnormal on my water params except that the ph is always somewhere 6.0-6.5. i was thinking of putting in a block of mineral block (found that on ebay) as i thought there's something to do with the water being so soft.

one more thing, the nerite snail (and some other snails) have very brittle shells. you can't pick them up with your hands without curshing them. the nerite has a visible cracks on its shell and some part of the shell looks like it was nibbled by shrimps. any feedback?

[Nicklfire]

i noticed the same thing with my shrimp tank, but i think it's because i never did water changes and all i did was top up the water. After i gave it a good cleaning and did water changes i started to notice them getting berried..

that's my situation, yours maybe different

[Mferko]

sounds like u need to raise your hardness if the snails cant build the shells the shrimps are prolly dying when trying to molt, i think most of the shrimp keepers here recommend to use equilibrium and some also add the shrimp lab mineral rock
i have a little chunk of that shrimp mineral block too u can come pickup for free if u like i dont need it anymore

[keitarosan]

ok, i'll tyr that one out mferko. i'll schedule a pickup.

nick, that's what i'm doing too. i don't do wc, only top up but everytime i do wc (once a month). i still don't see berried females.

[Nicklfire]

yea that's what i'm saying.. i didnt start to see them until i started doing water changes regularly... but it could be a bunch of different things

[rescuepenguin]

My colony of yellows, with some CBS and CRS were doing great while I was doing a 10% water change every couple of days, When I stopped doing water changes (after the car accident and I couldn't lift), they died off. I recommend doing a 10% every few days.

Steve

[effox]

Up the hardness, I use African Water Conditioner, I was having death's during molts like mferko said. My brother just does top offs with this monthly and he has very little deaths and a growing population.

[Ursus sapien]

Good points about water changes and hardness. In my shrimp only tanks I use a little human-grade oyster shell.
Another factor may be population levels. At a certain point, things slow down. Adding new shrimp from a different 'line' and regular harvesting help keep the population stimulated.

[keitarosan]

yeah, in breeding could be another factor. what is human-grade oyster shell and how do you use it?

[Kei]

little human-grade oyster shell
and shrimp lab mineral rock

is it the same?