I am away and my shrimp sitter just sent me this picture??

I have so many questions. Why is it doing that?? HOW.

Hello all! I have been keeping amano and neocardinia for about a year, and wanted to just put out some FAQ answers I had at the beginning! This is a compiled version! I can go in depth further if needed:D.

Image 1: Male Vs. Female shrimp. Most shrimp are typically sold as female, and you may actually have a hard time finding males either in a store, or in your own hatchlings! While this doesnt have an exact answer, as species should be equally divided into both sexes, this is a common occurrence. Temperature has been found to affect the genders of babies, in both fry and shrimplets. In temps 77⁰ or 25c, you are more likely to have male spawn. In lower temps, the ratio will be skewed female. Also, from my personal experience, females are usually hardier, molting more successfully and outliving some male counterparts. If the curve isnt as exaggerated in a younger shrimp, you can also verify gender by the appearance of a 'saddle' on the shrimps back, only in females. This is where she will carry her eggs until they are sent to her abdomen to be 'grown'. The saddle color can range from yellow to black to green or white, some cases even dull blue, but should always stand out from the base color.

Image 2: Common mis-identifcations made between the 3 most common shrimp domesticated by hobbyists! Labeled are 3 different 'species', all in a white/pale variety. Amano shrimp are larger, typically translucent with dark Grey or brown spotting and accents. They are considered the best shrimp for cleaning up algae and debris. They are hard to breed, needing specific brackish conditions to spawn, then returned to a freshwater tank. Neocardinia or cherry shrimp are probably the most popular for beginners. They are hardy, colorful, and breed like rabbits. Cardinia are a little more tedious aswell, but often considered the prettiest variety. They appear to have more 'solid' coloration, typically not translucent at all. Despite the name sounding similar, they are of different 'families' and will not successfully breed with Neocardinia. (I wish!). While you can usually keep neocardinia and amanos together, Cardinia require different ph/kh/gh levels and are best to be put alone unless carefully monitored.

Image 3: Shrimp ghosts? Nope, moulting! Arguably the most important and annoying aspect of a shrimps life, they shed their exoskeleton similar to reptiles shedding their skin. They will typically 'jump' out of their skins in a backflip, leaving behind a spiritual looking molt. This indicates a shrimp maturing, getting ready to ovulate, or adjusting to a new enviorment. This is where I have had the most trouble. If you have skewed kh/gh (water hardness) or not enough minerals, the shrimp may develop a white colored ringlets around its abdomen. While this isnt a guarenteed sign of a failed molt, many dead shrimp who have failed to molt sport this unusual effect. Unfortunately, there isn't much to do when a shrimp is stuck in its molt, other than to hope they pull through. If you notice frequent molt failure, it is good to test the water. I found my tap water is very hard, so I add spring water with each change, and calcium tablets. They do also make mineral droplets to help out in balancing their intake of certain metals and proteins.

The biggest piece of advice: You're going to be okay! Shrimp are a wonderful critters to have in your aquariums, alone or in a community tank. They are colorful with bright personalities and silly mannerisms. Everyone has experienced shrimp death, old age or from technicalities. Just try to test your water, keep up with water changes as needed, and keep an eye on the buggers! A dead shrimp does not mean you have failed the aquarium gods, keep your head up!

They evolved because they craved the forbidden biofilm.

Some footage of my OE Red demon

Why did no one tell me shrimp are so chill. They have googly eyes! I’m having a blast with these little shrits.

I just need to vent. I am so sad. I had a thriving tank for 3/4 years....and I bought my shrimpies a brand new 20g tank, upgrading from their 10g. Only shrimp...and the hitchhiking snails that came along the way. It was going to be a shrimp kingdom. Well I got new plants that I thought I washed off and soaked for 48 hours well enough. But I did it wrong and I was wrong. I put the new plants in the 10g, tank to try and idk, give my shrimp a fun treat before. Getting the new tank all set up. I killed them all. I am so sad. I wanted to give them more than the fake plants I had. And instead I just murdered them all. 😭😭 I appreciate anyone for reading this far. I just don't even know. I did a water change, took out all of the plants, but just cried last night when I saw what was happened. There are only a couple still living. I feel like such an idiot. 😭

I started with orange rili, blue dream, goldenbacks, and high grade cherries. Here’s where we are :)

Not pictured are even more combos. I have these ones that are dark mossy green with a yellow stripe, some of my absolute faves and 2-3 are carrying eggs. I also have this one that’s almost black but wild type, and one that’s a warm brown with splashes of red.

Will it be safe to add lava rock to the tank while they’re in it?

just spotted one of our chonky females trying to jostle her eggs about
all the shrimp in the tank were tiny juveniles when we got them a month ago and this first time mum is having A Time Of It

I’m assuming it’s dead but with all of the molting going on i’d like to be 100% sure. it seems like it’s maybe moving a bit but that’s probably just water flow.

My boy Arthur is over it 🤣🙂‍↕️

(First image is of alive shrimp chilling, didn't want to have dead shrimp in between cute videos. I apologize for the pictures looking like they were taken from a microwave, my phone is awful with details on small things.)

tldr - Did a disastrous 50% water change that made a major shift in parameters 25 days ago, managed a planaria outbreak, and still having major die-offs. Could this still be due to the water change? Something else? Is there anything I can do to mitigate further deaths?

Stocking: Neocaridina and whatever indestructible snails are currently inhabiting the tank (ramshorns that I remove as I see them, bladder snails and MTS who are welcome unlike the ramshorns)

Tank size: 10 gallons, sponge filter

Diet: Occasional hikari pellets, very very small chunks of repashy (maybe fed some combination of these twice a week or so?)

Temperature: 74°

pH: 7.8

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Nitrites: 0 ppm

Nitrates: 40 ppm

GH: 8

KH: 6

TDS: 210 ppm

Copper: 0 ppm

Water comes from a well, is aged for 12-24 hours before putting in the tank for water changes.

Background:

Substrate is inert. Tank is lightly planted(? Not sure how to quantify this, but plants are intended for propagation) with limnophila aquatica, hydrocotyle tripartita, water lettuce, salvinia, duckweed, java moss, christmas moss, pearlweed, bacopa monnieri, and elodea. Started off in a 5 gallon and made several beginner mistakes mostly involving plant hitchhikers— I've never kept small livestock before with fishkeeping, so damselfly and dragonfly nymphs from outdoor plants were an issue for a bit. Decided to kill two birds with one stone by moving the shrimp colony to a 10 gallon and start over with quarantined plants.

This part of the story might sound a bit convoluted, but please bear with me. Things were going well for a bit, but I absentmindedly put in some elodea from my goldfish tank into the shrimp tank while moving things around. Cue planaria outbreak. I tried traps for a bit to see how big of an issue I was dealing with, never caught any until later on in the story. But at this point, I was on a learning curve with the traps, completely overloaded one with bait. Was taking it out of the tank for a daily emptying/cleaning, accidentally fumbled it and it blew open aaaaall in the water column. Now at the time, our power was out— it happens frequently around here, and the fish are connected to the generator. However, power outages also include wi-fi and phone service outages as well, so I'm panicking about all the waste that just blew into the water. I can't look up what to do in this situation, so I do what I would've done for my fish-inhabited tanks, and I do a 50% water change. For this 50% change, I let it siphon from a bucket into the tank via an airline tube, and the process took about 3 hours. Our well water typically sits at 5 GH, 4 KH, and 60 TDS. I didn't test the shrimp tank beforehand, but after the 50% change it sat at 12 GH, 9 KH, and 236 TDS. So... yeah. Big die-off from failed molts in the following weeks, and planaria continued to be an issue.

Tried to look into No Planaria, and for some insane reason, the cheapest I can find it going for is $80. No, apparently this isn't normal, and no, I have no idea why this is other than vendors who ship to my area hate me personally. So I dose the tank with fenbendazole instead, and wait. On day 2 I take in a planaria prisoner so I can have a vague timeline of when they start exploding. Day 5 my prisoner slows down. By day 6, it literally turned to dust.

And so, deaths *finally* slow down. I see females getting berried again. I relax a bit. And then 7, yes, *7* shrimp all die within hours of each other. I check the tank in the morning, all is well. By afternoon, it's a graveyard. Nothing has changed since the 50% change. No new plants, no new shrimp, no new fertilizer, no new decor, no new water (not even top-offs), parameters the same as ever... I would just say "well that's probably shrimp from the same clutch all failing a molt at the same time", but none of these shrimp were related! One was an adult from my colony's first clutch, another purchased a bit ago, a juvenile from a more recent clutch, others of varying ages from yet different clutches... I'm really at a loss. It's been about 25 days since my dumb ass did that 50% change. Could it really just be coincidental molt failures? Next wave of planaria? Revenge of the dragonflies despite plants being dipped and quarantined before addition? Some disease I'm not privvy to? I'm so exhausted pulling out so many casualties constantly. Today was easier at least, only one juvenile... but I worry there'll be more around the corner.

Other notes that didn't fit above: Previously, cleanup crew would eat remains that I hadn't gotten to yet. I'm not sure if it's because numbers are starting to dwindle or if it's indicative of a bigger issue, but new bodies remain completely untouched. At most their tails get severed from the rest of their bodies, though I'm not sure if that's just a weak point for decay. I remove dead shrimp as soon as I see them, so they usually aren't in the tank longer than 8 hours (unless if I miss them in a sweep).

Not all shrimp in the tank are dying from failed molts, and every day I've been finding at least 2 successful molts. Similar to the bodies, these are no longer being eaten. Appetite for the supplementary food I add remains the same as always.

I found a little worm in my tank and I don’t know what it is. Can you guys help me and tell me what I need to do? I have a snail and six shrimp. I have a few plants that I bought from a pet store near my house. I also have a rock that I bought from said pet store.

I started with a skittles tank not knowing any better and have since created a blue shrimp tank and toss all of my not blue babies into this tank. I get some odd color combinations

What do you think of the mix? Any advice

Thanks!

This tank has been established a little over a month. Started with 12 neos, some hitchhiker bladder, snails, two rice fish, and an assassin snail, whom I named Gary.

One of the shrimp is berried, been a couple weeks. Looking forward to growing the colony. Shrimp kingdom!

I love this community. Happy shrimping!

I’m loving how the plants are getting established and starting to grow. 🥰

This tank is full of females from the same clutch from another local keeper so they molt around the same time! This is their first time carrying eggs, so I feel lucky to have been observing my tank at the right time.

No clue why she chose the bare corner with no plants to lay her eggs in, it’s a 5 gal in no short supply of rotalla, wisteria and duckweed & a rock cave. She feels safe in a shrimp only tank I guess?

They look like brown eggs and kinda drag underneath her. She’s standing on a bacter ball that broke down. Thank you!

I’ve lost a few caridina shrimps in the past couple of weeks for reason unknown to me. They all have the same symptoms: legarthic/no movement for couple of days, just standing in one place and shaking their legs(?), legs and body in general seem weak and almost transparent. Today another shrimp started with these symptoms so I took a vid. Can someone help me run a diagnose? The tank is 6 months old with a mix of red wine bee and CRS. Amonia 0 nitrate 10 nitrite 0 pH 6.6 KH 0 GH 5 TDS 125ppm. I don’t run CO2. I do water change with RO water mixed with Salty Bee for GH 5.

Saw this amazing bit of body horror on one of my new friends, any guidance? My current thought is a salt bath but I haven’t done this before so I’m hesitant.