Crystal Red Died Suddenly

[redguppy50]

One of my Crystal Reds unexpectedly died today. He was not old (I bought him three weeks back) about 0.5" long. The water looks fine and I have couple of other crystal reds and yellow shrimp in the tank together with my livebrearers and they all seem to be doing fine. Actually couple of yellows were actually fighting over the corpse. Should I be worried about others? Everyone seems active and seem to be eating fine. The tank looks cycled (crystal clear water for last week or so - was setup about five weeks ago)

[madehtsobi]

water looks fine doesnt mean anything. you need to test it.

maybe the fish messed with it. better to not keep any fish with shrimps.

[mnemenoi]

Bee shrimp of the Caradina family are certainly far harder to maintain in captivity then their neocaradina cousins. I would ask you water parameters first and start there. I was able to keep my CRS alive in harder water, but they never bred. They seem to prefer softer and more acidic water to thrive and your other inhabitants would not like those conditions. They are very sensitive to any abnormality in water and its best to think of them as living barometers. If they start acting up then something is likely amiss. My guess is Nitrates are going up in the tank or it could be a variety of other factors. Remember, these shrimp will/can die in just a trivial amount of pollutants that fish would ignore. I recommend getting a good test kit and logging your readings. A 20-40% water change with Distilled water could help, and it might assist the TDS into lowering a bit.

[redguppy50]

Ok .. my water tested a little high on nitrates not surprising for a five week old tank. I plan on doing a 25% water change tomorrow, hopefully that helps. Also bought Prime water conditioner today as well as it claims it can bind nitrates. Given I have not used it before, I am letting the water sit overnight before I add it to my tank. Anybody has experience with it? the online reviews seemed really good. I saw one of the yellow females carrying two eggs today. So may be the CRS death was a freak. Are yellows known to carry only two eggs in a pregnancy? I thought it would be more than just two.

[mnemenoi]

They usually carry far more. Most likely a small clutch due to water parameters. They are more forgiving, but breeding can be limited when stressed due to high Nitrates. I use Prime all the time and it is wonderful and terrific call on leaving the water overnight to get them close to temp. I would recommend doing far more water changes and adding some java moss and plants to help. Be wary about overfeeding that tank, any excess gets transferred into Nitrates and will shock the system again. I would recommend weekly WC of about 20-40% based odd your test reading and tailoring it again in a few months as the tank continues to settle in.