One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that ghost shrimps are sold in all sorts of salinity levels. Some shops may keep them in full fresh, some will have them in full salt, and everything inbetween in brackish. They are often kept with some salt in the water because that is how they are raised and farmed, they require salt as part of thier life cycle. It could be possible that the store had them with some salinity and they did not handle converting to full freshwater.
How did you introduce them? Drip acclimation? I think that they are super sensitive to water parameters.
I introduced 15 ghost shrimp in a hard water tank about a year ago and maybe half survived the first few weeks. Those that did reproduced a bunch of times after.
Test strips are notoriously inaccurate. They also don’t test for ammonia, which is going to be one of your most important parameters. Do you fertilize your plants? Are you using tap water?
Hello! I’m new to the hobby and recently started a 10g planted tank about a month and a half ago. My nerite, MTS, and ramshorn snails are thriving, however, I recently added some ghost shrimp and they seemed to be doing well at first then got very lethargic and 3 ended up dying before I took the rest out. Tank has cycled for about 1.5months. Some biofilm on the top, acouple detritus worms on glass (which I thought was a decent sign of tank health), no melting plants, snails are crushing it, whats going on?
Tank Parameters (added a photo of test strip): 0 nitrates, 0 Nitrites, 7Ph, 80KH, 60GH
My main questions are: Is there enough plants in there to actually support a planted tank. Should I wait longer to cycle. Are my parameters in check/should i get a more specific testing method? Should I try more hardy fish instead?
something i didnt see mentioned is a lack of a air stone or a sponge filter which would also help oxygenate the water and reduce biofilm
my shrimps died despite me drip acclimating and fully cycling their tank (tested with the liquid test kit too) because there was no airstone and i guess they didn’t have air. they kept trying to get to the surface and would beach themselves
?? not sure if its a fluke. but as soon as i placed an airstone in, they stopped doing that and nobody else died. i eventually just put in a sponge filter since it doubles as an airstone
This early make sure you’re testing ammonia, too. The fact that nitrate is zero and the tank is only 6 weeks old is a bit suspicious. Ammonia is also more toxic with an alkaline pH.
If ammonia test shows you have some then id suggest a few water changes and add beneficial bacteria. Last thing how were the shrimp acclimated to the tank?
Shrimp drive me crazy. I’m convinced I can’t keep them alive with fish in the tank. All except for one true survivor who has lived for 2 years while the others all died off. This guy is death proof.
Strips are not accurate. Pick up an API master test kit and don’t look back. Also, I’m sorry this happened to you. Shrimp are sold in all kinds of conditions so they may have just had a hard time adjusting. I’m sorry this happened to you. As luck would have it (in rare situations) you can do everything correctly and still have problems.
Check the metal content of your water. Snails seem to be doing fine but there might be something in the water from anything you might add for your plants. That’s at least what came to my mind
Spirited_Package9441 
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that ghost shrimps are sold in all sorts of salinity levels. Some shops may keep them in full fresh, some will have them in full salt, and everything inbetween in brackish. They are often kept with some salt in the water because that is how they are raised and farmed, they require salt as part of thier life cycle. It could be possible that the store had them with some salinity and they did not handle converting to full freshwater.
How did you introduce them? Drip acclimation? I think that they are super sensitive to water parameters.
I introduced 15 ghost shrimp in a hard water tank about a year ago and maybe half survived the first few weeks. Those that did reproduced a bunch of times after.
Test strips are notoriously inaccurate. They also don’t test for ammonia, which is going to be one of your most important parameters. Do you fertilize your plants? Are you using tap water?
Hello! I’m new to the hobby and recently started a 10g planted tank about a month and a half ago. My nerite, MTS, and ramshorn snails are thriving, however, I recently added some ghost shrimp and they seemed to be doing well at first then got very lethargic and 3 ended up dying before I took the rest out. Tank has cycled for about 1.5months. Some biofilm on the top, acouple detritus worms on glass (which I thought was a decent sign of tank health), no melting plants, snails are crushing it, whats going on?
Tank Parameters (added a photo of test strip): 0 nitrates, 0 Nitrites, 7Ph, 80KH, 60GH
My main questions are: Is there enough plants in there to actually support a planted tank. Should I wait longer to cycle. Are my parameters in check/should i get a more specific testing method? Should I try more hardy fish instead?
Thanks for any responses, rip my skrimp
something i didnt see mentioned is a lack of a air stone or a sponge filter which would also help oxygenate the water and reduce biofilm
my shrimps died despite me drip acclimating and fully cycling their tank (tested with the liquid test kit too) because there was no airstone and i guess they didn’t have air. they kept trying to get to the surface and would beach themselves
?? not sure if its a fluke. but as soon as i placed an airstone in, they stopped doing that and nobody else died. i eventually just put in a sponge filter since it doubles as an airstone
This early make sure you’re testing ammonia, too. The fact that nitrate is zero and the tank is only 6 weeks old is a bit suspicious. Ammonia is also more toxic with an alkaline pH.
If ammonia test shows you have some then id suggest a few water changes and add beneficial bacteria. Last thing how were the shrimp acclimated to the tank?
Normal behavior for ghost shrimp.They need to die first to mature.
Ammonia test will tell you if your tank is cycled. I don’t see any form of aeration, a little bit of surface agitation will remove that biofilm.
Shrimp drive me crazy. I’m convinced I can’t keep them alive with fish in the tank. All except for one true survivor who has lived for 2 years while the others all died off. This guy is death proof.
Strips are not accurate. Pick up an API master test kit and don’t look back. Also, I’m sorry this happened to you. Shrimp are sold in all kinds of conditions so they may have just had a hard time adjusting. I’m sorry this happened to you. As luck would have it (in rare situations) you can do everything correctly and still have problems.
Have you ever dosed copper or any copper containing medicines?
Edit: nvm I see you have snails that are fine. They would be dead from copper as well.
Why is your thumbnail so short?
If you use Excel it kills shrimp. I did not know this and killed mine. Figured I’d mention it just in case.
Are you using a declorinator like sea chem prime? Have you been using any plant fertilizers?
The test strips are inaccurate and unreliable. Try using an API master kit or something.
Also, find out when your LFS gets in their shrimps. I bought mine same day, not knowing, and they had to acclimate twice. Some died.
Shrimp like a dirty biofilm rich detritus laden environment.
New plants? They sometimes contain pesticides. Though the options for this are endless.
Mine get eaten by an acara, goldfish and an upside down cat in less than a day. I get 40 once a week. Keep hoping to see a few survive but no
If you are willing, try some cherry shrimp, they are easy in my opinion.
OP please buy this instead to test your water I made the same mistake you did with the strips and lost my shrimpies thinking my tank fully cycled: https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/api-freshwater-master-test-kit-114146?store_code=1135&mr:device=m&mr:adType=pla_with_promotionlocal&cm_mmc=PSH%7CGGL%7CCCY%7CCCO%7CPM%7C0%7CkUMWcWiLY5b1EHQjK6kSR6%7C%7C%7C0%7C0%7C%7C%7C18145199970&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD97F15EhrxNCuMScAnOKTCFPxnrU&gclid=Cj0KCQiAyeWrBhDDARIsAGP1mWRRK0tW2eFexXChyxkbaMs6gEtZRHuUK6-HO_ElwpCErUYk_PXU_UsaAljAEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Check the metal content of your water. Snails seem to be doing fine but there might be something in the water from anything you might add for your plants. That’s at least what came to my mind