Dying shrimp

[imma24]

I am definitely going to upgrade to a larger tank in the long run and will seed it and leave it cycling for at least two months before I start to transfer my fish. I've also invested in a drip acclimating kit so any future fish will have the best chances.

Again, there is no such thing as "leaving a tank to cycle for 2 months" - it is cycled ONLY when your water parameters read like THIS: 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrites & 20ppm or less nitrates - it might take longer or shorter than 2 months depending upon whether you do it with fish or without fish (which tends to take less time because you can grow bacteria faster).

[Strider199]

Sorry to read of your loss.
If that store medicated the tank which housed some fish and shrimp, the shrimp would have been poisoned by the med's in the tank.
But as you have already read, make sure your tank is totally cycled before adding some shrimp.
When I sterilized my tank I knew I had killed off all the beneficial bacteria and I would have to start over again.
After the tank was set-up to my liking, I went to my larger established 55 gallon and took a piece of the filter material out of it and placed it in the filter of my 10 gallon to be shrimp tank. I didn't want the beneficial bacteria to run out of food and die in that filter so I went to the pet store and bought two male guppies to put into that tank until I was sure the ammonia and nitrite levels stayed at 0.00ppm. After a few weeks (with weekly water changes), I took out the guppies and added my shrimp.
The tank stayed at 0.00ppm every test since then. My shrimp have tripled in amount and are really a nice dark red colour.
Good luck and dont give up.

[wijnands]

And what did you do with the guppies?

[crystalite]

I'm upgrading to a larger tank as soon as I can find a decent one so I might try adding the old filter media like you did strider199. I might try the shrimp again once the new tank is fully established but I won't be buying them from the same store and I definitely won't be asking for their advice on anything relating to my aquarium.

[nosebleed]

If the tank is cycled i would check gh and kh on the shrimp you are keeping. RCS are hardy shrimps and they shouldn't die that easily.

[Lady Hobbs]

Get some algae pellets for them. They need a constant source of food and with your tank new, there probably isn't much for them to eat. You did not mention plants but they love java moss, too. For hiding and cleaning. They also will eat a slice of cucumber and shrimp sticks, as well. Just stick a slice of cucumber with a fork and drop it in the water.

[Nephalem]

Sorry zombify a post so long dead it's rotten, but we have a crystal red and I just wanted to check on something in this post on his behalf.

As someone said, lead is a very toxic heavy metal, and unles I'm really mistaken (and please by all means educate me if I am) as such it will be doubly toxic to any invertabrates as they are exceptionally sensitive to heavy metal poisoning. The reason I bring this up is I expected more people to point this out as the cause of death when I read that the plants were weighted with lead, and when only one person did I started to wonder if my logic here was flawed. Will the aquarium water not eventually leach so much out of the lead weights that everything in the tank can become poisoned?

Anyway sorry again to bump this buried post, but my curiosity frequently gets the best of me, and if I didn't ask and get an answer I'd sit up all night wondering. :)