Something wrong with water quality?

[rneowth]

Hey, I'm cycling a ten gallon tank right now, I just got six ghost shrimp yesterday on recommendation from our local aquarium store, put them in the tank, fed them a teensy pinch of frozen bloodworms last night. I was going to feed them to my lotl once the tank was ready for her, but seems that won't happen--they're dropping like flies.
This morning I woke up about 9, one of the ghost shrimp was dead on the floor of the tank. I thought at first, y'know, old age, or something, because it was a pretty large one and obviously rather mature. I just checked on my tank and another one of them is dead, this time a small one that obviously wasn't at full growth.
Could something be wrong with the water? I already primed/dechlorinated it a la the directions and the recommendation from the seller, though I may have been a bit scant knowing that axolotls are sensitive to chemicals.
What could've gone wrong? The only live things in the tank besides the ghost shrimp are my marimos. The water is about 70 degrees (I had to heat it up to get it that high, I thought the first might've kicked it due to it being too cold at 66), I'm using black sand and large rocks as substrate, and I have a standard 20 gallon-max filter with a sponge cap.
Thank you very much!

Sylvie

 

[CatSpit]

Where are you at in the cycle - have you been testing for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates to check their levels? I don't have shrimp, but they (as well as other tank critters) are affected by spikes in the cycle.

 

[rneowth]

I've had the tank running since this Sunday; hypothetically I've already gone through one spike. I'm probably going to bring a sample into the aquarium place, the owner said the kits they have right now are admittedly ****e and he'd recommend I just get it tested there. He told me it probably wasn't necessary to test right away, so I was going to bring in a sample Sunday. Can do it earlier if you recommend.

 

[LSuzuki]

One possibility: if your water is sanitized with chloramine, residual chloramine (if you were too skimpy with the dechlorinator) or ammonia released from the chloramine by the dechlorinator may have killed them.

Unless you had a source of ammonia in the tank (rotting food or whatever), you shouldn't have had enough time since they went in last night for an ammonia spike.

When you get the water tested, write down the values for pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Many storekeepers don't realize that axolotls are more sensitive to things like nitrate, and so might say "it is fine" when really it isn't.

When you bring in the water to get tested, bring in some water from your tap and ask for its parameters too. You need to know if you have chloramine in the water, since chloramine requires you to be more careful with water changes and choice of dechlorinators.

Ask when the good water test kits will be back in stock. You will want one.

Let us know how it is going. :happy:

 

[rneowth]

Thank you! I'll keep note of this.
Since this morning none of em have kicked it so I guess things are looking up.
I'm very lucky that the owner himself keeps a few lotls so he has some experience, I'll probably go in tomorrow and give you an update.
I seriously appreciate the help!

 

[auntiejude]

Do you know exactly what shrimp you got? The ghost/river shrimp that I get need brackish water as they live in an estuary where sea comes in as well as river flows out. They die quite quickly in fresh water.

If you don't have axies in the tank yet I'd suggest you go for fishless cycling. You really need to get yourself a full/master test kit, there are details on how to do it on here somewhere.