shrimp dying one by one

hi, have a 40 litre tank with 5 neon tetras and 6 white cloud mountain minnow. i change 6 litres of water every friday.

they are all quite happy. but last week i introduced 20 shrimp. the shrimp have been steadily dying off one by one; and now i only have one left. suggestions please? thanks

They are being eaten. Mt Minnows especially carnivourous.

Some questions for you:

1) What kind of shrimp? Ghost (blue grey 1/2 inch) or Amano (tan with brown/red dots and lines and up to 3/4 inch) 2) Do you give them a place to hide where the fish can't bother them? Tank planted or what? 3) The 'leftovers' you are finding - are they empty shells or can you for sure tell that they have been eaten? 4) If they have been just dying off what kind of water parameters do you have? Amanos are sensitive to certain types of water conditions.

Obviously you've lost the majority to 'something'. Were you going to try and replace them?

thanks to all. they are ghost shrimps,and the shells are empty.

what kind of water conditions are they especially sensitive to please? also they do not have hiding places. what kind of hiding places should i create? (at the moment i do not have any rocks in the tank). many thanks

Empty shells means they are probably shedding. They are shedding because 1) they are happy or 2) you put iodine in the water. Iodine forces inverts to shed and too many sheds will kill them.

Also, inverts (shrimp and crayfish) are very sensitive to water chemistry changes going from the store to your tank. Here's how you acclimate them when you bring them home: - Put 1/3 cup of your tank water in their bag, every 15 minutes, while their bag sits in your aquarium. Therefor the temperature and pH will gradually become the same. - Do this about 6 times. - Next, slit the bag and put the bag on its side in the aquarium so if they want to swim out, they can fit through the hole in the bag. - Let the bag stay this way for 30 minutes. Clip the bag or prop it so it doesn't rotate. - Last, now you can dump them in your aquarium and hope for the best.

Iodine is bad for freshwater inverts. They don't need it and it may kill them by forcing too many molts.

Many ghost shrimp will die simply from the stress of getting shipped from the breeder to the pet store. Also, they only live a max of 12 months. An average lifespan for the average aquarist is about 3 months. If they live longer than that, you got lucky. In short, ghost shrimp are hard to keep alive if they have been shipped from somewhere.

Many die from starvation too. Put a little extra fish food in there at night for them to eat. Make sure it sinks to the bottom where they will find it. They are more active at night (in my tank anyway). Actually, they are more active when the light is dim, even on cloudy days when I turn off their

Check for the presence of copper or other heavy metals in your water. Inverts are extremely sensitive to them.