Serial Shrimp Killer (Pls help)

[griffahnert]

I have a pico that I've been keeping corals and nems succesefully for months (zoas, ricoria, rock flowers) and I really want some sort of invert but I keep killing my shrimp and I have no idea why. Tank is definitely cycled, ammonia and nitrite is at 0 and nitrate in the tank is lower than the water I get from my lfs. I test just about every day and keep on top of my water changes. I've tried 3 times with sexy shrimp. They last about a week until one day I wake up and they have died overnight for seemingly no reason. I have no idea why and I'm hesitant to try again I don't want to keep killing innocent shrimp.

#1 any suggestions? What to test? What other info is needed?

#2 are pom pom/boxer crabs more resilient than sexies because I also love those and would be willing to try something else.

 

[The_Paradox]

What are you calcium/alkalinity/pH numbers?

 

[griffahnert]

pH is right around 7.4 usually and I never had a test for Ca/Alk but I do regular water changes and only have soft corals and nothing else using up my calcium in the tank so I don't know why they'd be out of wack

 

[nothing_fancy]

You definitely want to test alkalinity. Depending on the salt you're using for water change you could be swinging the tank quite a bit. Low volume tanks are going to swing a lot unless you have the ability to test and dose for alk and cal consistently. Those inverts are sensitive and you might be stressing them on acclimation if they're only lasting a week That aside, I would get an ATI test and send it out to see whats going on with the water and your top off water. Iodide is considered by some to be necessary at a certain trace level for inverts to remain healthy and molting but I wouldn't recommend adding it especially to a pico. I would say find out if you have enough or too much. Outside of all of that I would ask whether they are eating. Shrimp are going to need to eat daily. PE Pellets are good and they go crazy for it. The type of inverts you are trying are very fragile and are going to want a stable established environment. Moving forward I would try a very small emerald crab and see how it does.

 

[The_Paradox]

pH is right around 7.4 usually and I never had a test for Ca/Alk but I do regular water changes and only have soft corals and nothing else using up my calcium in the tank so I don't know why they'd be out of wack

That’s low for shrimp in my experience. Calcium/alk are also going to be low.

 

[griffahnert]

sounds good, they had been eating pellets as well as they seemed to be picking at the slime on the rock flowers. I will try to test for what you mention but just 1 question don’t emerald crabs usually need lots of space? as in excess of 20 gallons?