I don't know if anyone is following this but I'll keep my updates here.
So most of the shrimp died. I thought at first they were dying of old age and blamed the seller. I have since re-revised my review back to 5 stars because it wasn't his fault. All of those shrimp would not have died so close together even if it was old age. Then I thought I had an ammonia spike. I bought some test strips and filter media to reduce ammonia. The strips tested at zero. Then I was thinking... when did they start dying? I took some rocks and driftwood out, because I thought it was too crowded. I siphon vacuumed the gravel. The siphon took out about half the tank water. I dumped this water and put in fresh tap water along with the conditioner, shrimp minerals, and some plant fertilizer.
It was then they started to die.
In almost a weeks time, even shorter than that, all but two adults and as far as I've seen, three babies, had died. So I figure it was the big water change. I guess shrimp are very sensitive to big water changes like that. I also should have waited to put the fertilizer in after it settled and it tested okay.
So it was completely my fault
I killed Big Bertha
The five surviving shrimp are doing fine. They are active and always looking for food, which is how they should be. My water parameters are perfect and my temp is also in range.
Now that I know not to do big water changes, of course I won't do it again. In fact, I watched a guy on YouTube who never does water changes and his techniques and tips. I will only add water when the level gets lower (but not too much).
The plants are doing extremely well.
I have brown algae growing by the heater but read that it would be okay as long as it doesn't take over the tank. I scrub off as much as I can with a toothbrush. I also had some white bio film but that ran its course and is now gone. The driftwood has some slime, but that's normal and something the shrimp can eat.
My next plan is to order more ghost shrimp and some cherry shrimp as well. "Techincally" I can house 20 shrimp per gallon and my tank is seven gallons, but that's far too many. So I am going to get ten of each. They can live together just fine but they can't interbreed. I am also going to get a Mexican orange crayfish. They are super cool and can live with shrimp peacefully as long as you keep them fed. With the ten ghost shrimp, ten cherry shrimp and the crayfish, that's about the limit of my tank. I was thinking of getting two nerite snails as well, but I think the waste from everyone would be too much, so I took them off my list.
I will no longer be getting a Betta fish.
I find the invertebrates much more interesting and fun to watch
Later, when I have the money, I'm going to get a second tank as a baby shrimp nursery. It's 3 gallons and is made for shrimp so the filter is covered and shrimp safe. I'll be ordering more plants to plant the nursery with and also some java moss for both tanks. I did have java moss before but I took it out because I thought it would impede the betta fish. Now that I'm not getting the fish I can add it back.
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