All My Shrimps Are Dead - Copper Poisoning :(

[superdaniel]

I'm such an idiot. I bought some guppies a couple of weeks back to liven-up my tank, which up until now just had lots of cherry shrimps in it. I've had the shrimps for years and I'd grown quite attached to them. I've had guppies with them before and they've always got on fine, but I noticed these new guppies were slightly bigger than the old ones and were harassing my shrimps, so I decided to buy some plants to give them a bit of cover...

And I put the plants straight in the tank without thinking about it and now all my shrimps are dead. The plants must have been treated with snail poison. I thought they were acting strange but it just never occurred to me that it could be the plants. It must have been really potent. I've checked everywhere; there isn't a single survivor.

I'm absolutely gutted. I loved those shrimps. They were amazing. The entire tank setup was based around the shrimps, really. The guppies and the plants were just there for decoration. Now it feels like the heart of the tank has gone

So where do I go from here? How long should I wait before I introduce some new cherry shrimps? Is there anything I can do to get rid of the poison?

 

[PDSimon]

I'm not entirely sure that the plants killed all the shrimp....

You might want to post this in tropical discussion/tropical emergency section to get more help...

Activated carbon might rid of the poison, although i'm not sure.

Sorry for your loss.. Maybe next time just keep shrimp in the tank, keep some different speciies, maybe put some driftwood in there with bamboo shrimp so they climnb higher in the tank to the filter flow.

 

[superdaniel]

Thanks. I wasn't sure at first either, but what else could have killed them? I put the plants in last night and now all the shrimp are dead. I've had them for years, and I've found them to be especially resilient to changes in tank parameters.

I'll read a little more about activated carbon filters. But aside from the poison and a little water hardness, my tank is hunky dory. I hope the carbon filters don't screw-up the chemistry of the whole tank.

 

[noxious_nasties]

I'm not one for really discussing plants but maybe there was a pH change when they were put in.

 

[Shred]

What makes you think it wasn't copper poisoning?

 

[superdaniel]

I really can't think what else it could be. I put the plants in, and within 12 hours all my shrimps were dead.

I did top the water up a bit, but I don't see how that could have killed them all off so quickly. I've had them for years - they were really hardy little things.

I've bought some activated carbon and some Hagen Aqua Plus. Will this be enough to clear-out the poison?

 

[Loops]

Me and my boyfriend had this problem too, we purchased some plants and put them straight into our tanks and most of our shrimp had died by the morning we managed to save some by removing the plants and doing a few water changes but we lost some beautiful shrimp Cherry, Amano and 5 really nice Crystal Reds

We went back to the store we bought the plants from and complained that they should display clearly that the plants have been treated with copper ... they asked us to total up the price of the shrimp we'd lost and gave us store credit for that amount

Still lost some really nice shrimp though

EDIT: This was in 2 separate tanks I might add so I doubt it was just coincidence that we both lost shrimp after adding plants.

 

[superdaniel]

The annoying thing is, I saw them acting strange as soon as I put the plants in, but my brain just wouldn't put 2+2 together. I feel absolutely horrible. They were really lovely little things, too. I much preferred them to the fish

I had nothing but trouble with the eBay seller. Saying they sent me messages that they never did, etc. I should have known. It was two weeks before I actually got the plants. I'd feel bad leaving negative feedback, though, because they did try to make up for it by sending me twice as many plants as I paid for (which, in hindsight, just made things worse!)

And I can't imagine them compensating me for over 30 adult cherry shrimp. I've just checked eBay and the going rate seems to be about £2 per shrimp these days! If they were amanos or crystal reds I could understand. I don't suppose anyone knows of a cheaper source, for when I do decide to re-stock?

How did you get your tank back to normal afterwards? How long was it before you could put shrimps back in?

 

[Shred]

We went back to the store we bought the plants from and complained that they should display clearly that the plants have been treated with copper ... they asked us to total up the price of the shrimp we'd lost and gave us store credit for that amount

Wow at least they did that, mine just denied that they had snail poison on them at all.

 

[Loops]

How did you get your tank back to normal afterwards? How long was it before you could put shrimps back in?
[/quote]

We did have some shrimp survive, they were a little frantic, spiraling around everywhere.

We did a 50% water change, and then another 50% a few hours later, repeated this the next day. The shrimp then calmed down, I bought some cherry shrimp and they have been ok ever since


Where abouts are you? If you are local you could have some of our cherry shrimp?

 

[superdaniel]

Thanks, that's really kind of you, but I live in Hull and I don't drive.

If you'd feel okay about sending me some in the post, that would be great. I'd pay you of course. And I'd only really be after some baby shrimps ("shrimplets"???) since I'd be keeping them in a dedicated tank for a while anyway, until the all the copper is gone from the main tank.

But if you don't want to send them through the post, I'd totally understand.

- Dan