Marker Pen Contamination.........

[Spishkey]

one of my 6ft tanks have been in storage for the past 4 weeks while we moved, it was roughly emptied but about 2 cm of water and bits of gravel/sand were left in the bottom. anyhow its in the house now and somehow over the past month a bluey green marker pen has been knocked in it and leaked. the whole bottom of the tank is the bluegreen colour, the silicone stained etc.

have been scrubbing for hours and the dye is mostly gone, apart from where it has dyed the 3d background in the tank(hardly noticable but if you really look you can see the colour difference). any idea if i will have to remove this background while cleaning i found a lone armano shrimp in the blue green sludge.........very much alive and kicking(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), so am guessing the ink cant be toxic

 

[Spishkey]

anyone? need some opinions asap have to get this tank set up as a hospital tank (see post in emergencies)

 

[minxfishy]

If it didnt harm the shrimp, it shouldnt hurt anything else. You could do a bleach wash thru it 1st to be on the safe side, 10pts water to 1pt bleach and then obviously give it several good rinses.

 

[deathy]

use really warm water aswell, leave it to soak for a bit, if you cant get any more of you should be fine.

 

[saltynay]

An amano shrimp has survived for a month in ink with no food?

 

[Spishkey]

yessem! i can only imagine there were some sort of other living thing its been feeding off? the frogbit plantlets survived too. it wasnt living in 100% ink i guess it was diluted? shocked me too, but he's alive and kicking!

 

[helterskelter]

use a razor blade

i use this to remove markper as i labels tanks

 

[saltynay]

Is he dyed the same colour as the ink as I would assume what he has been eating has been drawing water from the ink?

 

[Spishkey]

he has a slight blue tinge but then dont all armano shrimp? i shall toddle off and catch him shortly, and compare him to the others, if he's noticibly different i shall pop a pic on i didnt think at the time, just wanted to throw him in some clean water!

 

[saltynay]

Depends on your lighting mine are clear with a yellow tinge because of the lights, if he is a noticeable blue colouration then its from an unnatural source, I know of no shrimp species which is a natural species with a true blue colouration only of colour morphs selectively bred to be such. As you may of inadvertantly dyed it through dye infused food, its natural colouration should return in 1-3 months depending on extent dye cover and intensity.