New plants, shrimps and zebra snail

[Anna24]

Hi,
I bought some acquarium plants yesterday from a fish pet shop. I asked if they had been treated with pestiside and they said not to their knowledge and they were okay with the shrimps they sell in the shop.
I had a bad experience with plants from pets at home a few years ago even after soaking them for 2 days i nearly lost my 4 shrimps which I don't want to happen again so I don't want to risk just putting the plants in.
Is there a way of neutralising the pesticides? I have read on Amazon you could put 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda for every litre of water and soak the plants for 2 days.
Any advice or tips would be gratefully recieved. thanks

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Usually I rinse them a few times. Then put in water for few days.
If you still worry, probably put them in a tank/pail with hang on filter that has activated carbon to absorb any chemical.
Carbon is useful to absorb most chemical.
But take note that the plants probably can absorb the pesticides.

Also, take note that plants can carry parasites and other pests with them.
Pest like Hydra and Planaria can kill your shrimps and small fish.
There are other dangerous bacteria and parasites that can kill your shrimps.

I quarantine my plants with some medications like Praziquantel and Wormer Plus (Flubendazole) to kill any parasites, Hydra & Planaria.
Flubendazole can kill both Hydra and Planaria.

But after the use of medication Flubendazole, it's better to rinse them off and put them in water for a few days before putting them in your shrimps tank.

I read of some conflicting views on Flubendazole.
Some people said that its safe for shrimps but some people said its not safe.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I wouldn't risk it
I bought some plants from my LFS end of July, and only discovered they must have been sprayed or dipped after my shrimp colony began dying

Any plants grown outside the EU/UK and bought in have to be treated with pesticides. If they're grown within the EU, or grown in-vitro, then they're shrimp safe. I'll only trust plants from places like Pro-Shrimp now, or ones grown in-vitro or by big European suppliers like Tropica. If the fish store can't guarantee where they've been grown or whether they've been treated (and sometimes their suppliers won't disclose where the plants came from!), I'd urge you not to risk it. Return them or bin them. Seeing your shrimp die off because of some cheaper plants isn't worth it.

The nasty part about these pesticides is that there's no guaranteed way to remove them, and they can take a long time to break down in soil and water. The alkaline method has been mentioned in a lot of places, but it isn't guaranteed to work since some of those pesticides are stable in alkaline conditions.
Here is my thread where I first learned about it. Some links to articles are in there. Sadly, even though these plants didn't go near my shrimp tank, it was four other plants I'd bought from my LFS that it turned out had been grown in Indonesia, and so treated with pesticides. I'd bought plants from there plenty of times before without problems, but when shrimp started dying, it turned out he'd changed supplier from the Holland to Indonesia. He didn't know about the pesticide/shrimp link.

The shrimp don't die off all at once either, the pesticides interfer with chitin production, so they struggle to moult, and it kills them that way. It took three weeks of losing shrimp in ones and twos before I realised what must be happening, and by then, my whole tank was contaminated. I moved the shrimp into a brand new set up, with only plants bought grown in-vitro or in within the EU (so not sprayed/dipped), and I'm still having the odd loss, just hoping that enough of the colony survive.

Help! Contaminated plants arrived? Baking soda?

I ordered a mixed stem plant package from amazon, have used them before and the last times, plants arrived healthy, with warnings about possible snails. Fine by me. This time, many arrived rotting (have emailed them, I'm blaming the heatwave), but going to try to save the rest. Problem is, the...

www.fishforums.net

Also found this thread from 2012 that gives more info: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/plant-warning.383686/

 

[Lajos_Detari]

I wouldn't risk it
I bought some plants from my LFS end of July, and only discovered they must have been sprayed or dipped after my shrimp colony began dying

It's sad to lose your shrimps to the pesticides.
Recently, I lost quite a number of shrimps but I still can't confirm the cause as I did quarantine all my plants, rinse them a few times before and after the quarantine.

But today I saw some new shrimplets in my tank. Hopefully my shrimps are doing fine and hope to expect more shrimplets as the shrimps can easily give birth to between 20-30 shrimplets.

In one of the news below, it also mentioned the same thing.
Actually its an old news but it seems that the practise of using pesticides are still going on.
The problems is the lack of control in using this toxic pesticides in the third world countries.

PFK investigates: Shrimps killed by mail order plants!

PFK investigates: Shrimps killed by mail order plants!

www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

O

It's sad to lose your shrimps to the pesticides.
Recently, I lost quite a number of shrimps but I still can't confirm the cause as I did quarantine all my plants, rinse them a few times before and after the quarantine.

But today I saw some new shrimplets in my tank. Hopefully my shrimps are doing fine and hope to expect more shrimplets as the shrimps can easily give birth from 20-30 shrimplets.

In one of the news below, it also mentioned the same thing.
Actually its an old news but it seems that the practise of using pesticides are still going on.
The problems is the lack of control in using this toxic pesticides in the third world countries.

PFK investigates: Shrimps killed by mail order plants!

PFK investigates: Shrimps killed by mail order plants!

www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk

Oh man, I'm sorry you've been losing shrimp too! It's a horrible, helpless feeling isn't it Congrats on the new shimplets though! That's always an encouraging sign.

I wouldn't trust a plant that had been treated with a pesticide again, even with quarantine/attempts to clean them with alkaline water. Have a look at some of the links in the threads posted above, at least one of the pesticides commonly used is stable in alkaline water, and still takes months to break down even in acidic water. Removing the plants didn't even stop my shrimp deaths, so I think the pesticide might have contaminated the whole tank. I don't trust either tank that had those plants in it now for shrimp, and probably won't again until they've been stripped down and substrate and plants have been replaced.

I'm still losing about one shrimp a week even since moving them to a clean uncontaminated tank, I assume from the pesticide they absorbed while in the tank with the pesticide. But the deaths have slowed down, so I'm just hoping enough survive to rebuild the colony. My shrimp colony was thriving and breeding well until I added those stupid plants.

But, I saw a berried female yesterday, the first I've seen since the die off started. So not giving up hope yet! Really, really hope she survives and has the shrimplets.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

I also used activated carbon a few weeks ago just to play safe but I used it only for one night as I am treating my tank from gill flukes that killed almost half of my Mosquito Rasboras.
I used Praziquantel which is supposed to be safe for shrimps. But I still need to be careful cos Praziquantel need another ingredient to dissolve in it the water which could be Methanol. Methanol may also create problem for shrimps when in high dosage.

 

[Anna24]

Hi,
I bought some acquarium plants yesterday from a fish pet shop. I asked if they had been treated with pestiside and they said not to their knowledge and they were okay with the shrimps they sell in the shop.
I had a bad experience with plants from pets at home a few years ago even after soaking them for 2 days i nearly lost my 4 shrimps which I don't want to happen again so I don't want to risk just putting the plants in.
Is there a way of neutralising the pesticides? I have read on Amazon you could put 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda for every litre of water and soak the plants for 2 days.
Any advice or tips would be gratefully recieved. thanks

Hi,
I bought some acquarium plants yesterday from a fish pet shop. I asked if they had been treated with pestiside and they said not to their knowledge and they were okay with the shrimps they sell in the shop.
I had a bad experience with plants from pets at home a few years ago even after soaking them for 2 days i nearly lost my 4 shrimps which I don't want to happen again so I don't want to risk just putting the plants in.
Is there a way of neutralising the pesticides? I have read on Amazon you could put 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda for every litre of water and soak the plants for 2 days.
Any advice or tips would be gratefully recieved. thanks
[/QUOTE

O

Oh man, I'm sorry you've been losing shrimp too! It's a horrible, helpless feeling isn't it Congrats on the new shimplets though! That's always an encouraging sign.

I wouldn't trust a plant that had been treated with a pesticide again, even with quarantine/attempts to clean them with alkaline water. Have a look at some of the links in the threads posted above, at least one of the pesticides commonly used is stable in alkaline water, and still takes months to break down even in acidic water. Removing the plants didn't even stop my shrimp deaths, so I think the pesticide might have contaminated the whole tank. I don't trust either tank that had those plants in it now for shrimp, and probably won't again until they've been stripped down and substrate and plants have been replaced.

I'm still losing about one shrimp a week even since moving them to a clean uncontaminated tank, I assume from the pesticide they absorbed while in the tank with the pesticide. But the deaths have slowed down, so I'm just hoping enough survive to rebuild the colony. My shrimp colony was thriving and breeding well until I added those stupid plants.

But, I saw a berried female yesterday, the first I've seen since the die off started. So not giving up hope yet! Really, really hope she survives and has the shrimplets.

Thanks so much for the quick replies and advice. I'm glad I posted. I will get some more tropica plants that I know are shrimp and snail safe. I want to get a few more plants as I have got a bigger tank and one of my old platies has had fry. Thanks again

 

[Essjay]

The reason that plants from outside the EU have to be treated is because of apple snails. Several years ago, one species of apple snail was found in a river in Spain, so the EU banned al apple snail species - importing and spreading them within the EU (in other words, if you already had apple snails you can't sell them/give them away or their babies). The EU also wanted to ban import of plants from outside the EU just in case there were apple snails hidden on them but gave way to pressure and allowed their import provided the plants were treated to kill snails. (I know we've left the EU but laws passed while we were members have to be repealed or they still stand and I don't see this one being repealed for decades, if ever)

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

The reason that plants from outside the EU have to be treated is because of apple snails. Several years ago, one species of apple snail was found in a river in Spain, so the EU banned al apple snail species - importing and spreading them within the EU (in other words, if you already had apple snails you can't sell them/give them away or their babies). The EU also wanted to ban import of plants from outside the EU just in case there were apple snails hidden on them but gave way to pressure and allowed their import provided the plants were treated to kill snails. (I know we've left the EU but laws passed while we were members have to be repealed or they still stand and I don't see this one being repealed for decades, if ever)

I hate how little known this is, especially given how popular shrimp have become in the hobby! It's been known since at least 2012, when that thread was made, feel like places that sell plants have a duty to check and label their sources, and mark whether plants are shrimp safe or not. I know that it would be hard to enforce that, but given what these pesticides do to inverts, it would be simple to include warnings and check sources.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Thanks so much for the quick replies and advice. I'm glad I posted. I will get some more tropica plants that I know are shrimp and snail safe. I want to get a few more plants as I have got a bigger tank and one of my old platies has had fry. Thanks again

You're so welcome Glad you posted too! I'm glad to share my experience if it helps others avoid going through it, and you've been through it before, would be horrible to have it happen again.

Hope you stick around and share photos of your tank and shrimp, we love photos! Always good to see other hobbyists tanks.

 

[Anna24]

You're so welcome Glad you posted too! I'm glad to share my experience if it helps others avoid going through it, and you've been through it before, would be horrible to have it happen again.

Hope you stick around and share photos of your tank and shrimp, we love photos! Always good to see other hobbyists tanks.

As requested i have attached some photos of my new 105l tank which i set up about a month ago using water, substrate and filter from my old tank. I'm leaving the algae to grow on the back for the zebra snail and platies. The wood/drift wood (which the shrimps love hanging upside down under) and plastic plant are new. I bought the plastic plant for the new platy fry (which i don't think made it) as i didn't risk putting the plants from fish shop in as they couldn't gaurantee they were suitable for my shrimps and snail. There are 4 amano shrimp, zebra snail, 2 platies and 2 danios. I have had them all for over 3 years now. The 2 platies are from fry (which I'm sure were both female and one of them has changed sex). I will get some more danio when the water etc has all settled down.
I also have a 25l tank with an old male platy and 4 amano shrimp in which I am using as a hospital tank. Thanks