Shrimp Deaths Help

[Pepsidave85]

Hello All,
 
I added some shrimp to my 100L tank yesterday, and this morning noticed 4 dead, and one looks to be on its way out.
 
First thing I checked were my water conditions, which showed that all parameters fine.
 
But then I may have found what's responsible, however would like other peoples thoughts too.
 
I dose CO2 from a fire extinguisher and I use the extinguisher pin to anchor pieces of cucumber which I feed to my otos.
I think it's most likely to be the extinguisher pin that's caused their deaths so far.
 
I assume the pin must contain at least small amounts of copper. Incidentally 3 of the 4 deaths were close to where the extinguisher pin was.
 
I removed the pin this morning, and added some de-chlorinator to aid the removal/detoxification of any metal elements which may have leached into the water.
 
So now that I have removed the extinguisher pin (and cucumber), and added dechlorinator, how likely is it that the remaining shrimp will die/survive?
 
Thanks in Advance

 

[the_lock_man]

Hi Dave,
 
Sorry to hear of your problems with the shrimp.
 
Assuming that your water parameters are 0ppm ammonia and 0ppm nitrite, with nitrate less than around 40ppm (that's the only definition of fine, as far as I'm concerned), then it's either the extinguisher pin, or it's the way you added the shrimp to the tank.
 
If it was the pin, then most decent dechlors do also make heavy metal pollutants safe, so again, I would say that was a sensible course of action to take, and if it was the pin, that should mean the rest of the shrimp will be OK. A water change would certainly not hurt.
 
If it was your acclimitisation procedure when you added the shrimp, then you may or may not have additional problems. Can you describe how you did it?

 

[Pepsidave85]

I kept the shrimp in the bag they came in, not a breather bag.
 
I floated the bag in the water for about 20 minutes to allow the temps to equalise. The lights and CO2 had been turned off in the tank for about an hour previous to this also.
 
I then added small amounts of tank water to the bag every 10 minutes or so for approx 2 hours. I did a PH check of the water in both the bag and the tank to ensure that PH levels were reasonably similar before adding the shrimp.
 
When I added the shrimp there was no unusual behaviour from them, and seemed to settle in quickly and were as active as I would have expected. There was no darting around the tank or anything like that.
 
Normally I'd have liked to net each shrimp out of the bag, but due to how many there was and how fiddly this was I added them to the tank with the water they came in.
 
I will be doing a large water change when I get back in from work just to be on the safe side anyway!
 
For clarity Ammonia and Nitrites were 0ppm.

 

[the_lock_man]

Can't fault your acclimitisation at all, I would personally have still netted the shrimp, not necessarily one at a time, but that didn't have any bearing on the deaths, as far as I can see.
 
Does seem like it's the extinguisher pin that's the culprit, so yeah, a water change when you get home should see the rest of the shrimp safe. You can get aquarium-safe weights for cucumber from your LFS.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Just as an FYI. This past weekend I was a vendor at a fish event. Part of what I sold were amano shrimp. I received about 100 small shrimp from an invetr expert and seller. Unpon arrival they were poured directly into the tank. They have traveled in the bag about 6 hours to get to the tank, Because the supplier and I are good friends, I know her water is pretty solid. Over the weekend I sold some and lost a few. The rest were intended for me anyway. The water in my vending tanks was all brought by me from home so the fish were in 100% my tap, no dechlor needed as we have out own well.
 
One Sunday I bagged them up in a mix of tank and more of my brought water. They were in the bags for about 4 hours before I got them into my tanks. I poured the water and shrimp into a bucket because i needed to distribute them into 3 different tanks. I lost no shrimp on the way home and di no acclimation of the shrimp at all before putting them into the tanks. I basically lost none.
 
Most fw fish acclimation is basically unnecessary and of very little help. True acclimation to different parameters where it is actually required cannot be accomplished in a matter of hours or even days. It requires weeks.

 

[Baccus]

Have you ever used any copper based medications in the tank or perhaps used something like snail rid in the tank? Even plants from shops are often treated with copper based chemicals. These chemicals will kill all inverts, be it pest snails, wanted snails or shrimp.

 

[Pepsidave85]

Baccus, thanks for the response. I haven't used any medications, and certainly try not to dose anything that contains copper, as I am aware of the toxicity of copper.
 
The tank is well established, apart from the removal of rocks, and the addition of wood, and a complete change of the plants that were in my tank. This was however about 8 weeks ago.
 
When I got home last night,  I found a few more casualties, but this was only to be expected after seeing a few in the morning that were not looking well. Since then, and a big water change, there have been no more casualties that I'm aware of, and the survivors seem to be doing better. The few survivors that were not already hidden away have at least moved from the places they were when I left them last night, and they all appeared to be in hiding this morning.
 
For me the significant factor was that there were no more visible deaths.
 
Fingers crossed that they get stronger and I can carry on as normal.....
 
Lesson learnt though, no more using of the extinguisher pin to weigh down cucumber