Shrimp dying after water changes

[Irksome]

Hello. There are a few changes I have made that to my setup that a likely to cause problems but I’m trying to narrow them down. I recently rescaped my tank and treated the Cyanobacteria with hydrogen peroxide after temporarily removing all shrimp, fish and filter sponges. Since then I have changed my water conditioner to api stress coat from seacheam prime. I have added api fast filter bacteria booster at each water change as I know that the cycle is disrupted. The deaths are all occurring on the hours following the water changes. I will stop adding the bacteria. Can stress coat kill shrimp? Is seacheam prime safer?

 

[Lajos_Detari]

From what I know, shrimps are very sensitive to big changes in the water.
You have to slowly make the changes or acclimatize to the same type of water and same temperature. And you must not make large water change.

Also, did you clean the filter?
Overcleaning the filter will cause the filter to lose too much beneficial bacteria and the ammonia, nitrite will rise.

Did you test the ammonia and nitrite level?

I don't think stress coat will kill the shrimps unless you overdosed it by too much.
Actually you don't need the stress coat. You only need the normal API water conditioner.
In fact too much stress coat or Aloe Vera is bad for your fish gills.

 

[Colin_T]

Are you dechlorinating the new water before adding it to the tank?
You want to mix the dechlorinator and tap water for at least 5 (preferably 30) minutes before the water is added to the tank.

 

[seangee]

1. What substrate did you use? If it is a "planted tank" substrate if may be leaching ammonia, and will do so more when it is disturbed by water changes.
2. Does the water look cloudy or dirty after you vacuum the substrate? If so this may be disturbing toxins in the substrate.
3. Has the tank previously gone a long time without significant water changes?

To clarify what @Lajos_Detari said. He meant that shrimps are sensitive to large changes in the water parameters. Large water changes are fine as long as the new water has a similar pH, temp and hardness to the old water. If the water has not been regularly changed it could be different to the water in your tap and adding a lot of clean fresh water shocks them. Its not the clean water - its the change in parameters. The best way to avoid this is to do regular large changes to ensure the water in the tank is always similar to the water in your tap. If you are in this situation you should do a daily 10-20% change for 2 weeks to gradually get the water closer to what is in your tap. Thereafter you can continue with weekly 50-75% changes.

Use standard API conditioner or prime, stress coat does not provide any benefits and fish / shrimps do not swim in aloe vera in the wild.

 

[Irksome]

Thankyou for the advice everyone. I will start leaving the dechlorinator to work for a bit longer and stick with the basic type.

 

[Retired Viking]

I mix my water with dechlorinator in one gallon water bottles. I fill 1/2 with cold the add the dechlorinator and top with hot and let it sit a good 20 minutes then add to my shrimp tank. That way I control how much goes in at a time. It is slower than pouring in a bucket or two but I can keep an eye on the temp and give the shrimp time to adjust. I do a 40% water change on my shrimp tank every week.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Thankyou for the advice everyone. I will start leaving the dechlorinator to work for a bit longer and stick with the basic type.

There are people who will keep a big barrel of water for their fish/shrimps tank.
They may even mix the dechhlorinator with the tap water one night or a few days before they change their tank water.

By doing this, the water will be more stable and probably more similar(in terms of temperature, etc) to their tank water.

 

[Retired Viking]

There are people who will keep a big barrel of water for their fish/shrimps tank.
They may even mix the dechhlorinator with the tap water one night or a few days before they change their tank water.

By doing this, the water will be more stable and probably more similar(in terms of temperature, etc) to their tank water.

I was keeping a big plastic 40 gallon bin like that until my labs decided it would be fun to go swimming in it.