It could be! I'm not sure since you're in the US... it's an EU regulation (that's still a regulation here unless and until it's repealed) that they have to be treated with pesticides before being shipped here or into Europe, to prevent the spread of invasive species. I don't know whether they have to do the same before sending plants to the US?Hm, I wonder if that's part of the reason I could never keep shrimp alive, except amanos, which are pretty much indestructible. I tend to get plants wherever I can find them, including ebay. I guess the good news is that the ones from China and Singapore are always dead before they arrive, so no harm done.
But these pesticides are nasty and insidious, they don't kill all the shrimp immediately, so you don't know something is wrong right away - they affect chitin production, so the shrimp have trouble moulting, which kills them. I'd bought plants from my LFS several times without problems, so bought four more on the 30th July. My shrimp had been thriving and breeding like mad before, but on the 4th August, I had my first of many deaths. Just one or two at a time, spaced out, until it was clear something was wrong, and I posted here and @essjay told me about the pesticides thing. I called my store and it turned out he'd switched suppliers; he used to get plants from Holland, but now they were coming in from Indonesia, which explains why they were fine before, but not now. Not enough people in the UK know about this, but with how popular shrimp have become, more people need to know. My LFS owner didn't even know before.
mine are in a clean tank with in-vitro plants now, but I'm still losing the odd one. Hoping that enough survive to keep the colony going. Sucks because in-vitro plants are expensive, and I like having a lot of plants and variety, but I'd rather keep my shrimp and build it gradually.
. Good luck with your project.
