Thai Red Carbs And Other Invertabrates Dying Really Quick

[brett166]

hi recently set up my 200ltr tank, i have had no problems with fish but just invertabrates. literally put the crabs / shrimps and next day there either dead on dying. really annoying as i want to keep them. i have spoke to my local shop and one thought my copper could be high, which got checked and seemed to be fine. another shop though it could be low calcium in my water and gave me some marine gravel to put in abit to build it up. tried another crab yesterday and was dead this morning. any help would be much appreciated thanks

 

[walkers101]

are the crabs able to get out of the tank?

 

[brett166]

are the crabs able to get out of the tank?

yes there is a piece of wood leading out of the tank leading onto a platform 12inches long, i watched it go up to near the top last night but it didnt go out just came back down

the crab went up the side of the wood which was under the platform, surely they have to sense to go round the log wouldnt they?

 

[mattlee]

not sure about the crabs but shrimp do better in a mature tank that doesnt fluctuate. as yours is a new set up this may be the issue.

 

[OldMan47]

If you are losing inverts that fast look at the chemicals that you have used in the tank lately. Do any of them contain any copper? Snail killer is almost always a copper solution that is labeled as safe for fish. They fail to mention that it will kill almost any invert though.

 

[brett166]

not used any treatments or anything like that in the tank, my fish shop thought it could be because we hlive in an old house which has copper piping. had something really strange happen saturday night though, a crab came out of hiding which we cant work out where it came from, must of come in one of the fish bags and they miscounted, anyway the last time i put fish in was well over a week ago so this one must of been in there for at least that amount of time, but sadly this morning when i got up it was dead.

 

[OldMan47]

If you live in a home with lots of copper tubing, try running the water for a few minutes before using the water for your fish. I have been doing that for years to avoid the lead used in the older solder joints and never thought to mention it for copper control. Thanks for waking up an old man. I live in one of those older houses.