dead cleaner shrimp after only hours in my new tank

[Edmonton Eskimo]

Well hello! This is my very first post on this site. I just got my first fish today. I picked up two ocellaris clowns and a cleaner shrimp. Good news on the clowns but my shrimp is dead after being in the tank for only 3 hours. This is my first saltwater tank so I made sure to ask the guy at my lfs all kinds of questions. I'm not completely lost as I have done a lot of reading and so forth before buying anything. All my water parameters are exactly where they should be so what the heck? I paid forty bucks for that shrimp In hindsite I did notice a couple of the shrimp in the tank at the lfs appeared to be dead but I wasn't sure. Maybe it was doomed before I even got it. Any comments or experience would be greatly appreciated!

 

[darb2]

Welcome
Could you post all water parameters and tank set up
many lfs have a return policy. If you bring in the deceased and a water sample for them to test. Inverts should be drip acclimated. put the envert in a container and run a 1/4 in air tubing from main tank and tie a knot in the line to reduce flow to 1 or 2 drips per second. I usually drip for 3-6 hours depending on species and how hardy they are.

 

[Atari]

It's almost certainly an acclimation issue.

 

[CBRGuy]

It's almost certainly an acclimation issue.

I agree shrimp need to be acclimated very very slow. I have seen them die with in seconds after hitting the water when they weren't acclimated long enough.

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

so what do I have to do. I put the bag in the tank for about an hour and then I opened the bag and put a little water in there waited a while and put some more water in and so forth. Is this going to work? Now you guys have me nervous.

 

[jamal-188]

I always drip acclimate everything to my tanks. I put a little heater in a bucket below the tank and use a piece of airline hose with a knot it in to slowly drip water. I increase the drip rate every 10-15 minutes or so and vary the acclimatin time depending on what I"m adding to the tank.

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

well He's in the tank. I acclimated it very slowly(about 2.5 hours) slowly adding water a little at a time. I really hope everything is ok. wish me luck!?

 

[i have crabs]

i had a fire shrimp die after 3 days water was good put him in slowly he was even eating and running aroung like crazy and bang dead (must have been his heart) so i got a peppermint shrimp 2 weeks later and the little bastard is gonna live forever should have just bought anothe fire shrimp instead of cheeping out oh well

 

[seaham358]

As others have said proper acclimation is #1 when adding things to the tank. I check the salinity(SG) of the LFS water then check mine...... I put the fish & water from the LFS in a bowl and then drip, checking after the first hour. If the water in the bowl is not the same as my tank I check every 30 min after that. A slow drip is a good thing. One LFS in my area has his SG at 1.015 my reef is a 1.025 so I have to drip his stuff for at least 3 hours...... I have found that if things die within 3 days it was due to poor acclimation..... JMO
Good luck

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

Thanks guys. I did find out that my salinity was too low for inverts. Mine was at 1.022 and I guess it should have been 1.025. I was really dissapointed with the guy at my lfs. When the first shrimp died I asked him if there was anything I should do differently he just said take longer acclimatizing. By the way the other one died too. After the second death I went to another lfs and right away he told me it was probably a salinity problem and that I should have dripped them. The fish guys need to be more honest with people. If he would have told me that I wouldn't have one let alone 2 shrimp deaths!