Something in my tank is making Amano Shrimp die.

[Shadey]

My tank is a 6 gallon fluval edge. It has been set up for about one year. Heavilly planted, mostly crypts. 3 stage filter, sponge, ceramic cylinders, carbon. I use Prime conditioner and make 30% water changes every week.

The stocking is one betta fish, and the few amano shrimp that I have. I never used to have a problem with the amanos dying, I would see them at all times of the day, happily cleaning everything and anything.

A few months ago I changed out my black striped rocks for "rainbow rock" (http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o34/shadeykins/rainbow.jpg). The shrimps became lethargic, a few died. The one that remained spent the rest of his time hiding, barely moving.

I took the rocks out.

I have added new shrimp twice since then, after much time and a water changes had passed. The same thing has happened. After a couple hours of being in the tank, they hide and barely move, or disappear. This week I bought 4 amano shrimp and put two in my small desktop aquarium - those two are doing just fine. The two in the big tank are MIA.

Tank parameters:

Temp - 79 degrees
PH - 7.8
GH - 180
Nitrates - 0-20 (currently 0)
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0

I have added a bunch of new plants lately, and driftwood, and I am using dried indian almond leaves to make the water a little yellow, but the shrimps have been dying before, during, and since I made these changes. I dunno what to do.

 

[fort384]

What substrate are you using? Any chance anything you have added might have traces of Copper? Are you adding any plant fertilizers at all? If so, what? Are you heating the tank? If not, does the temperature fluctuate throughout the day at all? What does the temp read before the lights come on, the end of the lighting cycle, and maybe a few hours after the lighting cycle?

 

[Shadey]

I am using the fluval black sand (for plants) substrate. There is a tiny bit of regular black sand mixed in. I am using root tabs, and, very rarely, I will add some Flourish comprehensive.

If those rocks had traces of copper, wouldn't it have gone away after taking out the rocks and doing water changes?

Also, when I took the rocks out, the undersides of a few of them (that were buried in the substrate looked kind of brown and gross).

I am heating the tank with an elite heater, the temp stays pretty steady, I think, but I havent been specifically checking it in the morning before turning the lights on (the lights are all LED though so don't really produce heat).

 

[fort384]

hmmm ok. So it probably is not temperature. It doesn't sound like substrate is the issue.

Here is what I am thinking: I had an issue a little while back where I added some old flourish Fe mix, and shortly after, half my crystal red shrimp went to the big shrimp house in the sky. Flourish Comp has Fe in it... is the bottle older, has it been sitting around awhile (since you said rarely you use it)? Is it possible anything has precipitated out of it and thus increased the concentration of what was left in the bottle? For me, this was the only change I had made previous to the die off. I am not even sure that was the cause... but it was the only thing I could point to.

 

[Shadey]

The Flourish is indeed quite old. Probably more like 2 years. So it is possible that something like that has happened... But its been quite awhile since I last used it, and the new shrimps still die.

 

[fort384]

If something had precipitated out of it, even if it has been awhile, those elements (copper of Fe) could still be sitting in the bottom of the tank, even with water changes.

This is just an outside guess at best, btw. It just caught my attention since it is somewhat similar to what I suspect caused my only shrimp die-off I have ever experienced in keeping many different species of FW shrimp in several tanks over several years.

Someone might chime in with some better detective work.

 

[Shadey]

How did you end up dealing with yours?

The idea of replacing the substrate completely does not appeal, but I suppose it is a solution, if the theory is true, anyhow.

Thanks Fort.

 

[fort384]

I did several massive water changes while vacuuming substrate and plants over the course of about 3 days (like 60-70% a day).

 

[Shadey]

Today is the day I try to replicate your results. Sort of. I ended up buying some Flourite Black and am replacing half of my substrate. Don't ask!

Anyway... this means that I had to recapture all of the denizens of the tank. Surprise! There are four shrimp left. But here's the interesting part... none of them move around much when not hassled, but two are still moderately swift and two barely run away at all. The two more recently added ones, and the two that were in there from the beginning. There was one that barely moved, and hardly noticed being prodded into the net, and it was a reddish color. I had to prod him off of the net too, into the holding bucket.

So uh... I think whatever it is isn't killing them, but just giving them shrimpy brain damage?

Also... I bought some Flourish Excel, and am considering new Flourish Comp. and maybe Trace... I imagine this should be ok to use in the future, in proper doses?

 

[Shadey]

Oho!

A couple of the shrimps have now been observed not only cleaning things, but zooming and swimming around! Mission success!

 

[theusedmyr]

i read somewhere that if you do get copper into the substrate, its practically impossible to remove. other then just changing it out. maybe this is what happened?

 

[Shadey]

Could be... it seems to have fixed it. Although, now I am paranoid about dosing the plants at all.... !

Still though.. check out this happy little guy.

 

[fort384]

I wouldn't be too paranoid about it, though I understand your concerns!

I dose my shrimp tanks daily with CSM+B, K2SO4, KNO3, and KH2PO4. It was just the one time I dosed the nearly empty and expired bottle of Seachem Fe that I had an issue... and I tossed the rest of that bottle.