Every cherry shrimp is dead
All 50 or so in my 20 long died at some point in the last couple of hours.
They were in a large pile in the center of the tank when I got home, was gone for ~5 hours, and they were all fine and active before. Some of them are still twitching right now, but most look like they're already gone.
Parameters are perfect, too. pH is 7.4, no ammonia or nitrite, nitrate is 40ppm (time for a water change). The seven otos and two farlowellas in the tank are all swimming around like nothing happened.
All water used is RO, original fill, topups, and changes. Just changed 5g immediately after taking a sample for testing, it's all I had left of it, though I doubt it will do any good now. :/
Only thing that changed recently was adding a piece of driftwood last night and attaching some peacock moss to it with superglue (cyanoacrylate, totally aquarium safe). Last water change was last weekend, 6g I think.
Ugh, I feel so bad for them. I'm helpless for the ones that are still alive, other than doing water changes.
I didn't get a picture of the pile of them (too frantically grabbing a sample and changing as much water as I could), but here is the current situation as of 12AM.
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The driftwood in question.
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The otos are all fine. :/
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I'm so disappointed. This has been my favorite tank so far, the shrimp were so active and so fun to watch, and now they're all dead or slowly dying, and I can't do a damn thing about it. :icon_cry:
They were in a large pile in the center of the tank when I got home, was gone for ~5 hours, and they were all fine and active before. Some of them are still twitching right now, but most look like they're already gone.
Parameters are perfect, too. pH is 7.4, no ammonia or nitrite, nitrate is 40ppm (time for a water change). The seven otos and two farlowellas in the tank are all swimming around like nothing happened.
All water used is RO, original fill, topups, and changes. Just changed 5g immediately after taking a sample for testing, it's all I had left of it, though I doubt it will do any good now. :/
Only thing that changed recently was adding a piece of driftwood last night and attaching some peacock moss to it with superglue (cyanoacrylate, totally aquarium safe). Last water change was last weekend, 6g I think.
Ugh, I feel so bad for them. I'm helpless for the ones that are still alive, other than doing water changes.
I didn't get a picture of the pile of them (too frantically grabbing a sample and changing as much water as I could), but here is the current situation as of 12AM.
The driftwood in question.
The otos are all fine. :/
I'm so disappointed. This has been my favorite tank so far, the shrimp were so active and so fun to watch, and now they're all dead or slowly dying, and I can't do a damn thing about it. :icon_cry:
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The driftwood is 6 months old or so from an established & healthy tank, so no issues there. The house temp has stayed the same.AWWsuper sad night
Anything change recently? Anyone change anything in the house? Spray something? Anything new in the tank? Did you clean/boil the driftwood? Where was it from? Anything?
My wife sprayed a spider in the room earlier today (I still didn't want her to do it), but all three tanks in the room were covered previous to it (one of which is a reef that is closer to the spray spot, and it is showing 0 signs of anything), the ceiling fan turned off, only sprayed just in the one tiny spot, etc. This is why I highly doubt it is related.
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that's crazy... I've never seen a die-off that quick that wasn't from a malfunctioning heater. I've been noticing a steady decline in my office tank, but I've attributed it to a lack of calcium in the water, and so they're dying during molting, peril of using 100% RO water, but to happen that quick.. maybe a bacterial infection?? You got me man... I feel for you. If you can check the hardness, post what those values were as well..
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Crap, just dumped my sample, but the water isn't hard after sitting in the tank. There are a few pieces of shale in the water (essentially a form of limestone) to bring the hardness of the water up and add calcium for the little shrimpies, but last I measured it wasn't considered "hard".
There is no heater in the tank, none of my tanks have one.
I'm just shocked as to how quickly it happened. I was specifically showing my cousin how awesome they were, how they are always eating at something, swimming around, etc, and they looked perfect, couldn't have asked for better shrimp.
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From what I've read, you basically have to try to kill cherries. The nitrate reading is usually 20ppm or less, this is the first tank I've really kept up with the water changes (it's also my smallest tank so far), but 40ppm wouldn't kill anything in a few hours. It would take much, much higher levels for it to be toxic.
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This is true, but the tank was completely covered before, and not uncovered for a long time after. The other tanks in the room are much closer to the spray point and no ill effects were seen in them (again, one of them being a reef, corals looked better than ever when I got home).
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+1 insecticide. Why would you need to spray? A magazine would do.
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Because my wife just doesn't think sometimes. :/ She thought about covering the tanks before spraying, but just smacking the thing "may not have worked". And now I have dead shrimp. Whether it's related or not, I'm still really upset.
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I agreed, has to be the toxic mist/fumes left in the room after the slight spraying even if the tanks were covered.
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No air pump, either. :/
It's the only thing that's making sense now, but still sucks hardcore.
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For such an instant amount of die off, it only leaves the spraying as the culprit.
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That is such an awful site. Sorry about your shrimpies. Hopefully it was the bug spray. Atleast then it's something that's easily remedied. I agree it's very easy for the fine mist to float around long after you think it's gone and a covered tank is not an airtight tank.
Sorry about your shrimpies. Hopefully it was the bug spray. Atleast then it's something that's easily remedied. I agree it's very easy for the fine mist to float around long after you think it's gone and a covered tank is not an airtight tank.
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Just want to add shale is not a form of limestone. Also, you probably have slate, not shale. Slate is metamorphosed shale and is much harder, generally used for aquarium decorations among other decorative purposes. Many shales will literally turn to mud after extended periods in water.Crap, just dumped my sample, but the water isn't hard after sitting in the tank. There are a few pieces of shale in the water (essentially a form of limestone) to bring the hardness of the water up and add calcium for the little shrimpies, but last I measured it wasn't considered "hard".
There is no heater in the tank, none of my tanks have one.
I'm just shocked as to how quickly it happened. I was specifically showing my cousin how awesome they were, how they are always eating at something, swimming around, etc, and they looked perfect, couldn't have asked for better shrimp.
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omg....I would have a fall out on the floor tantrum mental meltdown psychotic break if that happened to me. Yes...THAT dramatic. Bet I'd get some new shrimp out of it. lol
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