stress could have done them in
shrimp disaster!
last monday during a routine wc i saw that they werent acting as usuall, just kinda sitting around lathargacally swimming up and just falling down to there backs then i saw a few then a few more then alot of dead pink shrimp on the substrate on my newly re-substrated tank! i changed about 50% on the water in the tank and replaced it with fresh, and also added about 3 capfuls of prime to the tank directly to hopefully help with the higher nitrite.
after the wc i checked the water, ammonia was 0 ph was about 6.8 and nitrite was between .5-1ppm!!!
everyday following the calamity i have changed 30%-50% of the water trying to keep the trites down, this morning some of the shrimp were doing thier normal scavinging and swimming around but i found 2-3 dead ones, still!
i know that shanging out an established substrate can cause problems but i re-used all the filter media, andabout half of the water, plus there was a decent amount of mulm under the new substrate (amazonia aquasoil II).
any ideas or coments would be greatly appreaciated.
thanks!
after the wc i checked the water, ammonia was 0 ph was about 6.8 and nitrite was between .5-1ppm!!!
everyday following the calamity i have changed 30%-50% of the water trying to keep the trites down, this morning some of the shrimp were doing thier normal scavinging and swimming around but i found 2-3 dead ones, still!
i know that shanging out an established substrate can cause problems but i re-used all the filter media, andabout half of the water, plus there was a decent amount of mulm under the new substrate (amazonia aquasoil II).
any ideas or coments would be greatly appreaciated.
thanks!
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how can i tell if there stressed? do you mean the ones that died first, or the ones today?stress could have done them in
the wierd thing is, is that all of tyhe shrimp are really nice and red the look perfect! so im not quite sure that the old saying "a red rcs is a happy rcs" is true.
shrimp are funny. It took me atleast 4 attempts in different tanks to get a breeding colony up and going. I would have the same thing as you. Just one day they all die off. I say just brush it off it you cant get to the bottum of it and start again. Good luck
It may have been due to changing the substrate. With undisturbed substrate, such as a planted tank, there tends to be allot of anaerobic pockets, which contains Hydrogen sulfide. Changing the subtrate could have released a large amounts of Hydrogen sulfide.
Also, depending of the size of your tank, 3 capfuls of Prime maybe too much as well. I remember reading somewhere that an overdose of Prime is also bad in an aquarium.
Just keep up with the water changes and hope for the best.
Also, depending of the size of your tank, 3 capfuls of Prime maybe too much as well. I remember reading somewhere that an overdose of Prime is also bad in an aquarium.
Just keep up with the water changes and hope for the best.
That high of Nirtires are bad for shrimp as well! Not to mention that it is never recommended to use AquaSoil until it has cycled completely. AquaSoil leaches ammonia for the first few days/weeks.
I am sure your shrimp were killed by the Ammonia/Nitrite spikes.
I am sure your shrimp were killed by the Ammonia/Nitrite spikes.
i agree the nitrite was .5-1 ppm. im sure thats what killed them initially im just wondering if it is still the problem as some shrimp are acting as everything is good and a few keeled over since last night....maybe thier tiny little hearts just couldnt take the sight of thier friends passing away.
fyi i changed the sub about 2 weeks ago. if that helps any?
fyi i changed the sub about 2 weeks ago. if that helps any?
Aquasoil will release Ammonia for about 2 weeks to a month. So it is not a surprise that there are still some dying off.
What I do with my aquasoil is put it in a small tank (10 gallon) for about a month with some fast growing plants and some light. After about a month it is ready to use. I take out what I need, rinse it, and use it.
Even then, there may still be a small spike, but it is small and all my tanks have fast growers to help keep all the ammonia and trites down.
What I do with my aquasoil is put it in a small tank (10 gallon) for about a month with some fast growing plants and some light. After about a month it is ready to use. I take out what I need, rinse it, and use it.
Even then, there may still be a small spike, but it is small and all my tanks have fast growers to help keep all the ammonia and trites down.
no s***! all of the research i did prior to the sub change and this never came up! i wonder why ada/adg mentions nothing of this? there should be a sticky or something in the sub section about this if in fact it is true.
my ammonia reading was 0 though, maybe it was already converted to nitrite?
my ammonia reading was 0 though, maybe it was already converted to nitrite?
well you said you used old filter media. The media may have been able to keep up with the ammonia, but it made to much nitrite. Both are very toxic to shrimp.
i used the old media in hopes it would knock out any extra pollutants that were caused by the switch. ill test again when i get home and see what pops up.
There's usually a large ammonia spike and it'll tank your kH and gH for a long long while. I started a thread when all my plants started to melt right after I switched to ADA AS without cycling. *sigh*no s***! all of the research i did prior to the sub change and this never came up! i wonder why ada/adg mentions nothing of this? there should be a sticky or something in the sub section about this if in fact it is true.
my ammonia reading was 0 though, maybe it was already converted to nitrite?
its possible your ammonia test isn't accurate.
If you read the instructions and searched AS there are warnings and everything everywhere....the instructions say to do water changes for a week or two everyday.
the instructions said it drops your ph, and tells you to do the water changes to get out suspended particulates, not because ammonia/nitrite leeches from the soil.
What ya expect from a super plant soil like aquasoil
not death by nitrite/ammonia poisoning. i really did quite alot of reaserch about this before i decided to do the substrate swap and nothing ever came up about the ammonia nitrite deal. i understood that if you take out alot of the pre-existing substrate then your removing alot of the bacteria this is why i took great care in re-using as much water, mulm, and filter pad as possible. was not expecting ammonia or nitrite to leech fropm the actual substrate.What ya expect from a super plant soil like aquasoil
ill say this though my anubis have never looked better :hihi: !
I want to swap my flourite to aquasoil and the amoinia issue is the only thing holding me back. Don't get me wrong you can add scoups here and there to an already established tank without much risk. But, starting fresh I had a huge amonia spike. and using established media It took about 2 months before I was ready to add fish (poor brave guppies).
I had killed my anubias too, so I split it up into little pieces suddenly I have 2 pieces that excede the size of the origional piece I had. I'm getting like a new leaf or 2 every week nice!
I had killed my anubias too, so I split it up into little pieces suddenly I have 2 pieces that excede the size of the origional piece I had. I'm getting like a new leaf or 2 every week nice!
yeah i wish i knew about the ammonia before i did the swap, i probly would have done it but been alot more careful. its not too big of a deal but my shrimp were doing awesome untill this came up.
nitrites are "down" to .5 ppm and i think the deaths have stopped! still changing %50 of the water daily, for insurance.
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