Shrimp Deaths

[pablothebetta]

They always seemed fairly happy, but within days of each other 2 of my 3 cherry shrimp are dead. My betta never bothered with them, often swimming right past them without showing any agressive behaviour, so I don't think its him.

I recently added a load of plants, 2 red-nosed (rudolph) shrimp and 2 assassin snails. I have had the cherry shrimp since October.
pH: 7.4 - 7.6
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: aprox. 10 ppm (my tapwater has a nitrate reading so it is hard to get 0)

Any idea why my shrimp have died? Is my remaining cherry shrimp in danger too?

Many Thanks

 

[StandbySetting]

My guess is the plants were treated with copper or a similar insecticide which is toxic to invertebrates.

 

[pablothebetta]

My guess is the plants were treated with copper or a similar insecticide which is toxic to invertebrates.

Definitely possible, though I think my red nosed shrimp are fine. They hide more than the cherries though, so I'll have a look to make sure they're both alright.

If copper (etc) is the problem, how could I get rid of it?

 

[StandbySetting]

Adding Carbon would get rid of it, putting the shrimp in a copper free solution in the mean time would be a good idea too, it can take quite a while to completely rid the tank of readable copper.

 

[Fishy friend2]

Could it be this

It has come to our attention that some plants, that are imported in from Asia are/have been subject to pesticides when grown or stored. The pesticide used is thought to be something along the lines of Permethrin. These pesticides have uninvitedly attributed to a few cases of invert (shrimp) deaths, fish seem to fine with this pesticide. We are highlighting this in the planted section as shrimp tanks are becoming more and more popular. The price of shrimp isn't also exactly cheap. Some shrimp keepers have lost hundreds of pounds worth of shrimp and even more selling on profit.

As we are not allowed to name names of sellers who import from Asia, we ask you to be especially careful when buying plants that come straight from the seller via Asia without any quarantine time.

If you do buy plants this way then we should stress that you give your plants a quarantine time, of at least 2-3 days, changing the water regularly and also running carbon in you filter when adding the plants. This will hopefully get rid of any residual pesticide, but isn't guaranteed.


NB, plants from Europe don't use pesticides (Tropica, Aquafluer etc etc), these don't need to be quarantined, but do require a wash before planting.

 

[pablothebetta]

I might have some carbon, actually. I haven't used it for months, so would the carbon still work? Also, the filter in the tank only has 1 'section', in which is a filter sponge. Can I just put the carbon in the bottom? I'm not able to set up another tank at the moment, would the shrimp be OK if I just added the carbon into the filter?

Would it be a good idea to purchase a copper test kit?

Could it be this

It has come to our attention that some plants, that are imported in from Asia are/have been subject to pesticides when grown or stored. The pesticide used is thought to be something along the lines of Permethrin. These pesticides have uninvitedly attributed to a few cases of invert (shrimp) deaths, fish seem to fine with this pesticide. We are highlighting this in the planted section as shrimp tanks are becoming more and more popular. The price of shrimp isn't also exactly cheap. Some shrimp keepers have lost hundreds of pounds worth of shrimp and even more selling on profit.

As we are not allowed to name names of sellers who import from Asia, we ask you to be especially careful when buying plants that come straight from the seller via Asia without any quarantine time.

If you do buy plants this way then we should stress that you give your plants a quarantine time, of at least 2-3 days, changing the water regularly and also running carbon in you filter when adding the plants. This will hopefully get rid of any residual pesticide, but isn't guaranteed.


NB, plants from Europe don't use pesticides (Tropica, Aquafluer etc etc), these don't need to be quarantined, but do require a wash before planting.

FF2, the plants were purchased from Maidenhead Aquatics, is it possible they would have imported such plants, being a large company?

 

[StandbySetting]

Were they aquafluer plants?

 

[Fishy friend2]

Honestly that's the kind of question that you would ask ianho, I was just browsing the planted section and cam upon that.

 

[pablothebetta]

Were they aquafluer plants?

Not sure, they were bought from maidenhead aquatics. Would it be something I'd have to ask them?

 

[StandbySetting]

Aquafluer plants are imported from Europe so shouldn't cause problems, they're potted and have labels, if they were bunched however then you may have a problem as some bunched plants come from Asia. I doubt MA would have added chemicals to kill snails though.

 

[pablothebetta]

Aquafluer plants are imported from Europe so shouldn't cause problems, they're potted and have labels, if they were bunched however then you may have a problem as some bunched plants come from Asia. I doubt MA would have added chemicals to kill snails though.

They were bunched. I bought some potted hygro from them once which came with snails (hence the recent addition of assassin snails), so I don't think that had been treated.

Honestly that's the kind of question that you would ask ianho, I was just browsing the planted section and cam upon that.

Still very helpful info, I'll know what to watch out for now

 

[pablothebetta]

Update: no more shrimp deaths in the past few days, though I daresay I haven't had chance to add any carbon in. Would it still be worth it?

A little unrelated, but I seem to have a complete snail infestation atm. I must have at least 100 snails in the tiny tank. Wherever I look, I see snails! My assassins (I have 2) don't seem to be doing much at all for it. Any ideas? The plants I recently bought also all seem to be dying (echinodorus and vallis), is it normal for them to melt? I dose daily with ferts (king british), though no CO2 is given.

 

[Crossfire]

They might have just been old. Cherries, at best, only live up to 1 year. 2 years if your lucky.

 

[pablothebetta]

They might have just been old. Cherries, at best, only live up to 1 year. 2 years if your lucky.

If their lifespan is around a year, that would mean they would have been in my tank for aprox 3-4 months. Would it be possible for them to have already been 8-9 months old when I bought them? Thanks for the input