Shrimp died over night

[Pennyangus]

Hi all.

I'm so sad today. I'm fairly new to having a bigger tank and woke up and found all 3 of my shrimp dead which we've had for 1.5 years so to find all 3 dead I was so confused.

On doing research I used some plant fertiliser yesterday which contains copper which I didn't know couldn't be used with shrimp I feel so sad and guilty for putting that in without checking. It said nothing online about not being able to use that fertiliser with shrimps.

I'm trying to get my plants to grow but they seem to be fading and becoming see through I thought fertiliser should help but its obvious toxic what can I be doing.

 

[Essjay]

Shrimps actually need some copper - their blood contains copper rather than iron like ours. It's too much copper that harms them. I use copper containing fertiliser and my shrimps, red cherries and amanos, are fine. But the fertiliser does not contain a lot of copper. Which fertiliser have you used?

Did you do anything to the tank the day before they died? Water change, new decor, new plants?
If you did add new plants, do you know where they came from - the grower that is? Plants grown in the far east are treated with snail killer and/or insecticide which kill shrimps as well.

 

[Pennyangus]

It's aqua care fertiliser. And I added 2 new plants same day but they came from local pond shop delivered though do you think that might have been why

 

[Pennyangus]

The fertiliser says use once a week. Does that mean if I haven't done a water change within the week the level of copper would be too high when I've used the 2nd dose ?

 

[Essjay]

It could well have been why. If they were from a pond shop they could well have been grown in the far east as the shrimps we keep in tanks indoors wouldn't survive in ponds in the UK. The fact that the shrimps were dead very quickly after putting the plants in strongly suggests something on the plants killed the shrimps. If it was the fertiliser, the shrimps would have died as soon as you started using it.

Because I have shrimps and nerite snails I only buy plants from sellers who guarantee their plants are shrimp safe. Any plant grown in the EU is shrimp safe, that means plants grown by Tropica, Aquafleur, Aquadip, Dennerle and a couple of others. There are a few on-line shops which sell EU grown plants. Another option is to buy in vitro (tissue culture) plants as they are grown in sterile conditions so no chance of snails so they don't need snail killer.




That fertiliser is designed for aquariums so won't have enough copper to harm shrimps. I do my weekly water change, then add the fertiliser. The only time you can't do this is if you use Seachem prime dechlorinator as the chemicals in there bind the metals in the fertiliser so the plants can't use them.
The main thing with plant fertiliser is don't exceed the stated dose. Depending what plants you have, you may not need the amount they say on the bottle - I use about half the recommended dose.