Shrimp Poisoned?

[Louiseness]

Hi all,

Wondered if anyone has any idea what happened to my shrimp!

Re-scaped my main tank last night, adding new plants, some xmas moss and mopani wood (soaked for two weeks). Soon after I did this, the two bamboo shrimp started going crazy doing laps round the tank and eventually ending up hanging on the filter with their heads poking out of the water.

Also, I noticed one or two cherries that I didn't even know I had in there, which soon started throwing themselves around on the substrate and lying upside down. No idea where they are this morning, but I wouldn't hold out my hopes for them being alive.

I originally thought copper poisoning from the plants, but I added some from the same delivery (from Last Trading Post) to my betta tank which has tons of cherries in, and they're all still happily doing backflips this morning. I moved the bamboos to the betta/cherry tank earlier and they seem to have calmed down too.

As of this morning all the fish in the main tank seem fine too, although a danio was flashing and scratching, but he seems to have stopped after I did a 50% ish water change as soon as I noticed them all being weird.

So I figure it had to come from something else, and I'm thinking the mopani wood. Any ideas what happened here and anything I can do to fix it?

 

[BigTom]

Sounds like classic copper (or something) poisoning to me. I've had it happen twice, both times after adding plants from the far east, and the symptoms match exactly. I guess it might only have been on some of the plants, hence it not happening in your second tank, in which case count yourself lucky. I suspect it will be quite a while before that tank is shrimp safe again.

 

[Juggler75]

You could get a Cu test (maybe find it in marine section I think) and see what the results are, do a wc and wait a week then test again to see if levels are safe. I've tried to be ultra safe when planting in shrimp tank as I heard the only way to rid tank of copper when you get it is by binning everything doing a deep clean and starting over .

I'd be tempted to spend some cash on a test before doing anything too drastic though, then next time you get some plants you could leave them in a bucket over night and test the water in the morning to see what copper levels were.

There must be a 'safe' reading as inverts blood is copper based I read, so they must need copper as we need iron.

 

[Louiseness]

You could get a Cu test (maybe find it in marine section I think) and see what the results are, do a wc and wait a week then test again to see if levels are safe. I've tried to be ultra safe when planting in shrimp tank as I heard the only way to rid tank of copper when you get it is by binning everything doing a deep clean and starting over .

I'd be tempted to spend some cash on a test before doing anything too drastic though, then next time you get some plants you could leave them in a bucket over night and test the water in the morning to see what copper levels were.

There must be a 'safe' reading as inverts blood is copper based I read, so they must need copper as we need iron.

I'm just glad I have another (apparently at least) safe tank where they can chill for a while. I'm hesitant to take everything apart anyway because I don't know exactly what's causing it - I read of something similar happening on another forum and they thought the mopani wood might be leaching copper or some other metals.

The shrimp won't be going back into the big tank for a good while anyway, and not before a few big water changes! I'll probably end up just popping them back in and watching them closely to see if they freak out again, I guess due to being huge they can deal with it a bit better than the cherries who just seemed to keel over

 

[BigTom]

Not sure a copper test will be much use, pretty sure that lethal levels tend to be lower than the tests can detect.

When it happened in my tank I covered my bases and ran cuprisorb, purigen and a poly filter for about six weeks, alongside regular 95% water changes. Tank was eventually shrimp safe again after that, wouldn't like to say how much was due to plant uptake vs media though.

It's going to be pretty hard for you to isolate where it's coming from to be honest, as the bogwood could now contain copper, even if it didn't before. It can even get into the silicon and leach out slowly over time.

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm sure I've read somewhere that a lot of imported plants are treated with some kind of insecticide that kills shrimps

 

[Juggler75]

Thats what I read too which is why I put them in a bucket for a few days and changed water reg to try and rinse anything that was on them off. Could use carbon etc in filter to try and soak up as much as it can

Not sure a copper test will be much use, pretty sure that lethal levels tend to be lower than the tests can detect.

Why have it then? Can sw inverts handle higher doses than fresh water?

 

[Caprichoso]

Do you have gravel substrate by any chance? If yes, did you disturb it quite a bit when doing your re-scape?

 

[Louiseness]

Do you have gravel substrate by any chance? If yes, did you disturb it quite a bit when doing your re-scape?

No, sand, and all I did was level it out a bit with the long handled spoon that is tank-only

 

[Caprichoso]

Do you have gravel substrate by any chance? If yes, did you disturb it quite a bit when doing your re-scape?

No, sand, and all I did was level it out a bit with the long handled spoon that is tank-only

Hmm, well the only thing I would suggest is contact the plant supplier and ask if they use snail killer on the plants. I'm going to assume that you already tested the water for ammonia/nitrite and thus have ruled that out?

 

[Louiseness]

Hmm, well the only thing I would suggest is contact the plant supplier and ask if they use snail killer on the plants. I'm going to assume that you already tested the water for ammonia/nitrite and thus have ruled that out?

Yeah, I probably will do that, need to leave them feedback on ebay anyway. Water tests fine, all fish acting normal, and I did a 50% or so water change anyway so if it was ammonia/nitrite then that should have reduced their symptoms but didn't. Poor shrimps

 

[Juggler75]

Could it have been an aerosal poisoning case?

I managed to find a chart claiming to give safe(?) levels of Cu for CRS and cherrys. First time I managed to get anything like this so not sure what range the Cu tests give so how useful it is I don't know.

 

[Louiseness]

Could it have been an aerosal poisoning case?

I managed to find a chart claiming to give safe(?) levels of Cu for CRS and cherrys. First time I managed to get anything like this so not sure what range the Cu tests give so how useful it is I don't know.

As in aerosols sprayed near the tank? Not as far as I know, I literally came home from work and did the rescape straight away.

 

[GrayScale]

Do you dose any sort of ferts for the plants?

 

[Louiseness]

Do you dose any sort of ferts for the plants?

Nope