# Cause of sudden shrimp death?



## m.c.gregg (Jan 3, 2006)

I was heartbroken this morning when I got up and found 8 dead Amano shrimp in my tank. A thick scum had formed on the surface of the water, and all the fish were at the top gasping. Are shrimp particularly sensitive to oxygen levels in the water? All of the fish survived, even the relatively new cardinals. I plugged in the airstone and used my fishnet to break up and skim off some of the scum, and everyone seems to have recovered nicely. The one lone live shrimp seems to be acting fine. ????

Mendi


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## Yeaulman (Jun 23, 2005)

Do you inject CO2?

What are your water parameters and also tank specs (size, lighting, filtration, etc...)


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## Urkevitz (Oct 26, 2004)

This has happend to me a few times. Twice from DIY Co2 mix backing up into the tank, and most recently fumes from Bin primer.


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## duchessren (Sep 16, 2006)

My first thought'd be co2. And yes, shrimp are sensitive to a lot, though Amanos are on the hardy side. I am surprised Amanos died and cardinals didn't to be honest. Sorry about the shrimps. Its sad.


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## m.c.gregg (Jan 3, 2006)

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I haven't checked the water parameters in about 2 weeks. Oops. I'll do that tomorrow, since it's really late right now. I normally inject CO2, but I turned it off before I got the shrimps and cardinals and haven't turned it back on yet. Now they've been in about 2weeks and I was getting ready to turn it back on, slowly. 

It is a 46G with a single 36" Coralife 96W, 6700K compact fluorescent bulb. The light is on a timer for 10 hrs./day. The substrate is fluorite with peat underneath. Pretty well-planted. Eheim 2213 canister filter. I did just change the top white filter floss a few days ago and rinsed the lower blue filter floss with RO water. It was pretty clogged. Perhaps that messed up the biological balance.


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## m.c.gregg (Jan 3, 2006)

Houston, we may have found our problem. Here are my water specs, assuming my tests are OK:
temp 80F
NO3 0 ppm
PO4 1 ppm? Liquid in the tube is a nondescript olive color not found on the chart  
ammonia 0 ppm
GH 12 (I live in Houston)
KH 2  
pH 7.2
calcium 50 ppm

Guess I need to do a water change post haste? Normally I replace water with 80% RO/20% tapwater to try to bring that GH down a bit, but guess I need to bump up the tap ratio to boost the KH? My tapwater KH is more like 7. Thanks for your help!

Mendi


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