# Shrimp mass "spontanious" death!



## EQUINOX (Nov 19, 2008)

Hey,
I have a 64Gal High-Tech planted tank.
I've been lowering KH and GH with RO water for that past few months.
No bad signs so far.
This evening my eye caught a Japonica shrimp stale and upside down, still flopping.
My main suspicions are DIY Fertilizers (NPK and Iron which is made of both EDTA and gluconate) and a CO2 poisoning.

It seems the the fish all feel great and no signs of stress are witnessed what so ever. So that kindda rules out the second suspicion.
I've used my DIY's for a few months now, hadn't changed anything to extreme (I does 3PPM K, 5PPM N and 0.75P at max every few days. K though on a daily basis).
But the Iron though was made a few months (about two and a half) back and I might be over Sherlock here but maybe it has oxygenated and/or became poisonous at this moment due to disintegrating of whatever's in there.
I can't figure out why now... 

What maybe causing this mass death??
Thanks.

Video of dying shrimp coming on soon.


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## marrow (Mar 4, 2007)

I suspect you are assuming that co2 toxicity occurs at the same co2 levels for both shrimp and fish. In my experience, shrimp present symptoms well before most fish do. I realize this may vary due to type of fish etc. So don't rule out CO2 as the culprit yet.


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## Tuiflies (Jan 21, 2010)

EQUINOX said:


> I've been lowering KH and GH with RO water for that past few months.


How low is your KH now? Too low of a KH will allow the PH to swing.

You only mentioned one shrimp dying. I guess if it's your only one you could call it a "mass death".


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## EQUINOX (Nov 19, 2008)

Hey guys,
the KH is about 5 and I'm well aware of the PH swings issue (thought I'm not working with a controller.
Even though, it is strange since the KH and rituals of time and amount of CO2 injected are the same for more than 1.5 week for now.
So why now?

Video


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I keep Crystal Reds and I have them in RO water and some tap. I have CO2 in that tank. When my CO2 went crazy and all my fish were floating and looked dead, all the shrimp showed no signs of trouble. As I went to work immediately with an air stone and partial water change fish began to revive. I lost one otto and NO shrimp. If it was CO2 wouldn't you see them near the top of the water? Wouldn't you see them all affected at the same time? If it's just one shrimp he could have just eaten something bad, gotten sick, who knows...


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## EQUINOX (Nov 19, 2008)

Tex Gal said:


> I keep Crystal Reds and I have them in RO water and some tap. I have CO2 in that tank. When my CO2 went crazy and all my fish were floating and looked dead, all the shrimp showed no signs of trouble. As I went to work immediately with an air stone and partial water change fish began to revive. I lost one otto and NO shrimp. If it was CO2 wouldn't you see them near the top of the water? Wouldn't you see them all affected at the same time?
> *EXACTLY MY POINT!*
> 
> If it's just one shrimp he could have just eaten something bad, gotten sick, who knows...
> *NO.. THESE WERE A FEW SHRIMP LOOKING SILENT AND SHOCKED. NONE OF THEM WAS EATEN AND I DON'T HAVE FISH THAT BIG FOR EATING JAPONICA SHRIMP*


P.S. my 2 ottos were swimming around uncomfortably but not up-down as a lacking oxygen.


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## oblongshrimp (Aug 8, 2006)

When I gassed my amanos they swam upwards and then when they reached the surface they would sort of do an spinning nosedive into the substrate, then fly off in some other random direction and repeat the process. They seem to have their coordination when its CO2 poisoning...at least if its acute CO2 poisoning. 

Since that didn't really sound like your situation I tend to think its something other then CO2 poisoning.


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## EQUINOX (Nov 19, 2008)

oblongshrimp said:


> When I gassed my amanos they swam upwards and then when they reached the surface they would sort of do an spinning nosedive into the substrate, then fly off in some other random direction and repeat the process. They seem to have their coordination when its CO2 poisoning...at least if its acute CO2 poisoning.
> 
> Since that didn't really sound like your situation I tend to think its something other then CO2 poisoning.


Thanks for replying.
What you've described resembles to what i've seen sometimes, usually during the last few hours of the dark period (before the photo-period). I assume it happens there because that is when oxygen is the leanest (consumed during night time) and oxygen is a bit less scarce near the surface.
If indeed it was a CO2 poisoning, maybe I arrived at a time when they were already exhausted from doing that ritual you've described. Then again, never have i seen them perform that routine during day (photo-period) and especially during the final hours of day when pearling is at it's max.


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