deaths after move

[Le0DaVinci]

Hi guys, 

Two days ago I had a tangerine dropping dead , she was fine one minute and then just dropped dead.  I touched it with the tweezers and  didn't move,  it was dead. I fund the same tangerine happily alive after an hour or so and after 48 hours she is still very alive.

Today a blonde tiger was acting fine and then I saw her literally dropping to the ground.  It's currently on its side and sporadically movings.

Water parameters are ph 6.5. kh 1-2 gh 6 and tds 175, no2 0 and nh3/4 0  . ro water in the tank.

This tank was moved last week, as it was the rest of our house.

I tried my best with the move, removed all shrimp from the tank, removed as much water as possible in containers and reused the water once at destination. Made sure filters were in water for the whole time.  I had a couple of dead shrimp in the first couple of days and i assumed it was the stress from the move, now I'm starting to worry as 9 days have passed from the move and I'm still getting strange behaviour

After the move  the water parameters were all ok, only the TDS normally 150 went to 210 so I've been trying to get it back to the usual 150 by replacing water with ro water without minerals during my weekly WC.  Yesterday I did a 10% water change and moved the TDS from 200 to 175.

What can i do to stop these deaths? Should I just leave the TDS how it is instead of playing with the parameters of a tank with shrimp that are still recovering from a stressful time?

 

Thanks

[revolutionhope]

Hi Le0, hope the shrimps recover asap for you mate.

I've got a couple of suggestions - first is, is there any posibility of something in the air polluting the tank?

Second is - are you doing your WC very slowly ie dripping the new water in? If the new WC water is substantially different to the water in the tank then it is very important to drip the new water in slowly so as not to stress the shrimps.

While it is true that people have different ideas about what is the best approach to lower TDS or remove nitrates or whatever the case may be. My advice is that if you are experiencing continuing slow deaths then the least painful way to fix the situation is to do quite a dramatic waterchange incase e.g. there may be a high count of bad bacteria in the water or if some kind of pollutant has got into it during the move or tank setup.

My experience with doing multiple small waterchanges more than once per week was that shrimp REALLY didn't like the instability and as a result they never bred for me until i stopped doing these small WC every few days. If I was you I would do a 75% waterchange - being sure to slowlyslowlyslowly drip in the new water over the course of a day - and fingers-crossed things should clear up.

Another suggestion I can give is i recommend you check the sticky which jayc compiled in the shrimp health section, he has quite a comprehensive list of shrimp diseases there and might offer a clue incase it is a bacterial infection. i vaguely recall the symptoms of one of the diseases was that shrimps would die right where they were standing; similar to what you described. In any case you best be sure to check back with other more experienced folks than me here before you take any dramatic course of action one way or the other.:-)

Hope i've helped!

love n peace

will

[Le0DaVinci]

Hi Will,  Thanks for your reply. 

I'll have to check about the air polluting the tank.  There is nothing out of the ordinary here,  but it's still a new place.... The room has wooden floor but the bedrooms have carpet and that was professionally cleaned a week before I moved the tank into the house..... 

The water changes were done very slowly,  dripping the water into the tank for hours. 

I moved the tank with no water in it but the soil was still in it with some water in it. . This means that for 2 hours the soil was still wet but not underwater. Maybe this is the issue. 

 

Thanks 

[revolutionhope]

any update?

[Foxpuppet]

Filters? Sponge or canister? Maybe ammonia spike due to dying bacteria in filter if off for too long?

[Le0DaVinci]

It took me 2 days to get the courage for the massive water change but in the end I did it and deaths stopped!!!   

I ended up taking all my shrimp out, changing the water and then acclimatising the shrimp to the new water.  

So thank you Will for you suggestion!!!! 

As for the cause I'm still not sure,  the sponge filter and an internal filter where kept in buckets with the tank water and then put back in the tank.  Also I tested the water many times and could not find anything out of the ordinary. 

 

[revolutionhope]

Awesome mate that's great news! Doing a big WC is scary at the best of times it's always a concern that it will add to the stress and may push some weaker shrimps over the edge but in your case it did pay off which is great news. I'm so glad i could be of help!

love n peace

will

[Foxpuppet]

It took me 2 days to get the courage for the massive water change but in the end I did it and deaths stopped!!!   

I ended up taking all my shrimp out, changing the water and then acclimatising the shrimp to the new water.  

So thank you Will for you suggestion!!!! 

As for the cause I'm still not sure,  the sponge filter and an internal filter where kept in buckets with the tank water and then put back in the tank.  Also I tested the water many times and could not find anything out of the ordinary. 

 

Ammonia test? Didn't see the results in your first post that's all.

Where the filters aerated while in the bucket? With no oxygen or moving water the bacteria can just die if left long enough.

[Le0DaVinci]

43 minutes ago, Foxpuppet said:

Ammonia test? Didn't see the results in your first post that's all.

Where the filters aerated while in the bucket? With no oxygen or moving water the bacteria can just die if left long enough.

Fair enough! That was my first idea as well

I tested for ammonia just before putting the shrimp back (after the move) and I tested for it every day once the deaths started. And it was zero. I was also cycling another tank and the test was reading some ammonia, so I know the test is working.

The filters were not aerated while in the bucket.  I left them in there for 10 hours. Do you think that's what happened?

 

Thanks

[Foxpuppet]

Fair enough! That was my first idea as well

I tested for ammonia just before putting the shrimp back (after the move) and I tested for it every day once the deaths started. And it was zero. I was also cycling another tank and the test was reading some ammonia, so I know the test is working.

The filters were not aerated while in the bucket.  I left them in there for 10 hours. Do you think that's what happened?

 

Thanks

Only if your ammonia test showed a result, then that may have been a cause, but if your testing and getting zero then don't worry about it.