Jump to content

Painting fume kill shrimps???


albash

Recommended Posts

Hi guys,

I have been collecting quite numbers of dead shrimps over last 3 days. The feed amount not changed except I am recently painting my toilet and all my 3 tanks are close, literally just front to the toilet.

The most frustrating that one of tanks been subdivided into 2 sections - one to keep tibee and the other golden eyed blue tigers. My blue eyed are OK but tibees are just died like that.

Have anyone experienced this - potential of painting fume kill shrimp? Would it even be possible.

Thanks for your input.

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just trying to get more background....

Is there any ventilation to let the fumes out? Open windows?

Do you have air pumps? - That will draw in the fumes even if the tank top is sealed 100%.

Was it acrylic or oil based paints? Oil based paints are worse. And known to cause problems to fish in tanks. So by that deduction, it would be bad for shrimps too.

 

Wait, just re-reading your post, you mentioned painting the toilet. 

Did you use a paint that has anti-mould in it? If the answer is yes, and any of that fume got into the tank .... that will wipe out fish or shrimps for sure. That anti mould stuff is toxic.

If you turned off the air pumps and filters do you notice any scum film on the water surface?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, jayc said:

Just trying to get more background....

Is there any ventilation to let the fumes out? Open windows?

Do you have air pumps? - That will draw in the fumes even if the tank top is sealed 100%.

Was it acrylic or oil based paints? Oil based paints are worse. And known to cause problems to fish in tanks. So by that deduction, it would be bad for shrimps too.

 

Wait, just re-reading your post, you mentioned painting the toilet. 

Did you use a paint that has anti-mould in it? If the answer is yes, and any of that fume got into the tank .... that will wipe out fish or shrimps for sure. That anti mould stuff is toxic.

If you turned off the air pumps and filters do you notice any scum film on the water surface?

 

 

Hi mate,

Well I'm trying to smash this toilet's painting quickly as we are about to move out and rent this house out. So we can't afford the time and money of cruising our time to paint after moving out for rent out. And there are quite a lot for me to paint over these few weeks time.

3 coats paints - Taubman's (water based); first sealer and 2 coat paints - all are anti mould.

Toilet's window is always open and turn on exhaust fan all time and toilet door remain closed.

All tanks have air pumps. I just turn off the air pumps, by far haven't seen any scum film as you mentioned. Is this scum film good or bad thing? What should I do if scum film developed?

What should I do to minimise the casualty and still maintaining this painting period?

I have lost some good and beautiful ones - sigh...

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, albash said:

3 coats paints - Taubman's (water based); first sealer and 2 coat paints - all are anti mould.

Toilet's window is always open and turn on exhaust fan all time and toilet door remain closed.

All tanks have air pumps.

If you can smell the fumes when you are standing next to the tanks, then the air pumps have sucked it  into the tank. 

 

13 hours ago, albash said:

Is this scum film good or bad thing? What should I do if scum film developed?

That would be bad. If you see scum on the surface then there is evidence that the beneficial microbes in the tank have died. But since you don't see any then it might not have impacted the beneficial bacteria. So that is not a problem with the shrimp deaths.

 

13 hours ago, albash said:

What should I do to minimise the casualty and still maintaining this painting period?

Turn off all air pumps and cover the tanks with towels or similar. If you rely in air for filtration then you need another method.

This is one of the benefits of Canister filters, it's a closed system. Canisters won't be affected by air fresheners, fly sprays, and paint fumes. 

A large water change is also a good idea, even if it was not paint fumes and some other cause.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, jayc said:

If you can smell the fumes when you are standing next to the tanks, then the air pumps have sucked it  into the tank. 

 

That would be bad. If you see scum on the surface then there is evidence that the beneficial microbes in the tank have died. But since you don't see any then it might not have impacted the beneficial bacteria. So that is not a problem with the shrimp deaths.

 

Turn off all air pumps and cover the tanks with towels or similar. If you rely in air for filtration then you need another method.

This is one of the benefits of Canister filters, it's a closed system. Canisters won't be affected by air fresheners, fly sprays, and paint fumes. 

A large water change is also a good idea, even if it was not paint fumes and some other cause.

I'm using canisters for all tanks not sump system. Haven't seen any casualties - hopefully I'm not jinx myself.

I cover the gap in the tank with glad wrap as a precaution.

Hopefully these guys are getting better - thanks for your advice mate.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...