# So I managed to kill all my ghost shrimp



## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

Just when I was thinking everything is going great with my tank ...
Last night I did my weekly PWC and I dosed the usual for my planted 10 gallon tank: 1ml PRIME, 1ml Flourish, Potassium and 0.5ml Phosphorous and this morning 4ml of Excel but that's besides the point. So last night I do the PWC and this morning all my shrimp, to the last one, are dead. Some of the MTS are also shocked but I saw a couple just digging around and a physa snail going about it's usual business. Also, my two bamboo shrimp seem to be OK, they are not stressed.
There's a possibility I overdosed with Phosphorous, adding a double-dose 0.5 instead of my usual 0.25 Another thing I also didn't do was I didn't let the water settle, I made sure it was the right temp as the tank, mixed in the dosing and added it. I'm just trying to trace back my steps and see where I screwed up. I have well water so PRIME for me is more of a cheap insurance deal. I usually let the water sit in the bucket for 2 minutes, last night I thought what the heck, just filled the bucket, added the chems, mixed it a couple of times and dumped it in.
I also tested the water this morning. Ammonia and nitrites are 0, nitrates about 15.
Does it shock the tank inhabitants if I break the usual dosing? What I mean by that is one week I may dose in the middle of the week, other times I may not dose at all up to my PWC. I do it based on plant growth, or rather, algae blooms 

I might wait until Thursday and get some more shrimp, just wanted to throw this out there and maybe get an opinion or two. It has shaken my confidence though because I wanted to get some cherry shrimp. Now that I see how fragile and dangerous dosing can be, I'm not so sure ... Could it be that the difference between .25 and .5ml of Phosphorous is the difference between life and death? Is there any place in my dosing regiment that it seems I'm pushing the envelope? The shrimp have been doing just GREAT up until this morning 
It's the longest I've managed to keep shrimp alive, I've had these 7 since September 9.


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## TigerBarb12 (Jan 7, 2007)

The phosphorous could have killed them, because you basically put double of it in. The amount of phosphorous can determine life or death. Any chemical put into a fish aquarium can determine life or death, just by either the amount, or what chemical it is.


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## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

Thanks, I knew that already but was wondering which chemical is the most "dangerous to play with" out of that range. Phosphorous? I'll do a PWC when I get home and hopefully everything will be alright.


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2008)

Do you have a test kit for phosphates? I'd test that and see what the level is before your water change if you can. I doubt that you had enough phosphates in the tank to kill the shrimp, but honestly, I don't see anything else that would have done it.

According to Seachems website, the beginner dose of Phosphorus is 0.125ml per gallon, which for a 10g tank would be 1.25ml (2.5ml/20=0.125 and then *10=1.25ml). So, you are dosing well under the recommended dose......and that dose of 1.25ml is said to only raise the phosphate level by 0.15mg/L of phosphate......not a high level at all. The recommended level of phosphates in a planted tank is around 1-2ppm. That would not be deadly to fish or shrimp IMO....so I really don't think that did it unless your phosphate level was really high to begin with.

Having a varied dosing schedule wouldn't do it. I don't dose regularly in my Cherry Shrimp tank and they are happy little inverts.  I haven't dosed phosphates in that tank though...I don't think. Mine usually sit around 1-2ppm anyways though.

I hope someone can help you figure out what happened so it doesn't happen with new shrimp. Sorry I couldn't help more.


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## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

I'll have to order a phosphate kit because I don't have one >_<
So phosphorous raises phosphates, which are one of the NPK for plants? Phosphates are also a byproduct of regular feeding, is that correct? I will order a phosphate test kit and I may even stop dosing with phosphates altogether and observe my plants. I have a suspicion that phosphates are adequate, because I tend to overfeed. That's another reason I don't dose with nitrogen either, nitrates are always around 15-20 when I do my weekly PWC. My shrimp may be dead and snails shocked, but heck, I got luscious plants 
Suspect #2 is Flourish. I may have slightly overdosed the usual 1ml and by slightly I mean barely over the 1ml mark. I know that it contains metals so that may have been an issue too.
Good advice JustOneMore20, that's what I was hoping to get with this topic. Thanks!


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## Guest (Feb 1, 2008)

fishbone said:


> I'll have to order a phosphate kit because I don't have one >_<
> So phosphorous raises phosphates, which are one of the NPK for plants? Phosphates are also a byproduct of regular feeding, is that correct?


You are correct.  



> Suspect #2 is Flourish. I may have slightly overdosed the usual 1ml and by slightly I mean barely over the 1ml mark. I know that it contains metals so that may have been an issue too.


Yeah, if you overdosed on the Flourish, you could have put too much iron and copper in the tank, but I'm not confident this did it either.  Flourish barely has any copper in it, which is more deadly to inverts than iron, I believe. I'm just not sure how much iron is considered deadly.




> Good advice JustOneMore20, that's what I was hoping to get with this topic. Thanks!


You're welcome!

I'll be interested to see what the phosphate level is. BTW, Seachem makes a phosphate kit, if you can find it.


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## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

Well, I like to keep consistency across the board so I went with an API test kit instead.


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## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

I got my kit, tested the water, and I think the culprit is phosphates, or at least it's the #1 suspect. My tap water registers about .20 and my tank water, without any Seachem Phosphorous, 2 days after a 40% PWC was at about .7. Overdosing Phosphorous probably shot up phosphate levels over 1. I will stop dosing and keep monitoring things.


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## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

I have a question.
So my tap water is exactly at 0.50ppt of phosphates. I checked the phosphates in my brackish set-ups and they were actually somewhere between 0.20 and 0.50. How can that be? Is it because of the fact it's brackish rather than freshwater? Phosphates go up with time due to fish waste etc, how come they were lower than my tapwater readings?

Phosphates in my freshwater tank, at the end of the week, no Seachem Phosphorous dosing, were at about 0.70. Methinks I don't need to dose with Phosphorous.
I am also going to reduce lighting, I have it at 12 hours a day right now and am seeing some green algae blooms, sometimes faster than other times. Seems it depends on my dosing with Excel.


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## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

There's definitely something amiss in my tank and I can't figure out what.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5
pH: 8.2 as it always is
Phosphates: 0.5

I got 4 and 4 ghost shrimp juvies, small small. 4 one day, 4 the next. The first batch of 4 all died one after another. The next batch only 3 died, one moulted this morning and is still alive and roaming about after 2 days of having him.
While all my MTS have not come out of their shells yet and some have started dying [very few, so far I only picked 5 or 6 out of the 6 million that I have], 3 physa snails are doing rounds in the aquarium as if they're in the Olympics. I also got a turbo snail from the LFS, it seems to be limp. He makes attempts at coming out of his shell, tries to climb on something next to him then goes back in.
My larger bamboo shrimp is dying. 2 days ago she [I'm assuming it's a she because it's quite larger than my other one who has to be a male] was a nice bright red coloration. She could also be dying of old age, can't tell how old she is, all I know is I've had her for a year. My other smaller bamboo though seems to be doing just fine, is a nice bright red and going about it's way, feeding and such.

My plan is to start picking out all the MTS that I can find and prick each to see which ones are still alive and which are not. The test kit I am using is the API freshwater liquid test.

I'm dosing half of what I used to before: Flourish, Flourish Excel and Potassium.

The saga continues. I feel very bad for the dying bamboo, it's been with me for a while.


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