Massive crystal red die-off :(

[msjinkzd]

I have a 30g heavily planted tank housing just crystal red shrimp. Last night everyone was active and fine, this morning I found half my adults and all my juvies deceased. No clue what happened. Water tests out at: ammo 0, trite 0, trate 5ish, ph 7.2 temp 72. Sigh, what a set back! I had just gotten my stock numbers up to about 40 adults and was about ready to offer them up to share :(

[NeonFlux]

Omg ms! I'm very sorry to hear that!! :O If your parameters are fine then how did they die? odd

[Hollygirl]

So sorry for your loss! I hope you can find out what happened.

[Hollygirl]

Just a thought but is the tank near anything that could have given off toxic fumes or possibly a toxin got into that tank?

[msjinkzd]

Its theoretically possible something could have fallen into the tank as its open top, but its in my basement out of traffic and away from the kids, so I am really at a loss. I have no idea what caused this. I did a 50% wc today, just to be on the safe side. The remaining shrimp look and are acting perfectly normal.

[waterwitch]

Sorry. Hopefully the rest will be ok. I'm looking forward to getting some!

[Hooked Newbie]

Sorry for the loss Jinx! :(

[krytan]

Sorry to hear about your losses.

[msjinkzd]

Thanks, I am totally bummed! I have gone through an enormous amount of effort with this tank, and it was just starting to pay off. sigh, back to the drawing board.

[Blueiz]

What about an electrical current from somewhere? Or perhaps a mouse may have checked the tank out and got something in it..(not trying to say you have mice..but could it be a possibility?)

Sorry for your loss, I know how hard you have worked with these in particular..

[msjinkzd]

i don't know, i don't see any evidence of anything like that. I would have thought if it was a contaminate, the older shrimp would have been hardest hit, not the juvies. Its very odd. Who knows, I will just do the best I can to salvage what is left, and see about buying some more to reinfuse my stock.

[nx2ured]

Sooooo sorry!!

[Inka4040]

Wow, that's terrible MSJ. I hope you figure out what happened soon. Good luck in rebuilding your stock. :(

[TwoHobbies]

Wow, I'm really sorry to hear that. Good luck figuring out what went wrong.
I think I would do another 50% PWC tomorrow.

[KathleenO]

Very sorry for your loss! About 4 weeks ago I learned the hard way how toxic pothos is when a few of my cory cats had begun nibbling on the leaves that were in the water..it's hard being a newbie. Lots of heartbreak. As soon as the pothos was taken out, no strange deaths have occurred.
I assume there's something else going on with your shrimp - I hope you get it figured out - good luck!

[Reefscape]

Such a shame to hear Jinxy.... :(

[drgold]

perhaps you had a drop in dissolved oxygen? That's always my first thought when hearing about fish in planted tanks that die overnight. When the lights are off, plants use oxygen and excrete CO2. This would explain why the larger animals died first - because they have larger oxygen demands.

When I had a planted tank, I set an airstone to run on an opposite cycle from my lights. Lights go on, air goes off. Lights go off, air goes on.

Just a thought, anyway.

[Yadokari]

I'm sorry to hear that happen! I have crystals that randomly just die too! I don't even understand :-( I actually just found another one dead today. Died to what, I don't even know.
They're definitely harder to keep :(

I wish you the best of luck!!

[jaysen]

so shocked to see this thread. sorry for your loss. was there any temperature fluctuations recently. when was the last time you did a water change? i would add a little stress coat into the water just to be safe. maybe one or two died which affected the water chemistry quickly and caused the mass die off. just think of anything. maybe they started a cult and decided that today was redemption day. either way, i hope they rebuild their populations.

[irishspy]

Wow, that's odd -- what a mystery! :omg:
I hope it was just a one-time thing.

[msjinkzd]

hmm, i had posted a huge response, i wonder where it ended up.

I was super shocked. No temp fluctuations. I do 2x30% wc's on ALL my shrimp tanks every week. I used prime, even though I have well water, today. But all the other 9 shrimp tanks are completely fine, even the one sandwiched next to it which is also open top. In fact, there are now baby tigers and berried blue pearls in it. Also, new berried crystal red mama as of tonight, go figure. Its mysterious alright.

[jaysen]

im gonna stick with my cult theory then. seems to be no reason to why they died. as long aas they are doing alright now, it should hopefully stay that way. good thing you had built such a large population that they can still replenish themselves.

[msjinkzd]

yeah, but i lost about 40 grade a/s shrimp, lol, gonna take awhile to build that back up! oh well, learning curve I guess.

[Squawkbert]

I'm thinking a contaminant would hit 1) freshly molted shrimp 2) juvies hardest, then adults - reason - less depth of tissue, thinner shell to get through before vital internal organs get hit.

So, I'd suggest covering up the tank and carrying on. Sorry to hear about the loss, but it should bounce back.

[Redneck Woman]

So sorry Msj. I hope you get it figured out soon.

[duke33]

bummer/sorry to hear.

[starfishplus]

hi jinkz, had u added anything in ur tank that had in copper in it. or had u done a water change yesterday.do u have copper pipes, the red crystals can not take any copper.
When my sister started out with her first one she use her water from her well and she has copper pipes and a few days later all of the one she had added was die too.and also she had added PH UP.

[Hooked Newbie]

hi jinkz, had u added anything in ur tank that had in copper in it. or had u done a water change yesterday.do u have copper pipes, the red crystals can not take any copper.
When my sister started out with her first one she use her water from her well and she has copper pipes and a few days later all of the one she had added was die too.and also she had added PH UP.

Valid questions and info, but I'm positive that the Invert Queen knows all about the dangers of copper. ;)

[starfishplus]

Valid questions and info, but I'm positive that the Invert Queen knows all about the dangers of copper. ;)

SORRY that i even thought....about that i don't care how long u have been keeping fish or inverts...sometime people can make mistake..and it seems something went wrong.And i thought this post was for answers to others ??????

[msjinkzd]

pvc piping, no worries. We all make mistakes! I still haven't figured it out, but all is seemingly well.

No chemicals used in my tanks at all. I have peat under the substrate and driftwood to lower ph and soften the water.

[Hooked Newbie]

SORRY that i even thought....about that i don't care how long u have been keeping fish or inverts...sometime people can make mistake..and it seems something went wrong.And i thought this post was for answers to others ??????

No worries. People do make mistakes and weird stuff happens. You made good points and presented very good questions (I even checked my pipes to make sure they weren't copper). Sorry if my post came across wrong at all.

[Draal5]

sorry to here the bad news.

are you using co2 in the tank? I had a co2 accident that killed my CRS and a few not all RCS.

[grannylvsfish]

all but 8 of my reds passed to. Not sure why, my tank is pristine and all the tests came out perfect. just up and died :eek: I have 8 small ones, but there all males :(
I am sorry for your loss hon.

[SchizotypalVamp]

Whaa? That is so weird!I'm sorry for your loss!

[wayneside]

sorry to hear! thats the next type of shrimp i want to get...

[TLT]

I'm sorry to hear about your losses, msjinkzd! It's hard enough finding one dead shrimp, but I'm sure you'll be able to re-establish your colony in no time :)

[thebullit]

wow, cant amagine that happend to you...sorry for your loss hope you work things out.....correct me if am wrong but dont crs prefare a ph below 7?

[Que]

Sorry Jinx... keep soldiering on girl.

Q

[msjinkzd]

are you using co2 in the tank Nope


correct me if am wrong but dont crs prefare a ph below 7? They do prefer softer water with a pH somewhere around 6-7ish. There are many reports of them being kept quite successfully at the range i have them though. And the majority of the ones I had purches were being kept in comparable conditions :( In an ideal world, I would yank out my eco-complete and shell out a ton of cash for ADA soil in order to lower my pH further, but I HAD been having no problems with them at all for months.

[Fishy_Fun]

i was shocked to see this thread.So So sorry to hear about your Crystals.

[jenratico]

Keeping my fingers crossed for a baby boom for you - well, for your shrimp anyway. I keep thinking my cherries been eated only to find them under rocks. You must be completely flumoxed as to what happened. Best wishes on rebuilding the stock.

[southerndesert]

Wow.... Sorry to hear about such a tragic loss....Been there too.

The worst thing in keeping inverts is the "unexplained death" and not being able to figure out the problem is very frustrating. There is however a cause and I also think perhaps something got into the uncovered tank. There was a post on another forum sometime back about a person having a large spider drown in his tank while trying to get a drink, a slow die off resulted. I also think a cover would be a good idea as there are many things floating in the air in our homes that just may not be good for our shrimps.

Good luck and I hope you get it figured out....

Bill

[msjinkzd]

Yea i need to get glass cut for 5 of my tanks, its been on the to-do list for some time, just lacks priority with all the running around for my 3 kids. I put a temporary cover on all the shrimp tanks for now. New babies found in the tank, all hope is not lost :)

[Rbishop]

Hope you are back on the road to recovery!

[pinkertd]

Awww! Really sorry to read this!! You would think that even if a bug did fall into the tank and release some bug toxin that it would affect all of them. But glad you covered the tanks Jinx. I have very little space open on my sids tank (I don't want to find out the hard way that they jump thru small openings), but those dang stinkbugs get in there anyway once in a while. I panic when I see one of those things floating in the tank. They STINK! And I sooooooooooo hope they don't let a stink bomb go into the tank water before they die. P A N I C!!

[The Zigman]

Wow, Sorry to hear about this Jinkzie! Knowing that you have more invert knowledge than most of us, and hearing about an incident like this just proves that this sort of thing is apparently un avoidable, can happen to anyone, and most likely is at no fault of your own. I wish I had some crystal reds I could send to you, but all I have is Cherry reds...

What is weird is that they all didn't die... if there was a contaminant, then why were there any survivors?

[Malefic23]

Grrrr, I hate it when these things happen to my shrimp guru! I hope you get it figured out so you never get a repeat. A pile of crystals! argh!

[msjinkzd]

Well, I found a wasp/hornet in the tank the next day in pieces. I am doubtful this caused it, but who knows.

The remaining shrimp are doing well, and I have spotted at least 8 new babies (itty bitty) in the tank since so I assume its all honky dorey now. Live and learn!

[Squawkbert]

Well, I found a wasp/hornet in the tank the next day in pieces. I am doubtful this caused it, but who knows.

Maybe the reason for the insect being in the tank should be examined... (Raid?)


Glad to hear things are going again.

[jbowzer7]

I know that crystal reds are much harder to keep than other shrimp, and the higher grade seems like the harder they are to raise. I think that the wasp/hornet in the tank is more than likely the cause. The venom in there sting just might have been enough to affect some of the shrimp.

[msjinkzd]

The insect got in the tank because it was open top with pendant lighting. I haven't figured out how they are getting in my basement yet, lol.

[wayneside]

could be it...i saw a fire ant fall into my guppy tank and saw a guppy eat it eat...within an hour or so...there was a dead guppy in the tank. didnt know that there were toxins in fire ants...

sorry again for the loss and glad you found the insect in there!

[drgold]

didnt know that there were toxins in fire ants...


LOL, that would be where the "fire" comes from in fire ants. :)

Glad to hear you can put a finger on the cause now! Maybe a screened top would be in order now?

[msjinkzd]

its covered now :)

[inkyjenn]

this may be a weird question, but do you have cats? i have 3 and mine love to drink out of my tanks; weve been discouraging this behavior. i am concerned maybe mine would introduce something (primarily ammonia) to a tank since they dip their paws in to drink. just a thought and so sorry about your loss :(

[thebullit]

i remember reading once about a guy who had a £2,000 marine fish which spat at flies and eat them. open top ov course. the fish spat at a wasp caught it and eaten it then died off......OUCH!!!