Freak Shrimp Accident

brittanyd0203

AC Members
Mar 30, 2009
232
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0
Vienna, WV
I've got about 8 ghost shrimp split between three 10g tanks, one of which is a ghostie breeding tank. Well, today was the 10th year anniversary at the veterinary clinic where I intern for hours towards my biology degree so I was over there all day. While I was gone, my stepfather decided he was going to use insecticide bombs in the house to kill off the flies and mosquitos that come in when the cats go in and out. My mother covered all 5 of my tanks with towels to prevent the chemicals from getting into the water but she didn't know to turn off the air pumps. I came home and after sitting outside waiting for the house to be safe to enter again, I went downstairs to feed the fish. I was feeding my dwarf puffer and the bettas some bloodworms and my mom came down to watch. She was the one who noticed the shrimp first. In the community tank I set up for her, there was a dead shrimp in the front. I thought it had merely gotten old and passed, but then I noticed my very large shrimp in my community tank, fittingly named Monster, was on her way out as well. As I checked the tanks, all of the shrimp were either very sluggish, dying, or dead. Needless to say half of my shrimp population was wiped out. Luckily the breeding tank was spared as well as all of the mystery snails (which there are about 150 in the same hatchery as the shrimp one). I guess it was a learning experience and luckily I can replace my shrimp fairly cheap.
 
That's terrible! I'm so sorry to hear about it. Man, we had the bug guy out for the first time the other day I asked fish friends what I should do if he had to fog the house. Some told me it would be okay to leave the pumps on. Now I know that won't work.

Are you doing big water changes to try to get the poison out before it can hurt your fish?
 
I've done water changes in all of the tanks and all of the fish, snails, and surviving shrimp are looking good. I'm considering staying downstairs tonight to keep an eye on things but as of now everyone looks like they're going to make it.
 
Sorry to hear about your shrimps. So glad to hear there have been no problems as of yet with the snails and remaining shrimp. Would be a shame to loose that beautiful yellow striped baby! Will cross my fingers that the storm has passed and all will be well come morning.
 
Well, it has been a whole day since the pesticide incident and everything seems to be just fine in my tanks. The fish were unaffected to begin with but I was very worried about my invert tank. Luckily, there have been no more invert casualties and they all seem to be doing very well. Guess I dodged a bullet this time!
 
put lots of carbon in just in case
 
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