Shrimp suicide

A

ampersand

AC Members
Mar 3, 2009
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Philadelphia, PA, USA
I've had an account on here for about a year and this is my first time starting a thread.

I've been having problems with a new tank which I started two months ago. It's a 1/2 filled 10gal tank.
Substrate: sand and self collected river rock
Flora: papyrus and riccia
Fauna: Cherry shrimp and pygmy killifish
Lighting: 1 CFL I don't remember the wattage
Filtration: Originally none but now I have a sponge filter

For the last two weeks I've been battling this growth on the surface of the water. I believe it to be bacterial. It's been forming a thick layer on the glass in the last few days.

This morning I noticed that all of my Cherry shrimp were climbing out of the water on top of the wood and rocks.

Everything was boiled before placing it into the tank. I'm not sure what's going on. It's my first time having to deal with this film in a tank. Could it be the problem?
 
I don't think it matters if you boil your rock, it could be leaching something into the water.

Your water chemistry could be waaay off. What type of growth on the water surface? Can you take a picture?
 
I have all of my water testing gear at work so I'll check it tonight.
I'll also try to take a picture. The growth kind of looks like raw egg whites.

I don't think that boiling would be the problem more of a how did this get here if I killed everything with heat.
 
a good way to remove the film you're seeing on the surface (although quite tedious)

You can take a dry paper towel and submerse it just below the surface and slowly lift it up

Do this as many times as you can humanly tolerate and eventually that film will be no more

Stopping your filter and any other surface agitation for a couple minutes will help you get more of that film off the surface also

Toss out the old towel after you've used it a couple of times and start with another clean piece of paper towel...repeat...and repeat...and repeat
 
@ Tay: So far I've been using my hand or a brine shrimp net to remove the film. I've been doing so every morning. Like you said "as many times as you can humanly tolerate" Thanks for the idea.
 
Water change completed yesterday. Shrimp seem happy.
I couldn't get a good picture with my cell phone but I will bring home my camera and try again.
 
Hopefully that helps, one thing I want to mention though is that bioling rocks can be very dangerous. Doing a bubble test with vinegar and drain cleaner then just scrubbing it off multiple times would be better.
 
After the water change the shrimp have decided that my tank is an ok place to live again. While the day after the water change the cloudy water started up again, but a few days later and it has died down a fair amount. I don't think that I am over feeding. I barely put any food in there. How ever I did notice the same film on the surface of my gecko's water dish which is housed in a different room of the house. The plot thickens.



@ Michwol
How is boiling rock dangerous?
The possibility of introducing drain cleaner is safer?
 
ampersand said:
How is boiling rock dangerous?
The possibility of introducing drain cleaner is safer?
Click to expand...
There could be an air pocked in one of those rocks. With the added heat, the air trapped in the pocket would rapidly expand and essentially cause the rock to explode. I've always just given rocks a nice scrub in some hot water and then test with vinegar. No fizz = good to go.
 
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