Newly acquired moss and shrimp

**daniel19831123** · 19th Feb 2013, 11:24

Just acquired bulk purchase of christmas moss from seaview. they came in big flattened bag of roughly 8 inches square for $10. I'll be attaching this to some driftwoods in my tank and will be introducing shrimps into the tank (CRS and fire red). I previously had a bad experience with plants purchase from shops and shirmp compatibility as they tend to kill off my shrimps even if I wash and soak them for a week. Has anybody tried moss purchase from seaview? How long do you quarantine your plants before introducing shrimp into the tank?

**mincedmeat** · 19th Feb 2013, 12:14

There are many other factors that come into play when livestock die; ie. pH/gH imbalance, ammonia/nitrate spikes, temperature, other toxic agents that might be present.

**Urban Aquaria** · 19th Feb 2013, 14:19

Nowadays what i usually do when i get any new LFS sourced plants is to rinse them well in clean de-clorinated water (get all the dirt and particles out), then i put them into a separate small "quarantine" tank for a week to de-tox and monitor them for hitchhiking pests (i use existing water from my other tanks and also run a regular light schedule for them too).

Most of the time during this quarantine period, i'll tend to find snails, worms and all sorts of little wierd critters appearing which i have to promptly remove. Only once i don't see anymore "unwanted guests" appearing, then i transfer them to my main tanks.

I've collected so many random pest snails from LFS bought plants that i actually got a glass jar from Daiso just to keep and observe the snails, put some soil and moss into the glass jar so its like a mini snail biotope.

**daniel19831123** · 19th Feb 2013, 15:41

I agree that there is a lot of factor to consider when shrimp dies but when you have a whole tank of thriving and breeding shrimp and suddenly they start jerking in a funny manner and swim upside down within the matter of less than 30 minutes of adding the emerged form of aquatic plants into the tank(it was a downoi plant in this case), I'm pretty sure there is some chemical on the plants that is causing this. I have used the concentrated dechlorinated water method and apparently the dechlorinator was suppose to bind to heavy metal but I still kill the shrimps after 3 days of quarantine the plants. Since them I've only purchase submerged form of plants as I know it's safe.

I need to rescape my 3 footer with lots of christmas moss and I was tempted by the cheap bargain from seaview hence now I'm stuck with this question of how long should I quarantine the plants... 1 week enough?

**Urban Aquaria** · 19th Feb 2013, 16:41

If all the shrimps (both CRS and RCS) are reacting negatively to the plant, then most likely there are still traces of strong fertilizers or pesticides on the plants (it might only affect shrimps while leaving fishes unaffected)... i think keeping the plants quarantined for a longer period would help, maybe next time before you move the plants to your main tank, just introduce 2-3 of your "more economical" shrimps into the plant quarantine tank and watch their reactions first?

It might seem abit harsh to send in the commando shrimps to take the hits (i can't think of any other reliable way to find out though)... but at least it'll protect the rest of your shrimps.

**kohanson** · 24th Feb 2013, 23:48

I have bought many packs of java moss, java fern, anubias, xmas moss from seaview. So far I have not encounter any death for my sakura shrimps and CRS. I usually place the plants in hot water and soak them for about an hour. Then I will use my toilet spray to remove all the residue and snails from the plant and I just place it in. My sakura shrimps are about 2 months old and CRS about 1 month. Sakura and CRS are from seaview too. After every water change, I will dose a teaspoon of seachem safe and a cap of seachem flourish. I have not used any test kits since I started this hobby on start of Dec last year.

**Fishing** · 8th Mar 2013, 14:27

i hv java moss in case u r keen...

**shikimijos** · 14th Mar 2013, 09:38

Originally Posted by daniel19831123

Just acquired bulk purchase of christmas moss from seaview. they came in big flattened bag of roughly 8 inches square for $10. I'll be attaching this to some driftwoods in my tank and will be introducing shrimps into the tank (CRS and fire red). I previously had a bad experience with plants purchase from shops and shirmp compatibility as they tend to kill off my shrimps even if I wash and soak them for a week. Has anybody tried moss purchase from seaview? How long do you quarantine your plants before introducing shrimp into the tank?

Hi, so how did the Xmas moss from sea view go? Did it survive or do any damage?