Shrimps turned turtle and lying on its back! 😕

[Liannnnnnnnnn]

I have a 1 ft nano Shrimp tank:-
White Silica Sand substrate
Christmas Moss tied on bogwood
Salvinia Minima
1 Golden Back Shrimp
1 Fire Red Shrimp
1 Yellow Shrimp
1 Zebra Shrimp
2 Blue Bolt Shrimp
1 Blue Tiger Shrimp
Cycled with 4-in-1 biofilter media
27 degree Celcius

The shrimps were doing fine initially. After I added in water wisteria I bought from C328, the shrimps became very active and were swimming up and down the tank playfully. I thought they were happy for the new plant addition 😅

After 2 hours of introducing the water wisteria, the shrimps were all lying on their backs and not moving. I quickly transferred them to another tank and they slowly regained consciousness and were kicking again the next day.

Is it possible that the wisteria caused this debacle?



Lian

[Shrimplicity]

Could be, isolate your plants as some fertilizers have traces of copper which is lethal to shrimp

[Liannnnnnnnnn]

So should I just not use the plant? Or is there a way to remove the harmful substances?

[Urban Aquaria]

Looks like there are still residual pesticides and chemicals on those new plants (usually from the plant farm). To clear away the toxic chemicals, wash the new plants thoroughly under running water, then place them in a separate tank or container and change the water everyday to flush out the residual chemicals. As to how long it take, you'll just have to experiment and see, maybe introduce the plants back to the main tank in small quantities and monitor the shrimps conditions.

If you have a spare tank with running filter, you can also place the plant in that tank and run it with activated carbon in the filter to help adsorb the harmful chemicals faster.

In the future to avoid such issues, do quarantine and treat new plants bought from LFS.

[Liannnnnnnnnn]

I see. Thanks for all the advice! Will definitely quarantine my plants first next time.

[Mameshrimps]

Plants from LFS and Farms uses different type of ferts (yield high low cost) which are not shrimp safe. They usually contain Cu in them. So it's wise to always wash them or soak them for a day in clean water before using them.

Cheers