Help! My tank is inhabitable to invertibrates!

[KeIgO86]

My tank is inhabitable to invertibrates! Like totally inhabitable. A year ago, my tank was crawling with pest snails, shrimps all happy in their little home. Yet today, there are ZERO pest snails in the tank, and well you guessed it, zero shrimps too. Everytime I add in shrimps or snails into the tank, they die off the next day. All fish are very healthy, plants are doing alright too.

Can any of you guys enlighten me on the possible causes of death of these invertibrates? Then maybe I can relate to something that I'm doing that is wrong.

The only thing I can think of is copper. And the 2 sources of copper in the tank is seachem flourish at x2 dosage and tap water, which I feel is quite negligible.

Did PUB change something in our singapore water?

[kemp]

what type of shrimps are you keeping? as you know CRS are really sensitive to water condition.
I've had a similar situation just like yours a few months back. Plants were growing healthy but shrimps kept dying whenever i introduce them. Realised that it was due to me adding new gravels into the tank which swang up the PH. Really got me all so frustrated during then, not knowing what to do. I gave up introducing new shrimps. Till my water starts to condition better, i introduce quite a fair bit of mosses into the tank and it really did help to condition alot. It was only after a month then i decided to plug in courage to introduce shrimps and till now they are still surving.
I guess the moss did most of the great help

[Justikanz]

Hmm... Relax... Give us more info... Like, where are you located, how much water change you make, are there any decorative items, what rocks are you using, are you medicating, what substrates are you using etc...

[soyadude]

If even the Snails are wiped out... I can think of only copper. Snails are hardly bothered by pH, and visible signs will appear on their shells if the water is too soft. Snails are just too hardy for anything as minor as pH or water conditions. Have you tested for copper in your tank?

[KeIgO86]

I have no rocks in my tank. Lapis gravel has been in my tank for almost 2 years. I live in bedok. No decorative items in the tank. Water change maximum I do is 50%.

Even the great hardy giant yamatos dropped dead within a week.

I've picked up some of the zebra nerite snails which were lying motionless with its body hidden in the shell in the planted tank for nearly 6 hours and dumped them into a nano tank with just 3 neon tetras, 1 unhealthy anubias and some gravel. no lights, no ferts, just a small HOB filter. I went out for another 6 hours and when I came back, to my surprise, the zebra nerites are out and moving all over the the nano tank again! Its like they were knocked out in the planted tank by *something* and when transferred to another tank without that *something*, the woke up again.

The water change in that nano tank is straight from the tap water.

[Justikanz]

Had you medicated the tank before? If so, what medications were you using?

Copper or heavy metals that are harmful to invertebrates can be introduced into the tank via medications.

[soyadude]

You'll be surprised what kind of stuff comes with your substrate or gets in there over time. These substances leach into the tank slowly. Get test kits and test for copper. I'm pretty certain there would be some of it in there. How much is copper content in fluorish? It doesn't take a lot of copper to be deadly to invertebrates. Did you notice these symptoms before or after dosing flourish? I've read reports of plant ferts containing deadly amounts of copper and some shrimp (bee shrimp) are very sensitive to these ferts.

[Earth]

I had exactly the same problem as you in the past. Shrimps/snails died within 3-4 days after introducing into my 5 yr old 2 feet tank. Checked my PH and KH and realised that my KH is 1 and PH is at below 5, too acidic for snails and shrimps.

What I did then was to up my KH to 3, by adding KH Up powder. Subsequently, my PH also went up to a safe 6.3-6.6 range. Now my problem is solved and my snails/shrimps (Yamatoes/cherries) are living happily in the tank.

P.S My planted tank has CO2 input at 1 bps.

[zyblack]

Check whether your water conditoner removes chloromines? Last year in November, PUB changed from adding chlorine to chloromine into our tap water as they are more stable and do evaporate slower than chlorine. If you are using an old bottle of dechlorinator, check if it removes chloromine. If not get a new bottle that does.

[Sunfire]

I added a new plant and subsequently all my shrimp died. It's because I suspect the new plant had snail remover solution on it...

[richietay]

at least you do learn something which i encountered before too!
i always do wash the newly bought plants and soak them before introducing to my tank.