# Float and Release/Bomb Acclimating Shrimp



## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

I have been conducting a mini experiment with my own tanks this month to find out if MY shrimps really need to be acclimated. All of this started when I read this thread on TPT. This thread got me thinking. I'm the type of person that is not afraid to try new things, so who knows I might find a better way for me. You never know if you don't try. Read this thread first.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/fish/138624-otto-insta-kill.html

Question: How many of you have lost shrimp after a few days despite your best efforts at drip acclimation? I know I have. The shrimps were probably poisoned already from the build up in the bag.


Test subjects: 100+ TTs, 100+ RCS, ~50 OEBT, and a few Black Tigers.

Test: In the last month, I have broken down my old TT tank, broken down my RCS tank, temporarily moved my OEBT for a few days when I was nuking my OEBT tank. During the movement of 200+ shrimps, I tried the plop and drop/bomb acclimation method. How many shrimps did I lose during this period? ZERO...zilch nada....

If you think about nature where these shrimps are from, most of them originated from creeks in Southern China. It rains a lot there. There is a video somewhere of the Bee shrimp habitat. They tested the water and some areas came back with zero conductivity. Pure Rain water. What if I simulated the same scenario during their moves?

During my move I first measured the TDS of my source tank. I did a quick WC to lower my TDS by 10 to 20 ppm in my target tank compared to my source tank. Let both tanks drop to room temp then net the shrimps and dropped them immediately into the target tank. Moving 200+ shrimps this way resulted in zero deaths.

Conclusion: I think this works for me because the target tank had BETTER water than the source tank. It just had a WC and it is more like pure water. What is the difference with this simulation compared to say a few days of heavy rains in mother nature? If shrimps can handle a rainy season in real life they can and probably are happier if they instantly find them self in more pure water versus prolong time in nasty water.

Receiving Shrimp in the Mail: When your shrimps arrive in that little Kordon bag in the mail, that water is at least 24 - 48 hours old. Test the TDS if you can. Every bag that I've received has a higher TDS than their final home, because of build of of waste during transport. Who knows what else built up in the bag. If you can get your water better than the bag water the chances of the shrimp surviving are pretty good. IMO.

Now there are situation where this would not work. Are you injecting CO2 in the target tank? If the shrimps are used to a non-CO2 environment and you drop them into a high CO2 environment that might kill the shrimps no matter how pure your water is. However, if you're using a sponge filter or airstone and the O2 level is higher in the target than the source tank/bag the shrimps will more than likely be OK. 

Everyone will do what they are comfortable with. I am just reporting back my findings of my little experiment.


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

Glad to see it worked so well! You know I am a fan of plop and drop!


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Thank you for sharing your experience in the other thread Ms. Jinkzd. You got me started thinking about this.

This also kind of validates the school of thought that there is no such thing as PH shock.

Here was the PH of my source tanks:

Source TT: 7.8
Source OEBT: 6.8
Source RCS: Didn't measure who cares. RCS are unkillable.

Target Tank: 6.2


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

Received a shipment of 37 CRS in two small Kordon bags this week.
USPS had them for 7 days! Arrived with all appearing to be swimming or clinging to the moss they were sent with. Bomb acclimating these shrimp was simply placing the kordon bags in a small bowl unopened and floating the bowl for 20 minutes to allow the temp to settle. Then cut the bags and plop and dropped them into the QT. Lost were only 3 shrimp after 72hrs. Luv a USPS foobar and bulletproof critters.


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

The real question lies here: Would you be willing to Bomb Acclimate 10 newly arrived and alive Black King Kong shrimp into your tank? hahaha That's kinda scary but if you say it works bro, I'll trust you.  Though I'd probably still drip em.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

I think the anwser is depends on source water vs target water. Not all source water are created equal. 

Example: I bought 50 OEBT from DK a while back. Her shrimps arrived with TDS in the low 100s and I drippped acclimated that batch over a period of 10 hours and they all survived. The source water in the bag was fine so no damage was done. 

The recent shippent of Black Tigers had one DOA in the bag. That batch got bombed.

BKK? When I can afford ten...I would have no problem bombing them. I'd probably find out what the source tank parameter are and test the bag water. If the TDS is higher they are getting bombed. If it is near my water then I don't know if either way matters. 

However, I am confident in my water. I use RO so I know exactly what is going in there. The probability of my water being better than the bag water is high.


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## Senior Shrimpo (Dec 4, 2010)

I like this idea, and it seems to have worked well for you. As speedie said though, I wouldn't try it out on expensive shrimp... Good thing this worked for your black tigers! lol

I gotta say, kudos to you for taking a chance on something. You should try to find out a definite reason why this works so well. 

Me though, I'm sticking with drip acclimation because it's served me well in the past... never lost a shrimp, not even a Blue Bolt, from drip. Here are some of the advantages:

1) Shrimp are easily stressed from travel, letting them drip for a few hours lets them take time to get acquainted with new params.
2) The bacteria going from one tank to another might be vastly different, and it might affect their immune systems/get them sick
3) You have the benefit of several hours to observe any sick shrimp behavior, so you can quarantine them and not risk getting the rest of your shrimp sick
4) All changes in water are gradual, so no risk of them getting shocked

But I have done bomb acclimation with rcs and all were fine.


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## antbug (May 28, 2010)

Senior Shrimpo said:


> But I have done bomb acclimation with rcs and all were fine.


that's because they're bomb proof! :hihi:


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

The whole thing doesn't end with matching source or coming in under that TDS.
Shipped the primary issue effecting survival is how you handle the toxic soup shipping water ultimately is. Worse when you open the bag, add air and raise the pH then ammonia present in the bag burns whats in it while you drip. Prime thickens the water and holds a hazard in that respect.

Drip acclimation of an animal in an ammonia puddle is a whoops too.


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## JCoxRocks (Mar 22, 2005)

FWIW... I received 6 pinoy phillipine blue angels juvies from AngelfishUSA yesterday in the mail. They came with a pamphlet detailing how to acclimate them... They even go so far as to say turn off the tank lights and the lights in the room before you open the box!! Then they outline a drip process, or slow addition of water to the bag every 15 by the half cup. They say not to feed them for 24 hours, etc, etc.

I floated them for 15 mins, doubled the volume of water in the bag with my tank water and then scooped them out and released them into the tank. They immediately began exploring around the tank at all levels. Picking at the gravel for leftover food, coming up to the glass when I got near the tank. If you didnt know they had come in the mail that day you would have thought I had raised them in that tank.

I will say that I didn't pour any of the water in the bag in my tank (it was bluish in color... I believe AngelfishUSA uses Bag Buddies additive when shipping). But definately didnt spend hours drip acclimating them. Although I have always had good luck with angels, some folks will tell you the phillipine blue angels shock easily and are not as hardy as regular angels. In this case, bomb acclimation worked fine.

I know the thread is regarding shrimp, but since I recently tried bomb acclimating, I thought I'd share.

J


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

phillipine blue angels are fairly tuff fish (imo)
Altums,, another story LOL


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## Lil' Swimz$ (Jul 24, 2010)

Cool experiment!


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## Scipio (Feb 18, 2008)

Interesting indeed. Thanks for the sharing your findings roud:


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## speedy02 (May 17, 2011)

My RCS took a week to get to me and i only lost one the next day using the plop and drop method. I let the bag accumulate for 30 min than dump in.


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

Who knew that my lazy technique had a name?


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

lol, amen. I have floated cherries, blue bees, tigers and CRS before dumping them in. I used to take a lot of care to drip for a long time, but have gotten severely lazy. But to be honest, I still drip shrimp that are expensive. I always put a drop of prime in the bag water before dripping though. 

And someone mentioned oxygen flooding in when opening the bag earlier, which may be true for shrimp bagged with air, but in a kordon bag, the oxygen content is already decent. I've never had a shrimp die while dripping, but have while bombing, but it all has a lot to do with the hardest part of the process, which is the journey from the breeders tank to yours. The acclimation is the shortest and least stressful part of that journey.


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## aelysa (Oct 20, 2006)

I hybrid bomb my sulawesi. I fill most of a 10 gallon with distilled (with Stability and Prime added) then dump the whole bag in, nasty water and all.


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## GDP (Mar 12, 2011)

Just to add to this. As discussed in a previous thread I too had bomb dropped two bags of CRS from two different sources and from what I can tell didnt lose any. Hard to tell though as its hard to count them all at once. At the very worst I lost maybe 2-3, more than likely due to stress from adjusting my water and getting everything right.

But anyway it works for me. Also I read somewhere (and take it with a grain of salt) if you add shrimp from a high TDS source into a low they have issues with adapting. However if they come from a low TDS source into a high it doesnt affect them much. Again I forgot where I read that and not sure if its true.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

This is true with cell that have a semipermeable membrane. I'm having this same discussion with Imke on SN. What we don't know is if the exoskeleton of the shrimp which is made of Chitin works like a typical cell membrane. Shellfish can withstand tremendous changes in water pressure because they are in essence encased in armor. (Think Deadliest Catch) How the shell regulates the osmotic pressure could be the key to the answer that we are looking for.


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

shrimpnmoss said:


> Shellfish can withstand tremendous changes in water pressure because they are in essence encased in armor.


/derail 
They don't maintain any sort of constant internal pressure and their exoskeletons are flexible. Their shells have nothing to do with being able to withstand pressure changes.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Thanks for the insight Jason.


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## aman74 (Feb 19, 2007)

This thread is very relevant to anyone considering their acclimation procedures.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/g...44563-reason-s-not-drip-acclimate-your-3.html


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## GDP (Mar 12, 2011)

aman74 said:


> This thread is very relevant to anyone considering their acclimation procedures.
> 
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/g...44563-reason-s-not-drip-acclimate-your-3.html


 
From that thread: 



Ramirezi said:


> Go ahead and shoot ARG a email. It is always advantages to hear from the Co insted of speculations.
> 
> I purchased 3 German rams and only one made it over a week. Maybe I should be doing the drip method for my acclimation because my method may not be working.


I also have a GBR which I did a bomb drop after floating the bag. Been doing fine for a few months now.


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## A.M. Aquatics (Apr 9, 2011)

Well, I'm glad you did this! We'll never know how durable shrimps are until go beyond our comfort zone with them.


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## MarkPeggie (Jan 18, 2011)

*boooo bad method boooooo*

Hello 

I tried this method today with my new BKK ..... some of them exploded while the others imploded !!! Thanks OP !!! JK

How about osmotic shock ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic_shock

Unless your source and target waters have roughly the same salt concentrations you do risk death with this (float and release the real name) method .

I would also say most sellers waters will be better than the buyers water and this is where this method fails .

Source ..myownbrain.com

Next topics

Microwaving planaria to hot to handle !!!

Shock an Awe those pesky snails!!!

Splendid


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

This is where things get kind of confusing for me. A few people have talked to me about Osmotic shock. I am having serious doubts that this occurs with shrimps. 

Osmotic shock works with a semipermeable membrane where the cell wall is holding the water withing the cell. However the exoskeleton of a shrimp is more of a fibrous substance. I think a woven surface like carbon fiber but made by mother nature. I don't know if the exoskeletion has much water in the cells of the exoskeleton. 

Well folks, I put my money where my mouth is. I bombed a new batch of TTs last night. My shipment arrived yesterday afternoon and just looking at the water in the bag I really had no choice. The water was darn near opaque. 200 TTs got netted out and dropped in.

The last time I received a shipment I dripped acclimated them for about 7 or 8 hours with MASSIVE losses over the course of my QT period. MASSIVE. 50%. 

This morning I found a few that did not make it, but I can tell that my rate of loss will be much less this round. I also have less candidates remaining in my that that I expect to lose. 

I think I killed many shrimps last time by leaving them in Ammonia water for a long period of time. I will let you guys know my results after 7-10 days when the population stabilizes.

Same quantity, same supplier, different acclimation method and using Borneo Wild Shield this time. I've heard good things about this product. Let's see what happens. This time the 200 got dropped in two different tanks. One tank zero deaths overnight, other tank a few died.


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## MarkPeggie (Jan 18, 2011)

hi again 

You could be onto something with the semipermeable membrane idea because i know crabs take in water when they want to molt ,so they have some kind of control .

But then i thought of brine shrimp ,if i placed 1 in a freshwater tank without fish it would last maybe a few hours before it died. probable cause of death osmotic trauma .. but this would be an exstream example .


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## MarkPeggie (Jan 18, 2011)

How about this for an idea to test your theory that osmotic shock cant happen with shrimp .

Put some shrimp in pure R/O water and see what happens ?

Mark


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## aman74 (Feb 19, 2007)

GDP said:


> From that thread:
> 
> 
> 
> I also have a GBR which I did a bomb drop after floating the bag. Been doing fine for a few months now.


I'm not sure what that's meant to point out.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

MarkPeggie said:


> How about this for an idea to test your theory that osmotic shock cant happen with shrimp .
> 
> Put some shrimp in pure R/O water and see what happens ?
> 
> Mark



I actually already have. One of my tanks is a nano. That tank gets pure RO water changes replacing 90% of water each time. I've moved shrimps from a TDS 130 water to that tank with no problems. RCS and regular Tigers.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Here is what I have concluded so far.

1) Drip acclimation is probably the least stressful acclimation method. *IF the incoming water is not toxic.*

2) Bomb acclimation is better than drip acclimation if the incoming water is already poisonous for shrimp.

3) If the incoming water is OK and your tank is OK, I don't think there is a big risk with bomb acclimation either.

It is very hard sometimes to test the incoming water because there is such small quantity of water to work with. So I've been using visual inspection methods. I guess test strips are handy sometimes. How clear is the water? Was there ammonia removers like Purigen packed in with the water? What is the TDS of the incoming water? Any DOAs?


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## MarkPeggie (Jan 18, 2011)

shrimpnmoss said:


> I actually already have. One of my tanks is a nano. That tank gets pure RO water changes replacing 90% of water each time. I've moved shrimps from a TDS 130 water to that tank with no problems. RCS and regular Tigers.


wow thats interesting ,i was under the impression shrimp couldnt live in pure R/O water ....

do you supplement the water with anything ?

Mark


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## MarkPeggie (Jan 18, 2011)

shrimpnmoss said:


> Here is what I have concluded so far.
> 
> 1) Drip acclimation is probably the least stressful acclimation method. *IF the incoming water is not toxic.*
> 
> ...


Thats good conclusions to come to ,so i stand corrected ...

Bombings not so bad after all if you know what your doing .


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## GDP (Mar 12, 2011)

aman74 said:


> I'm not sure what that's meant to point out.


Sorry ..... just pointing out that most aquatic life probably isnt as fragile as we think. Im pretty sure a lot of deaths are just blamed on something without knowing for sure.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

MarkPeggie said:


> wow thats interesting ,i was under the impression shrimp couldnt live in pure R/O water ....
> 
> do you supplement the water with anything ?
> 
> Mark



No supplements. I'm about to break down that tank also...so I have been super lazy with that tank...vacuum out the water dump the pure RO in...it's been 2 months now.

This article found that shrimps can live in almost pure water. 

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3668

"The brook’s water parameters were even more extreme than those of the first habitat. Water temperature was the same, but conductivity was only 7 µS, as taken with our pocket conductivity meters. However, the pH of 5.4 backed this finding and indicated the lack of any hardness buffers. We did not find any acid-binding capacity (ABC, KH) with our drip tests, even with the double amount of water. We could say the shrimp here live in pure rainwater."


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## aman74 (Feb 19, 2007)

GDP said:


> Sorry ..... just pointing out that most aquatic life probably isnt as fragile as we think. Im pretty sure a lot of deaths are just blamed on something without knowing for sure.


Well, that's for sure. A lot of anecdotal evidence in this very thread used to make conclusions. All with the good intent of doing the right thing for our critters, but still.


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