# Shrimp Deaths and Copper Poisoning?



## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> I was adding a little too much of it though. Again I have a 6 gallon tank, and every other day I was adding two small squirts to the tank.


I assume you are referring to flourish comprehendsive. it's the only flourish comprehensive product with copper.

Normal dosage for Flourish comprehensive. for a 6 gallon tank is 0.5 ml of flourish comprehensive one time per week. I have used Flourish comprehensive with shrimp and snails for years and I have not seen any issues with shrimp dying at that dose or a does slightly higher. When you say a squirt what do you mean. There is no syringe or pump sold with flourish comparehensive. You really should be using a 1ml stringe to measure your dose. 0.5 ml is a very small amount (maybe about 5 drops of fertilizer). I would also recommend using a syringe to measure your water conditioner. Overdosing conditioner can kill fish.



> I added one more small squirt of Flourish. Literally within 5-10 minutes my shrimp started to freak out, swimming to the top of the tank and even jumping out.


Shrimp normally at times become very active especially if a female is ready to mate. However I have never seen shrimp jump out of the water. If they are truly jumping out of the water you may have added way too much fertilizer or water conditioner. The other possibility is that your water hasdness (GH) or alkalinity (KH) of the tap water you added my have been too high or too low for your shrimp. GH and KH issues are frequent cause of shrimp fatalities. I would advise you to get a GH and KH test kit.


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## xxtomi (Jun 30, 2017)

Sorry, so I usually poke a hole in the bottle of water conditioner/Flourish and I'm estimating each squirt was around 1-2 mL. I'm realizing now how much I over did it, I feel so stupid. My question now is how long do you think the Flourish and copper is going to stay in my tank? Like I said I have already done two 50% water changes and it's been a few days so I was assuming my filter would have taken some more out but my new shrimp still seem stressed out.



Surf said:


> > I was adding a little too much of it though. Again I have a 6 gallon tank, and every other day I was adding two small squirts to the tank.
> 
> 
> I assume you are referring to flourish comprehendsive. it's the only flourish comprehensive product with copper.
> ...




I've been doing fine with the amount of conditioner I've been using, for some reason it just never even registered to me how much of the Flourish I was using. I just wanted my plants to grow faster, and I didn't think there was anything in there that could potentially harm my shrimp/fish. It makes sense to me now and at least I learned from my mistake, so thank you. I'm just not sure what to do now ?


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Could have been a combination of the water conditioner and fertilizers, too.


Do you know the TDS of the tank prior to doing water changes? Do you know the TDS of the water after doing water changes?


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## xxtomi (Jun 30, 2017)

Zoidburg said:


> Could have been a combination of the water conditioner and fertilizers, too.
> 
> 
> Do you know the TDS of the tank prior to doing water changes? Do you know the TDS of the water after doing water changes?


Honestly I have no idea  I only have the basic ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/pH kit. This is also my first planted tank man fml


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Shrimp keeping is an entirely different level to fish keeping... or so I keep reading from all the experienced fish keepers who get into shrimp keeping for the first time! And I've seen at least a handful of hardcore fish people end up getting rid of their fish in favor of shrimp! LOL


It really helps to get all liquid test kits (Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, pH, GH and KH) with a TDS meter, and if you've got room for it, TDS Calibration Solution as well.


You'll learn more about water chemistry, what exactly is "hard" or "soft" water (doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the pH  ) and how "clean" or "dirty" the water is. 



Another likely scenario is that the shrimp have suffered from 'osmotic shock', often known as "pH shock", but that is incorrect... with everything that's been done to the tank, the TDS has probably been a rollercoaster of ups and downs...


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## xxtomi (Jun 30, 2017)

Zoidburg said:


> Shrimp keeping is an entirely different level to fish keeping... or so I keep reading from all the experienced fish keepers who get into shrimp keeping for the first time! And I've seen at least a handful of hardcore fish people end up getting rid of their fish in favor of shrimp! LOL
> 
> 
> It really helps to get all liquid test kits (Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, pH, GH and KH) with a TDS meter, and if you've got room for it, TDS Calibration Solution as well.
> ...


Ahhhh okay, thank you so much! I am a beginner at this, so watching these shrimp go from doing so well to dying before my eyes made me feel so discouraged. Thank you for the advice though, I'll definitely be researching more and now I actually know where to start


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

Some people get lucky and it's smooth sailing into shrimp keeping!


Then there are others, like us, who struggle... I've been keeping shrimp for nearly 1 1/2 years and am still struggling...


I haven't kept ghost shrimp, which, I think, are hardier than the common Neos (i.e. cherry shrimp), but I do have Neos (cherry and bloody mary), and Caridinas (Amanos and YKK's). I feel like the hardiest shrimp thus far have been the YKK's, and I've only had them for 4 months...


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> Sorry, so I usually poke a hole in the bottle of water conditioner/Flourish and I'm estimating each squirt was around 1-2 mL. I'm realizing now how much I over did it, I feel so stupid. My question now is how long do you think the Flourish and copper is going to stay in my tank? Like I said I have already done two 50% water changes and it's been a few days so I was assuming my filter would have taken some more out but my new shrimp still seem stressed out.


One 50% water change would reduce the copper by 50% .
2n 50% water change would drop the copper to 75%.
3rd 50% water change would drop it to 88%.
4th 50% water change would drop it to 94%.

four 50% water changes would be enough but three is probably enough. But first thing first is to stop guessing dosages and get a 1ml syringe.

Bump:


> Sorry, so I usually poke a hole in the bottle of water conditioner/Flourish and I'm estimating each squirt was around 1-2 mL. I'm realizing now how much I over did it, I feel so stupid. My question now is how long do you think the Flourish and copper is going to stay in my tank? Like I said I have already done two 50% water changes and it's been a few days so I was assuming my filter would have taken some more out but my new shrimp still seem stressed out.


One 50% water change would reduce the copper by 50% .
2n 50% water change would drop the copper to 75%.
3rd 50% water change would drop it to 88%.
4th 50% water change would drop it to 94%.

four 50% water changes would be enough but three is probably enough. But first thing first is to stop guessing dosages and get a 1ml syringe.


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

Flourish Comprehensive or Flourish Excel? Overdose on Excel will definitely cause problems, but I'm doubtful Comprehensive would. I think people see copper listed as an ingredient and automatically assume that's the issue, but it really takes a lot more copper than you would think.

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## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

Acute toxicity LC50 for Caridina spp. is 0.07 ppm. This is substantially higher than what any fertilizer would provide unless you grossly overdose.


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## clownplanted (Mar 3, 2017)

As mentioned the level of copper dosed would not be enough unless you did a bottoms up with the bottle

The concern I have is you said the tank had been cycling for three weeks. Unless you had used cycled media from another tank I feel this is the problem and you had a ammonia and or nitrite spike due to not fully cycled. You could of had a mini cycle and guarantee that would of been MUCH more problematic then the small amount of copper added. 


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