# Help me find out why my snails/shrimps are dying



## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

I'm guessing this: 
"Seachem Excel (I overdose it sometimes 2x, but not often).
Seachem Flourish Comprehensive
Seachem Prime
Seachem Root Tabs (8-10 for 29 gallon)
API Leaf Zone"

and this:

"My fishes:
Haleq Raspboras
Small and peacefull Angelfish
Corydoras sterbai
Platy
Bolivian Ram (added after)"


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## EvilFish (Oct 15, 2013)

Soothing Shrimp
What exactly?

I never see my fishes even approach to the snails or shrimps...

I also use the Melafix some times.


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## Kat12 (Aug 11, 2013)

is there copper in any of the things you add? I think the flourish has traces of copper

That sounds like a lot to add to a tank that has 1/2 a watt per gallon.


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## Oceangirl (Feb 5, 2013)

You are adding too many chemicals to your tank, Excel has been know to kill them instantly. Root tabs/Flourish contain copper, Copper is BAD! Also Fish are stressing your shrimp after lights out, and you can't watch your tank 24/7. They are most likely bugging them when the lights are off and you not in the room. Did you know people keep Angel fish to feed their Shrimp culls to? They have also been known to eat Neon Tetras WHOLE.


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## EvilFish (Oct 15, 2013)

So, I don't need to add the ferts at all?


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

Evilfish, I guess what I'm trying to say is that most people who keep shrimp end up keeping them in their own low tech tank.

Shrimp are on the bottom of the food chain and even if not eaten, can be picked on to the point of stressed death. They also don't have to be eaten whole, parts like legs and antennae come off just fine.

Some people do okay with ferts, but shrimp are more sensitive than fish. So just a little more of one chemical, while fish may do okay, may kill shrimp.

Also keep in mind a ph of 8.2 for Bamboo shrimp is very high. They tend to like 7ish down to 6.5ph

Does this help some?


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## 7970 (Sep 1, 2013)

I'd guess that it's your fish eating them. My cardinal tetras have killed a couple of my shrimp. And Oceangirl, I use flourish excel and flourish on my tank and have been for a couple months, no deaths other than the ones that my tetras killed and my tank is quickly overpopulating with shrimp.


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## Oceangirl (Feb 5, 2013)

It works for some, It kills for others. a Simple google of shrimp and excel with give you a host of threads all over the net.


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

Oceangirl said:


> Root tabs/Flourish contain copper, Copper is BAD!



It's the dose that separates the essential nutrients from the poisons. Too much can kill, but too little can kill too.

In the case of copper, the tiny amount in fertilizers (and food) is an important micronutrient for both plants and shrimp. Shrimp use a copper-based blood protein (hemocyanin) to transport oxygen in their body. They don't need much copper, but I doubt that the amount in fertilizer is doing them in.


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## Notorious93 (Jun 3, 2013)

Overdose on copper probably.

I dose regularly with everything you said and use root tabs and my shrimp are fine, I just dose lower than the recomended amount. 

Fish don't normally attack adult shrimp, not even my puffers....I'm betting its copper


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## Hmoobthor (Aug 15, 2011)

Heres the problem I face with this two snail and shrimp you have:

Nerite snail:

Already starving to death from the store because they have no algae to eat and most of the time, they are with fish who would devour all the food leaving them with nothing to eat.

Solution: To keep them alive, toss in a heavy algae tank and keep that tank going with algae (add no more than 2 per tank)

Bamboo shrimp: 

Same as nerite snail, already starving to death because they are filter feeding and feeding flake doesn't do much.

Solution: Get a powerhead or spray bar in the tank. Feeding spirulina pellet or related that would dissolve and break down fouling the tank with food matter

Without this, both will die in a couple days once you put them in the tank.


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## garfieldnfish (Sep 25, 2010)

No planaria takes many water changes to be removed completely and will kill nerite snails. You added them too quickly after treating the tank with no planaria. Bamboo shrimp are ok with many types of small fish. I kept 3 of them for years in a community tank. However, I believe the many chemicals you add did them in.


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

Oceangirl said:


> It works for some, It kills for others. a Simple google of shrimp and excel with give you a host of threads all over the net.


I gave some baby Rili's to a friend who has a planted tank, After a month she used 1/4 the dose of excel and within 2 days all were dead.

I don't add anything at all in my planted tanks and they thrive. Well, I do a 20% weekly water change .


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## EvilFish (Oct 15, 2013)

Ok thanks!!! 

My new nerita is OK for already 3 day. Old one is alive, but not active? Any way to recover it or it will die soon?


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## Oceangirl (Feb 5, 2013)

Do some water changes, not adding in anymore chemicals. Then add powdered food for the bamboo shrimp to eat, maybe some algae wafer for the nerite.


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## EvilFish (Oct 15, 2013)

How much tea spoon of algae wafers I need to add to 29g?

And how about I nerita snail that not active but not dead also?


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## Art by Stef* (Jan 27, 2013)

I'm new to shrimp (neos) and nerites, too, and don't have much algae growing that concerned me, so added algae wafers, along with other things.

I found out the neo shrimp are partial to a french cut canned green bean and I put a raw carrot shaving peeled with a vegetable peeler and the nerite parked itself on it for 2 days and didn't budge until it was all gone. I never seen a critter go so ga-ga over anything before. I hope it doesn't OD on beta carotene. 
I would put a slice near your sluggish nerite and see what its reaction is, and if it perks up.

They also like a dried banana leaf after it's been in the tank for a couple weeks and softens.

Had bamboo shrimp before, in a heavily planted community tank, and no fish ever bothered them. (guppies, swords, neons, cories) They would park themselves under the filter and fan feed. I would "blow" a mix of spirulina, powdered fish food, and sometimes egg yolk at them from an eye dropper. If a fish got too close, they would "poke' them.
They were quite large.

Although the bamboo shrimp were in a CO2 infused tank, with ferts n stuff, I am not risking that with these neos and nerites, and they have their own tank.

Copper scares me with them, although I see a lot of shrimp foods actually contain copper and list it as an ingredient?

-Stef*


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## gerbillo (Dec 5, 2013)

Art by Stef* said:


> Copper scares me with them, although I see a lot of shrimp foods actually contain copper and list it as an ingredient?


Not to worry, it's listed because copper in tiny amounts is an essential nutrient for shrimp (plants too, for that matter). They need it for their copper-based blood (instead of our iron-based blood). The amount in food is not nearly high enough to be toxic to them.


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