# fluorite and shrimp death



## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

There are about a million things that it could be, especially since shrimp tend to be more sensitive to water conditions than fish. A new tank is far more susceptible to ammonia and nitrite spikes, however and that is one possibility of what happened. 
How long had the shrimp been in the tank prior to you adding the plants and stirring up the flourite? Did you already have fish in that tank? The first thing you should've done when seeing the shrimp acting strange is immediately check ammonia, nitrite, and PH, as well as taking note of the temp in the tank. You didn't mention having done any of these tests, nor whether you had used fresh water when separating the survivors.
I can tell you that flourite is not the culprit, nor the plants. I have flourite in over half of my tanks and it doesn't bother shrimp at all. If I had to guess just based on the info you gave, I would say the tank wasn't fully cycled and stirring up the flourite or possibly even just normal feeding caused a minor spike which wiped out your shrimp. Removing your shrimp for a day or 2 and then putting them back without ill effect would be consistent with an ammonia spike, since those spikes are typically short lived.
-Aphyosemion


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## motard (Jan 16, 2005)

Aphyosemion said:


> There are about a million things that it could be, especially since shrimp tend to be more sensitive to water conditions than fish. A new tank is far more susceptible to ammonia and nitrite spikes, however and that is one possibility of what happened.
> How long had the shrimp been in the tank prior to you adding the plants and stirring up the flourite? Did you already have fish in that tank? The first thing you should've done when seeing the shrimp acting strange is immediately check ammonia, nitrite, and PH, as well as taking note of the temp in the tank. You didn't mention having done any of these tests, nor whether you had used fresh water when separating the survivors.
> I can tell you that flourite is not the culprit, nor the plants. I have flourite in over half of my tanks and it doesn't bother shrimp at all. If I had to guess just based on the info you gave, I would say the tank wasn't fully cycled and stirring up the flourite or possibly even just normal feeding caused a minor spike which wiped out your shrimp. Removing your shrimp for a day or 2 and then putting them back without ill effect would be consistent with an ammonia spike, since those spikes are typically short lived.
> -Aphyosemion



Thanks for the info. I am inclined to believe it was the stirring of the gravel that caused some sort of spike. The fish had been in the tank for about 1.5 weeks, the shrimp for about 1 week. Up to the point that I stirred up some gravel, they were fine. The PH is about 5-5.5, low because I am sorting by co2 amount right now. Nitrites at 5 ppm and ammonia at about 1 to 1.5 ppm. Temp about 82 degrees.

The tank is very new and only about 2.5 weeks old.


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## speechless33759 (Sep 11, 2004)

I just moved recently and had to move the shrimp tank. What that did was stir the bottom debris up and this really shot my PH extremely high! I could have been a PH shock that killed your shrimp. Fortunately I moved in town so was able to get more water in there to neutralize the high PH...you can probably siphon some water off the bottom and test that and compare it to the surface water. Just a thought...


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## shalu (Jan 16, 2003)

motard said:


> Nitrites at 5 ppm and ammonia at about 1 to 1.5 ppm.


Few shrimp survive those numbers. They need to be ZERO to be shrimp safe.


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## mef1975 (Jun 24, 2013)

Could the plants have come from a tank that had been treated for algae? The copper in the algaecide? Also, could stirring the fluorite have caused a copper spike? Aren't shrimp sensitive to copper? I know this is an old thread, but still, useful info to consider.


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

shalu said:


> Few shrimp survive those numbers. They need to be ZERO to be shrimp safe.


+1 Those numbers may work for fish, but shrimp will have a tough time with that.


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## stangmus (Apr 1, 2010)

This thread is nine years old.


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## Shremph (Mar 26, 2014)

stangmus said:


> This thread is nine years old.


I had a WTF moment too.


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

LOL What? It still doesn't apply for today?


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