Shrimp Deaths from Dog Medication

bpmox · Post by **bpmox** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:11 pm

I just wanted to share the experience I had yesterday in my bee shrimp tank. That morning my father put Advantage brand flea medication on our dog Roxy. Twelve hours later I was sitting on the floor against my bed watching the tank when when she came in and layed on my bed and put her head across my shoulder. I was sitting there petting her when I saw a cyclops swim by in my shrimp tank so I reached in with a pipette to suck it up and the shrimp went absolutely berserk.

Even the little shrimp I never get to see came out of the moss and were flipping upside down and floating around the water. At first they started frantically swimming backwards and I started doing water changes. After I had turned the water over several times most had lost nearly all motor functions and were laying on their sides, huntched up. The ones swimming were erratic and failing to grab ahold of things, falling off plants and such.

In trying to figure out what had happened I dipped out a bowl of water plus a cherry shrimp from another tank, and moved my fingers around in it. It only took a few minutes for the cherry to die, and that's when I rememberd that the dog was treated earlier in the day. The packaging even stated to be sure not to get it in water because it was 'extremely toxic to fish'. Potent stuff.

To my surprise, about half have survied. Ones that were laying on their side last night, are swimming around upright tonight. I don't know if I'll lose more or not.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:48 pm

Sorry about your loss

. Thanks for sharing so we can learn from this.

Newjohn · Post by **Newjohn** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 1:58 am

Hello bpmox
And Welcome to the Forum

Sorry that your first post had to be of a disaster.

But, it may some other Forum member in the furture.

John

southerndesert · Post by **southerndesert** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:27 am

Wow what a disaster, hope the surviving shrimp make it and as mentioned this post will hope others avoid this....

Bill

AnneRiceBowl · Post by **AnneRiceBowl** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:59 am

So wait...how did the medication get into the water? Was it just because she (the dog) was in the room with the tank? Did you have it on your hands?

Shroob · Post by **Shroob** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:04 pm

He patted the dog, then saw a cyclops in the tank, went to remove it with a pipette. So I'm thinking the stuff got transfered from his hand into the tank water.

bpmox · Post by **bpmox** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:08 pm

It was my hand that contaminated the water, it went underwater along with the pipette. I'll definately be more mindful of such things in the future.

The good news is that the surviving shrimp seem to be doing ok. When I was doing the water changes I really wanted to give up and just pour the tank out because it seemed like such a lost cause. It was painful to watch the shrimp curl up and fall over, I'm really surprised by the recovery.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:49 pm

Good to here about the recovery

. Please keep us updated, thanks.

bpmox · Post by **bpmox** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:03 pm

Ok, I've had an additional 4 more shrimp to die. I believe they are all poisoned and are just dying slowly. While they can keep their balance now, they barely move and sit around most of the time like little satues, moving only their antennas.

I also had Yellow Neocardinas in the tank, and that first night I lost as many of them as the bee shrimp. They took it just as badly, reacted in the same fasion, but they seem to be recovering better, they swim and eat, and all the recent deaths have been from the bee shrimp.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:05 pm

I also had Yellow Neocardinas in the tank, and that first night I lost as many of them as the bee shrimp. They took it just as badly, reacted in the same fasion, but they seem to be recovering better, they swim and eat, and all the recent deaths have been from the bee shrimp.

If the yellow shrimp are as hardy as Red Cherry Shrimp, then they will do better. The bee shrimp tend to be more sensitive than RCS. I still hope the rest of your shrimp recover

.

Baby_Girl · Post by **Baby_Girl** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:44 am

wow, that's one heck of an initial AND prolonged reaction. Thanks for the warning, bpmox. I'm sure the little amount on your hand was in the micro-liter range, so it really doesn't take much to hurt shrimp.

I might suggest adding some activated carbon to that tank. It will probably suck up the rest of the chemicals left after the water changes. At least it helped my yellow Neocardinas

(my municipal water contains minute amounts of industrial disinfectants and a little arsenic, to boot)

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:49 am

(my municipal water contains minute amounts of industrial disinfectants and a little arsenic, to boot)

Don't you just love our taxes at work

?

bpmox · Post by **bpmox** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:34 pm

I removed a couple more Bee shrimp this morning.

Baby_Girl, I think that is good advice. I saw a shrimp breeder on 'the planted tank' forum that kept bamboo charcoal sticks in his tanks as a purifier, it didn't look bad either.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:38 pm

Sorry to hear about the bee shrimp

What are "bamboo charcoal sticks"? Are they just charcoal shaped as bamboo?

bpmox · Post by **bpmox** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 4:43 pm

It's just activated carbon thats made from bamboo, and hasn't been crushed up.