cherry reds sick

[john b.]

I have a problem with my cherry red only tank and am hoping someone here can help. I have recently noticed some of my shrimp darting around the tank and falling over as if they have been poisoned. I have already removed 3 dead ones and it seems like a couple more are now sick. I checked my water parameters and everything seems to be in order. Here are the readings: temp.- 74 deg.
ph- 7.2
kh- 3 deg.
gh- 5 deg.
ammonia- 0 ppm
nitrite- 0 ppm
nitrate- less than 10 ppm
After reading some other comments from Mustafa, I removed a peice of driftwood from the tank late last night and did a 50% water change. I'm going to see if that helps at all.The water had a yellowish tint to it. I don't add any ferts to the tank as it is a low light moss only tank. I do use seachem prime for the water because my tap water is high in chloromine. If anyone has any other help or advice please don't hesitate to add it. I really don't want any more of these wonderful little creatures to suffer.
Thanks,
John

[Mustafa]

Hi John,

You did the right thing at this point. Changing the water and waiting is all you can do right now. Unfortunately, for some shrimp that's still not going to make any difference. Some shrimp recover from poisoning and adverse water conditions but others are permenantly damaged and never come back. Wait a day and see if things improve. Then do another water change using Seachem Prime. The best indication that your shrimp will make it is if they start picking at things again. A healthy or recovering shrimp is, generally, a "picking" shrimp.

Take care,
Mustafa

[rclover]

I had the same experience when I dropped a metal object in my tank and didn't know about it, my shrimp survived after I found the object the next morning and changed 80% of the water.

John

[john b.]

ok, thanks for the replies and I'll keep you posted.

[john b.]

I just wanted to give an update on the sickly shrimp situation. after removing the driftwood and changing 50% of the water, the shrimp seem to be acting better. before they spent most of their time hiding and now they're out picking at the moss. I replaced the wood with a fake peice with moss attached to it. do you think I should do another water change tomorrow, and if so how much do you suggest? thank you for all the help,
John

[Mustafa]

You can do another 50% water change for good measure. It won't harm your shrimp as long as you keep using Seachem Prime with the changes.

Take care,
Mustafa

[shrimpboyLA]

I had a similiar experience with Driftwood. I had a big piece of driftwood that was making my water red and the shrimps were slowly dying off. The die off finally stopped after I removed the driftwood.

I have spoken to a lot of shrimp keepers and most of them said that driftwood is ok to use in shrimp tanks while others had no opinion on that.

[frugalfish]

Driftwood can sometimes be tricky, so here are a few of my tips.

If you presoak driftwood make sure you use a product like Seachem Prime or another good dechorinator. Driftwood can absorb chlorine and chlorimines and leach them back into the water, so make sure the wood is soaking in clean water.

Driftwood will decay and leach tannins which can soften and decrease the pH. If you have water that isn't buffered properly it can cause problems.

Be careful of where you get your driftwood, it isn't all the same.

I use driftwood in my tanks and everyone is doing fine. I always presoak it for a few weeks and watch my water parameters. If you don't like the way it darkens the water, running carbon and doing water changes will remove it or presoak it for a very long time. Newer driftwood leaches like crazy. I personally like the effect in some of my tanks so for me it's not an issue.