Cherry shrimp died right away in new owner's aquarium

banjocat

Candiru
MFK Member
Dec 5, 2007
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Invertebrate are 10 times more sensitive than fish on water chemistry such as TDS, metals, nitrate, and hardness. Some tap water contain heavy metals such as zinc, lead and copper that are toxic to shrimp but OK for fish or human consumption. Under those conditions, not sure if a few hours drip acclimation will necessarily help.
The problem is if you sell to people, especially online, you can't know everyone's water chemistry. I guess this is why a lot of places enforce a policy of no refunds unless the fish or shrimp are dead on arrival. This isn't making me very excited to sell shrimp, but not sure what I can do because they seem to breed out of control.

I use prime which claims it helps with metals, but I'm not sure if it actually does.
 

Hendre

Bawitius
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Jan 14, 2016
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Prime does certainly help with metals :)

Most places only give refunds if it's DOA, up to the customer to acclimate properly but you can give them advice to reduce the risk!
 
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tiger15

Goliath Tigerfish
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Oct 1, 2012
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Prime can precipitate out some metals, but only to the extent that the metals are within expected maximum levels in average tap water. Metal piping and solders can leak out metals to household water, particularly if hot water or stagnant water over night is drawn.

Without knowing the OP's water parameters, it's hard to pinpoint what caused the death of the shrimp. Metal intoxication is just one speculation, but it can be something else such as TDS, hardness, pH or nitrate.
 
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