acclimating new arrivals - URGENT

[jba6511]

Today I got a cleaner shrimp for the tank. The tank is fully cycled and the water tested fine before adding the shrimp. I brought him home from the store, floated the bag for an hour and then removed him from the bag with a net and added to the tank. This is the same thing I did for my pair of clowns, hermit crabs and snails with no problems. However, about 20 min ago we noticed that the shrimp was not moving and was in fact deceased. The girlfriend is trying to exchange him right now for another. How should we acclimate this one? Is there something other than floating the bags in the tank water and adding that we should be doing?

 

[julie853]

If you look at the side bar on the left of your screen your see a site on acclimation if you go there it will show you a small video on how to properly acclimate your fish-inverts.

 

[jba6511]

anyway to do this using a turkey baster and just dripping for a period of time? Don't really have the material to do the drip the way they demo'ed it right now and the gf should be home any second.

 

[fenrir]

Before I got the proper equitment I used a zippy cup. So something similar should work.

 

[julie853]

All I use is regular airline from my FW tank and a bucket if you dont have a bucket do you have something else around that hasn't had detergent in it.I have used one of my large kettle pots before although unless it is extremly rinsed of any kind of soap I would not use it.

 

[jba6511]

would placing the shrimp in a clean bucket with the water from the lfs, then slowly adding tank water every few min (15-20) work? What about the shock from the temp change during this period?

 

[julie853]

also if you have a walmart close by I would leave the shrimp in the bag and pick up some airline tubing if it would'nt take to long.I'm only two minutes away from mine so it's easy for me to do this.

 

[julie853]

If you dont have away of getting any airhose let the bag float for twenty minutes in your tank then try slowly adding tank water to the bucket.

 

[jba6511]

ok new cleaner shrimp is here and I think this will be the plan (please correct me if I am wrong). Float the bag for 30 - 40 min, while I make dinner, then poor shrimp and lfs tank water into clean bucket and slowly add water (about a spoons worth) every 5-10 min for another 30 and then add to tank. Sound good?

 

[mar1376]

How is it going with your cleaner shrimp? ***) I just added my first cleaner today also

 

[jba6511]

he got floated for an hour, pured into a seperate container and tank water has been slowly added every 10 - 15 min. Almost done with this and am going to place in the tank. The LFS parameters are close to mine so my fingers are crossed.
On a side note, the girlfriend asked at the stroe how to acclimate as well. One person said float and then add that the cleaner shrimp are just sensitive and there is not a lot that can be done. Another said float and drip. In my brief research this seems to be what I found as well. 50% saying float or no acclimation and 50% saying drip. So who knows? I guess I will find out for myself in a few hours. Good luck with your shrimp. They are fun to watch and are a great addition. Hope you have better luck than I did with my first.

 

[jba6511]

just a quick update if in case anyone was wondering. The cleaner shrimp made it through the night and appears to be doing fine. He has been crawling all over the tank's LR and the clown fish keep playing with him as well. Thanks for all of the help. Hopefully he will be o.k.

 

[hatessushi]

If you are drip acclimating then you don't need to float the item. The reason is that when dripping the temp will slowly change to that of your tank as long as there is no ac or air blowing on the container. The best way is to drip until water has doubled then remove half the water and throw out. IMO you should do this acclimating shrimp for about 3 hours. It may not take that long if the salinity of the lfs water is close to that of your tank water or it may take longer if the salinity difference is large. Shrmp are extremely sensitive to quick changes in salinity and that's what probably happened to your first shrimp. Since all you did was float for temp acclimation you did nothing to acclimate it to your tank salinity so the shrimp probably died of osmotic shock.

 

[jba6511]

well sad turn of events. About an hours ago the shrimp went into hiding, and then looked like he was having trouble breathing. Sadly he died as well a little later. I think thats it for me keeping shrimp for awhile. Will try again in a few weeks with the 3 hours drip acclimation.

 

[monalisa]

Originally Posted by jba6511
well sad turn of events. About an hours ago the shrimp went into hiding, and then looked like he was having trouble breathing. Sadly he died as well a little later. I think thats it for me keeping shrimp for awhile. Will try again in a few weeks with the 3 hours drip acclimation.
Are you sure they died? I know when I did a tank switch, my CB shrimp also went into hiding, and I was convinced he was dead as well...staying in the same spot, not eating. A day or so later though, he began moving around and eating, still a little skittlish...but he was ok. Another few days later, he molted, and he's been fine ever since. IDK...they react in stressful situations. Hope this helps.
Lisa :happyfish

 

[jba6511]

no i am sure they were dead. I even triple checked to make sure. I am going to wait a few weeks, get a peppermint shrimp and do the drip acclimation properly and then if all is well try with another cleaner shrimp.

 

[hatessushi]

Most of the time a shrimp will molt after putting them in a new tank. Also they may do it at anytime instead of at night like they usually do. If you ever watched them molt sometimes they will just lay there for a long time without moving and will look very dead. Even if you stick something in the water and try to nudge them they still won't move. I would leave the shrimp in the tank and if it's dead then crabs will come and eat it. Then you know it's dead.

 

[nygel]

I've got an acclimation (drip) question..... I'm thinking that when you drip out the water from the main tank for an hour you're gonna be low on water..... when dripping the water from D/T to the box... can you syphon the water back from the box to the tank?

 

[almostclueless]

Well, if you look on the flash demo, it apears that only very little amount of watter is dripping. maybe 5 gallons at most will drip from you're tank. If it took more, just buy the fish when you need to do a water change anyways.

 

[rstiles]

you should tie a couple of knots in the line flow rate 2-3 drops a second,let the water double (about an hour) throw 1/2 away,double again throw away 1/2,and one more time,the most water you should use is maybe 2 gallons