Made a mistake that cost the life of a little fish.

[Minanora]

@Torrey@Odd Duck@xXInkedPhoenixX

*Facepalm* Shrimp molts... Totally shrimp molts. Sheesus. Still haven only seen one shrimp at a time, but that makes me feel better.

[Odd Duck]

On 11/29/2021 at 1:24 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Nope and nope. I guarantee you I don't overfeed, 1x a day and not much. And I have a whole buncha plants. In fact they're wildly out of control in one tank right now. It might be source water but I don't think so. 3 of 5 tanks have 40ppm, the other 2 are 20 or 10

Have you checked your source water?  Do you have leaves that are spent or damaged and need removed?  Are you adding too much fertilizer?  There’s only just so many sources of nitrates:  food (whether it’s first pass or second), fertilizer, dead leaves, dead organisms, or source water.  By far the most common is overfeeding (always the source of mine).

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Odd Duck lol yea I know there are chronic overfeeders everywhere. So I get that. I don't use ferts at all. It's a mystery to me too. For example my "Angry Man" tank, 20g tall only 10 Black Neons and 3 Nerites. Weekly 3 gallon water change. They're pigs but they only get 1 pinch of food so I don't encourage the bladder snail population which is low.  Sometimes it tests at 80ppm Nitrate. It's not super planted but its population is very low and not so planted I wouldn't see rotted plants. If it were my source water 2 of my tanks which last tested at 5 and 20 would likely be in that range too. 

Anyway. It was the only reason I could think I couldn't keep shrimp which was the point of the mention and some sites say it's not tolerable levels for them. (I've tried ghost and cherry shrimp) everything else is good in the tanks and my fish don't seem to have any issue with it so I actually don't worry about it too much. I just think it weird. I will at some point test the source water just out of curiosity. 

 

Edited November 29, 2021 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Odd Duck]

@xXInkedPhoenixX Very odd, for sure!

[Torrey]

On 11/29/2021 at 2:32 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

@Odd Duck lol yea I know there are chronic overfeeders everywhere. So I get that. I don't use ferts at all. It's a mystery to me too. For example my "Angry Man" tank, 20g tall only 10 Black Neons and 3 Nerites. Weekly 3 gallon water change. They're pigs but they only get 1 pinch of food so I don't encourage the bladder snail population which is low.  Sometimes it tests at 80ppm Nitrate. It's not super planted but its population is very low and not so planted I wouldn't see rotted plants. If it were my source water 2 of my tanks which last tested at 5 and 20 would likely be in that range too. 

Anyway. It was the only reason I could think I couldn't keep shrimp which was the point of the mention and some sites say it's not tolerable levels for them. (I've tried ghost and cherry shrimp) everything else is good in the tanks and my fish don't seem to have any issue with it so I actually don't worry about it too much. I just think it weird. I will at some point test the source water just out of curiosity. 

 

This is going to sound weird (I am on pain meds, so if I don't phrase well.I apologize in advance):

How old are the pipes in your home?

Reason I ask, is in mynold home, I only lost shrimp in the winter time, when I needed to add a little warmth to water for water changes. When the hot water heater had to be replaced, the heater got redflagged on the inspection, and the landlord had to replace the *copper* pipes that had been used when the house was first built... in 1954. They also replaced 2 lead pipes.

I quit losing shrimp.

 

Just a possibility to think about. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Torrey now THAT'S a possibility for me.

[CalmedByFish]

@Karen B. I think most of us know how awful that feels. I've found at least 3 dry on the floor over the years, each my fault. I'm sorry for your loss. Someone else suggested trying to be as gracious to yourself as you would be to anyone else on here who did the same thing. That seems wise. Hard, but wise.

A few days ago, I suddenly realized that of my 30-something shrimp, only 6 were still alive. I'd looked at them everyday, but only at one small section of the tank, where apparently all the live ones had been collecting. Turns out the nitrates were the highest I've ever gotten on a test - somewhere from 90-150. Totally my fault. I think I've managed to get the tank in a much healthier condition than I'd ever intended to mess with before, and you'll fix issues too - even if it's just remembering to fully close the top. It's bad, but good will come.

[Brandon p]

I would guess that fish in the hand of most people in the group out live a majority of peers in the wild