Lost two blueberries, tell me how I messed up

[Parzival]

I did a big water change yesterday (80% or so) ... the new water was temp matched and treated with prime before it went into the tank. I also cleaned out the HOB and replaced the Purigen with a brand new packet. All the inhabitants were very active for the rest of the day.

Today I found my two of my three juvie blueberry shrimp dead -- turned white. The third one seems fine, scavenging like always. The snails, fish, and Amanos seem fine, too, but what do I know?

Any thoughts on what I did wrong, or how I can avoid this in the future?

[barrettsline]

Lost two blueberries, tell me how I messed up

Do you generally clean so thoroughly? Do you always do large water changes? If not that would be my guess to your problem, shock. It could have been to much for them to handle. Have you checked your water parameters?

[Parzival]

I generally do not clean the HOB, but since I installed the bright lights I've had a lot of tiny floating bits ... it really looked like millions of tiny air bubbles, but I guess it was likely a kind of algae. I needed more than a typical 20% water change.

Every time I've checked the water parameters it's been spot-on. I was careful to not disturb the filter media much, except (obviously) the Purigen that I replaced.

Since you brought up water parameters, I just grabbed my test kit, and noticed that the dosing syringe I used yesterday with the Prime was a different one from the one I normally use. It's likely it had some residue of who-knows-what medication one of my kids took recently... Grr! Excuse me while I go write a big fat F on the plunger of the correct syringe. How's that for likely cause of death?

[barrettsline]

Lost two blueberries, tell me how I messed up

It's a possibility however I'd be looking more at the disruption of the filter. Something to me just screams bacteria disruption or something along those lines with such a heavy cleaning. Everything else is eating and moving around ok?

[algarciajr]

That is a very large water change for shrimp, what size tank is it?

[Parzival]

It's hard to tell with the CPD's .. they hardly ever seem to have an appetite. I thought everything looked normal until I saw the dead blueberries.

With the filter I didn't even squeeze the sponge. I just swished the sponge and biomax around in some old aquarium water. Everything else was rinsed in tap water and wiped with paper towels. I've done that before, although this is the first time I removed the impeller from the pump.

[Parzival]

That is a very large water change for shrimp, what size tank is it?

6 gallons

[algarciajr]

Shrimp have such a small bio-load that I normally do a 10-20 percent water change.

[barrettsline]

Lost two blueberries, tell me how I messed up

I think the thing here is something happened with your water change this time. Something got disturbed during the change.

[Jason]

My guess would be the HOB. How did you clean it? With tap water? You may have killed all the beneficial bacteria.

[mistahoo]

My guess would be the HOB. How did you clean it? With tap water? You may have killed all the beneficial bacteria.

With the filter I didn't even squeeze the sponge. I just swished the sponge and biomax around in some old aquarium water. Everything else was rinsed in tap water and wiped with paper towels. I've done that before, although this is the first time I removed the impeller from the pump.

OP described how he/she cleaned the HOB filter. If the sponge was washed in old tank water, it should be fine. Not quite sure what the problem was. Only thing that comes to mind is the shrimp being shocked from the large water change or the syringe had some left over of whatever was used that could be harmful.

[eklikewhoa]

Too much cleaning at one time
Too large of a water change too soon
Inverts are more delicate in most cases so using tap to top off the other possibles didn't help much
It's been raining so the params are probably a bit unfavorable.

[Parzival]

It turns out the pH in the tank is a solid 7.8, up from a constant 7.6. I'll pay attention to the pH of the tap and the tank next time.

I haven't spotted the last blueberry today. I hope he's OK

[allysangels]

the answer is clear... even if the filter was rinsed in tank water... ek is right. inverts are more sensitive and one should never do a water change, especially a big one and clean the filter on the same day. it's a good rule of thumb. .2 on the PH isn't that big of a deal. this was just shock from too much cleaning. people come to me at work all the time saying "all my fish died and i don't know why" and when i ask them to tell me what has happened lately they almost always say "nothing, i just cleaned my tank"

[mnemenoi]

+1 shrimp are notorious for being finicky about cleaning. To be honest, that seems to be the one factor that keeps our shrimp tanks free of fish. Small water changes (20-30%) once a week are about all we do and try to avoid any chance of overfeeding. Cleaning the filter out is hard anytime you do it. Cherries and the other neos are far more forgiving and teach you little lessons you can apply when deciding upon some of the tougher species. Nearly anything else (beside fan shrimp and Amanos) I consider hard. Sulawesi are doubley so, requiring very tight water conditions and meticulous water quality. Bee shrimp can be just as tough though, with soft water and equally stringint water conditions on the reverse side. Hopefully a few made it, but don't give up hope. Try some neos, they are fun and far more forgiving and prolific.