News: I just went out the door and saw a big cleaning cart in the stairway of my apartment building. So it has been cleaned today, with a lot of chemicals from the smell of it. I have an air vent quite close to the tank, it might be connected to the stairwell.
It still seems like a long shot though since the shrimps all reacted at the same time when I started the filter.
your right it does look like some kind of chemical got in there somehow. maybey you pet your dog with a flee collar and forgot to wash your hands or something ?
Did you or your neighbors have pest service? Anyone use any aerosol sprays, scents, disinfectants? Did you clean the outside or rim with windex or something else? Do you have a heater? Is it functioning properly? Dust?
These are some things I can think of but for sure it’s a reaction to something. I’d look into water change asap and charcoal filtration.
Shit. Please let us know if you ever find out the reason. Ammonia spike doesn’t kill them that quick unless it’s a huge dose. Something super toxic is involved.
Even if you rinse your bucket with tap water, once dry the amount of chlorine left over would not have cause massive death like that
EDIT: i agree with others. You might have had something on your hands
Any open windows lately at home? It would be contamination from the air if the neighbors are spraying pesticides— it could also lead to residue in your bucket.
I’m sorry for your loss, I think this is related to some type of contamination or if the bucket is not made well, plastic contamination is a possibility?
I suffered something similar just a couple weeks ago, albeit it was pesticide from a new plant I put in. Affected my crystal shrimp, while everyone else was fine, including cherry shrimp.
So somehow a strong contaminant got in, basically. Residue from your hands is most likely cause, unless someone got some pesticide residue into the bucket you used. Could have been some ant trap chemical possibly around the house which cross contaminated.
Not your fault, but next time you could try and wear surgical gloves 🤷🏻♂️.
You did the best thing possible by doing a big water change. I did around a 90% change, and this definitely helped. Don’t take any “dead” ones out yet. Leave them for atleast a few hours, they should hopefully recover. I put all of my dead ones in a breeder net just in case. Few hours later, they were fine and moving.
I’ve gone through this twice, it’s really heartbreaking so you’ve got my sympathy. First time somebody had contaminated my water change bucket with some chemicals and not told me about it. Second time I never figured out a cause…but my gut tells me that the local water supply might have been contaminated with pesticides somehow; on this occasion it happened exactly as you described and just as you showed in the video. Definitely use charcoal filtration as others have said, its a very useful tool when you suspect any type of contamination in general. If you have to get more shrimp and start over, run the charcoal filtration for a period to ensure the fresh water is as pure as you can get it. Unsure if you have a lid, but also a good idea to keep out particulate from the surrounding air.
I once lost an entire tank when my dad installed one of those automatic spritz-every-15-miinutes air fresheners in the same room as my tank… Be careful of any aerosols around your tanks!
Sorry for your loss, that really sucks. For something this drastic it can only be a highly toxic chemical (insecticide, copper, essential oils, etc). Only time I’ve seen shrimp react badly as quickly was when I accidentally added a plant with pesticide residue.
The seller claimed the plants had been treated to remove it and I followed their instructions for a baking soda wash. Then soaked and rinsed them with clean water for days after just in case. Shrimp still went nuts the moment the plant hit the tank.
Luckily must have diluted it enough as a large water change, ditching the plant and adding carbon saved most of them. Now won’t touch imported plants which require pesticide treatment with a barge pole. Also won’t allow aerosols of any kind near the tanks. Religiously run carbon and resin filters for rogue chemicals just in case. Would rather lose some fertiliser effectiveness than take the risk again
Looks like some sort of contamination. I had something similar happen and I believe it was due to residual pesticides on the blanched zucchini I was feeding. I started performing large 30-50% weekly water changes which is aggressive for a shrimp tank but still did not see much improvement even after three months. Lethargy, one or two deaths weekly, and no new shrimplets in all that time.
I rounded up any survivors and placed them in a 5 gal bucket with 30% old water and slowly dripped in dechlorinated tap to fill up the rest of the bucket. Broke down the entire tank and restarted from scratch using the old substrate to add height to back of the tank and capped with sand. Replanted stems, re-added the old floating plants and despite cleaning the sponge filters straight under the tap, the tank was cycled in less than a week and I added my shrimp back after 4 days. They’re thriving again and my colony is finally recovering from the contamination that probably wiped out half the population
Same scene happened to my shrimp after my sister did her make up in the room. I always hated the smell of chemicals but they claimed that I was being oversensitive. Sorry for your loss. I wouldn’t wish this for even upon my enemy
biffrov 
News: I just went out the door and saw a big cleaning cart in the stairway of my apartment building. So it has been cleaned today, with a lot of chemicals from the smell of it. I have an air vent quite close to the tank, it might be connected to the stairwell.
It still seems like a long shot though since the shrimps all reacted at the same time when I started the filter.
I feel like you had something on your hands that washing/rinsing didn’t remove.
your right it does look like some kind of chemical got in there somehow. maybey you pet your dog with a flee collar and forgot to wash your hands or something ?
Did you or your neighbors have pest service? Anyone use any aerosol sprays, scents, disinfectants? Did you clean the outside or rim with windex or something else? Do you have a heater? Is it functioning properly? Dust?
These are some things I can think of but for sure it’s a reaction to something. I’d look into water change asap and charcoal filtration.
Shit. Please let us know if you ever find out the reason. Ammonia spike doesn’t kill them that quick unless it’s a huge dose. Something super toxic is involved.
Even if you rinse your bucket with tap water, once dry the amount of chlorine left over would not have cause massive death like that
EDIT: i agree with others. You might have had something on your hands
Man what a tragedy. Sorry you’re going through this. Hopefully some of them survive this.
Something on your hands?
I was able to save some of the shrimp in a similar state of shock by moving them to a bowl with the clean water I had prepared for a water change.
Looks similar to a chemical reaction. Bug spray or cleaning agent?
Any open windows lately at home? It would be contamination from the air if the neighbors are spraying pesticides— it could also lead to residue in your bucket.
I’m sorry for your loss, I think this is related to some type of contamination or if the bucket is not made well, plastic contamination is a possibility?
I suffered something similar just a couple weeks ago, albeit it was pesticide from a new plant I put in. Affected my crystal shrimp, while everyone else was fine, including cherry shrimp.
So somehow a strong contaminant got in, basically. Residue from your hands is most likely cause, unless someone got some pesticide residue into the bucket you used. Could have been some ant trap chemical possibly around the house which cross contaminated.
Not your fault, but next time you could try and wear surgical gloves 🤷🏻♂️.
You did the best thing possible by doing a big water change. I did around a 90% change, and this definitely helped. Don’t take any “dead” ones out yet. Leave them for atleast a few hours, they should hopefully recover. I put all of my dead ones in a breeder net just in case. Few hours later, they were fine and moving.
I’ve gone through this twice, it’s really heartbreaking so you’ve got my sympathy. First time somebody had contaminated my water change bucket with some chemicals and not told me about it. Second time I never figured out a cause…but my gut tells me that the local water supply might have been contaminated with pesticides somehow; on this occasion it happened exactly as you described and just as you showed in the video. Definitely use charcoal filtration as others have said, its a very useful tool when you suspect any type of contamination in general. If you have to get more shrimp and start over, run the charcoal filtration for a period to ensure the fresh water is as pure as you can get it. Unsure if you have a lid, but also a good idea to keep out particulate from the surrounding air.
I see a lot of pearling. Are you sure the regulator on your co2 hasn’t malfunctioned?
I once lost an entire tank when my dad installed one of those automatic spritz-every-15-miinutes air fresheners in the same room as my tank… Be careful of any aerosols around your tanks!
Sorry for your loss, that really sucks. For something this drastic it can only be a highly toxic chemical (insecticide, copper, essential oils, etc). Only time I’ve seen shrimp react badly as quickly was when I accidentally added a plant with pesticide residue.
The seller claimed the plants had been treated to remove it and I followed their instructions for a baking soda wash. Then soaked and rinsed them with clean water for days after just in case. Shrimp still went nuts the moment the plant hit the tank.
Luckily must have diluted it enough as a large water change, ditching the plant and adding carbon saved most of them. Now won’t touch imported plants which require pesticide treatment with a barge pole. Also won’t allow aerosols of any kind near the tanks. Religiously run carbon and resin filters for rogue chemicals just in case. Would rather lose some fertiliser effectiveness than take the risk again
I’m so sorry. This is my worst nightmare. I have a 50 gallon filled with hundred of happy neos and they are just so cute and derpy ❤️🩹
Do you use supplemental CO2? I’ve had my shrimps looking like this when the CO2 concentration was too high. Turned it off and they went back to normal
maybe even just the smallest amount of soap on your hands 🙁 I’m so sorry this breaks my heart
Question, do you have snails and if so are they alive? I have seen this in the past when someone dropped a penny in a sump. All the inverts died.
If it’s not copper poisoning then I would lean to something on your hands. I just did a little cleaning on my tank and hope this never happens to me.
Do you use co2?
Did you change the water at same time as the filter maintenance? Wondering if the tap water was drastically different ph or something.
I’ve had my tap water randomly come out as high as 8.5+ ph for a few minutes when it’s normally like 7
Looks like some sort of contamination. I had something similar happen and I believe it was due to residual pesticides on the blanched zucchini I was feeding. I started performing large 30-50% weekly water changes which is aggressive for a shrimp tank but still did not see much improvement even after three months. Lethargy, one or two deaths weekly, and no new shrimplets in all that time.
I rounded up any survivors and placed them in a 5 gal bucket with 30% old water and slowly dripped in dechlorinated tap to fill up the rest of the bucket. Broke down the entire tank and restarted from scratch using the old substrate to add height to back of the tank and capped with sand. Replanted stems, re-added the old floating plants and despite cleaning the sponge filters straight under the tap, the tank was cycled in less than a week and I added my shrimp back after 4 days. They’re thriving again and my colony is finally recovering from the contamination that probably wiped out half the population
Same scene happened to my shrimp after my sister did her make up in the room. I always hated the smell of chemicals but they claimed that I was being oversensitive. Sorry for your loss. I wouldn’t wish this for even upon my enemy
I remember this happening to me once before because I forgot that I put cologne on my wrist and was fixing the shrimp tank
I have no idea on the cause, but I’m very sorry for your losses. That’s devastating
Do you have co2? I see a LOT of pearling in that video. Check your settings if you are running co2.
I’m so sorry this happened. 🙁 Your shrimps are obviously loved and I’m sure you did everything you could!