OblongShrimp Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 I was looking at my tanks today and noticed a bunch of dead Tiger Shrimp!!! Upon further investigation I noticed that they air line was plugged and so there wasn't any aeration in the tank. This lead to a low enough O2 to kill most my adult tigers. The young were all up at the very top of the tank as close to the surface as they could get. My airlines seem to get plugged up with a dark almost black crusty substance over time. I need to stick a needle or something thing in there and break it up sometimes. This was the first time though I had lost shrimp due to the O2 levels though. This was probably my most heavily stocked tank though so the O2 demand was higher then my other tanks. I removed all the dead tigers I could find but when i started up the air again the filter threw a bunch of crud into the water. It looks like I only lost 10-15 tigers but time will tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquasapien69 Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 That sucks. Sorry to hear that. Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicca32 Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 that bites man. i hope you dont lose any more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metageologist Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 That's to bad, have you ever looked into the casue. Does this happen with all air pumps. Is the pump in a humid area? Have a gniess day. -Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DETAquarium Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 Sorry to hear, how large are the tanks? How many shrimp were there in the tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 I always assumed that crust was oil being thrown, but maybe not (?) The good news is airlines are pretty cheap, so costs very little to replace it. It also may be time to open up that pump and see if there's anything weird going on in there. Sorry about the tragedy, man. That sucks. Keep watch for ammonia poisoning, or too much Nits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OblongShrimp Posted June 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 So they have all recovered and I haven't seen anymore deaths. I guess a lot of the adults did survive the O2 drop and everyone is happily picking like normal. The crusty plug forms right at the end of the airline where it would be in contact with the water and air. I think all the airpumps I have used before have this problem so I think it is just crud from the tank that slowly builds up on it. The tank was a 15 gallon with probably 50+ adults and hundreds (probably more then 300) of smaller tigers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctaylor3737 Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 Many thats horrible! I used to have this problem to. I found out that it is easier to buy a large roll of airline and just replace when it starts to gunk up. Usually get enough time out of the line to justify doing this. I also buy a 500ft roll and it lasts forever. I always get paranoid when it comes to something like this. It is why I usually have more than one filter on a seperate system in case one fails. I used to have my discus tank on an outlet that was able to be turned off at the light switch. Came in one day and the tank was 80 degrees, two year old switched it off lol. I learned pretty quick and got an alarm if the temp drops. Might be an idea to keep it replaced! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 I've noticed the ends of my latex lines go brown and brittle. I think that is some kind of oxidation. I need to buy a new roll anyway. I think I'm down to my last 50 feet or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpy Daddy Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 Hi Oblongshrimp, Sorry to hear about your lost. Next time keep a small bottle of 3% conc H2O2 with you. If O2 problem happens again or you see shrimps started swimming to the top and/or swim and drift down slowly, quickly put H2O2 at 1ml per 10-20L of water. This will immediately replenish the O2 and temporarily hyper-oxygenate the water to help the shrimp relieve stress. O2 depletion is undetectable (unless you have O2 or Redox probe), hence is top killing factors in most tanks. Normally are caused either by technical issue like yours or badly designed tank. Since you are breeding shrimps for commercial purpose, I will strongly suggest you to have failover/backup system for O2 and filtration. Even I'm not a commercial breeder, all my tanks have backups on these area. IMO, additional devices cost less than the dead shrimps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OblongShrimp Posted June 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 It is true that additional money upfront can save you money in the long run. I am moving in a year but when I am able to build out my fishroom again I think I may do a double air system. Basically have a 2nd air pump and have 2 airlines going to each tank. I may look at setting up canisters as well if I have the space for them. When O2 gets really low its easy to tell by looking at the shrimp or fish. They will be up near the surface of the tank were the O2 levels are highest. Fish will hang up at the top as well but since they are still swimming when they start getting worse they will sink to the bottom and sit on the substrate. As hyouskoku mentioned they will also sometimes swim around and then just faceplant into the substrate or flip upside down (I saw this with Amanos where the CO2 was to high). I have heard of people using H2O2 in that way but have never used it myself for purposes of increasing the O2 levels, I will keep in mind if this happens again. The shrimp started acting normally within 30 minutes of the airflow coming back on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpy Daddy Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 Thanks god they are good now. I can feel your pain and sadness. It happens to me years ago when I swapped a new pack of AC and suck up all the O2 and wiped out 30% of the population. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc4PC2 Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 Wow, sorry to hear that, that is a bummer for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpo Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 Glad you got everything under control now. what was the tank temperature when that happened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OblongShrimp Posted June 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2014 My room was 72 so they were probably about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h4n Posted June 14, 2014 Report Share Posted June 14, 2014 Wow sorry to hear Will. At least it wasn't the whole tank... Bummer either way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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