Emergency, help needed

[kyle0901]

I bought spirulina powder to feed my shrimps today, and I thought it is safe. But minutes after I mixed one tiny spoon of the powder into the tank, they started jumping and dashing around ridiculouly, apparently in pain. In one occasion i saw one shrimp jumped above the surface of water. Sometimes they just sank to the bottom belly up, looking really dead but will comeback after a while, a clear sign of lingering between life and death. What should I do? I think they can’t make it through the night.

At this point they are still all alive, but I have no idea how much longer they can hang on. I will really die of guiltiness if I wake up tomorrow to a bunch of dead bodies in the water.

I thought about moving all of them to a temporary tank but it is technically hard to catch them in my tank in a small period of time, it would take far too long and I’m not even sure if it works, guys please what can I do?

[Super Jess]

Food does make them super excited, but I don't know about the sinking part. If things look really dire I think the recommended action is to do an 80% water change. Mix up some new brackish water with distilled water and use it to replace most of the existing water in your tank. Cross your fingers and hope I hope they make it!

[SuperProofer]

Also, a spoonful may have been too much. I haven't fed my shrimp, but in my reading here they talk about amounts no bigger than the head of a pin and such. Maybe try a much smaller amount next time.

[Nellyville41]

You probably startled them and it’ll take like an hour for them to calm down. As for the food, don’t feed them! You’re gonna make things worse if they can’t eat it all and the water ends up being toxic if it can’t break down and convert the leftover food.

[kyle0901]

Thank you guys, It is with great pleasure I annonce to you that all shrimps survived. Hours later they calmed down and everything went back to normal!

I thought maybe I just overcared about them, constantly changing their environment and adding new stuff with the intention to make their lives better. What they really need is to settle down a bit. I will closely mornitor them without much intervention moving forward.

[Super Jess]

That's great news!

[Nellyville41]

That’s good to hear. Like always, it’s our intention to make their lives better and always trying to improve it in different ways but we need to let that part go because it ends up making things worse for them. The shrimps like things simple. Lol

[Aennedry]

It is very easy to 'over care' for these shrimp, especially if you keep other shrimp, because they don't need much. They are the easiest aquatic pet to take care of, short of having a plastic fish in a tank (and even that will get algae you have to clean). Give them light, top off the tank with RO water when it gets low, toss in a speck of food every now and then and watch them flourish.
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