Help please. Gathering at waterline for a few days!

[ashleystoke]

HI I have owned Cherry Shrimps for over a year now (and a few other types) and am quite distressed at the moment! ALL my cherry shrimps (and a couple of my wood n glass shrimps (not sure the proper names for them) have all been gathering at the top near the waterline for 5 days. I had about 10 cherries die on day 1 and a couple since (we are now on day 5).
On day 1 i introduced some new plants to the tank from the aquatic shop i always buy from and no fear of pesticides. I also did a large waterchange adding the usual non copper containing water conditioner stuff.

Since then they have all been gathering at the top. The only other time they did this was when i had a temperature drop overnight when my heater failed but within hours of sorting the problem they were all back to their usual antics!

So all i can think is that as i have sand in the bottom of my tank and have been told that as it compacts down bacteria can grow in the sand and then with me planting the new plants in, it has disturbed some of this bacteria and that is what is affecting my shrimps?????????????????? ANY THOUGHTS???????????

i have done another water change (its about a 27 gallon tank) and have made sure to remove all dead shrimps.

What can i do?
I will have no way of obtaining a testing kit until next week Saturday (due to circumstances) so cannot test the water until then (it is not something i have ever done before i admit as have not had any problems before).

The babies that have recently hatched seem fine and today i noticed 4 shrimps on the plants/bottom feeding.

Do i just now wait for things to settle in the tank and hope for the best?
thanks
Ash

[Mustafa]

Hi Ash,

Put another dose your chloramine neutralizer directly into your tank (dosed for the volume of your entire tank) and wait. No more water changes at this point...and if you do any water changes, double dose your conditioner. Whatever damage has been done, has been done. I would recommend getting a pool "chlorine" (tests chloramines, too) test kit and measure your prepared/conditioned water (that you prepared in a bucket). After adding your conditioner "chlorine" should be at 0. Any positive level will harm your shrimp in the long run. Your sand substrate has nothing to do with this. I have sand in tons of my tanks and it gets disturbed all the time.

[ashleystoke]

thanks for your reply. i eventually found out it was the plants i had put in. the shop orders them from singapore and i have been researching obviously as to what the problem could be. apparently alot of plants from singapore are treated with something very harmfull to shrimps. simple solution is to keep them in a bucket for 24 hours before putting them in the tank and treat the water.