Obviously I was not going to chance the puffer with the shrimp because while some people have had them coexist peacefully, the odds are not in the shrimps favor. I purchased a tank divider which I sectioned off the 10gallon 75/25% giving the puffer the larger space. On the shrimp side I put a large bundle of Christmas moss, and this tank has been up for over a year. Previously the tank had a large amount of slow growing anubias, but I removed a large amount of it when I cleaned the substrate a couple weeks before introducing the shrimp. The days prior to shrimp introduction I was doing 50% water changes to get the nitrAtes as close to zero as possible so the conditions were perfect for the shrimp. Please note after adding the shrimp I was doing 10% changes twice a week, same temp, Prime, and adding the new water on the puffer side. Was also (after reading this site) only using the cold water tap and then microwaving in a glass container the water to bring up to temp instead of using the hot water.
Here's a pic of the tank:
So I got the shrimp, slowly drip acclimated them to my water and temp, and then added them to the shrimp side. There were almost an equal number of males and females, and 2 of the adult females were berried, so I was very excited. They were very active and cleaning the walls, substrate, and moss. I got them on a Friday afternoon, and when I came in on Monday morning they all looked great (several molts were present in the tank which I hear is not uncommon when water conditions change).
Then the problems started. I accidentally added too much water to the tank after my water change and didn't discover it until the next day. Basically the divider is not perfectly square and so there was now a slight gap at the top that was under water. You guessed it, when I came in on Tuesday I saw 2 shrimp on the puffer side and could not find 2-3 others. At this time the puffer did not show any aggression towards the shirmp, in fact, she looked a bit scared of them (they were in the open on the anubias leaves). I fed snails to the puffer in a slightly higher amount than normal to hopefully prevent predation due to hunger. Again realize this is a seasoned 10 gallon tank with plants, and an oversized Aquaclear filter so I do not think ammonia issues were a factor.
That's when I discovered the gap at the top and so lowered the water level 1/2". I figured the problems were solved but over the next couple of days I started to lose them one by one. The worst was when the berried female died. After reading some success stories I removed the shrimp and carefully removed the eggs and put them in the tank. I didn't expect anything, and cannot see any shrimp fry in the tank (but it would be very easy to miss them if they in fact are there).
The 2 shrimp that were on the puffer side disappeared during this time. I did not have a safe/easy way to get them back to the other side and so they were kept on the puffer side. I do not know if the puffer ate them, they got sucked into the filter intake (since I did not plan on shrimp on this side it was left unprotected), crawled out of the tank up the heater cord, or simply hid somewhere in the plants and died.
I lost my last lone male sometime over the weekend (came in on Monday and he was dead). This was an almost adult sized male that I had hoped would let me know there was not a tank condition that was causing the deaths.
So now I'm left with a barren shrimp side (I think) and have real concerns there is something in the tank that was killing them. And then it dawned on me....for the last year I've used small pieces of granite (from my granite countertops at home) ziptied to the rhizomes of the anubias to keep them anchored down (for those that don't know anubias is very buoyant, and needs to be tethered down with quite a bit of weight). Granite also happens to be a hodgepodge of rocks stuck together, and it's possible there are some heavy metals that might have/may be leeching into the tank in trace amounts that the puffer isn't affected by (neither are the snails).
That is really the only reason I can think of why the shrimp slowly died off. There is no way it was an ammonia issue, they were acclimated properly and no deaths occurred until after 3 days in the tank. They were not fed during this entire time, their sole source of food was the moss and biofilm on the substrate/glass walls, and I kept the water changes to 10% using Prime (and cold tap water).
Any help would be greatly appreciated as my friend has offered to give me another batch when I've sorted out the issue(s).
Thank you and the forum is fantastic!
justin
I really doubt it's the granite. Even if there are heavy metals, at PH levels above 7 most, if not all, heavy metals exist in chelated form, which renders them non-toxic. The most likely culprit is the age of your tank. If I am not mistaken it must not be all that old. It takes a very long time for a shrimp tank to get properly established, much longer than a fish tank. Shrimp aren't as hardy as fish either, so fish may actually look miserable during cycing but will mostly recover, but shrimp just die and very few, if any, recover. If your tank is relatively "new" then I'd recommend just keeping the puffer in there and feeding normally for a month or two before putting any more shrimp in there. Even if your test kits don't show anything "bad" there are immeasurable factors that can affect your shrimp. It's very rare that obvious measurements, such as too much ammonia, are the real culprit.
