Trouble acclimating a fire shrimp

[LeChatCommence]

Wondering if anyone has any insights. I have a 57g cube that's been up and cycled for 2 months. I have a lightning maroon who has been growing like a weed for a month and some trochus+hermits. I picked up a Fire shrimp from my LFS today (I went in 30 minutes after he arrived so he was still bagged, never was acclimated to the LFS water system). I brought him up to temp for 15 in the bag, transferred to a hang on container and doubled the water volume by adding 1/4 cup of tank water every 5 minutes, emptied half and repeated for total of an hour an a half. I dropped him in and he was perched on a rock. Left him alone with the lights off, came back 4 hours later and he was upside down on the sand free floating in the water.

I rechecked my parameters right after and they were all normal. sg=1.025, NH3=0ppm, NO3<2ppm, pH8.2, dKH10. Any thoughts on what could be the issue? I am getting an ORA peppermint in tomorrow and I really don't want to make a habit of killing these guys I'm supposed to be caring for. My feeling is I didn't acclimate correctly but its hard to know. I hear a lot of people saying drip for 2-3hrs with shrimp, some say just bring up to temp and throw them in. Any outside insight would be great and thanks in advance.

 

[blaxsun]

So when you say "trouble acclimating", what you really mean are issues with survival. First and foremost, when buying from a LFS - wait a day or two before taking anything home. Sometimes livestock will be on the verge of dying due to the stress from shipping (etc.) despite looking healthy. Without stating this is definitely the cause, I'd speculate that there's a high probability that it was nothing you did. Second, Innovative Marine makes an overpriced acclimation drip device that works incredibly well. Place the invert in a bowl, get the drip going and set the timer for 35-45 minutes.

Also, keep in mind that there's usually a huge salinity difference between the supplier, your LFS and what you're running in your tank - and this is something inverts have to adjust to. Some types cope better than others. Finally, don't forget that even though those of us who do everything correctly still ending up losing the occasional livestock for completely unexplained reasons.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I’m sorry but I don’t think a good LFS would do that. I’ve been told to wait a few days for them to acclimate it and make sure it lives before selling.

And sorry again but I would suggest to not do that, I mean, do you know how long it was bagged for before you got it? Very risky purchase.

 

[LeChatCommence]

I definitely see what you guys are saying. But as a point of clarification, the shrimp was coming from a place that I've bought from directly online, I just order it through my LFS because its a small town and I light to support them. Plus this way I know for sure someone will be "home" when the box gets delivered. So it was shipped that morning direct to the LFS, spent 30 minutes there, and then to my tank.

 

[Dburr1014]

I brought him up to temp for 15 in the bag, transferred to a hang on container and doubled the water volume by adding 1/4 cup of tank water every 5 minutes, emptied half and repeated for total of an hour an a half.

1/4 cup every 5 minutes? Imo, to much to fast. I do a shot glass maybe 5 closer to 10 minutes to start. Going quicker near the end. The start, is where I think is most critical.

 

[bruno3047]

I would never acclimate any Shrimp using that method. I use the drip method and let it drip for at least a full hour. Maybe more, depending on the disparity between the shipping bag water and my tank water with regards to pH and salinity. In my experience, shrimp are the most susceptible to saline and pH shock of any animal you can put into your tank with the possible exception of anemones.

 

[LeChatCommence]

Thanks all for the advice. I'll give drip acclimating a try. As an aside question, does temperature become an issue with drip after an hour?

 

[bruno3047]

Thanks all for the advice. I'll give drip acclimating a try. As an aside question, does temperature become an issue with drip after an hour?

Obviously depends on what the ambient temperature in the house is. You can avoid that by just bringing the temperature up to 77° in the house until you’re finished acclimating your shrimp.

 

[LeChatCommence]

Makes sense and easy enough to do. Thanks a lot.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Innovative Marine makes an overpriced acclimation drip device that works incredibly well.

I use a DIY "device".
One airline tubing valve
Two pieces of airline tubing
One syringe
Connect the tubing to each end of the valve. Put one tube in the tank. Attach the syringe to the end of the other tube and pull the plunger until water passes the valve. Close the valve (twist the knob). Take the syringe off the tube and place tube in container holding the livestock. Slowly open the valve until one drop per second flows through.
Drip for an hour or two, removing 1/2 the volume from the catch container as needed.

The valve costs $2

 

[DaJMasta]

My drip acclimation tool is a bit of rigid airline tubing bent over with some heat to hook onto the edge of the tank, some airline tubing, and a valve. Hook it on, start the siphon from the bucket side, then use the valve to dial in how fast you want to add water (usually for me it's 2-3 drops a second). Temperature can be an issue, so picking up one of the tiny 5-10W always on aquarium heaters is a good investment (also useful if you have to keep something in a bucket temporarily), and if it's a fish coming in from shipping, it's nice to include an airstone run by a pump for a bit of circulation and oxygenation.

This is a bit of a silly question, but to be sure: was the 'dead' shrimp just a molt? Fire shrimp are pretty good at hiding and will spend a lot of time in caves where they are hard to spot, and it's not uncommon to molt at night relatively soon after an environment shift, the molt will also hold together for a day or so looking mostly like a shrimp (less vibrant but normal colors) before breaking up. Of course if you pulled it out and it felt like there was some flesh there and/or it was a sort of translucent white under the shell, yes it was dead, but if you haven't seen them molt before, I figure it's worth mentioning.

Your parameters shouldn't have been a problem, but there is also a chance the LFS runs different parameters (like hyposalinity to reduce fish disease). If you get something else from them, check the salinity of the bag water, and if it's far from your own (more than 0.002 off or so), consider a longer term slow acclimation (running a bucket like a tank for even a few days could be useful, depending on how extreme.)

 

[workhz]

I must be real lucky because I just temp acclimated my last 3 shrimp from 3 diff LFS (peppermint, cleaner and fire) with no issues.

Now that I read about it, just about everyone suggests to drip.

 

[newbie2014]

I must be real lucky because I just temp acclimated my last 3 shrimp from 3 diff LFS (peppermint, cleaner and fire) with no issues.

Now that I read about it, just about everyone suggests to drip.

That’s what I did the last 2 times that I bought peppermint shrimps. Float the bags for 15 mins, then in they went. However my LFS has similar salinity as my tank.