Fire Shrimp died instantly after placing in the tank

hey guys and gals. somewhat new to the hobby. have been slowly building up the tank over the past month or two and decided today was the day to introduce a fire shrimp.

brought him home, floated him for 45 min or so then drip acclimated him for another 2 hours or so. i placed him in the tank and he went belly up (literally) within like 5 minutes.

water parameters are good (ammonia/nitrite=0, nitrate=10, ph=8.2, temp=78, sg=1.023) the yellow watchman, pistol shrimp, crabs and snails seem to be doing great. the temp has had swings lately due to the weather (water is 76 in the mornings and gets to 80 in the afternoon).

are the fire shrimp particularly sensitive to introduction into a new tank?

 

nitrate level is too high for inverts in general. you want it below 5. not saying thats what killed it but thats just something i noticed. do you have a ground probe?

 

your tank is just getting started, you need to slow down, the shrimp died because you are rushing things, let your tank settle for a few months before you even think of adding anything else, im actually surprised you have things alive in there right now...

BTW how old is the tank?

 

tank has been up and running for about 2 months now.

i dont have a ground probe yet. is it recommended in a nano?

 

ya its deffinately way too young, let it mature for a while. when did you add all the other stuff?

 

added the snails and crabs about 3 weeks ago and the goby/pistol about a week ago.

i was just surprised that he died in a matter of minutes. it was really upsetting to watch.

 

since theres less equipment in a nano, theres less chance for something to go wrong. but it wouldn't hurt anything to have it in their. for 10 or 15 dollars its a small price too pay for protecting your very expensive livestock.

 

Nothing that you've said stands out as a possible reason for it dying.... despite your tank only being 2 months old, you are not overly stocked. params seem okay. My only though would be poor acclimation of the shrimp, or some type of copper treatment being previously used in the tank. 2 hours is usually enough for any invert. Did you test the LFS's water that they packed him in? Sometimes if the LFS's water is right out of whack, you may have to spend 3-4 hours acclimating it to your tank's water just to make the change more gradual. Shrimp, out of all inverts, seem to be the most sensitive to ph/salinity changes, and copper treatments.

 

Do you have good water movement there? What wa the temp? No powerhead+high temp could lead to low oxigen in water. He must have suffocated. You should maximize water surface area and agitation. Lower temps to 78-80F.
If suspect that water has toxic contaminant, test for copper, etc...

 

I had two peppermints do that in my nano, the third that was acclimated and added at the same time from the same bag, has been doing great, and easily survived the move to my 46 gallon bowfront, and is doing fantastic still...sucks though, un explained deaths always cause some worry at least for me...