Help, Got New Shrimp, But My One Tank Crashed.

I got my shipment of shrimp today. 10 Amano shrimp for my 60 gal planted community tank, 5 RCS for my 2.5 gal guppy nursery tank, and 5 yellow neos for my nephews 10 gal tank that had 4 guppies, 6 neon tetras, and 3 albino corycats. He neglected to tell me that his neons died, and he was too lazy to remove them, had an ammonia spike. I've been doing water changes every day, along with recommended doses of seachem stability, pristine, and prime. I also moved the last 2 of his guppies to my community tank, kept the corycats in the 10 gal tank, and so far everyone seems to be doing ok.

I took the chance and added the yellow shrimp to the 10 gal after a water change, where the ammonia was still not perfect, but not as bad as it was...I did the drip method with the shrimp, from the 10 gal tank. It was originally an unplanted tank, but I added one moss ball from my community tank and a piece of drift wood and will be adding more plants within this next week.

I guess my question is, if you think the shrimp will survive and what can I do? I'm sure I've disrupted the bioload and ph by removing the guppies, and doing large water changes, and I know shrimp need a stable mature tank to do well. I don't know if I even have a good biofilm for them anymore. Was it a mistake putting them in that tank? I didn't want them breeding with the RCS's in my smaller tank, but looking back on my decision, maybe I should have just put them in the small tank with the others for now.

Any advice is appreciated

 

If the tank with the die off was completely cycled the filter should still have some beneficial bacteria on it. ammonia is very bad but in order to keep the tank as stable as possible if the tank still needs to cycle, do several very small water changes a day. Like 1 gallon in and 1 gallon out 4-5 times a day.

 

If the tank with the die off was completely cycled the filter should still have some beneficial bacteria on it. ammonia is very bad but in order to keep the tank as stable as possible if the tank still needs to cycle, do several very small water changes a day. Like 1 gallon in and 1 gallon out 4-5 times a day.

I can't do it that often because of work, but i've been checking it and doing about 2 gal twice a day...hoping for the best

 

In order to keep the pH stay stable, leave the new tank water out for 24 hours before doing a water change. It's something with the bubbles in tap water that causes the pH to be inconsistent until all the bubbles have had a chance to dissipate.

I am guessing the tank is still cycled, but it will take a bit for the bacteria to process the ammonia spike. What are your other water parameters? How high is the ammonia? If it's not too high, then it may be best to leave them where they are, but I think this is one of those dilemmas that doesn't have a single correct answer. If you move them into the smaller tank, you could remove any wild type babies that appear.

To be perfectly honest, it doesn't sound like your nephews tank is a good home for shrimp. Someone not telling you that fish died and being too lazy to even take the dead bodies out doesn't seem like someone responsible enough to care for fish, especially more delicate dwarf shrimp.

 

In order to keep the pH stay stable, leave the new tank water out for 24 hours before doing a water change. It's something with the bubbles in tap water that causes the pH to be inconsistent until all the bubbles have had a chance to dissipate.

I am guessing the tank is still cycled, but it will take a bit for the bacteria to process the ammonia spike. What are your other water parameters? How high is the ammonia? If it's not too high, then it may be best to leave them where they are, but I think this is one of those dilemmas that doesn't have a single correct answer. If you move them into the smaller tank, you could remove any wild type babies that appear.

To be perfectly honest, it doesn't sound like your nephews tank is a good home for shrimp. Someone not telling you that fish died and being too lazy to even take the dead bodies out doesn't seem like someone responsible enough to care for fish, especially more delicate dwarf shrimp.

Yes, I learned about the PH thing the hard way about 6 months ago. Thanks for the reminder. And, no worries, I took over my nephew's tank. So far so good doing the small water changes, I haven't lost one yet, and the ammonia is starting to stabilize now that I think I got all the rotting fish out of it.

 

I am glad to hear they're doing good!
You could also use zeolite or nitrazorb to remove ammonia. It's not great to use all the time since it doesn't allow the tank to cycle, but you could stick it in for a few days until the ammonia is down. I have used it before during emergencies and it did wonders.

 

I am glad to hear they're doing good!
You could also use zeolite or nitrazorb to remove ammonia. It's not great to use all the time since it doesn't allow the tank to cycle, but you could stick it in for a few days until the ammonia is down. I have used it before during emergencies and it did wonders.

Thank you for the tip. I'll get some and keep it on hand in case I need it.