How to eradicate shrimp and not kill your plants

Tom Barr

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I've got a pest problem, the remaining CRS/fire red shrimp in my 60p.
I caught most of the nicer larger ones, but can never get the last few of the smaller ones and those lodged in the filter.

I had some aphids on my Anubias, so I used some pyrethin bug spray which is toxic to fish and shrimp. Killed them all in about 4 hours. Pyrethin is a plant derived insecticide, natural product.

I had some lady bugs but they'd wander off and never got all the aphids.
Spiders: same deal.

This tank has emergent plants, so flooding was not an option and I wanted the shrimp out, 100% out of the tank. I want to keep nothing but Fire shrimp and there are always a few low grades left over in 3 of my tanks. Never can get every last one without a complete tear down of the tank and filter.

I tried to kill then with 2000 ppm of NO3 from KNO3.
Nope, they laughed at me.
I tried adding mega dose of Trace, about = to about 40X the normal dose, 200mls.
Nope, nada.

Helped the plants grow better though:rolleyes:

Anyways, sometimes trying these things out can be a learning opportunity if you want to kill and eradicate something. Rarely it is the pesky RCS.........but here I was.

I redid the wood some and added to this tank.
I took the fish out prior to treatment obviously.

I'm not quite sure the type of fish I want in the display, the 046 Zebras are really really boring fish, pretty, breedable, get along well with eachother etc.

I might just sell them. Then try something else.
Tank is a bit small for Tropheus, but some other smaller Tangy fish might be of interest. Non CO2, so I could easily add plenty of GH and the plants will be fine.

Still pondering.

Glad the shrimp are finally all dead and killed, as well as the aphids.
 

Hallen

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I have the same expierence, not that I ever deliberately wanted to kill the little critters. High No3, Po4, traces etc didnt seem to matter alot on a stable population, they just keep breeding. Hence why I'm always very sceptical towards claims from shirmp folk, over here in the Netherlands alot of people highly belief that a higher than normal dose of traces will kill all the shrimps and leave you with algae. I like to tease them with my EI run tank and breeding CRS, if I get any feedback at all it's that my case is an exception and that I'm very lucky. Your basic denial when confronted with proof against the public opinion.

When I have to get rid of some shrimp I always use a bottle trap, get a bottle saw the top off and put that upsidedown in the bottomhalf. Add their favorite treat and you'll be able to capture alot if not all of them. Downside is that you could capture some small fish which might die if you do not watch the trap.
 

dutchy

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Tom Barr;68923 said:
How to eradicate shrimp and not kill your plants.
CO2 would do it....

Tom Barr;68923 said:
I'm not quite sure the type of fish I want in the display,

Some Peacock Eels maybe? Or make it a "big nano" tank with galaxys, mini corys etc...
 

Tom Barr

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CO2 does not do it due to the tank style being emergent. They just climb up into the plants and wait till I turn it off, they lasted full blast for 3 days.
I could never get every last one in this tank.

Galaxies might not be bad......had them and bred them before though.

The lower section is mostly wood, top is where the plants are etc.
 

feh

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Tom Barr;68923 said:
I tried to kill then with 2000 ppm of NO3 from KNO3.
Nope, they laughed at me.
I tried adding mega dose of Trace, about = to about 40X the normal dose, 200mls.
Nope, nada.

I guess that makes a few statements about shrimp and ferts null and void. 2000ppm of nitrates? Wow. I dose high on the micros in my other tank. 1/4 tsp CMS+B and cap full of flourish comp, but nothing like that. Selling the zebras? If I recall correctly you won't ship fish? I saw F&S had some of those for like $499 or some crazy price last week or so. I know they're expensive but I've never seen them go for that much.
 
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feh

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Tom Barr;68936 said:
CO2 does not do it due to the tank style being emergent. They just climb up into the plants and wait till I turn it off, they lasted full blast for 3 days.
I could never get every last one in this tank.

Galaxies might not be bad......had them and bred them before though.

The lower section is mostly wood, top is where the plants are etc.

This is actually comical.
 

ShadowMac

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the first time being so good at this became a problem...oh the irony.

I wouldn't mind having that problem with my fire reds, although I think the colony is starting to get off the ground. I didn't realize how many there were until I started moving them to the my new scape.

I couldn't imagine digging through the filter for small shrimplets. You would always miss some.

Glad you discovered how to be the grim reaper of shrimp. :D You should post this topic on one of those shrimp breeding forums....
 

Tom Barr

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Well, there are low grades mixed in.........so culling them all out is impossible, I've tried.

I meant 200ppm of NO3 from KNO3, not 2000ppm.
 

shoggoth43

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Dog Meds?

There's an off label use of one of the pesticides they use on dogs. The reefers use it to annihilate some sort of coral eating bug. Usually wipes out their shrimp and 'pods as well if you don't take them out of the tank. Since they might be similar enough in physiology this might work for these as well. http://www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html Or you could just bag up a bunch of them and mail them to me instead. :) - S
 

Tom Barr

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These are the lower grades and tiny. The larger ones get fed to fish, the high grades get tossed into the 180.
 

Tom Barr

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One group did.

Well, I found 4 live shrimp after bombing the tank.
Damn........

200ppm of NO3, catching them.........I dosed about 50mls of Excel in the last 1/2 of water, the filter will be removed and I'll have to kill everything in that just in case. PITA.........that which shall not die.

Oh.........yea, "they are very sensitive and hard to keep".......right.
 

Tom Barr

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uimike;69029 said:
Tom, raising the temperature, perhaps?

Kill the plants if I go much above 40C, these are shrimp that shall not die.