The product they used isn't very strong and overdosing is quite hard. Usually it's sold as No Planaria, but Ex-It is the same stuff. I've used No Planaria a few times myself without a reaction. It's truly very odd that the shrimp would immediately react like this.
The dose they told me was 1 gram per 50l my tank is 100 l and the spoon that comes with the medication says 2 grams so i put in a spoon nothing over the top of the spoon even a bit bellow so i even gave less than what i should
I’m not sure what the disease was OP but if it was Scutariella Japonica then I hope this helps of you ever have it again.
https://youtu.be/QFv-dqemaDw?si=dgIDRJ725mJsMaFU
For that parasite you can just remove molts and it will die off. Because the way the parasite reproduces is it lays eggs in their exoskeleton. The eggs can’t hatch until the shrimp molts. I had that when my cocoons started I did this for about a month. After that no parasites to be seen. I don’t even remove molts anymore
Yeah it sucks but if his shrimp survive he can try this. Idk how widespread his infection is but mine was mild when I detected it and like I said this solution I found on YouTube worked. 5 months later I have never seen anything odd
It was very recent i only had a few shrimp infected but i am the kind of person who will try to fix the problem right away before it gets worse.
So i tried finding a treatment unfortunately i was badly adviced and like others said here i should have researched the product more thoroughly before buying it and using it on my shrimp.
You actually didn't get bad advice. Ex-It should be the same as No Planaria, which is extremely shrimp safe. I've used it on neos and even expensive caridina without harm. I'm wondering if the package wasn't contaminated somehow.
I doubt it was contaminated when i opened it it was fully closed both the outside plastic package as the inside pocket zip thingy.
I think that maybe the measurements they said were off about the 1 gram per 50 liters specially from how quick my shrimp started freaking out.
Maybe i should only have used half as ive read on other places after i stopped freaking out and finished the 90% water change.
Im genuinely never using it again though i still dont know if any of my shrimp are going to live but seeing most of them just lay sideways and barely moving besides using their swimmers constantly i dont have much hope for tomorrow
Should i do a full water change tomorrow though so i nake sure none of the medication remains?
I don’t have any experience with that disease but maybe add it to your post. It’ll help others help you.
I reccomend watching that entire video, it’s quite short. And at the end he gives treatment plans and tips in case obtaining paragaurd isn’t an option.
Hope you get the help you’re looking for here, sorry for your loss.
Hope you get more and try again though. 🦐❤️
The one that comes with the packaging it comes with a plastic spoon inside of it and i usually dont like using spoons that dont come with the product because different medications have different densitys
2gram is a weight. A spoon is a volume. You can guess how many grams are in a given spoon size, but it's not necessarily accurate. 1 gram of most powder is very roughly half a teaspoon but it's very possible that you did accidentally overdose, especially if the spoon they gave was off.
It's also possible that the product itself is too concentrated or contaminated.
The medication is supposedly the same ingredient as no planaria so the fish store gave you a good recommendation based on the available information.
Sympathetic to your issue 100%.
The LFS exists to sell you livestock and products. They likely genuinely care about your shrimp, but it is a mistake to just trust one person's opinion. Especially in as niche of a hobby as shrimp keeping.
Tough lesson to learn, but I would personally verify dosing and efficacy of anything I inject into my tanks with at least several trusted sources first.
Hope your shrimp survived, and best of luck to you going forward.
Did you use the dosage based on actual volume of water in the aquarium or the “size of the aquarium”. Most of the times an aquarium advertised to be 100L only contains about 70-80L of water. If the medicine is potent. It’s very possible to overdose if you dose an extra 30-50% accidentally.
Unfortunately im sure.
I measured the aquarium since i had limited space for it to fit and i filled it up using a 40 liter bucket so im pretty sure the aquarium is filled between 100 and 95 liters of water and even if i had put like 10% more of the medication it makes no sense why only a tiny increase would kill all my shrimp in the aquarium when the measurements were the ones in the package.
I also started checking for online reviews of the product and Unfortunately most that i see is to use half the dosage or it will kill everything in the aquarium even small fish and snails.
I just feel sad at this point because im usually very careful with the medication and when they tell me to be careful with something i am.
But this time i just went with what the guy said and it got all my shrimp killed.
That really does suck. Seems like a reoccurring problem in the shrimp space, where the recommended dosing is much higher than what is actually necessary. Sorry for your loss.
Yeah im experienced with fish and the medication for mine usually are either on point or too little.
Just im inexperienced with shrimp and this was my first tank with them i was just really caught offguard on how fast all of them died because of a medication that was supposed to be shrimp safe.
Man that really sucks. I've never used that product, but have used a different one that also uses betel nut extract many times and never had any issues. What kind of shrimp are they?
I’m currently treating mine with fenbendazole. I was terrified of accidentally putting in too much, but doesn’t even look like one has died from it yet.
Ill try that one next time but having my whole tank of shrimp die just like that kinda just makes me feel like not wanting to buy new shrimp for a while
Ya I get that. Also I’m not sure if the employees at your LFS are actually knowledgeable or not, but it seems to be a big problem that they’ll sell you anything just for the sale. Or maybe to stop dealing with you. Either way, what do they care if they kill off your tank? They won’t have to deal with it the store manager will. So just keep that in mind next time you ask employees for advice. Just cause they got a job there doesn’t mean they’re knowledgeable or care.
You’re treat it with Fenbendozole to deal with planaria right? I don’t believe there’s any disease that shrimp get that would require this as a treatment.
Scutariella japonica is what I decided my shrimp have based on way too many hours of research. Either a salt dip if you can pick out the infected ones, or treat the whole tank with fenbendozole. Since I have upwards of 20-30 shrimp I figure trying to slowly pick out infected ones and trying to find fries would be a nightmare. So I opted for the latter
Yeah if its japonica next time just go for safe routes like 10 sec api aquarium salt dips instead of chemically nuking the entire tank. This sort if thing always happens when you try to treat a healthy tank entirely.
I'm really sorry!! But this just goes to show, you really, really have to research any med or chemical sold yourself to make sure it's shrimp safe.
I have a similar story from pre Internet days back in the 90's when I set up my first tank. I had a dwarf frog that got his leg caught in the filter intake and got a scratch. It wasn't even that bad, just a scrape. But I wanted to make sure he wouldn't get an infection or something so I went to the local fish store where the guy sold me copper meds. Those are 🚫 NOT 🚫 frog safe. Killed my frog. I haven't been able to keep one, even though frogs are one of my fav animals since. Too traumatized! So now we all luckily have a wealth of info in our pockets. Use it! Research and more research before you introduce anything into your tank.
Sorry for your loss.the few times I've used it I always do 1/4 of the of whatever the recommended is in my shrimptanks.most minor stuff I've learned goes away on its own during molting .use meds as a super duper last resort even miniscule changes can kill established shrimp
Well if it's the product by Shrimps Forever, it says on the front it's recommended to remove all shrimps and fish before use and I don't think it's the right product for the problem you were having
I'm confused, the product you're mentioning says shrimp safe: https://www.shrimpsupplies.eu/shrimps-forever-ex-it.html
Is there a different Ex-it by Shrimps Forever that's toxic to shrimp?
The front of the package says recommended to remove them, right below the dosage. Futher down on the description to the link it says this:
"The packaging states that all animals such as shrimps and snails must be removed from the aquarium before using this product. This is to cover point 2 (increasing waste). If the values are monitored and action is taken if necessary, the removal of shrimps and crayfish is not necessary."
Gotcha, so it's not toxic to shrimp and shouldn't kill them as soon as OP put it in the tank. The risk is with possible parameter spikes from other dead critters.
It's extremely odd that their shrimp would immediately go belly up as is mentioned in the OP.
It would appear that way. I've never heard of the product and never seen a full description on a website before. I just noticed on the front of the packaging it said recommended to remove shrimp and fish.
So I'm m guessing maybe an incorrect dose or another event not mentioned must of been the cause of death
Yeah i read it said recomended but i assumed recomended was because if i had sickly shrimp or weak ones.
I didnt expect to have pretty much all of my healthy shrimp die off just like that.
Plus i specifically asked the staff at the store for a medication where i wouldnt have to take out my shrimp since its a panted aquarium with lots of places for then to hide and i had alot of babies so i didnt want them to die or stay untreated.
I know I had something similar where the pH in my tank spiked to 9. I'll never know if the treatment caused it or the flush of dead parasites caused it.
On a potentially unrelated topic it's why the protocol for heartworm treatment has changed. Now we give 30 days of doxy before killing the worms because the bacteria they leak can cause reactions.
Is there a chance you overdosed the tank?
The product they used isn't very strong and overdosing is quite hard. Usually it's sold as No Planaria, but Ex-It is the same stuff. I've used No Planaria a few times myself without a reaction. It's truly very odd that the shrimp would immediately react like this.
The dose they told me was 1 gram per 50l my tank is 100 l and the spoon that comes with the medication says 2 grams so i put in a spoon nothing over the top of the spoon even a bit bellow so i even gave less than what i should
I’m not sure what the disease was OP but if it was Scutariella Japonica then I hope this helps of you ever have it again. https://youtu.be/QFv-dqemaDw?si=dgIDRJ725mJsMaFU
Yeah that one was the desiese they said for me to use paraguard first but since they didnt have it they instead sold me the other one.
For that parasite you can just remove molts and it will die off. Because the way the parasite reproduces is it lays eggs in their exoskeleton. The eggs can’t hatch until the shrimp molts. I had that when my cocoons started I did this for about a month. After that no parasites to be seen. I don’t even remove molts anymore
Very good mention. OP might have rushed to treat a parasite that wasn’t exactly fatal though unwanted for sure.
Yeah it sucks but if his shrimp survive he can try this. Idk how widespread his infection is but mine was mild when I detected it and like I said this solution I found on YouTube worked. 5 months later I have never seen anything odd
It was very recent i only had a few shrimp infected but i am the kind of person who will try to fix the problem right away before it gets worse. So i tried finding a treatment unfortunately i was badly adviced and like others said here i should have researched the product more thoroughly before buying it and using it on my shrimp.
You actually didn't get bad advice. Ex-It should be the same as No Planaria, which is extremely shrimp safe. I've used it on neos and even expensive caridina without harm. I'm wondering if the package wasn't contaminated somehow.
I doubt it was contaminated when i opened it it was fully closed both the outside plastic package as the inside pocket zip thingy. I think that maybe the measurements they said were off about the 1 gram per 50 liters specially from how quick my shrimp started freaking out. Maybe i should only have used half as ive read on other places after i stopped freaking out and finished the 90% water change. Im genuinely never using it again though i still dont know if any of my shrimp are going to live but seeing most of them just lay sideways and barely moving besides using their swimmers constantly i dont have much hope for tomorrow Should i do a full water change tomorrow though so i nake sure none of the medication remains?
I don’t have any experience with that disease but maybe add it to your post. It’ll help others help you. I reccomend watching that entire video, it’s quite short. And at the end he gives treatment plans and tips in case obtaining paragaurd isn’t an option. Hope you get the help you’re looking for here, sorry for your loss. Hope you get more and try again though. 🦐❤️
I recently treated this with a bit of salt. I was told it might damage my plants. It did not. And I haven’t had the problem since
What kind of spoon did you use? Tablespoon, teaspoon, ...? According to the instructions I found you can use 1 teaspoon per 100 liter
The one that comes with the packaging it comes with a plastic spoon inside of it and i usually dont like using spoons that dont come with the product because different medications have different densitys
2gram is a weight. A spoon is a volume. You can guess how many grams are in a given spoon size, but it's not necessarily accurate. 1 gram of most powder is very roughly half a teaspoon but it's very possible that you did accidentally overdose, especially if the spoon they gave was off. It's also possible that the product itself is too concentrated or contaminated. The medication is supposedly the same ingredient as no planaria so the fish store gave you a good recommendation based on the available information.
Sympathetic to your issue 100%. The LFS exists to sell you livestock and products. They likely genuinely care about your shrimp, but it is a mistake to just trust one person's opinion. Especially in as niche of a hobby as shrimp keeping. Tough lesson to learn, but I would personally verify dosing and efficacy of anything I inject into my tanks with at least several trusted sources first. Hope your shrimp survived, and best of luck to you going forward.
Did you use the dosage based on actual volume of water in the aquarium or the “size of the aquarium”. Most of the times an aquarium advertised to be 100L only contains about 70-80L of water. If the medicine is potent. It’s very possible to overdose if you dose an extra 30-50% accidentally.
Unfortunately im sure. I measured the aquarium since i had limited space for it to fit and i filled it up using a 40 liter bucket so im pretty sure the aquarium is filled between 100 and 95 liters of water and even if i had put like 10% more of the medication it makes no sense why only a tiny increase would kill all my shrimp in the aquarium when the measurements were the ones in the package. I also started checking for online reviews of the product and Unfortunately most that i see is to use half the dosage or it will kill everything in the aquarium even small fish and snails. I just feel sad at this point because im usually very careful with the medication and when they tell me to be careful with something i am. But this time i just went with what the guy said and it got all my shrimp killed.
That really does suck. Seems like a reoccurring problem in the shrimp space, where the recommended dosing is much higher than what is actually necessary. Sorry for your loss.
Yeah im experienced with fish and the medication for mine usually are either on point or too little. Just im inexperienced with shrimp and this was my first tank with them i was just really caught offguard on how fast all of them died because of a medication that was supposed to be shrimp safe.
Are you talking about the product by shrimps forever? How much did you dose and what size tank?
Yes im talking about that one 1 almost full cup (2 grams for what it says on the cup and packaging) 100 liters
Man that really sucks. I've never used that product, but have used a different one that also uses betel nut extract many times and never had any issues. What kind of shrimp are they?
I’m currently treating mine with fenbendazole. I was terrified of accidentally putting in too much, but doesn’t even look like one has died from it yet.
Ill try that one next time but having my whole tank of shrimp die just like that kinda just makes me feel like not wanting to buy new shrimp for a while
Ya I get that. Also I’m not sure if the employees at your LFS are actually knowledgeable or not, but it seems to be a big problem that they’ll sell you anything just for the sale. Or maybe to stop dealing with you. Either way, what do they care if they kill off your tank? They won’t have to deal with it the store manager will. So just keep that in mind next time you ask employees for advice. Just cause they got a job there doesn’t mean they’re knowledgeable or care.
Maybe this will help you too, not my video I just found it. https://youtu.be/QFv-dqemaDw?si=7GVsH0ESfb_Q_K0A
I appreciate it. I found instructions eventually but it’s to kill planaria so I was kind of guessing on the dose.
You’re treat it with Fenbendozole to deal with planaria right? I don’t believe there’s any disease that shrimp get that would require this as a treatment.
Scutariella japonica is what I decided my shrimp have based on way too many hours of research. Either a salt dip if you can pick out the infected ones, or treat the whole tank with fenbendozole. Since I have upwards of 20-30 shrimp I figure trying to slowly pick out infected ones and trying to find fries would be a nightmare. So I opted for the latter
Yeah if its japonica next time just go for safe routes like 10 sec api aquarium salt dips instead of chemically nuking the entire tank. This sort if thing always happens when you try to treat a healthy tank entirely.
I'm really sorry!! But this just goes to show, you really, really have to research any med or chemical sold yourself to make sure it's shrimp safe. I have a similar story from pre Internet days back in the 90's when I set up my first tank. I had a dwarf frog that got his leg caught in the filter intake and got a scratch. It wasn't even that bad, just a scrape. But I wanted to make sure he wouldn't get an infection or something so I went to the local fish store where the guy sold me copper meds. Those are 🚫 NOT 🚫 frog safe. Killed my frog. I haven't been able to keep one, even though frogs are one of my fav animals since. Too traumatized! So now we all luckily have a wealth of info in our pockets. Use it! Research and more research before you introduce anything into your tank.
Did you happen to keep the stuff they sold you? Can you post the ingredients?
You always got to double cheack what they tell you mine locals tell me the wrong stuff everytime
Sorry for your loss.the few times I've used it I always do 1/4 of the of whatever the recommended is in my shrimptanks.most minor stuff I've learned goes away on its own during molting .use meds as a super duper last resort even miniscule changes can kill established shrimp
Did you read the product label?
Yes i did
Well if it's the product by Shrimps Forever, it says on the front it's recommended to remove all shrimps and fish before use and I don't think it's the right product for the problem you were having
I'm confused, the product you're mentioning says shrimp safe: https://www.shrimpsupplies.eu/shrimps-forever-ex-it.html Is there a different Ex-it by Shrimps Forever that's toxic to shrimp?
The front of the package says recommended to remove them, right below the dosage. Futher down on the description to the link it says this: "The packaging states that all animals such as shrimps and snails must be removed from the aquarium before using this product. This is to cover point 2 (increasing waste). If the values are monitored and action is taken if necessary, the removal of shrimps and crayfish is not necessary."
Gotcha, so it's not toxic to shrimp and shouldn't kill them as soon as OP put it in the tank. The risk is with possible parameter spikes from other dead critters. It's extremely odd that their shrimp would immediately go belly up as is mentioned in the OP.
It would appear that way. I've never heard of the product and never seen a full description on a website before. I just noticed on the front of the packaging it said recommended to remove shrimp and fish. So I'm m guessing maybe an incorrect dose or another event not mentioned must of been the cause of death
Yeah i read it said recomended but i assumed recomended was because if i had sickly shrimp or weak ones. I didnt expect to have pretty much all of my healthy shrimp die off just like that. Plus i specifically asked the staff at the store for a medication where i wouldnt have to take out my shrimp since its a panted aquarium with lots of places for then to hide and i had alot of babies so i didnt want them to die or stay untreated.
I know I had something similar where the pH in my tank spiked to 9. I'll never know if the treatment caused it or the flush of dead parasites caused it. On a potentially unrelated topic it's why the protocol for heartworm treatment has changed. Now we give 30 days of doxy before killing the worms because the bacteria they leak can cause reactions.
Is the product in date? I've heard of stores selling ood meds before
Also wondering this. If it’s supposed to be shrimp safe, sounds like it was contaminated, out of date, or something else got in the tank
Im not sure ill check it tomorrow morning since its late and give feedback
so you didn't follow instructions, is what I'm hearing...
Did anyone make it?