Best way to acclimate shrimp w/ 48 hour shipping (Delay)

[SauceyReef]

Hello Reef2Reef invert friends!

Unfortunately, I had a couple hundred dollar package of commensal shrimp (4x sexy shrimp, 2 Peterson shrimp, porcelain crab, feather dusters, snails) get delayed due to UPS faults another day making the time around 48 hours now. I am aware of the likely ammonia build up in the bag, but wondering the best way to go about acclimating when I get them tomorrow? The vendor told me the salinity is around 34ppt and my salinity is 1.026. He recommended I temp float for 15-30mins without breaking the bag seal and than introduce into the tank because of this ammonia likelihood.

The thing is I am in a awkward position here with all these sensitive shrimp / inverts to quick acclimation changes. I have some seachem prime ammonia remover. I was thinking I could add a couple drops in each bag and possibly give the shrimp an extra 30mins - 1 hr acclimation of adding my water a few times after temp. floating.

Do you think this would be a good idea? Any other suggestions seeing everything does not come DOA?

Hoping for the best
- Saucey Reef

 

[Jay Hemdal]

For fish, the standard process for shipping delays is to match the temperature, pH and salinity to the shipping water and move the fish immediately over. This takes the ammonia out of the equation and you can just acclimate fo pH. Caveat - I’ve never done this for inverts, so it is just theoretical IMO. I also don’t know if ammonia detoxifiers work as well for inverts as they do for fish - probably, but I’m not 100% sure.

Good Luck!

Jay

 

[SauceyReef]

For fish, the standard process for shipping delays is to match the temperature, pH and salinity to the shipping water and move the fish immediately over. This takes the ammonia out of the equation and you can just acclimate fo pH. Caveat - I’ve never done this for inverts, so it is just theoretical IMO. I also don’t know if ammonia detoxifiers work as well for inverts as they do for fish - probably, but I’m not 100% sure.

Good Luck!

Jay

Hey Jay thank you for responding. I am also unaware if this process works with shrimp plus noot finding much info on this so thought I should give it a post to get some help.

 

[SauceyReef]

Well the package came in a little bit ago. At first I thought all the shrimp were DOA but it looks like after acclimation some of them are bouncing back. Looks like 1 or 2 dead shrimp. I am not sure about the feather dusters. Would the feather be out if they were dead? I added seachem prime ammonia remover in my tank so when I started adding some water in the bags it would help eliminate any ammonia. After a 30 min temp acclimate I only acclimated for 30 mins doing 1/3 amounts every 10 mins. I will keep this post updated.

 

[helwrj28]

Hey how did everything work out? I'm curious myself as I will be getting a shrimp and snails soon!

 

[SauceyReef]

About half of everything lived - which still blows my mind seeing the water was around 50 degrees. The Peterson shrimp was the only one not to make it after acclimation. He disappeared the next day never to be seen a gain. Everyone else is doing great now though!
Other than adding the ammonia remover my process was recommended by the site. It makes sense ammonia can build up in the bags easily so might as wel do a quick acclimation. With fish and corals now I’m typically not going long with good results. I just make
Sure the temp and salinity match. With inverts I’ll make sure to go a bit longer. The ammonia remover comes in handy for this!