A water quality conundrum

[Garuf]

Okay, so today I bought some Otocinclus from my LFS, after the usual drop acclimatization over 8 hours I took the fish into the tank and floated them to allow the temperatures to level out, after an hour I poured the oto's into the tank. Within a few minutes the water turned milky the oto's went for the surface one died within minutes of been added to the tank. I also bought some amanos which I was acclimatising at the same time, I haven't added them to the tank leaving them in the bag in the bucket with a heater, what do I do? Add them and risk them dying? I've added two bags of purigen to the filter and a wad of polyfilter which seems to have cleared the milky water but I'm still entirely at a loss as to what's happening. Help?!

 

[a1Matt]

I do not know what is happening in the tank, but if you want to hold off on adding the amanos for now, then they will be fine in the bag.

The longest I have kept shrimp in the original bag was 3 weeks, and I added floating plants, a little moss, and an airstone to keep them OK in that time. I also made sure I did not add any extra food to the bag. There was less than 200ml of water in the bag!

 

[Garuf]

I think what it is is that the original shop water had massive amounts of ammonia/organics in it so when it hit my water that's not had much of a bioload it threw a sh*t fit and everything spiked, of course this is just a theory, the shirmp are now in a bucket on my desk with some odd mosses some poly filter and a heater, I don't have a airpump I can use but I do have a couple of filters?
The shrimp seem fine but are a definite translucent blue so I'm hoping they'll pull through, I suppose I'd be stressed too if I'd been in a bucket and in someones backpack.

 

[a1Matt]

That theory fits well. I never add the water that livestock comes in to my tank. Always net the fish instead.

The filter will probably be better than the airpump, as long as the flow is not too violent for them (I used the airpump as I did not have enough water to fit a filter in).

I wouldn't bother with a heater as shrimp are fine at cooler temps, but if you do use one watch the heater to make sure it is not overheating the water. I know they have thermostats, but I do not trust them in small bodies of water.

I think not feeding them is the main thing. They can scavenge off moss for weeks before shrinking.

Probably teaching you how to suck eggs here, but hopefully it is good moral support

 

[Garuf]

| little but it's good to hear. Thanks.
The shrimp are still doing fine, added tap water and some dennerle water conditioner to their bucket and they seem much happier only one still has the blue colouration, they're all active and can be seen filtering through the moss. I'm going to run the tank as normal for a couple of days and try and drip acclimatize them again, as a precaution I did a back-to-back pair of 60% water changes so if anything was in the water it aught to now be out. No more bloom and the water is sparkling, I do have test kits to test but they're all out of date, never needed them before!