# New NPT - Ammonia spikes and dead shrimp.



## boopsie (Apr 22, 2013)

I apologize in advance for the long post :-?

Something has gone wrong with my tank. I set it up on Thursday, stocked it with my beta, 1 nerite snail, 3 ghost shrimp and 3 malaysian trumpet snails, plus however many snails snuck in on my plants that I don't know about. 

Everything seemed great Thursday and all of Friday.
Friday night, however, I put a slice of zucchini in the tank for the shrimp and snails to munch on. The snails ignored it but the shrimp went crazy on it. I went to bed, and woke up to a cloudy smelly tank, snails climbed up to the top of the tank, and all three shrimp dead.
I took a water sample, removed the zucchini and dead shrimp and then did a 50% water change two times. The ammonia test came out at .50 ppm.

Since this morning the water got cloudy again and I've done an additional two 50% water changes. I'm about to do another one because the ammonia is at .25 again. I have no idea what's going on and making so much ammonia. 

I have no idea what's gone wrong. 
The zucchini was in the tank less than 12 hours. Did it somehow kill the shrimp or is it a coincidence? Was the ammonia high enough to kill them? Did I not poke my dirt enough and the soil is now going nasty on me? Or did I simply over stock my tank like a nut? 
Any and all help and advice is greatly appreciated. I have no idea what I've done wrong. :-(


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## Stone (Jan 6, 2013)

ammonia spikes happen with npts you need a ton of fast growing stem plants to counter them, and even then they will happen. this can be really hard on fish, shrimp do not stand a chance the chemistry of the water will jump around too much for them I would remove the fish and just watch the tank closely till it has cycled


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Check out this link and the others in the Betta Bowls, Habitat, etc., section concerning cycling. It will help you a lot. Leave zucchini in only until the shrimp are finished; it starts rotting pretty fast.

Sorry you lost the shrimp and hope everyone else is okay. And, welcome to Betta Fish.

http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=47838


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## lilyth88 (Mar 15, 2012)

How big is your tank?


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

you said you have a NPT... did you cover atleast 70% of substrate space with fast growing plants? shrimps are extremely sensitive and cannot tolerate any ammonia or nitrites >.< I recommend you to add them after you've made sure that your tank is stablized  The nerites are sensitive too...

usually you get a nitrate spike with NPTs...


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## boopsie (Apr 22, 2013)

It's a 5 gallon tank, and it's more like 50% planted. Darn it. I'll get more as soon as I can.


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