briansmyth
12-18-2005, 08:58 PM
Honestly, I think, with all of your help, I've done many things right when it comes to reefkeeping, But today I've made another mistake ... which I might just come out okay on - I do think it is important to post your learning experiences on here, so that others can be helped.
Purchased a nice healthy peppermint shrimp from ScaryGary today. I mentioned to Gary that my nephew and I were going to pick up another guy and go for pizza. Gary suggesting taking the shrimp right into the restaurant rather than leaving it in the car. He also mentioned that another place for the shrimp, if I wasn't going to be too long, would be on top of the refrigerator at my nephew's buddies place. I'm familiar with the importance of acclimating a shrimp to new water, so Gary didn't need to cover that with me, but shrimp are very sensitive to changes in salinity and other things.
Anyway, I somehow gave up control of the situation and my nephew took the shrimp into his buddies place while I waited in the car. The buddy, I'm guessing here, heard the words `shrimp, bag and fridge' but did not hear `put on top of fridge'. When we came back from the restaurant an hour and a half later ... the buddy took the shrimp out of the fridge and handed him to my nephew. Yikes!
We figure the shrimp may have warmed up a couple of degrees on the way home as my nephew held the bag. The temperature in my tank is 79.9 and the temperature in the bag was 70.9 when we checked! A 10 degree difference. The shrimp was still moving around in the bag - doing jumping jacks or looking for gloves and ear muffs, possibly.
The temperature in the bag is at 76.7 or so now, and yet all appears well. I'm adding my tank water to the bag now, but doing this slowly.
Lesson - hang on to the darn bag yourself unless it is being handled by a fellow reefer.
Other lesson - some shrimps can handle a lot even though there are some things of which they can handle very little.
Stay tuned for more in the continuing saga of "Frosty the Shrimp".
Purchased a nice healthy peppermint shrimp from ScaryGary today. I mentioned to Gary that my nephew and I were going to pick up another guy and go for pizza. Gary suggesting taking the shrimp right into the restaurant rather than leaving it in the car. He also mentioned that another place for the shrimp, if I wasn't going to be too long, would be on top of the refrigerator at my nephew's buddies place. I'm familiar with the importance of acclimating a shrimp to new water, so Gary didn't need to cover that with me, but shrimp are very sensitive to changes in salinity and other things.
Anyway, I somehow gave up control of the situation and my nephew took the shrimp into his buddies place while I waited in the car. The buddy, I'm guessing here, heard the words `shrimp, bag and fridge' but did not hear `put on top of fridge'. When we came back from the restaurant an hour and a half later ... the buddy took the shrimp out of the fridge and handed him to my nephew. Yikes!
We figure the shrimp may have warmed up a couple of degrees on the way home as my nephew held the bag. The temperature in my tank is 79.9 and the temperature in the bag was 70.9 when we checked! A 10 degree difference. The shrimp was still moving around in the bag - doing jumping jacks or looking for gloves and ear muffs, possibly.
The temperature in the bag is at 76.7 or so now, and yet all appears well. I'm adding my tank water to the bag now, but doing this slowly.
Lesson - hang on to the darn bag yourself unless it is being handled by a fellow reefer.
Other lesson - some shrimps can handle a lot even though there are some things of which they can handle very little.
Stay tuned for more in the continuing saga of "Frosty the Shrimp".