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Illness/Sickness: Sand STICKING to them????

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Hi all, long time since I've posted. I was in the middle of moving and had drained their large tank and had them in a temporary one. Moved the tank, poured the sand back in and refilled it. Let it sit a couple days to allow the chlorine to fully evaporate. Don't have any water parameters as it honestly should be all 0s at this point...

I transferred them this morning and out of 5, 1 is dead, and the 4 others do not look good at all. Its like the sand has STUCK to their skin and gills. This is the same sand they were in before, it settled well, etc. I have them all in containers with fresh bottled water and did my best to wipe the sand off but now their skin is peeling with it....

Very confused :/
 

Morrison

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I sometimes see the sand sticking to my axies as well. Maybe it's because they're a little slimey.
 

argray90

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You said you let the chlorine evaporate but most water has chloramines in it as well which does not evaporate and you much buy something like Amquel+ to treat for chloramines. Just would be my guess over the sand sticking to them because when I first set up my tank I did not treat for chloramines similar to you and the shrimp I was trying to cycle the tank with died.
 
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:( They're all gone - they were literally covered in sand when I got home from work several hours after transferring them - it was very odd and I've never seen it or had it happen before...and it is the same sand that was in their tank before and never caused a problem. I've done their water this way before and its never been an issue - but I will test it tomorrow just to be sure it wasn't that...
 

NeekaLovesYou

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I'm so sorry to hear that :( I think you should test that water quality right away so you can either rule it out or see if its the culprit..
As for chlorine control its pretty much a MUST to treat the water as there's so much going on in tap water these days. How deep is your sand? I'm no sand expert as I used river rock in my tanks but was wondering if the sand being contained could have caused some sort of anaerobic activity. Also what did you keep the sand in whilst moving and did you wash it afterwards. Do you use a filter in your tank? If so what kind; sponge, canister etc.
 

Cleigh9579

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I am so sorry for your loss, I would really like to know more, as I have sand. And would like to keep this from happening.
 

SapphireTigress

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so sorry for your losses, if you find out what happened, please let us know.

I am so happy every day that my water does not have chloramines!
 
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