# hydrogen peroxide and shrimp



## pyrrolin

I had a tank with over a dozen ghost shrimp and recently I added some hydrogen peroxide to remove some BGA and I just noticed that all the shrimp are dead and all the Taiwan moss I put in there is also dead. I also for the last week almost have been leaving the light on all the time on that tank. Shrimp were the only things in the tank besides a few parasite snails.

Could the peroxide be what killed them?


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## xriddler

what was your dosage if you dont mind me asking?


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## pyrrolin

wasn't very high, not even 1 ml per gallon by my estimation. The tank is 25 gallons and I just poured a bit in each day for a few days. I probably put about 10 to 15 ml in each day, maybe up to 20.

I did have some sponge filter issues not long ago to, something happened and the sponge was floating so it wasn't doing its job. I didn't worry too much about checking the levels in that tank either.

I had the shrimp in the tank for a few months with no problems. The tank is also very low to the ground so contamination is a slight possibility.

If I knew that the peroxide was the cause, then I will have learned something and no worries. If it wasn't that, then I am left wondering what went wrong exactly. Checking the levels now would be useless as the tank had lots of dead shrimp which would throw everything off so I can't determine if I had spikes due to the filter issue.


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## xriddler

If I can find the post but I think there was a WC mentioned in between dosing for the nuking method


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## igor.kanshyn

I have used hydrogen peroxide in shrimps tank and it was fine all the times. Sometimes tank was just filled with little oxygen bubbles, but no dead shrimps.

That fact that moss died, probably means that you have added to much of hydrogen peroxide. Moss can be hurt a little, but should survive.

Hydrogen peroxide can cause problems by itself. However, after using it, in couple of hours and on the next day, water change should be done. This is because dead algae produces lots of nitrites that is a problem by itself.


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## xriddler

So two water changes are needed? One after a few hours and then one water change the on the next day? What if peroxide was needed for two days straight? anyone have a particular brand of peroxide they recommend? i am getting quite a bit of clado and some bba and i might have to nuke my community tank with cherries. my tank is about 48gallons but with all the plants, substrate, decor and what not it probably holds only 38gallons of water. Do i dose 38 or 48 gallon calculations of peroxide?


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## Fishfur

Brands of peroxide don't matter, but strength can vary. Typical drug store stuff is usually 3%. The kind used for bleaching hair is typically double that. You will also see terms like 10 volume or 20 volume.. the first is the same as the 3%, the second the same as the hair stuff, or 6%.

You can also get it at 35%, usually from a health food store that sell sprouting supplies. If you happen to get this strength be darn careful.. it's quite powerful and has to be diluted to use - it can burn skin a bit, though it won't do too much harm unless it gets in eyes or mucous membranes. There are some sites online with good information on how much to dilute to get 3% or other percentages, and if I find the one I'm thinking of I'll post it.

I would also measure carefully if you dose a tank, because the actual gallons of water are less than the tank capacity, unless it has no substrate or decor to displace water. So if you have a 29G tank, with 3 inches of substrate, rocks and wood, it's NOT going to be 29 gallons of water. And I honestly don't know how you allow for whatever you have in a tank taking up space that isn't water, but you have to allow for it or you'll overdose.

I'd use a syringe so as to get a very accurate dosage.. simply pouring a little in could result in major differences between one dose and the next. Plus, if you use accurate measures, you will be able to better determine if you used enough or need more.. and the results will be easier to understand.


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## igor.kanshyn

xriddler said:


> So two water changes are needed? One after a few hours and then one water change the on the next day? What if peroxide was needed for two days straight? anyone have a particular brand of peroxide they recommend? i am getting quite a bit of clado and some bba and i might have to nuke my community tank with cherries. my tank is about 48gallons but with all the plants, substrate, decor and what not it probably holds only 38gallons of water. Do i dose 38 or 48 gallon calculations of peroxide?


I don't remember exact recommendations, but it makes sens to make 2 or 3 big water changes after dozing hydrogen peroxide. Once aquarium stopped bubbling, change water, and ten change water again on next two days.
Peroxide brand doesn't matter. What is matter is how you apply it.

The best way is turn off your filter, but do not turn off the light. Then, use a syringe without a needle and apply hydrogen peroxide right on the spots with algae. Try to "sprinkle" all the places with algae.
Hydrogen peroxide adds lots of oxygen and it "burns" algae in a tank. Fish or shrimps will eat dead algae then.


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## pyrrolin

Sounds like it may have been the peroxide then because I was being careless, every other time I have used it I have used a siringe and been careful.


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## Shrimp Daddy

Why not use bleach? I've heard urine works too.


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## zfarsh

Don't you have to turn off the filters while putting the Hydrogen Perox, I heard that it kills the bacteria? That is what Coldmantis does, ask him for his procedure. 

Anyways, I have read that HP can kill invertebrates much more easily than fish.


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## Zebrapl3co

Yes, it's the peroxide, and yes you dose too much. Not only that but it usually sticks around 1/2 year before it finally clears up. So it's pretty much a no-shrimp tank. Only time will tell. You'll probably have a few that survived the poisoning, but you will get high death rate in this tank.
Using peroxide to threat algae needs to be done properly.
You should use a syringe to spot treat the algae and I would probably go at a max of 5 ml per 10G. Actually, if I have shrimps in the tank, I would never use peroxide in that tank.

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## zfarsh

What would you use instead of perox, Excel?


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## xriddler

excel kills shrimp too. i syringed my excel and a shrimp walked right into it and it died the next day. excel at high dosages can kill even fish, when i started the hobby three months ago i dosed some excel into my tank straight (i now mix it with water first) one my white clouds swam into my capful and he has never been the same. he stopped eating and he had breathing problems bobbing up and down for air.


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## Zebrapl3co

Yeah, unfortunately, Excel kills shrimp too. But by my estimation, it's about 1/4 maybe 1/8 of the killing strength as peroxide. You might not notice much if you dose Excel at normal strength, but if you go at X2, you'll probably take 1/4 of the shrimp population with you. And that's just the start. The trickle effect as in 1 or 2 die per week will go on for quite some time. Breeding in these kind of setting is next to impossible in my experience. On bigger tanks, it might bounce back earlier. You can try to spot treat with Excel at normal strength and see what happens.

Going back to the peroxide, I am not really sure why it kills shrimp, but just keep in mind that we use peroxide to treat cut and scrapes to kill germs. So yeah, I think it will kill the good bacteria in your tank. That might lead to your tank cycling, hence the dead shrimp. I don't know, it's a pretty wild guess. So you might want to watch out for that.
Also, the peroxide that I used was a 3% solution.

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## pyrrolin

Ok, at least now I can be sure of the cause, thanks, I won't be so careless in the future


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## Fishfur

I would disagree with the idea that Hydrogen Peroxide of itself persists in a tank for months on end. It actually breaks down very quickly into water and oxygen gas, and produces a bit of heat when it does so. Exothermic reaction. If you ever put any a cut, you'd feel the warmth as it bubbles into oxygen and water.

However, if you use a LOT of it in a tank, and don't do water changes soon after, there's a potential for it to cause some problems. It is a very powerful oxidizer and so is Excel, which is why they both will kill algae. Both have an effect very similar to that of bleach, but bleach, having chlorine in it, is even less desirable in a tank. But using too much of either HP or Excel for the purpose of algae control is not good for the livestock. But dosed at appropriate levels, peroxide in the typical drugstore 3% dilution is unlikely to cause long term problems, unless it's because of a chemical additive it may contain. 

Because it is not particularly stable, the stuff you get in drugstores sometimes has acetanilide added to it, to help keep it stable. This chemical has known toxic effects in larger quantities, though I'm at a Starbucks just now and the wifi connection can't seem to find a number of links from Mr. Google, so I can't find out what the toxic effects actually are. I only know about it because I use Food Grade peroxide, which has nothing added to it, to the very best of my knowledge. 

But even if had the chemical additive, for it to cause issues, you would have to use far too much of the peroxide, so you'd kill anything in the tank anyway. I don't think it's likely to be a big issue in the amounts used for algae control. And as you did WCs it would be removed within a reasonable time anyway. 

I'd suggest getting 35% Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide, if you want to be safest. Dilute as needed with water. It can be had at health food stores that carry sprouting supplies, among other sources, but most places won't ship it because it comes under the Dangerous Goods act in that concentration.

Fwiw, pure Hydrogen Peroxide, in the appropriate dilution, can even be administered by IV to humans, and quite safely. It used to be a treatment for some cancers, and not only worked, but because of what it breaks down into, it did no harm. But it didn't make any money for drug companies so it fell out of favour. You still see it used in some alternate treatment clinics though. It was super safe compared to most of the drugs used for chemo these days.


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## pyrrolin

I drained the tank, just need to clean it now. I am not worried about using the tank in the future for shrimp if I decide to get more


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## supershrimp

This is what I did in the past, mix up the peroxide with a few drops of your favourite colour of food dye. Turn off pumps and wait a few minutes. Then spot treat for 15 to 20 minutes. Then syphon out the coloured h202 with a water change. 

I only did this on my high tech planted cherry tank ,not my crystal tank.


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## Fishfur

I think that's a good idea.. tinting the peroxide first, so you can see where it's going.. thanks for the suggestion, I'll have to try that. I've a patch of hair algae that just does not want to go away.. was going to use peroxide, but this is a great tip for helping to spot treat accurately.


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## supershrimp

Tinting the h202 also helps with removing it at the end. I syphon all the colour out. Nice and simple.


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