"Happy'Cam'per" wrote in message
...
But
if it kills shrimp, who knows what other harm it causes. That's why I
don't
recommend it anymore. If you have a choice, go for K2SO4.
__
Alex
pcalex (at) hotpop.com

Interesting stuff Alex. My LFS has only recently had shrimp for sale and
I've been planning on getting a few. Maybe I should just get one to start
with and see how it goes. Do you think its the overdose of chloride that
kills them off? Any other posters here have the same experience? I'll be
sure to include your advice the next time I suggest KCl. Thanks mate!

I'm not even 100% sure if the shrimp deaths had anything to do with KCl or
if it was just a coincidence. Here's the story. I bought a dozen Amano
shrimp about two years ago, but they all died within the first few days, one
by one. I thought that maybe it was because I didn't acclimate them long
enough before I first introduced them. I then got a half a dozen more, but
the same thing happened. So I inquired about it on the APD, and one person
responded by saying that he had heard of multiple occasions of shrimp deaths
in tanks that had KCl added. I was dosing a lot of KCl at the time. So I
stopped adding KCl and got some K2SO4. After 2 or 3 months of not using KCl,
I got another 6 Amano shrimp, but 5 died and one survived. This one shrimp
lived in my tank for several months, but then it died not too long ago.

So I really don't know if it was the absense of KCl that allowed that one
shrimp to survive, or if it was some remaining KCl in the water that killed
those 5 shrimp. Another possibility is that it may have been some other
water condition in my tank that ultimately killed all the shrimp. Still,
there are
people who both dose KCl and keep shrimp successfully. And I've also been
told that there is plenty of chloride in the shrimps' natural brackish
environment. So I guess you have to make your own conclusion. I'm leaning
toward the KCl being harmful possibility.
__
Alex