Did i poison my inverts?

Scooter21

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I got some new coral and I dipped them in bayer. I put all the coral in with the bayer. When that's done, I transfer them all to a new container with new saltwater. I repeated this 3 times. So rinsing 3 times. I've never had a problem doing this. This was Saturday. The next day, I fed the tank some frozen reef frenzy. I have a cleaner shrimp and 2 peppermint shrimp. Usually they go absolutely nuts for the food. They try to steal as much as they can, until they can't hold any more. Yesterday, none of then seemed interested at all. I even squirted some next to the cleaner shrimp and he didn't want it at all. I've never seen this before. My hermit crabs also haven't moved from the locations they are at, though, I pulled one out and I've been able to confirm they are all still alive

I checked this morning. I found everyone and there are no deaths so far. One if the hermit crabs looks like he's only moved about 1/2" from last night, but he did still look alive
 
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Scooter21

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Not sure what's going on with your inverts but I have used Bayer the same way you did only I use one less rinse and have not had any issues.
I've never had any issues either. What has me worried is there was a small piece of live rock (made 2-3" by 2-3") covered in mushrooms. I didn't think about it being able to soak in the bayer. I've never dipped rock before
 
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Scooter21

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I think I definitely poisoned the inverts. I found this online. The active ingredient in bayer:

through physical contact via an insect or ingestion. This allows for a faster knockdown of the target pest and a quicker kill. Cyfluthrin kills pests by behaving like a powerful poison that detrimentally affects their central nervous system. Once they ingest or come into contact with Cyfluthrin, the insect’s nerve cells become excited, eventually leading to paralysis thus the insect will not be able to perform the necessary bodily functions for survival such as feeding or grooming. Before long, the insect will then starve to death because of their catatonic state.


Catatonic state definitely seems like what my shrimp and hermits are doing. Surprisingly, the snails and fish are acting normal. One of the shrimp (peppermint) was acting semi normal yesterday when I fed the tank, but 2 still seem lethargic.


I'm going to try and 50% water change tonight and then add some carbon and cuprisorb and see if it helps
 

Cell

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hope things change for the better. I've never used Bayer, by the sounds of this I probably will never.
Because of one outlier that may or may not have been caused by Bayer? Myself and many others have been using Bayer for years with no issues.
 
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Scooter21

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Because of one outlier that may or may not have been caused by Bayer? Myself and many others have been using Bayer for years with no issues.

I've used it several times before too with no issues. I think the issue this time is either the small piece of live rock or colony of duncans that had some dead polyps. Those make cavities. So there was lots of nooks and crannies on the piece.


I think it the future, I'll put the pieces in a gallon of saltwater with a small pump for an hour or two to make 100% sure it's all dissipated.

In cases like this, where I had a small piece of rock with the coral, is there any dip that is more safe? I wouldn't dip large rocks for part of a rockscape, but, for example, I have a friend making up a 3"x3" rubble rock for with as many varieties of zoas that he can cram on the rock. I don't want to remove them from the rock, but I also don't want to not dip
 
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Scooter21

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I called Bayer and they were no help. I talked to an actual expert. I didn't mention that I was dipping coral, just pretended I was spraying outside and it got in the tank. She basically just said "fish are super sensitive to this, so if there was any in there, the fish would be acting funny too."
It's been pretty well confirmed on the reef community that the inverts are more sensitive, but I couldn't really convince her. "No fish deaths, it's gotta be something else"
 
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Scooter21

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I fed the tank and 1 of the shrimp seems to be 75% acting normal again. He wanted food but he wasn't aggressive as normal. The cleaner shrimp accepted some food and seemed to kinda eat it but definitely not back to normal. The 2 hermits haven't moved from the same spots. No idea if they are alive. No sign of ermald crab, but he can be hard to find sometimes. All snails and fish seem normal


Then I did a 50% water change and added some pouches of carbon, changed the filter floss for a carbon pad and added a pouch of cuprisorb. Hopefully they pull through.
 
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Scooter21

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Pleased to say that I THINK the casualties will be minimal. The two peppermint shrimp are now acting normal. Aggressive towards food and running around the tank. The cleaner shrimp isn't 100% acting normal but he seems more normal every day. Today he took some food and actually ate it. He wasn't as aggressive as he used to be and ran away when there was too much food, which isn't normal. He's walking a little bit. The first couple days he just stood in one spot and wouldn't move unless he something touched him, he'd move slightly



Hermit crabs haven't moved, but I squirted food at them and they seemed like they were eating it. They look more alive. The last few days I wasn't able to tell if they are alive. Now they are definitely alive and if I didn't know they hadn't walked in a week, I'd think they were acting normal. Picking food apart and doing crab stuff


No sign of emerald crab but I suspect he's alive somewhere.


I also noticed a brittle star, so hopefully other inverts and pods are OK
 
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Scooter21

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I'm pleased to report that I woke up this morning to the emerald crab out eating algae, one hermit crab moved across the tank, one moved to the nearest rock, both eating and a molt from the cleaner shrimp. It's looking like everyone is going to make a recovery with no losses
 
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Scooter21

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Well, it looks like everyone made a full recovery. All 3 shrimp are back to going nuts during feeding time and hoarding more food than they can carry. Watching them dig food out of the coral is bitter sweet
 

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looks like the rock was the problem all the time. how many gallons is your tank?
and what kind of bayer product did you used?
 
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