I had a strange one last night. I noticed lots of my shrimp (native) looking sickly. They were laying on their side twitching. This morning there's at least half a dozen dead ones, but the bristlenose seem fine. I checked for Amonia - none. PH is over 7, but it usually is. Little worried as I don't want my fish to follow.

I hadn't done any water changes in four days and the only think I can think of is I put some rockmelon in -- maybe it had something on it?

Any advice?

Hi,how long had you had the melon? Did you feed the skin aswell and did you wash it first?

It's possible the melon could have been sprayed with some kind of pesticide or fungicide, did you wash it before putting it in . I think some fungicides are copper based, copper being toxic to both shrimps and BN's.

Hopefully you removed the melon and did a partial water change.

I would keep an eye on things, water parameters, etc just to make it is not a water based problem.

it'd been in the fridge a few days. Skin and all and I didn't wash it. Might be the culprit i'd say. Will do a bigger water change today. Did about 15% yesterday when I first noticed it.

Cantaloupe can carry bacteria on the skin so it may be the culprit.Do the water changes and let us know how it goes and good luck to you.

Did a good water change, cleaned all the filters and so far so good. Fingers crossed!

A piece of good advice is to put anything raw (veggies meat) into the deep freezer for a day or two, after a good washing.

Have never got sick/dead fish ever since. Might work for you, as well. Keep fingers crossed.