2nd shrimp to die / disappear on me

[miston]

I have a 12 gallon with 2 clowns, watchman goby, and Randalli pistol shrimp. My tank is up a little over a year now. I don't test regularly, but I am starting to do frequent water changes. I do a small algae problem, but I'm working on it.

I purchased a fire shrimp, and he didn't last but about 3 months before disappearing. I just noticed that my cleaner shrimp disappeared as well. At first the cleaner shrimp was pretty active, coming out for feedings, then I noticed he started hanging out towards the back, the same way the fire shrimp did. I kind of had a feeling that the cleaner shrimp was sick once he started hiding, and sure enough he's not around, I'm sure my cleanup crew took care of him.

Are fire shrimp/cleaner shrimp not fairly hardy? Are my water parameters not in check enough that would cause them to perish even though my Pistol shrimp has been thriving over a year?

Or did my pistol shrimp get hungry?

 

[benzreef]

I have lost one to similar circumstances recently, but I did have a slightly larger one which i purchased at the same time. it acclimated better and i am thinking it could have killed my other one. I have a sleeper goby as well and I think he might have hand a hand in this as well

 

[deeznuts]

my tank is cycling for 2 months now and about week ago i put 6 cleaner shrimps along with some other snails and some counches and hermit crabs.
they all seem fine but sadly all the cleaner shrimp had died and of course my cleaner crew were all over that.

i would also like to know if they are considered sensetive.

my tank is 150 gal

 

[PSam]

All the inverts are very sensitive. I acclimate all snails & shrimp on a slow drip for 2.5 - 3 hours before putting in the tank.

 

[miston]

I acclimated mine as well. They seemed fine for a few months, then died.

 

[bigtex52]

My shrimp disappeared for over three months. About a week ago, I found them one night when I was looking for my sea hare. They were pretty small when they disappeared and now they are BIG. They have obviously molted a bunch of times and I never even saw 1 molted shell.

 

[Fischer's Angel]

What SG do you keep your water? I noticed in the past if I tried to keep cleaner type shrimp in water with lower SG (1.019-1.021) the shrimp would often have difficulty molting and would die part way out of their old shell. I am guessing not enough calcium or some other trace element when water is lower SG. Did not have that problem when water at 1.024-1.026 - just IME.

 

[miston]

ahh...I bet my calcium has been too low

I try to keep it around 1.025 but it is usually a tad higher

 

[Tennyson]

I think, when your shrimp molt, they need some place to hide when they are vulnerable. Thats probably when the pistol shrimp comes in and kills them. They are known for killing small shrimp.

 

[miston]

shoot, my pistol shrimp was about 3 times as small as my fire and cleaner shrimp

I did notice that my fire shrimp molted a lot.....does that tell you something?

 

[Tennyson]

Maybe, Pistol shrimps can kill a cleaner/fire shrimp if they are small, maybe even if they are large/normal size. Those cleaner shrimp are pretty vulnerable though right after they molt and would be an easy target for a hungry pistol shrimp. If I had a small pistol shrimp, and my cleaner shrimps went missing, I would either blame it on the pistol shrimp or theres something wrong with the salinity which they are very sensitive to. They are also sensitive to big changes in the water parameters, did you do a water change and add water too quickly? This could also be the case too, it might not be the pistol shrimp.

 

[Tennyson]

Your tank is also pretty small, that could give the pistol a bigger chance that it will come into contact with your cleaners. The pistol could also be really hungry.

 

[miston]

I may very well have done a water change a tad too quickly, I'll be more careful from now on.