Can a fire shrimp die due to lowered salinity?

[emanguba]

We usually get our saltwater from place A...but place A was not in the schedule and we were definitely due for a water change.

So, we decided to go to place B for saltwater because of availability.

The salinity of place B's water was 1.18 and place A is usually 1.24.

We did your water change (30 gallons for a 72 gallon tank) and noticed that Fred, our fire shrimp, didn't make it.

We checked the salinity of the tank this morning and it is at 1.2 now.

All our other parameters are okie dokie.

So, was his death due to the salinity difference?

 

[PSam]

Very likely

 

[RumLad]

Many inverts are super sensitive to drastic swings in salinity, alk, ph etc..
That swing you put him through could very well have done it.

perhaps it would have been better to hold off such a large water change until a better alternative was available.

Can I ask, how often you do the ~50% changes?

 

[emanguba]

We usually do it weekly, but fell behind schedule this last time.

Here's another thing though...we also have 3 pepermints and 1 cleaner...why did Fred not make it and the others did? He's the biggest of all the shrimps.

 

[PSam]

You do 50% water changes weekly? That's pretty excessive, imo.

Maybe OK on a freshwater, but not a reef tank.

 

[RumLad]

30 gallons weekly?
That seems a tad excessive, IMO. Are your other parameters stable? What are they? How are you filtering, what type of bioload? How long has the tank been running / established, what other livestock do you have in there? How old was Fred?

Given some if not all of this info can help us narrow down a plausible explanation.

 

[emanguba]

We've been doing 30 gallon water changes to keep our nitrates/nitrites down...we've been taking out the bioballs from the sump at every water change...

The tanks been up and running for about 6-7 months now...

We've had Fred for about 3ish months...

His tank mates were hippo tang, sailfin tang, bristletooth tang, mated pair maroon clowns, lawnmower blenny, midas blenny...everyone gets along and Fred cleans the crew a lot, too...we also have Rosie, our RBTA...she's huge and is doing great also...

Oh and I usually feed small feedings in the morning and evening...and skip the evening every other day...

 

[emanguba]

I really think our skimmer sucks and that we need a refugium setup...but that is all for the new house with a bigger tank...so for now we are just trying to keep things as is until we move.

All other parameters were good...we checked and rechecked...only difference was the salinity...