Cleaner Shrimp has passed

[That New Guy]

Sassy the cleaner shrimp was found this morning; Time of death 9:08 AM. No signs of a struggle...

Why would my cleaner shrimp die but my fish and corals are all okay?

 

[MuShu]

Because stuff dies? It doesn't mean that anything is wrong in your tank other than the shrimp was at the end of it's life.

On the other hand, go ahead and check your nitrates. Inverts are more sensitive to high nitrates. If your nitrates are fine, I would chalk it up the the circle of life.

 

[snorvich]

Or, it could be a molt.

 

[Drewl117]

It could have molted... You might see it in a couple days, if they molt they usually hide for a few days while their new shell hardens.

 

[cubbyman60]

If it looks pretty much intact, look for it in a few days...I'd guess it molted.

 

[ssick92]

I agree with a molt... Although unless it's a huge tank, you should see a live shrimp hanging around like always.

What are your parameters? Are you dosing anything?

 

[That New Guy]

Current water parameters:

Nitrite: 0.00
Ammonia: 0.00
Nitrate: 0.00
Calcium: 380
Temp: 77.9
Salinity: 1.025

It's definitely not a molt. We're in a 40 gallon tank and there's only a couple places to hide, none of which have a shrimp.

 

[Grimreaperz]

Sorry for your loss. Could there have been a major drop in temp over night from a power outage or something? Would be my next best guess. Those things are generally pretty hardy

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[eastlake]

did you notice any black by the gills? Its not always the most obvious thing to look for, I lost a cleaner shrimp to black gill disease and aside form a little bit of black on the gills there were no obvious symptoms.

 

[That New Guy]

Sorry for your loss. Could there have been a major drop in temp over night from a power outage or something? Would be my next best guess. Those things are generally pretty hardy

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The house temperature is only 3 degrees lower than the tank, so I hope it wasn't a temp change. I'm going to be investing in some sort of net mod controller. I have the reef keeper lite, but want a way to track ph/temp throughout the day...

 

[That New Guy]

did you notice any black by the gills? Its not always the most obvious thing to look for, I lost a cleaner shrimp to black gill disease and aside form a little bit of black on the gills there were no obvious symptoms.

I didn't notice anything on him or any strange behavior. In fact the day before when I fed the tank I noticed he came to the surface and swam around like normal. He had the best personality of any tank inhabitant. Shitty loss.

 

[ScienceRulez]

I think you are going to find it was simply end of life. Something that happens to us all sooner or later.

 

[BlackTracet]

A molt is very easy to identify. It looks exactly like the shrimp, antennae, legs and all, just an empty separated shell. I thought mine was dead when it molted because i never saw it before but I then found the live guy hiding.

Sorry for your loss.