Help!! Dead cleaner shrimp.

Capsle

Capsle

New member
Hey Reefers,

So I woke up this morning to my cleaner shrimp on it back at the bottom of the tank.

I noticed that he hadn't really been coming out to eat for the last 2 days. I tired hand feeding him last night with a small piece of shrimp which he usually grabs right out of my fingers but to no avail.

I'm not sure what went wrong. He moulted last week and seem to be doing great.

Water parameters are in check.

Ammonia <0.15
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 25 (been over feeding the last couple days.
PH 7.8
Phosphate 0.03
Mg 114 (been rising to get it up)
Cal 430
DK 10.2
Temp 75.7.

Everything has been stable and don't know what happened. I notice these black lines in his abdomen when I pulled him out today. Undigested food or something else?

369725d4676140b0220515f023ed8c9e.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
If ammonia is detectable, it is toxic to marine life. The black stuff on the side of the shrimp looks suspicious as well, but IMO it is probably the ammonia that caused his demise.

How long has the tank been set up?
 
nmotz said:
If ammonia is detectable, it is toxic to marine life. The black stuff on the side of the shrimp looks suspicious as well, but IMO it is probably the ammonia that caused his demise.



How long has the tank been set up?
Click to expand...



The tank has been cycled for just over a month. Everything else is doing fine, fish look great and no signs of stress at all.

As for the ammonia if there is any it is very very little. Just to say the solution isn't perfectly clear (salifert).

I did a 20% water change this morning when I found him.

I should say that I also had a salinity drop from Saturday night to yesterday morning as my ATO siphoned a bunch of RODI from its reservoir. Salinity dropped by .003

I'm just worried that if it's something major I might loose everything.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Do you have any information about the age of the shrimp. They have pretty short lifespans (2-3 years). So if you had a large specimen, it might be old age.
 
Ammonia is still dangerous even in very small amounts, especially to invertebrates. How much live rock do you have in the tank? If there is still some ammonia, that tells me that your biofilter is struggling to keep up with the amount of waste being produced in the tank. You mentioned overfeeding and that might be the issue. Also, how many fish do you have?

A salinity drop of .003 isn't a disaster but it's good that you caught it. A salinity rise is more problematic. If you correct the problem too quickly it could harm your livestock.

But for now I would concentrate on dealing with the ammonia. Keep testing, do WCs as required and maybe add a little Seachem to the tank to neutralize the ammonia.
 
nmotz said:
Ammonia is still dangerous even in very small amounts, especially to invertebrates. How much live rock do you have in the tank? If there is still some ammonia, that tells me that your biofilter is struggling to keep up with the amount of waste being produced in the tank. You mentioned overfeeding and that might be the issue. Also, how many fish do you have?



A salinity drop of .003 isn't a disaster but it's good that you caught it. A salinity rise is more problematic. If you correct the problem too quickly it could harm your livestock.



But for now I would concentrate on dealing with the ammonia. Keep testing, do WCs as required and maybe add a little Seachem to the tank to neutralize the ammonia.
Click to expand...



I have about 75 lb of live rock with 5.5" DSB of live sand. I'm running a reef octopus classic 150 which is rated for twice my water volume.
I have 4 fish, 2 O clowns, a jaw fish and a juvenile yellow tang (will be going in 180g I'm building).

CUC consists of 6 Mexican Turbo snails, 2 Nassarius snails, 2 Bumble bee, 1 asteria and 2 other snails (forget their name now). Also 1 pincushion urchin and 4 hermit crabs.

I'm going to test a fresh batch of SW with my ammonia test, the colour I'm seeing might be 0 but need to be sure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Your filtration looks ok to me. Some might recommend more LR, especially if it were not very porous, but I don't think it's a big deal in your case. That skimmer is just fine.

The one thing I'll add is that you have quite a few fish within a very short time of the tank cycling. Sometimes that can overwhelm the biofilter. Adding incrementally is best for new tanks. Quarantining will also reduce the threat of disease. It is tempting to add everything all at once but sometimes a tank that is "fully cycled" can be overwhelmed if you add too many fish too quickly, especially if you feed heavily.

No ammonia is key for any SW tank. If you can resolve that I think you're good to go.
 
nmotz said:
Your filtration looks ok to me. Some might recommend more LR, especially if it were not very porous, but I don't think it's a big deal in your case. That skimmer is just fine.



The one thing I'll add is that you have quite a few fish within a very short time of the tank cycling. Sometimes that can overwhelm the biofilter. Adding incrementally is best for new tanks. Quarantining will also reduce the threat of disease. It is tempting to add everything all at once but sometimes a tank that is "fully cycled" can be overwhelmed if you add too many fish too quickly, especially if you feed heavily.



No ammonia is key for any SW tank. If you can resolve that I think you're good to go.
Click to expand...



Thanks for the info.

The rock is very porous and it came from an established tank that had been running for 3+ years. My tank cycled in a week.

As for the fish I added the 2 clowns after 2 weeks of being cycled and the tang and jawfish last week.

CUC has been in there for over a month and I only lost one astarnia snail because he fell on his back and didn't catch it in time :( (was gone on a 2 day business trip).




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Yeah, new tanks are a little strange in my experience. The chemistry might settle quickly, but sometimes things are just "off" for a while. There are just processes that need time to get going it seems, tough to understand/explain. As time goes on, things stabilize more and more and these type of phantom deaths will be much less likely.
 
Same thing happened to me after my tank cycled. I got a cleaner shrimp that died a few days after molting. Then got a fire shrimp that died a few days after molting. I don't think they can take even the smallest fluctuation in parameters when they molt. Or that's my story at least.
 
Last edited:
I've heard jawfish like cooler tanks, but idk if shrimp do. Has it always been 75 degrees, or did something sudden happen?
Also, it could be a random new tank thing like maybe the urchin knocked a rock over on him and he got hurt or something during his molt, then wasted away.
 
I have had one shrimp for about a year. It just kept growing bigger till one day it died for no particular reason. They do not have extremely long life spans, this is one of the few times in the hobby where it might just be old age lol
 
Hey,

I'd defo say your culprit was the Ammonia for some reason you've had a spike and it's killed it off!

The exact same thing happened to mine with the coloration apart from mine was more towards the head. Inverts see useless with their immune a specially if it shedded and then all of a sudden you had an ammonia spike.

Keep an eye on your Params over the next week or so and go from there?
Took me a while after he died to brave it and get a new one didn't want the same to happen to him.

Good luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
help with new dracula goby
Replies
5
Views
457
leebca
L
D
Help with new tank cycling
Replies
12
Views
1K
wvned
wvned
H
High ammonia in 24 year old tank
Replies
15
Views
3K
brandon429
brandon429
BigEZ77
Urgent Help Requested - Wrasses Won't Come Out - CB Blue Tang Arriving Today (NO QT)
Replies
8
Views
686
rrrrob
rrrrob
T
Tank Crashing
Replies
14
Views
261
brandon429
brandon429
Back
Top