My shrimp are gone!

[jkhudson]

All of my shrimp have disappeared. I tested my water and found my ph was at 7.8 and my phosphates were high (above .20). Would this cause my shrimp to go by the wayside or could it be something else? I was told that an iodine overdose would kill them( I add 2 capfulls of Seachem's reef iodide 2-3 times a week to a 75 gal tank). I was wondering if it might be my emerald or sally lightfoot crabs. Thanks.

 

[reefD]

could be. the issue at hand is that shrimp need to molt. the proccess of molting is labor intensive. if a shrimp runs into any complications during the molt the stress will almost always kill 'em. so to prevent this iodine helps to keep a shrimp molting and in theory healthy. Something most people find out later is that calcium also aid's in the molting proccess. and lastly prestine perfect water parameters are required and help too. most shrimp are triggered to molt all at the same time due to the water they all share. sounds like yours may have died from bad water parameters and all being triggered to molt.

 

[Pandora]

Yes, crustaceans need TRACE iodine for creating new shell when they molt. However, many beginners overdo this (not necessarily assuming you are one, btw). This is one of the most easily overdosed trace elements and I believe that that happened here. When overdosed, it will cause the shrimp's metabolism to work overtime and for molting to occur all the time, using up energy that should be diverted to other functions. It can result in death (though many other things could as well). For the average tank, many find that just regular water changes with a good salt will replenish enough for this particular trace element. You should not be blindly dumping in capfuls without testing for it also.

 

[integlikewhoa]

What else do you have in your tank. I find they are also an easy meal for other tank mates. And how many is all of them are gone?