Foxxy
New member
So bummed out, woke up this morning to see my little cleaner shrimp dead. He was the household favorite, even my 2yr old gets happy when she wakes up and to go say "hi shrimpie". I have a hunch I killed him and feel horrible about it.. Here's my info and hopefully someone can help verify a cause of death...
First off, the tank is a 15 gallon with live rock, 1 tiny ocellaris (Herbert), 2 snails I call Turbo and Boost. Turbo sucks, I think his shell is too big for him to stay stuck to anything long, but Boost is tinier and does awesome work. Not sure how long the big guy will make it unless he is secretive and only eats at night, but I digress... And the cleaner shrimp was my 1st critter for my tank. He was always awesome! Super friendly and social, shed on a regular schedule, ate fine, never a problem.
Got my fish from the same LFS (we only have 1 on the island unless you shop at Petco or other pet store) on Memorial Day and later noticed he had a white spot on his cheek that for the life of me I could not 100% identify with hours of googling and reading threads on here. I let him be for a couple days to observe incase it was from stress or he got bumped during transport. He acts fine, swims all over, would eat all day if I let him, and sleeps like a baby all night. He wouldn't let the shrimp ever clean him, but being tank-bred he probably has no clue about that lol. Well I then noticed a white 'thing' on his tail fin, like fuz almost and the next day it seemed slightly larger but i don't know for sure.. I went and got the Kordon Ich Attack as it was the only "reef safe" option and started dosing the next morning (Sunday) after my planned tank cleaning and water change/top off.
Yesterday after 3 doses (says to do it daily until cleared up) Shrimpie was not being his normal social self, he actually hid from me when I tried to target feed him to get him out from under his rock.. He has NEVER backed away from a hand or turned down food, so I knew something was wrong. And now he's a goner.
checked paramaters after I pulled him out:
Temp 82
SG is 1.022-23 as usual
Ammonia is NOT at 0 today. I can't get a perfect color match but I will say it's between .25-.5 ppm :mad2: I have not seen a bad reading since the tank finished cycling and it was 0 on Sunday.
Nitrite 0
Nitrate ~10-15
Obviously the ammonia is bad, but how would it increase so suddenly? How long after something dies before it releases ammonia? (meaning did it come from the dead shrimp that fast?) Did the ich attack cause it? That is the only variable in the situation. Our water top offs are done with straight ocean water from the same pump the LFS pulls it from. I even double checked the bucket this morning again JUST in case and there's no ammonia in it.
The fish is still in the same position: a few unidentifiable white things, nothing worse, but no odd behavior and a hardy appetite.
Sorry for the novel but I'm still new in this realm and wanted to cover all possible questions in 1 shot and need to know the next step.. Big water change? stop dosing?
I do not have a quarantine tank, and only have the 1 fish which is why i went with the supposed safe route of ich attack.
First off, the tank is a 15 gallon with live rock, 1 tiny ocellaris (Herbert), 2 snails I call Turbo and Boost. Turbo sucks, I think his shell is too big for him to stay stuck to anything long, but Boost is tinier and does awesome work. Not sure how long the big guy will make it unless he is secretive and only eats at night, but I digress... And the cleaner shrimp was my 1st critter for my tank. He was always awesome! Super friendly and social, shed on a regular schedule, ate fine, never a problem.
Got my fish from the same LFS (we only have 1 on the island unless you shop at Petco or other pet store) on Memorial Day and later noticed he had a white spot on his cheek that for the life of me I could not 100% identify with hours of googling and reading threads on here. I let him be for a couple days to observe incase it was from stress or he got bumped during transport. He acts fine, swims all over, would eat all day if I let him, and sleeps like a baby all night. He wouldn't let the shrimp ever clean him, but being tank-bred he probably has no clue about that lol. Well I then noticed a white 'thing' on his tail fin, like fuz almost and the next day it seemed slightly larger but i don't know for sure.. I went and got the Kordon Ich Attack as it was the only "reef safe" option and started dosing the next morning (Sunday) after my planned tank cleaning and water change/top off.
Yesterday after 3 doses (says to do it daily until cleared up) Shrimpie was not being his normal social self, he actually hid from me when I tried to target feed him to get him out from under his rock.. He has NEVER backed away from a hand or turned down food, so I knew something was wrong. And now he's a goner.
checked paramaters after I pulled him out:
Temp 82
SG is 1.022-23 as usual
Ammonia is NOT at 0 today. I can't get a perfect color match but I will say it's between .25-.5 ppm :mad2: I have not seen a bad reading since the tank finished cycling and it was 0 on Sunday.
Nitrite 0
Nitrate ~10-15
Obviously the ammonia is bad, but how would it increase so suddenly? How long after something dies before it releases ammonia? (meaning did it come from the dead shrimp that fast?) Did the ich attack cause it? That is the only variable in the situation. Our water top offs are done with straight ocean water from the same pump the LFS pulls it from. I even double checked the bucket this morning again JUST in case and there's no ammonia in it.
The fish is still in the same position: a few unidentifiable white things, nothing worse, but no odd behavior and a hardy appetite.
Sorry for the novel but I'm still new in this realm and wanted to cover all possible questions in 1 shot and need to know the next step.. Big water change? stop dosing?
I do not have a quarantine tank, and only have the 1 fish which is why i went with the supposed safe route of ich attack.
