Shrimp Moulting??

[MrsHaggis]

My Scarlet shrimp has lay himself down behind a rock - very difficult to see him and hasn't moved since last night. At first I thought he might just have been moulting (I've never seen this happen he has only been in there since Saturday)......

I don't know exactly how long that process would take but I'm sure it shouldn't take this long.

The thing is, I am going to have to rip apart my tank to try and get to him so should I do that now or leave it a while yet?

What should the moult look like?

If he is dead then I have lost my crab and my shrimp in a matter of days.

Water params are all normal except nitrates being a little high (around 40 ppm). Corals, turbo snails and clown fish are fine!!

 

[Michael]

they do shed a lot, and the molted skeleton looks exactly like the real thing as well, give it time, as for your loss already, how do you aclimatise your inverts?and whats normal params, readings would be better, rc will be off line in a mo fiona for nightly backups, i will catch up with you on this matter later, im off work today

 

[MrsHaggis]

Mike, I acclimitised them with a drip system for about 3/4 hours before I put them in the tank. My water params are:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Phosphates 0
Nitrates 40
PH 8-8.5
Calcium 380
Magnesium 1120
Temp 25 degrees
Salinity 1025/1026

OK, I was wondering if it would look exactly the same......

How long should I wait?? I'm afraid of having some kind of ammonia/nitrate spike if it is dead.

I'm also really depressed with all the loss.......I won't be adding anything else for a long time I think.

I have water ready and will be doing a water change in the next 30 minutes to try and bring down the nitrates. I can totally see why a bigger tank is better now, it is so hard to keep a tank this size stable.

 

[Michael]

well if your 100% sure its dead then remove it, i aclimatise mine for several hours, i used to be half an hour or so and just kept losing them, now i make sure i drip until the bag is full, then pour half away and drip again and again before adding to the tank

 

[MrsHaggis]

Hi Mike, he was dead!!

Whilst I was doing the water change I moved some rocks and managed to get him out.

I'm not buying anything else for the forseeable future. I've done everything by the book - my acclimation was 3 or 4 hours not three quarters of an hour by the way (just in case you got confused with the way I wrote it) - and still animals die. It breaks my heart to see a dead animal.

 

[tims28gnano]

hi fiona, sorry to hear about the loss.

my recent experience, bought a skunk shrimp, 2 days later i thought it was dead but then i saw it behind the rocks. so i removed the molt. i too could not get to it so i took a wood skewer from the kithen (i see you like to cook) and snapped it every inch or so (not all the way). this made a nice bend and i am able to poke behind the rocks.

i had a small piece of pulsing xenia that moved behind rocks that i wanted to tie down on a frag so i used this to get it!

just to add, maybe i have been lucky, but i have had better luck than you so far and do not acclimate for nearly as long as you do!

i am wondering why you have hit a few bumps! - - - i have had a few snails meet their maker but i don't think its anything of concern!

 

[MrsHaggis]

Hey Tim,

My snails are thriving!!!

I acclimated them the same way as the shrimp. I've also had two crabs bite the dust - the first one I assumed was starvation as I added him too soon. The second one barely moved from the minute I put it in the tank, in fact he never even covered 5 inches in the 8 days he was in the tank.

There must be something I am doing wrong with inverts .....but I cannot think of anything. The only niggling thought is starvation again......what do you feed yours?

If my water params were way out then I would understand; or if I didn't do the necessary water changes; or didn't acclimate properly - but I haven't been neglectful in any way. I'm really bummed out right now!!

If anyone can think of anything that I'm doing wrong please let me know!!!!

 

[Sacha1]

Hi Fiona. Sorry you're having so much trouble with your shrimp and crabs. I'm new to saltwater too. I have had freshwater aquariums for 20+ years but my saltwater is only a little over 6 months old. I have not had any loses but I know my supplier's water params are almost idenitcal to mine. Maybe your LFS has their params off and are making the animals sick before you get them. I usually acclimate only 15 - 20 minutes and I haven't lost a single animal. My LFS is only 10 minutes from my house and that could make a difference too. They aren't left in a bag for too long of a period. Good luck.

 

[MrsHaggis]

My LFS is only a 10 minute drive too.....I have the email of the guy whom I always talk to there maybe I can ask him about their water params. Although I get my fish and coral from there and they are doing fine......touch wood!!

 

[tims28gnano]

hi fiona - - - i feed my CUC water! LOL - - - i only feed a little bit of mysis shrimp every other day or so to my two clowns, i did buy cyclopeeze the other day and a syringe and have tried to spot feed the feather dusters and GSP once. - - - -

now that i have my duncan (check out the post and the pic and let me know what you think) - - i think i will be feeding cyclo more ofter! - - - the shrimp LOVED the cyclopeze too!