Shrimp never survive

NikeLV

New member
Can someone help me to understand why ornamental shrimp never stay alive in my tank for long? I've tried multiple, including the blood red fire shrimp, cleaner shrimp, and peppermint shrimp, yet all of them perish in a few days or in rare cases, a few weeks. :mad: I keep a blue tang, sailfin tang, and 2 clowns, and a mandarin that's been in my tank for over a year now. I also have a healthy anemone that's been with me for over 2 years so I don't suspect that there are any water quality issues.
Thanks
 
What size is the tank?
Could something be picking on them?
Test your water. The anemone could have acclimated to something that the newly arriving shrimp can't handle, something that changed over time. A change in salinity, perhaps?
 
Can you give us some background info?

Equiptment, water parameters, how long it's been running, size, where you are buying the shrimp, etc etc as much as possible.

There's a silent killer people don't consiture as well, stray voltage from powerheads. I rarely hear mention of it. Not saying that's the issue here just another thing to keep an eye on.

I wouldn't blame copper if an anemone is living.
 
Aside from what's on my signature, I use a bubble magus protein skimmer and I have an attached refugium. The tank has been running for a little over 2 and half years now. I've purchased these ornamental shrimp from lots of different fish stores and I've drip acclimated each and every single one of them. I dose Ca and Alk on a daily basis for the SPS coral in my tank. I performed a 20 gallon water change only a few days before the last ornamental shrimp that died. I can't figure out what i'm missing or what I'm doing wrong! I thought that maybe someone was picking on them, at first I thought it was my Blue Tang, but yesterday when I grabbed the dead shrimp out, I thoroughly inspected it's body but found no marks or scratches. I also noticed the Blue Tang trying to get cleaned by the shrimp at times but they never react to it.
 
All these shrimp molt and are very vulnerable just after. The fish can see the shell and know what's going on just to hunt down the shrimp and eat it. How big is your nem?
 
The anemone's really small, about 2-3 inches. The shrimp wasn't anywhere near it around the time of it's death. Just a quick note though, I do have a tiny sexy shrimp that's been surviving pretty well in my tank, and I've seen him molt, though he only comes out at night.
 
shrimp are hit or miss as far as dying. that's why i won't buy any of the expensive ones. i've never had a camel die on me but they're not reef safe either.
 
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