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By Macronano
Hi - I'm wondering if anyone can explain what went wrong with my shrimp tank!
Although the parameters for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite were good in my small tank, the pH was high (8.2). This remained constant over a couple of months, so I thought it was ok. GH & KH were 6.
Then a couple of weeks ago the red nose shrimp, them this week the cherry shrimp and finally the nerite snails, died. I couldn't figure out the problem. Then today I emptied the tank. It was up on a bookshelf so normally I can't smell the water. Today when I siphoned it out I could smell a very strong chemical smell and the taste (a quick sampling when I siphoned), was tangy. Not like the earthy smell and neutral taste of the other shrimp tank I have.
Any ideas what it could have been?
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By sdlTBfanUK
Moderators City: Inner West, Sydney AU Interests: Shrimp, cars, fish, Computers, Cycling/Bikin Posted September 27, 2013 (edited) With the wealth of knowledge from experienced keepers here in SKF, we should have a repository of Shrimp Diseases where people can come to diagnose and hopefully find a cure to their shrimp's ailment.
Just like in the world of aquatic fish keeping where identification and diagnosis of diseases in fish and known cures are part and parcel of every aquatic forum, so should we have one for shrimp.
Vorticella
I'd like to start this database off with the not so uncommon Vorticella parasite which looks like White fungus or mould growth on the shell of the shrimp.
Vorticella is actually a protozoa of 16 known species, not a fungus at all. Vorticella are aquatic organisms, most commonly found in freshwater habitats. They attach themselves to plant detritus, rocks, algae, or animals (particularly crustaceans).
Vorticella are heterotrophic organsims. They prey on bacteria. Vorticella use their cilia to create a current of water (vortex) to direct food towards its mouth.
Typically, Vorticella reproduce via binary fission. The new organism splits from the parent and swims until it can find something on which to anchor itself.
If left untreated, vorticella have been known to cause the death of the shrimp it was attached to.
Here are examples of what it looks like.
Known cures: Salt bath with aquarium salts. Be careful not to use table salt with Iodine.
Dosage: 1 teaspoon to 1 cup of clean tank water (not tap water).
Duration: 30sec to 1 minute. You might need to repeat this a couple of times until the vorticella disappears, so keep the infected shrimp in a breeder or hospital tank (could be another cup of tank water).
Possible causes: Poor water conditions. Increase water change frequency.
Low doses of the salt bath have been know to be ineffective.
Ick and fungus cure meds don't work on Vorticella.
Seachem Paraguard could work as well at the full recommended dosage, since this is a parasitic med. But Seachem have admitted Paraguard isn't invertebrate safe. So only try paraguard as a last resort and drip it into the tank premixed from a bucket of tank water slowly .
This treatment is in no way a replacement for good tank husbandry.
So keep up with your water change routines, and removal debris and uneaten food.
Please add if you know of more diseases, how you cured it, what you tried that worked and what didn't work.
Cheers.
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By Flynn002
Hi, I am doing a project for my college course:
How does temperature affect the number of fry a cherry shrimp produces?
I have setup a small 18L nano tank and it’s currently cycling. When ready, I am planning on taking 1 male and 1 female cherry shrimp from my main shrimp tank and putting them in the new tank. and waiting until I see eggs. I will then remove the male and when the eggs have hatched, or when the babies are big enough to see, I will count them.
I will then repeat this with different temperatures.
it seems like it will all work in theory and I have 1 year to do this so time is not an issue. The only issue I see is that I’m unsure how Will I accurately count the fry?
This is vital for my project and if anybody has ideas I would greatly appreciate it.
cheers :)
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By Mirri
New to shrimp keeping and trying my best! I think water parameters are OK, have live plants, filter, light on a timer, heater and RO water with weekly water changes and testing. Fed 2x a week 1 ball per shrimp of 'shrimp enhancer ' supplement (calcium and magnesium in etc) but 2 shrimpies have an issue... sort of discoloured/opaque orangey bit on their backs.
Can't find anything similar in pics so hoping for diagnosis and way to fix please!!
ps. Apologies for crap picture, phone won't focus!
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By WaldoDude
Hello,
I've had 3 cherry shrimp die in the last 2 weeks and can't seem to pin point the issue. For context I had 13 cherry shrimp in a planted 10 gallon with 7 Celestial Pearl Danios. I found the first dead shrimp one afternoon, half eaten by the CPDs. Now about 4-5 months back I had witnessed my CPDs attack and kill a small male cherry shrimp. So my initial thoughts were that the CPDs had done it again, which is odd in itself as they have been fine together for many months. So a week later I found another dead cherry but this time it seemed to have died within the last hour of me spotting it and it hadn't been touched by the CPDs (it was at night, so the CPDs were sleeping). This got me thinking that perhaps, the first Shrimp had died due to something else and then picked off by the CPDs. About 5 days later to today, I found the 3rd dead shrimp again already half eaten by the CPDs, this one was a large adult female. Now on top of all this, I have also had 5 of 6 shrimplets in a hang-on breeder box die. The shrimplets were the first to go and which I think makes sense if it was something to do with the tank environment as they would've been more sensitive. I initially thought I wasn't feeding the shrimplets enough or that it was because I wasn't rinsing the baby brine shrimp I was feeding to the CPD fry. Now that the adults are dying too, i dont think it is a coincidence nor do I think its my CPDs that are the issue.
My speculation is that they are having a molting issues. Now the dead shrimp I found whole had a white line across its back and a cloudy white underbelly, which I took to indicate a molting issue. The shrimplets seem to be having a molting issues too, although the 1 remaining shrimplet molted successfully, and many of the adults did too judging by the many molts scattered about the tank. However, I tested my GH and KH and got 6 and 4 respectively, which I believe is fine from what I've googled. Also I figured if there was an issue with a lack of calcium/minerals could it mean that those that successfully molted could still suffer from a weaker exoskeleton and thus be more vulnerable to the CPDs?
Another possibility I thought was muscular necrosis, as the half eaten shrimp I found today had a cloudy white underbelly too and from memory the others all did (not 100% sure) but I had always thought that was just something that happens when a shrimp dies. I'll attach photos to see what you all think.
I've also considered that perhaps i'm not feeding them enough/well but my previous attempts at feeding them blanched veggies have been unfruitful, they dont swarm the veggies or really touch it (i've tried sweet potato, zucchini, carrots and broccoli). They dont go crazy for the shrimp algae wafers or the hikari shrimp pellets either but I chuck it in the tank once a week just in case but I assume there's enough algae/biofilm for them.
I'm thinking of getting a mineral/calcium supplement for the water but not sure if thats a good idea if my gh/kh is already fine.
CPDs are all fine and healthy.
Anyways here are my parameters:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
PH - 8.0
GH - 6
KH - 4
TDS - don't know. I've seen mentions of TDS but not quite sure how important it is with cherry shrimp. Do you think I should get a TDS meter?
Temp - 26C
Water change - 25% once a week with dechlorinated tap water.
Would love to hear some of your thoughts.
Cheers!
Pictures
Top Left: latest death with white underside (fuzziness?) visible. Top Right: Second death with the white line across the back visible as well as a white potruding underbelly.
Bottom Left: Just a picture of an alive shrimp in the tank, to see if anyone can see anything wrong. Are those brownish discoloration an issue?
Bottom Right: Another live shrimp can also see a white underbelly which I thought was normal?
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By Chels · Posted
Thank you again for all of the excellent advice!! Yes!! I didn't actually introduce the trumpet snails on purpose. Either the plants from my local independent pet store had hitchhikers or the plants from Petco had some. I rinsed them thoroughly didn't quarantine them so it's my fault. I will catch all but 1 and put them in my turtle tank. Never a short supply of algae in there even with 4 snails and a bn pleco. Neon tetras are super readily available here. I introduced a single snail and it hasn't reproduced yet. It's black and I can't remember the name. And with a bristlenose pleco there is still a lot of biofilm and small food particles to clean. I really did a number overfeeding because there's food all over even after sectioning the substrate + 2 WCs. I'm feeding a teeny tiny amount every few days on top of the biofilm. They take hours to eat it all. It's hard to tell how much to feed, I wish there was a care guide just on that part. I have omnivore shrimp pellets which are discs, I feel 1/4 of those and a tiny piece of a pleco pellet (disc) and a few tiny granules of herbivore invert pellets. That's every 3 days but I could probably go 4 or 5 with all the biofilm. I have a heater but never use it except for the biofilm. It's a favorite for grazing and it's now spotless. Had a gross crust a few days ago. -
By sdlTBfanUK · Posted
I have heard and seen L Bretz videos but I didn't think he was USA based so didn't mention him. His website doesn't say where he is based from my brief look but if he is USA, he is well known in the hobby! The caridina are definitely worth the extra work IF you can get it to work??? They may need some form of cooler in the summer where you live unless you run air-con a lot. My cherry shrimp are ok to about 85 (tanks haven't gone above that ever here) or possibly higher, but when I had caridina 79 was when it started to get tricky? Simon -
By sdlTBfanUK · Posted
Probably (as JayC recommended) a neon tetra or 2 may be worth a try, tetras spend most of their time midway in the tanks depth of water. My oldest tank has 5 ember tetras, 5 neon tetras and ??? red cherry shrimps and I have never seen the fish go for the shrimp in the 5 years+ it has been running, though there is a lot of subwassertang (?) to hide in and most shrimps are now boring brown/clear so they are hard to see and maybe don't look tasty to the fish. Neon tetras are also cheap and readily available, here anyway? The malasian trumpet snails will help clear the overfeed - by the way we have all made that overfeed mistake at the start - but they can be a problem in their own right as they breed so quickly? I have occasionally spotted detritis worms but never had an infestation and probably every tank has them anyway. An infestation of those would indicate over feeding. Any fish will likely eat them. Don't worry about a few of those, they are harmless enough and I think every tank has them! It sounds though, that you have a lot competing for food, shrimps, worms, snails, copepods all in a small tank....... Simon -
By Chels · Posted
Thank you Crabby & Simon!! I'm not able to like posts for the rest of the day, but I definitely will +1 both of your replies when I can. I greatly appreciate the recommendations. I won't be making any purchases to ship anything live until about a month from now. We're still getting into the 40s F at night here in the mountains. I've been reading up on Caridina tanks and they're much higher maintenance, but I think definitely worth it. Buffering substrate, much more specific parameters, additional nutrients & specialized foods. I'm starting to build up an inventory now for adding more tanks and when I'm brave enough to get into caridina. I'm hoping to purchase from multiple home breeders to get enough genetic diversity so I'm hoping to get a multitude of recommendations. 🤞🤞🤞🤞 Edit: Another breeder I saw recommended from a post back in May is L.R.Bretz Aquatics. -
By Chels · Posted
Thank you Simon!! I have read all of the posts from the past year or so (down the rabbit hole I go), so I did see your comments about the seed shrimp infestation. Nasty little cocroaches!! Everyone seems to be in agreement on the killies, dwarf rasboras & neon tetras. I think I will have to suck it up and grow some ground cover so I can add a single nanofish to keep the pest population down but still keep my shrimplets safe. I found 2 detritus worms floating yesterday, although I can't see any in the parts of the tank which are visible. Which I know means there are many more I can't see. There is a back corner I can't really get my eyes on, I'm sure they're there. I just did 2 WCs this past week because overfeeding caused food particles to be everywhere, and suctioned the substrate in the front of my tank. Thankfully my berried female did not molt. In the back end of the tank are the hiding spots and an especially good hiding spot that is planted in the corner. I think I have the feeding down now, every few days and very tiny amounts. They actually ate nearly all of the food this last feeding. I'm probably going to be dealing with the effects of my overfeeding thus far for weeks until my cleaners can get to it all. My trumpet snails will literally dive into the substrate to get to the food particles. Amazing little buggers.
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