Crooked antennae means what?

[beanbag]

Hello folks,

So a week ago I got 2 blue bolts and 2 red wine shrimp from a local breeder.  This time, their water was not much different than mine, so I only did 3 hrs acclimation.  All of the shrimp have been doing well for a week now, except one guy who became inert a day ago (the 6th day).  While the other shrimp are eating, this guy just stands there frozen.  Then I noticed that it's main antennae are a little bit crooked (not badly mangled, but a few bends here and there) and also one of them is shorter than the other.  I can't be sure, but I think they were straight a few days ago.  I got worried that it was bacterial infection, since that can affect the appendages, but it's not pink at all.  Also, this shrimp is more like 95% inactive.  It went on a 10 minute grazing tour an hour ago, but is now frozen up again.

 

Water parameter info:

from seller: GH 3 KH <1 TDS 115

me: GH 6 initially, now lowered to 5, KH 0 TDS 160 initially, now lowered to 140, pH 6.6

Amm, NO2, NO3: 0,0,6

[jayc]

11 hours ago, beanbag said:

Then I noticed that it's main antennae are a little bit crooked (not badly mangled, but a few bends here and there) and also one of them is shorter than the other.  I can't be sure, but I think they were straight a few days ago.

This kind of injury can happen during a moult. Did you notice it moult? And if it moulted recently, it would be tired and in a recovery state for a couple of days.

Feed it a frozen bloodworm and keep an eye on it for the next few days. 

Keep lowering GH and TDS for the next water change. They might be used to very soft water.

[beanbag]

I first noticed the crooked antennae and lethargy last Friday, but didn't see any molt shells.  Then I saw 2-3 molt shells on Saturday.  (Maybe I missed this guy's molt)  Anyway, since posting this, the activity on this guy has been slowly increasing. I gave it some Shrimp King Protein.   It tends to alternate between grazing and freezing.  My other Taiwan bee shrimp are mostly active and didn't miss a beat during their molting. 

[sdlTBfanUK]

14 hours ago, beanbag said:

I first noticed the crooked antennae and lethargy last Friday, but didn't see any molt shells.  Then I saw 2-3 molt shells on Saturday.  (Maybe I missed this guy's molt)  Anyway, since posting this, the activity on this guy has been slowly increasing. I gave it some Shrimp King Protein.   It tends to alternate between grazing and freezing.  My other Taiwan bee shrimp are mostly active and didn't miss a beat during their molting. 

Good to hear that the shrimp is still alive, long may it continue! I have never seen an actual molt so assume they do it somewhere out of site or at night usually?

Simon

[beanbag]

Update:  so that shrimp survived and is more or less doing ok, however, its growth is stunted.  I don't think it got any bigger at all in the 3 weeks I've had it (still 3/8-1/2") while its siblings have molted 3 times and are nearly twice the length (3/4-1")

[jayc]

It might be a good idea to separate it and avoid it breeding, just in case it is a genetic problem.

[beanbag]

I just noticed that one of my red wine pandas also has the crooked antennae, although it's not so much crooked, as really soft at the ends and flops around.  None of my other shrimp (some Taiwan bee, neos, and amanos) have this problem.  Would it help if I bumped up the GH a little bit (currently at 5) or fed them more food with calcium.  (Their main food is algae + biofilm + indian almond leaf, plus every 2-3 days I throw in some random food like jayc's agar recipe, oats, barley, soy husk, Shrimp King Protein / Mineral / complete, etc)