Hole in carapace?!

[Glenism]

Hi All,

I require assistance from your expertise. I am a relatively new shrimp keeper, recently I have had a massive die-off. I am keeping my shrimp tank at around 23 degrees celcius, 0 nitrites and nitrates. GH is around about 90. PH is around about 5.5. I had treated the water with seachem prime prior to adding the shrimps about 3 weeks ago. I noticed that one of my shrimps had a huge brown hole in its carapace (as attached) before it died. Could anyone please help me attempt to diagnose why they are all dying? Thank you so much, any comment is appreciated.

Edited July 28, 2020 by Glenism
added attachment

[sdlTBfanUK]

Sorry to hear you are having a problem, but wecome to the forum and shrimp keeping.

From the PH and GH it appears your parameters are more suited  to caridina shrimp than neocaridina? Did you acclimate them over many hours with a dripper? Did you do a cycle with the tank, that low PH may have caused a normal cycle not to happen? How long was the tank tunning before the shrimps were added? Are you using RO water and remineralising? Do you know what the KH of the water is?

Usually neocaridina are quite adaptable to a wider range of parameters but a PH of 5.5 is probaby too low, as is GH 90 (thats almost 5 I believe) which should be 6-8 range.

Of coarse I am going by the picture so ASSUME the shrimp are cherry (neocaridina)?

Simon

[jayc]

?

OMG, that's the biggest hole I have ever seen on a shrimp.

 

What shrimp was it? Cherry red?

Did you other shrimps also have brown spots?

And did it have other brown spots in other locations on it's carapace (shell)?

 

On first diagnosis based on the one photo above, it is most likely Chitinolytic bacterial disease. 

And if you have Cherry shrimp in a tank with low 5.5pH, the shrimp might have weak immunity due to keeping it in a pH range outside it's comfort zone. Cherry shrimps do better in 6.8 - 7.0 pH.

What type of water do you use? RO? Tap?

If you use RO, do you remineralise it with Calcium/Magnesium?

I see you have a bare bottom tank, so it's not planted substrate that is pulling the pH down. 

Are there any more shrimps in the tank?

Sorry for the questions, but we need to get an idea of your situation in order to give you any advice.

5 minutes ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

Simon

LOL, we post very similar questions within seconds of each other.

Edited July 28, 2020 by jayc

[Crabby]

Woahhhhhhh that's a massive hole! I don't know much about shrimp diseases, only that your pH is too low, GH possibly also. Try using some crushed coral or salty shrimp GH/KH+ to increase the alkalinity and hardness in your tank water.

[dhm00]

It looks like this shrimp is on a totally wrong water parameter.

If it is a Neo Caridina you should have a PH of 7 and a GH of 4 till 6 and a KH of 2 till 4.

Theres no need for a buffering substrate for the Neons

 

[Glenism]

Hi All,

Thank you for your responses, it is indeed a RCS, and I use tap water. The tank had been running for about two weeks but I have no lifestock in it, only some drift wood, java moss and moss balls. Are fish required to properly cycle the tank? Another shrimp had a brown blister in a similar spot to the one in the photo. There are now no more shrimps left in the tank. I am slightly weary of restocking it knowing that the conditions are far from ideal. Do you recommend I use a specific type of substrate to raise the PH? Should I empty the tank and start afresh? What are your thoughts?

[sdlTBfanUK]

It may be just as well you have no shrimp left, as you can PREP properly this time. I assume you will be getting Cherry (neocaridina) shrimp again next time?

I can't quite make out what your substrate is from the pictures so I don't know whether that may be reducing your PH or not. Can you test your tap water for PH (and TDS if possible)?

Useualy cherry shrimp are fairly easy to keep and most people use an  inert substrate, though it is possible to keep them with an active substrate if you want to keep a lot of plants etc! As you ony have moss balls an inert substrate should work well. Do you have a TDS pen?

You will be aiming for PH of about 7, or slightly over ideally! This should help also with the cycle. I have had tanks of PH5.5 before but I have never seen a cycle in them and at that low PH anyway you get ammonium (not ammonia) which isn't harmful to any inhabitants in the way ammonia is. Of course that means you have you keep the PH stable so it doesn't flip betweren the 2 ammonia/ammonium as that would cause problems?

Lets take it slow as you don't have any occupants now to harm or worry about. What substrate have you got and can you test your tap water for PH and TDS (if you can test KH and GH as well, all the better). Tap water is usually good enough to keep cherry shrimp in unless its parameters are way off? We can take it from there, one step at a time!

Simon

[dhm00]

43 minutes ago, Glenism said:

Hi All,

Thank you for your responses, it is indeed a RCS, and I use tap water. The tank had been running for about two weeks but I have no lifestock in it, only some drift wood, java moss and moss balls. Are fish required to properly cycle the tank? Another shrimp had a brown blister in a similar spot to the one in the photo. There are now no more shrimps left in the tank. I am slightly weary of restocking it knowing that the conditions are far from ideal. Do you recommend I use a specific type of substrate to raise the PH? Should I empty the tank and start afresh? What are your thoughts?

Shrimp are more sensitive then fish!!!

2 week cycle is the problem, a shrimp tanks needs to be cycled for a minimum of 8 weeks.
Please contact the breeder of the Shrimp and ask for the right water parameters.

Please do a background check before you start with shrimp.

[Crabby]

As above. Simon and dhm covered it. Increase pH with crushed coral is the only thing I can think of to add.