Failed Molt Treatment?

[Chels]

I finally bought some new yellows for my picky females who won't breed with the males I have. Of course I also had to buy some fires for my females too, and a couple of blues + pumpkins since they had some. ? It seems I always get so many more females than males, so I had to even out the numbers more.

One of the fires I bought had that light line down its back, meaning it was just about to moult. I was hoping acclimating & moving to a new tank would trigger the water parameter change it needed, but apparently I was wrong and it died overnight. Sucks. 

This made me wonder if there isn't a way to treat a shrimp who has a failed moult happen and triage to save it? With birds who are egg bound you give them liquid calcium to immediately fix the issue & save their life. Is a failed moult a calcium deficiency? Or maybe all nutrient deficiency? So potentially triaging them with nutrient-rich water would stop the problem? Maybe putting them in a quarantine tank and add a drip line with blackwater.. I may be totally off but there should be some last-minute fix for once you notice the signs (the light-colored line, hiding for a molt, struggling/wriggling but no moult detaching). 

It never happens in my tank, but whenever I purchase new shrimp there's a chance one or more will be right in the middle of their moult. I am always buying new shrimp these days so I want to have some way to stop it. 

[sdlTBfanUK]

I'm not sure there woud be much you could do in that situation, hopefully someone else may have some ideas! The stress of the moving added to the waater change and  the mout is likey to be too much all in one go! Even without the obvious moult I woudn't personally expect all the shrimp to survive and usually a few disappear/die in the first 2 weeks! If you got them from a shop they have already beeen through a lot going from the breeders tank, transit, into shop tank (different water probaly), transit, into your tank (again new water) at the very least, there could even be another wholesaler to add to that? I always used to buy direct from hobbyist (ebay) which meant just going from their tank, transit (post), to my tank, but even then I usually lost a few in the first 2 weeks.

I did once see a youtube video where someoone helped a shrimp moult by using tweezers but that is very fiddly, you would need to fish the shrimp out and put it into a smaller container, and it likely still wouldn't work, even if the shell were removed it may die in the next few days from stress.........

If you try anything please let us know how it goes! Hopefully some others will have some ideas?

On the ratio issue, most people would prefer more females to males as you only need the one male to breed with the females and you will get more baby shrimp the more females you have! There is probably another issue if they aren't breeding and you have both sexes?

Simon

[jayc]

13 hours ago, Chels said:

Is a failed moult a calcium deficiency? Or maybe all nutrient deficiency?

Failed moults are usually associated to Calcium content in the water. That is, your GH reading.

Too much GH and the shells (and eggs) become too hard and moulting becomes difficult. The shrimp looses too much energy trying to moult. Too little and their shells don't develop properly causing deformities (maybe GH under 2).

This is a long term affect, that is, if you see it, it's already too late and nothing you can do to help a shrimp that is having issues right now. 

 

[Chels]

Thank you so much Simon & JayC!!!! Super insightful and helpful as always. ? I wonder if there's something I could use in a quarantine tank that would help soften their shells and stop a failed moult in its tracks. There are plenty of liquid calcium products out there, but none I know of to lower the calcium.. 

Mostly I wanted more yellow males since a female I've had for nearly a year now has refused to breed with the blue dream, painted fire and pumpkin males I've had. She's a picky girl!! I have plenty of yellow males now for her to choose from. ??? The rest are not picky at all. ?

[jayc]

9 hours ago, Chels said:

There are plenty of liquid calcium products out there, but none I know of to lower the calcium.. 

That "product" is called RO or Rain water. ?

 

[sdlTBfanUK]

2 hours ago, jayc said:

That "product" is called RO or Rain water. ?

Would it be safe to put a shrimp into RO/Rainwater if it was struggling with a molt, as the parameters would be way off, or is it ok for a short while in that water?

Simon

[jayc]

23 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

Would it be safe to put a shrimp into RO/Rainwater if it was struggling with a molt, as the parameters would be way off, or is it ok for a short while in that water?

I didn't mean "just dump the shrimp into pure RO water" by the way.

I guess I was referring to introducing the shrimp into a quarantine tank with RO water that has been treated with less remineralisers, so the water is more on the soft side, ie anything 100 TDS or less.

Dilute the Calcium in a tank (ie. GH) with RO or rain water.

[sdlTBfanUK]

OK, got it!

I would think though that that whole process may kill the shrimp from the extra stress combined with the fact it is already having a problem and probably stressed?

It is worth knowing thoughas an option!

Thanks JayC

Simon

[jayc]

2 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

It is worth knowing thoughas an option!

Exactly, it's only an option.

Do nothing, and the shrimp will die trying to moult. So I guess trying something is better than nothing at all.