disease

[mr rowley]

Hi all as im a noob i was just wondering what are the most common shrimp diseases and what are the symptoms and are medications hard to come by? Also if they can spread to fish and fish disease spread to shrimp?

[Wraithie]

I haven't heard of diseases much in relation to shrimp, most problems come from incorrect water conditions.

As they say, get the water right and the rest looks after itself :)

[fishmosy]

Shrimp get diseases like most things, unfortunately they haven't been in the aquarium hobby long enough for people to record a consistent set of symptoms to identify diseases, and to then use those symptoms to identify the pathogens/causes. In comparison, fish have a long history in the hobby, and as the same diseases that affect fish in our tanks affect fish in aquaculture, there has been much research into identifying diseases and the pathogens/environmental factors that cause them.

As Wraithie said, prevention is better than cure, so keep your water right and you shouldn't have problems.

[CNgo2006]

Definitely are shrimp diseases and bacterial infections and in most cases people don't want to openly discuss that they have or had it as they don't want others to think badly of them and their shrimp. It may be from something like adding too many shrimp from different keepers into the same body of water.

[jayc]

Even though shrimp have a tough exo-skeletal shell, they are remarkably weak and intolerant to poor water conditions.

They don't seem to contract the same diseases that affect fish, well at least not the same visually.

But what starts out as a disease on a fish is usually cause by either bacteria or virus. It's the same in humans and it's the same with shrimp. Medication for most of these bacterial or viral diseases will likely impact the shrimp detrimentally as well. So most medicines are out of the question.

We have very little in the way of combating viruses, unfortunately. We can't even cure colds. So let's focus on bacteria.

There are bad bacteria and there are good bacteria. The kind in your aquarium that convert Ammonia and Nitrite into less harmful substances are the good kind. Because the conditions in your tank is ripe for bacterial growth, sometimes the bad bacterial can take a foot hold, causing mysterious deaths even though water parameters are all spot on. Please note: I'm also NOT saying that all unexplained deaths are attributed to bacterial infections. It's one possibility.

The issue with shrimp is that they love eating biofilm.

Biofilm is made up of many things including bacteria - good or bad. If you have a bad patch of bacteria, the shrimp will ingest it and will suffer the effects, maybe leading to death.

So it is very important to keep your tank bioload in control - don't over feed and have too much food rotting.

Try not to introduce bad bacteria from new plants or shrimp or fish.

Keep up water changes - ensuring you don't add chlorinated water that might kill the existing tank "good" bacteria.

Good tank husbandry is key.

Then, on a more advanced note - there is the option of "adding" good bacteria to the tank.

The addition of good bacteria doesn't mean bad bacteria is eliminated completely, it just means that the surface area for bad bacteria is reduced so it cannot get a foot hold. The good bacteria in your aquarium includes Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter, the two main ones that convert Ammonia and Nitrites into less harmful substances. It's difficult adding these good bacteria, since they can't live without oxygen, and food source. So prepackaged bottles of beneficial bacteria most certainly isn't one of these.

However there is a 3rd kind of good bacteria that is gaining popularity in the aquatic and fisheries industry - Bacillus subtilis.

Bacillus subtilis is capable of surviving in a huge pH range, wide temperatures and have been found living in soil and in human's and fish's intestinal passages.

Introducing Bacillus subtilis to your tank will help combat the likely hood of bad bacteria taking over - too much.

How do you add this simply ?

I did a review of Azoo's Max bio ball recently that has Bacillus subtilis in it's ingredients. It's a good read.

Now where has that review gone ... ??

[jayc]

Found it.

http://www.shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/showthread.php/4791-Azoo-Max-Bio-Ball-review

[ineke]

great info thanks Jayc:)