Shrimp Diseases and Diagnosis

[Sprae]

I've noticed that RO+SSM top up increases tank TDS over the long term. I've started to WC 40-50% less TDS mix of RO+SSM to the tank values just to manage it. The ocassional deaths from my tank is due bad moulting (high TDS). Also increases GH over time.

[Jenbenwren]

This tank has only been running for a few months and tds has been a problem since I first filled it with water and I don't really know why. I used tap water with tds 37 to fill it up and placed plastic bags over the substrate so it wouldn't get stirred up to much. I had to do quite a few water changes while it cycled as the water kept becoming so brown and murky, you couldn't see 5cm into the tank and the tds has always been really high. The lowest tds reading I've had for this tank has been around 380. I thought Cherrys could tolerate higher tds levels so I've kept adding the salty shrimp gh&kh to the RO water, 1 level scoop to 10 litres of water, thinking I was maintaining the levels of gh & kh to what I'd adjusted it to before the Cherrys went in. So I was quite surprised to see the test results.

[jayc]

Thank you Sprae :-)

I'm pretty sure I've got an outbreak of Chitinolytic bacterial disease, Shell disease, Brown spot disease, Black spot disease, Burned spot disease, Rust disease: in the tank and it's what's killing them though. A lot of the shrimo have developed browny/black patches on their caraprice. 

 

Have you isolated the infected shrimp yet?

Try a salt bath as recommended in the posts on the 1st page. No harm trying now.

 

But as advised, fix the water parameter issues in the main tank while you treat these separated shrimp.

[fishmosy]

1 level scoop to 10 litres of water

This could be why your TDS is so high. From memory (and I could be wrong), the Salty Shrimp minerals should be mixed at one scoop per 10 G (Gallons), which is equal to approximately 40L.

Edit: I'm wrong, it looks like it is either one scoop per 10 or 20L depending on which shrimp mineral. However if you aren't using RO with a TDS of zero, this dosage will tend to increase your TDS above the target range.

Do you measure the TDS of your new water going into the tank?

Edited December 8, 2014 by fishmosy

[Jenbenwren]

When I first started using it I'd add a little at a time till the tds was around 140, like I do for our crs & Misch with Salty Shrimp gh+, and it looked like I was adding around a scoop each time and then I read somewhere to add 1 level scoop to 10 litres RO so I slacked off and stopped checking it.

But tds has been high in this tank since I first put water in (tds 37) and only added prime. The tank kept becoming very murky with high tds and I had to do a lot of water changes before water would stay pretty clear. Even with 80% water changes, using prime treated tap water Tds 36-37, would still climb into the high 300's - low 400's within a week, while it was cycling. Now the tds hovers around 370 most of the time. I have to admit, I've only been checking the tds and doing top ups since the weathers warmed up, but I'm going to go back to doing regular water changes as well.

[Jenbenwren]

Have you isolated the infected shrimp yet?

Try a salt bath as recommended in the posts on the 1st page. No harm trying now.

 

But as advised, fix the water parameter issues in the main tank while you treat these separated shrimp.

I did take her out of the tank, but she passed not long after I took the last photo. Yesterday I removed more dead Cherrys plus 2 more that could barely move and died shortly after I took them out of the tank. It seems to be only Red Cherry females that are becoming ill and dieing. A few of the RCS males are starting to look either milky or have developed a bright orange color, and some shrimplets have turned milky and just swirl around in the tank to weak to fight the currents in the tank. The Chameleons and strange 'algae eater' shrimp (no idea where they came from but look like DAS) in the tank look ok and I haven't lost any that I know of yet.

I did a water change yesterday using RO & I mixed in Salty Shrimp gh & kh+ as I thought the low gh & kh would be harming the shrimp more than the high tds. I checked the tds this morning and it was 453, I'll check everything else later after Miss 4 is asleep in bed. I'll do another 20-30% water change tomorrow and only use straight RO water.

At least I haven't found any more dead or dieing shrimp in there today, yaayyy!

[buck]

Chitinolytic bacterial disease, Shell disease, Brown spot disease, Black spot disease, Burned spot disease, Rust disease? A few of my snowballs are coming down with this. im not sure if it was the new shrimp but its a little sus that after I added them to the tank I have an out break ive never had before. has any one got any tips?

my ammonia was up a little at.25ppmish Nitrate and Nitrite 0 Kh 71-89 tds 177 temp is 26. So fare i have droped 1/3 of the water, boiled so cholla wood and added the water to the 1/3 water replacement to get some tannins in there. And added 2 caps of prime to the system to drop the ammonia quickly. I could probably drag a portable ac in to drop the temp down if its going to help.

[2OFUS]

Id also boil Afew almond leaves and make a concentrate almond leave tea and add it in little bits to ur whole system

I'd also add alittle bit of internal parasite clear just Incase it helps the shrimp

[buck]

If I had leaves I would, they are 3 days late turning up. And the seller said they should be here tomorrow :@ im thinking about rading a banana tree down the road for its dead leaves and boiling them and adding the blanched leaves and water (once cooled)? Im out of luck with internal parasite meds, the shops have shut already and ive never had this issue with any of my fish or shrimp. Cheers for the advice :)

[jayc]

Difficult to see it properly in that small photo.

A macro shot of that area would be good. Especially for an example.

 

Quarantine any shrimp showing signs. It's very possibly contagious.

 

The 0.25 ammonia might be a cause, so your priority is to rectify that.

 

If it is brown spot and if you have more like that, and you are willing to try some sort of treatment rather than waiting till it dies...

you can try H202. Try it on the quarantined shrimp first rather than treat the whole tank.

Treatment1: Hydrogen Peroxide H2O2 (3%)
Dosage: 1ml / 4L (upto 2ml / 4L if you think the situation is drastic)

[buck]

Yeah sorry man thats the best I can do i dont have a macro lense,ill see what I can do woth tge slr lense I have. But it looks like a brown spot, some with early signs have a brown line That looks like a worm. Ill try and sort out a H2O2 solution. Thanks for the help

[Jenbenwren]

Sorry it's taken so long but I've finally got some time to do an update on how my RCS with the nasty bacterial infection are going.

I found an article on treating diseased freshwater prawns with Levimisole HCL and noticed the bacteria they were using in the study were from the same family/genius? as in this thread, when I was searching the net for any info that might help combat the infection quicker than just water changes. Here's the link http://www.sciencepub.net/researcher/research0303/13_4867research0303_82_85.pdffor any one interested.

I have Levimiasole HCL at home from when I had guppys infected with Camalanus Worm so I decided to give it a go. It's not pure form HCL as that's very expensive, but a product called Big L's pig and poultry wormer. Levimiasole HCL is the active ingredient in it and it can be brought on line or from some livestock produce supply stores. The starter dose is 1ml per 7 litres of aquarium waster. Within 48 hours of the first dose all clinical signs of the bacterial infection had disappeared and shrimp deaths from it stopped.

You can dose with Levimiasole HCL every 48 hours and can triple the dose in stubborn cases as well.

I was lucky and it only infected the one tank with RCS &Chameleons. I don't know how CRS, Mishlings, TB's or other shrimp might be affected by the use of Levimiasole HCL.

Hope others might find this helpful, but a UV filter would most likely stop it from ever happening

[OzShrimp]

Good to hear you treated the problem, i have heard of that stuff before, apparentlly you can also get it from some vets. 

[Jenbenwren]

That's true Ozshrimp. A lot of vets do stock Levimiasole HCL in some form, or they can order it in within a day or 2. But the amount to use would be different as the percentage of the active ingredient, Levimiasole HCL, could be different to the Big L's pig & poultry worker I used.

[jayc]

Parasitic dinoflagellates and ellobiopsids (Ellobiopsidae) or Cladogonium ogishimae

I will refer to both here as there is little studies on these parasites and a general lack of evidence of both types of parasites. Plus a lot of people have been calling this ellobiopsidae for many years.

What we deal with in freshwater shrimp is more likely Cladogonium ogishimae, rather than ellobiopsidae. 

The reason Cladogonium ogishimae fits better is because it: Infects freshwater shrimp, found on the shrimp's pleopods, and turns green eventually.

Ellobiopsidae, of which there are thousands of species and many of them are parasitic. Dinoflagellates and ellobiopsids are major parasites in marine invertebrates and fishes. Ellobiopsidae seem to appear on the tops of shrimps, rather than on the pleopods.

The possible treatments for both will remain the same.

These parasites invade the host's eggs, digestive tract, soft tissue and blood of the organism, who eventually, succumbs resulting in mortality. They propagate by spores, and if any are seen on your shrimp, care must be take to remove the infected shrimp immediately to minimise the spread to other shrimp.

 

Diagnosis:

In freshwater shrimps, the Cladogonium ogishimae or ellobiopsidae appear as green to yellow-green vegetation, reminiscent of a fungal infection.

Often the infected area is between the swimming legs of shrimp and the swimmerettes (or pleopods). It has a mould like appearance.

 

It's been mainly seen on shrimps imported from Asia. Possibly from poor water conditions.

 

Treatment:

There is evidence that a dip in formalin (Attention: carcinogenic and toxic!) could be successful.

The only treatment that I know of that has worked is medication with Formalin & Malachite green combo.

Separate infected shrimp immediately. And treat the infected shrimp outside of the tank in a hospital tank or a temporary container. Follow the product's instructions for dosage amount and duration.

Some off the shelf products with Formalin that also includes malachite green include

• Fritz Mardel QuICK Cure is one such product.
• Aquasonic has one too. https://www.aqualifeaquarium.com.au/aquasonic-formalin-malachite-green-solution-100ml
• Kordon Rid Ick Plus also uses the same ingredients.
• Seachem Paraguard
•  Eco Labs BSDT32 Broad Spectrum Disease Treatment https://a.co/d/97dwbNn 

 

Chances of success and survival of the shrimp depends on how early you diagnose the issue. If left for too long, the shrimp might not survive the formalin & malachite green treatment.

Edited August 23, 2022 by jayc
updated information

[revolutionhope]

Yuck

[kizshrimp]

Great work again JayC, this thread has the best diagnostic and treatment info for shrimp I've ever seen. 

 

My experience with formalin dipping is only with fish but in that case a few minutes in 1ml formalin to 10L water is safe. I've only ever used formalin from Aquasonic, 37 or 40% I think. 

Whether the dose should be increased or decreased for inverts is probably a matter of experimentation. Perhaps someone else has some experience to share. 

[jayc]

 Perhaps someone else has some experience to share. 

 

I doubt it. Or at least, I hope no one needs to be in a situation to need it.

But if anyone has to as a last resort, please share dosage used and amount of time the shrimp was dipped. 

[revolutionhope]

Yuck

+1

[jayc]

BIG update and progress in the treatment of Bacterial infections, based on real world experiences.

See first page.

[fishmosy]

BIG update and progress in the treatment of Bacterial infections, based on real world experiences.

See first page.

Thanks JayC. This is an awesome thread.

Just a word of advice regarding the use of antibiotics in treating aquarium subjects - note that the antibiotics will likely kill bacteria in your filtration system so keep an eye on water parameters, particularly ammonia. I have seen a whole aquaculture system full of fish go down after the fish were treated with honey (which is a natural antibiotic). Not a great result.

[jayc]

Thanks for the cautionary reminder Fishmosy, I'll put a sentence as a reminder into that post.

Edited April 15, 2015 by jayc

[Anaeflurane]

Ok so I was playing with my new macro lens and I found something interesting.

It looks like a tick is on the side of one of my carbons.

Photo:

 

 

Close Up:

 

Help, advice etc. I have the flamethrower ready!

[fishmosy]

Ok so I was playing with my new macro lens and I found something interesting.

It looks like a tick is on the side of one of my carbons.

Photo:

 

 

Close Up:

 

Help, advice etc. I have the flamethrower ready!

Looks like a baby snail to me. Hard to say conclusively as the light isn't in our favour.

[Mamashack]

Looks like a baby snail to me. Hard to say conclusively as the light isn't in our favour.

Hmm doesn't look like a snail to me as it has legs at the front