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Metronidazole is used to treat a variety of bacterial and parasitic infections. I don't know if it will be effective on these critters. But if it was designed for bacteria and parasites, it should be fine on shrimps. I don't know anyone who has tried it because that medication does not target shrimp diseases specifically ... that we know of yet.

Hello folks, Long time no post. Anyway, my "usual" Taiwan Bee tank had been running more or less OK for a while now, minus the "short antenna disease" problem that afflicted some of the shrimp. But those eventually died off and the rest thrived. Then due to [reasons] I had to leave for 6 months and had somebody else come in every 1-2 weeks to take care of the tank. The food was via autofeeder now and the tanks got water changes every 2 weeks with the same water I usually mix (RO + remineralizer). Some time a few months in the HMF filter completely clogged - can't vacuum out, so we rigged up a bypass mesh filter. Some time later a section of monte carlo overgrew and lifted up. A whole bunch of moss and floaters also overgrew, generally blocking the water circulation. By the time I got back the tank was in bad shape. With a clogged filter there was a whole bunch of slimy brown crud growing behind it. There were about the same amount of shrimp as before, which in a way is bad because there should have been more if things were going well. Also while about half the shrimp were actively grazing around the other half were quietly standing around. Then I noticed that there were a few shrimp dying per day, but usually they would quickly get eaten. The almost-dead ones I was able to pluck out in time didn't have any obvious problems in appearance. I did the following things, all separated by a few days, and it did not stop the loss of shrimps: Half dose Erythromycin Half dose Minocycline removed a LOT of moss and floaters Realized nitrates were very high (40+ ppm) and started doing 25-30% water change every day. (usual level is less than 5ppm) Removed the clogged HMF filter and replaced with a new thinner one. vacuumed out a LOT of slimy brown sludge. Yes this is a big change in bacteria content, but there was no way to salvage the old one. Dosed some Seachem Stability and Prime. I figure the rest of the tank still has enough surface area for nitrifying bacteria? Somewhere along the way I dosed H2O2. Half dose Praziquantl because I did notice some lethargic golden bee with the short antennae. Add Indian almond leaf and some alder cones. pH around 6.2 now, whereas before I left it was mid-upper 5's due to some peat pellets. Currently I'm on day four of the "Flip Aquatics antibiotic treatment program". See at the end of the post: The procedure is half dose antibiotic first day and 3rd day. Why do I believe this? The main reason is that he has done it multiple times and it worked. Unlike some of these other common "cures" like "try adding botanicals, H202, feed certain foods", which maybe work and maybe don't. And also, yes I know that this site's articles mention oxytetracycline, and I even got a bottle of it, but haven't tried it yet. So anyway, it seems the loss rate has stopped or slowed for now, although about a quarter of the shrimp are still quietly standing around, and some have the short antennae. I know from past experience that the antibiotics I tried won't cure them, so hopefully the prazi will (or maybe some other anti-larger-than-bacteria-med.) With all that said, I have a bunch of questions, and I'll put them at the end here because the post is already too long: Any suggestions for what else to do? What could have caused the problem in the first place? Poor water flow from clogged filter, high nitrates from either autofeeder overfeeding pollution? (Why would there even be high nitrates if the plants are overgrown?) Maybe the tannins from the botanicals ran out? When the monte carlo lifted up it exposed a lot of mulm. Is it bad for shrimp to get exposed to and eat that? Should I try to get the pH back down into the 5's via peat? Tempted to feed some "immunity boosting food" like Shrimp Fit, but that's a powder that will get all over the tank, so I'm worried it will create water pollution. Maybe it's not a bacterial infection after all and they'd afflicted by something else? What makes diagnosis really difficult is that it seems shrimps can get "hit" by something, then not get cured when that something is removed, and die a long while later anyway.

Right now there about about 10 GB and 20 BB. The GB all look about the same - a peach color. The BB have a "dirty" appearance with splotches of blue / grey all over. As the females get older they tend towards more solid blue / dark blue. It's a bit weird, in my other tank the BB keep their completely white tail all the way into old age. Yes, I think the shrimp are starting to breed again. A juvie got berried a few days ago, but then decided to abort the eggs. Oh well. There are two older female shrimps that are potential mothers, but they have probably decided that conditions aren't right yet and don't get berried. That reminds me - one of the reasons I KNEW that something was wrong is that there were no full-size GB when I got back, and very few full size shrimp in general. In my experience, shrimp will reach full size in about 6 months, and live to 1.4+ years.

Update: I will start "operation lower pH via peat". Even though this will add an additional variable on top of everything else, 1. Lower pH is more anti-biotic and more protective against ammonia 2. The pH before this whole incident was below 6, and it's 6.3 right now. (The peat already in the tank before I left had run out in the meantime)

Hi Simon (can I call you Simon?) This will be kind of a long answer as I'm trying to be accurate. Back when I had the RWP, it was easy to track individual shrimp due to their markings. So for example, I would know that a shrimp has been lethargic for a week now, which is obviously a problem. I know that a healthy shrimp can be quiet one day before and one day after molting. I also know that it's possible for a short-antennae shrimp to be active and grazing along with everybody else, but I have never seen one recover and last longer than 2-3 months. In a morbid way, it was kind of a relief after the last RWP died off because I could stop worrying about the problem as everybody else was doing fine. Now with BB and golden bee, they all look the same so it's hard to track an individual shrimp, and I can only say something like "1/4th of them seem to be inactive", which is still a higher percentage than in a healthy tank. Yes, the problem seems to be worse during summer months, and the room temperature is higher, but the tank has a chiller so never really gets higher than 68-70F. I spent a lot of 2021 and 2022 trying to figure out this problem, this and that antibiotic, pH, botanicals, H2O2, etc but never figured it out. I still blame the bugs in the shell because... you have antennae erosion, you have bugs in the antenna, the worse the erosion the more bugs... Well, it's not like the bugs are trying to help repair it, right? Jayc, do you have an opinion if metronidazole is shrimp safe? I have read on the internet "yes", "no", "no, but only because we never tested it", etc. I suppose I may as well buy some anyway and start testing on molt shells in a dish.

@beanbag appreciate the update, 11 months later. I am certainly interested in any further experiments you might conduct. Please keep us updated.

If you are still pondering which scale to use, either 0.5 or 0.7, well ... every time I refer to a TDS figure it is based on 0.5 NaCl (sodium chloride). That's because my TDS meter, and most TDS meters on the market use the 0.5 scale for conversion. (Note: Its NaCl with a lower case L, not i) What's the difference? The 0.7 scale is based on measuring the KCl or potassium chloride content of a solution. The 0.5 scale is based on measuring the NaCl or sodium chloride content of a solution. The 0.5 scale is also referred to as TDS - total dissolved solids. Note: while this are what each scale is based on, in reality these scales do not measure only the KCl content or NaCl content of the solution, but rather the overall conductivity of all electrically charged ions in the solution, this reading is then converted to give you a 0.5 or 0.7 reading. The true ppm of a solution can only be determined by a chemical analysis, ppm cannot be measured by an EC meter. The reason your HM- Digital Com 100 has various conversion scales is down to it's application. EC/TDS meters are used heavily in Hydroponics. At times, you might need to measure the fertiliser content in the water for ... well, growing plants. If you haven't read my article on TDS, go check it out in the https://skfaquatics.com/forum/articles/water-parameters/ section of this forum. Hope this helps clarify it a bit more and has empowered you with greater knowledge. 😀