bacterial infection

[revolutionhope]

hey shrimpers,

Just wanted to ask confirmation pls of my suspicion this is a bacterial infection. I had 3 shrimp in this tank previously and 1 perished a month ago - when I found it was remarkably white.

now theres 2 left, one is acting normally and the other is pictured below.

the one pictured is a blue dream. the other with it is a bluebodied carbon rili.

presuming it is a bacterial infection - can anyone give me tips on how I might go about doing a tank reset? I have to kill everything including the canister filter media right? this is my first time dealing with an infection.

the shrimp in the picture is in fact slowly recovering - it looked a bit worse a couple days ago - is it possible I can save them and add them to my carbon rili tank or just not a good idea

thanks in advance :-)

love n peace

will

[ineke]

http://shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/index.php/topic/5052-shrimp-diseases-and-diagnosis/I guess you would have read this article? I had a small outbreak of a bacterial infection after introducing new shrimp into a well established colony -at that time I ddidn't know not to add water from the shrimp bag into my tank and after acclimatisingt he new shrimp I tipped the lot into my tank. I noticed problems in a week or 2 after the new shrimp arrived and started dosing my tanks with Genchem Beta- G -I now swear by the product and use it weekly after water changes. I did lose a few cherries -but the majority survived with little and often water changes- anything too big would stress the shrimp out even more.. However if you only have a few shrimp in your tank you could treat them and then do a new setup -I don't if you can save your media etc I just treated my tank and over a period of time they mostly came good. Personally I would not add those shrimp to your Carbon Rili tank until 100% sure they have recovered and certainly don't add anymore shrimp to the affected tank until you have sorted the problem. As you only have a couple of cherry shrimp affected you can easily pop them into a foam box or small container with a heater and an airstone while you treat them if you need that tank for anything else. Hopefully JayC will see your thread -or even pm him he he will be able to help you through- he is very good at that! Hope it works out for you.

[jayc]

This is a condition called Muscular Necrosis.

See the sticky thread "Diseases and Diagnosis".

 

It's not necessarily caused by bacterial infection.

As per my post in the sticky, it's can be a condition caused by stress in it's environment.

 

Check your water parameters, and post it here for us to see if there is anything out of the ordinary.

Is this a new tank? I ask because I see this condition regularly in tanks that have not been cycled completely.

Heat can also be a factor.

If the temps in your tank is too hot, it can cause this symptom. But since the weather is cooler now, it's unlikely to be the heat. But I'm not in Adelaide, so I have no idea what temps you are getting there.

 

You don't necessarily need to restart the whole tank. But you will need to check your water parameters asap. Something is stressing it out. 

 

Definitely don't add them back into the larger population, until it recovers completely.

 

 

Thanks for the plug Ineke 

[Squiggle]

Yep, have to agree with Muscular Necrosis & jayc's advice is always spot on.

[revolutionhope]

said shrimp still appears to be happy. [emoji15] honestly im not sure I would be feeling that well if my insides were rotting..

[jayc]

It's probably got about 2 weeks from when you first noticed the symptom.

[revolutionhope]

thankyou all for the input so far! I just thought id post again since I got a better view to help confirm your suspicions or otherwise!

maybe im just being optimistic but I think the white area maybe shrinking! do u think i should I try to change out a lot of water?

love n peace

will

[revolutionhope]

according to api test kit (Im now even using a fresh one because I didnt believe the old one I had) most of my tanks have nitrates above 160ppm - wow...

im thinking its possible the springwater I used to use was high in nitrates and I never noticed because my tanks were always so heavily planted.. when I tested for nitrates a frw times in the past I always got a result of zero because I didn't follow the instructions properly [emoji15]

woops.. could this result even be possible? the red cherries are still pretty much thriving in these conditions ..

[Disciple]

That seems like a crazy high level of nitrates.

 

[fishmosy]

A quick google search of 160 ppm nitrate brings up a few links to cases where api test kits have given high nitrate readings that were likely false. Thats a hell of a lot of nitrate, and if you have been using the same water for drinking, I assume you are in the hospital?

[revolutionhope]

I think its crazily high too but im starting to think its possible.. I was always so lazy with water changing until recently and always have a lot of evaporation happening so im constantly topping off..

the results look like 80+ in some tanks and 160 in others. im not at all sure what to make of it. im thinking of testing RO water to confirm it reads zero first and assuming it does then im thinking about mixing it half and half with tankwater then testing that.

hopefully I can make sense of this tomorrow.

im javing a bad night tonight - managed to stupidly run my new ro system I got without opening the plug on the end resulting in a connection busting hah im a total goofball lol

[jayc]

If yer nitrates are that high, then you have found your cause of the stress to the shrimp.

the red cherries are still pretty much thriving in these conditions ..

Just surviving does not equal thriving.

[revolutionhope]

hey jayc do u think thrre be any problem with using seachem prime as a quickfix for now?

[jayc]

Prime does nothing for high Nitrates unfortunately.

Only way to get rid of high Nitrates is a water change. But make sure your new water isn't the source of the problem. ie. the new water is the source of the high nitrates.

[revolutionhope]

said shrimp still doing well seemingly, it has a saddle developing and the whiteness covers less area - the colour on the outer part of the abdomen seems to be coming back although inside it is very obviously white for most of the length of it.

 

i wonder if i should put a carbon rili male with blue body into the tank to accompany it if the appearance keeps improving. how long should i wait?

 

this is something i never considered before - what happens to eggs if there is no male to fertilise? do they keep carrying for a long time or do they inevitably moult and lose them somehow?

 

love n peace

 

will

[revolutionhope]

update - white section remains inside the shrimps abdomen but the shell colour is returning almost back to the vibrant blue when I first received it and the saddle is quite advanced now.

There's a nice male in with it now so fingers crossed my patience and perseverance with regular WCs is paying off !! :-)

thanks again for the tips jayc plus others!