Dead shrimp? Bad molt or?

[Shrimporama]

Hi all

I came home to find this shrimp on his side and not moving. I gently righted him no still no movement. He must have just died as there is no color change etc. he was eating this morning.  I think I will leave him in the tank in case it's having a slow/difficult molt.  Parameters: pH 6  ammonia 0 nitrite  0 nitrate 0. Kh 0-1 Gh 4 TDS 131 temp 71

any help, ideas would be greatly appreciated.  I have had him since May. I lost another from this group a couple weeks ago that looked the same. Lots of babies,  juvie, and 10 plus adults in tank. It's a puzzle to me, I guess it could be old age, it was an adult when I got it.

thanks

[Revaria]

Honestly from what I am reading it could be a multitude of factors, from your parameters it could be what I would consider low TDS and GH and from the shrimp it could be old age, poor adjustment to your water parameters as it is an adult, stress or a bad molt. Within that tank you have a lot of shrimp within different age groups and as long as the shrimp are breeding they must be happy, so if it doesn't happen too frequently I would not worry about it as some factors are just out of our control. 

[Sandy]

I’m so sorry.  It’s so pretty.  I’ve had that experience many times,too.  Perfect looking shrimp that I found dead.  In my case, I feel certain that water parameters was my problem.  The high gh made it so difficult for them to molt.  You and others here talked me through it and, hopefully, my next shrimp will have a better chance at a norrmal life span.  As I’ve been told, even if you do everything right they still die sometimes.  I hope you find the problem, if there is one.  And again, I’m really sorry.  It’s amazing how these little creatures can grab your heart.

[Shrimporama]

The one thing I noticed was his head exoskeleton(black part) seemed a bit thicker than where it met the white tail. The seam where tail and head meet had a lighter coloration which leads me to think a molt issue. I remember reading a thread in the past that this can be a nutritional issue. I have lost 2 in about 5 weeks that looked this way. If so I want to get a handle on it.  There is so much to learn about shrimp keeping. On a good note there is a newly berried hybrid black tiger in tank so hopefully he's the daddy :-). So his beauty will carry on. This female has produced 3 clutches of really pretty shrimplets. At least in my opinion 

regarding GH should I raise it to 5? Since general range is 4-6? The parameter that the breeders I purchased from kept them at GH 3-4 TDS 130

[Sandy]

I'm not the one to ask about GH levels.  Just wanted to say congrats on the future shrimpletts!!  Great news!

 

Sandy

[Revaria]

8 hours ago, Shrimporama said:

The one thing I noticed was his head exoskeleton(black part) seemed a bit thicker than where it met the white tail. The seam where tail and head meet had a lighter coloration which leads me to think a molt issue. I remember reading a thread in the past that this can be a nutritional issue. I have lost 2 in about 5 weeks that looked this way. If so I want to get a handle on it.  There is so much to learn about shrimp keeping. On a good note there is a newly berried hybrid black tiger in tank so hopefully he's the daddy :-). So his beauty will carry on. This female has produced 3 clutches of really pretty shrimplets. At least in my opinion 

regarding GH should I raise it to 5? Since general range is 4-6? The parameter that the breeders I purchased from kept them at GH 3-4 TDS 130

Congrats on the berried female and the shrimplets I hope his colors get passed on! And while the female is berried I wouldn't adjust parameters too much as from my experience even what I would consider minor swings in parameters can kill the female depending on how sensitive the particular strain of shrimp is and that female has most likely grown up in those parameters. The choice is yours to make whether to adjust it or not, but if you do I recommend you do it slowly. 

As an FYI the current method of water changes I am testing is that I remove 1/2 of the water from the tank (ten gallon aquarium, bare bottom with only a filter and duckweed) and then add 1 cup of new mineralized water (from 5 gallon bucket I prepared) every 24 hours; using that method so far none of my berried shrimp have died from water changes in the last 4-6 months. Using that method the TDS would adjust really slowly over time, I haven't tested how it affects my nitrate or nitrate levels though. 

[Shrimporama]

thank you Sandy and Revaria. This is a 10 gallon pinto/zebra BB tank with 100 or so varying age shrimp. I have a newly cycled tank that I am planning to move some of these in to.  With this in mind I do not want to introduce a pathogen from this tank. I read somewhere about a muscle wasting disease and with the opacity of the shell of  caradina's I was worried about missing something such as some .sort of infection  This might sound overly cautious, but I had an issue with a neo tank that decimated all but 5 of a 50 plus colony. It was not fun for the shrimp or me. I have learned about the benefits of leaf litter and know have leaves and pods in all my tanks.

[Sandy]

6 hours ago, Shrimporama said:

thank you Sandy and Revaria. This is a 10 gallon pinto/zebra BB tank with 100 or so varying age shrimp. I have a newly cycled tank that I am planning to move some of these in to.  With this in mind I do not want to introduce a pathogen from this tank. I read somewhere about a muscle wasting disease and with the opacity of the shell of  caradina's I was worried about missing something such as some .sort of infection  This might sound overly cautious, but I had an issue with a neo tank that decimated all but 5 of a 50 plus colony. It was not fun for the shrimp or me. I have learned about the benefits of leaf litter and know have leaves and pods in all my tanks.

 

Are you talking about almond leaves and so forth?  For the tannins? Your new tank is so cool!  Be sure to send more pics. Don't you have black substrate?  What's it called?

[Shrimporama]

Thanks. I use a buffering substrate (sl-aqua soil) to keep pH stable for my Caradina. I love using a variety of leaf litter and pods. Indian almond, mulberry,  etc. I purchased from Eric at DiscoBee, Tannin Aquatics and a member, ,wyzzazz, that had mulberry dust in the marketplace. Boy my shrimp love the mulberry dust!