Peppermint disaster

[Dval]

So here is the story. About two weeks ago my wife and I bought 2 peppermint shrimp to help out with our aptaisa problem. Well they did a great job with the aptasias. They were gone within 3 days. However about a week later we woke up to a dead pepp. We performed the full barrage of tests and found that our PH was a bit low. Now we fixed that up a day later and kept a careful eye on our one remaining shrimp. Yesterday we woke up to our last little guy taking a sand nap. I'm stumped. After fixing the PH he was just fine for a week. Then suddenly just dies? I again did the full range of tests and came up with a bit of an ammonia spike from the 2nd shrimp death but thats it. Everything else seems fine. I'd love to have at least one in my tank but now I'm afraid to try again.

D

[rbursek]

Are sure it did not just molt? And that is what you are seeing.

[Dval]

Originally posted by rbursek
Are sure it did not just molt? And that is what you are seeing.

Nope. I've kept fresh watter shrimp before so I'm used to dealing with the molting. These were definitely dead shrimp. However, the first pepp did molt. To me that seems a bit odd to molt and then die right away, but I'm no expert.

[Aquabucket]

What size tank? How long has it been up and running? A dead shrimp should not cause an ammonia spike. Its no different than if you were to feed your tank.

[Dval]

Originally posted by Aquabucket
What size tank? How long has it been up and running? A dead shrimp should not cause an ammonia spike. Its no different than if you were to feed your tank.

Its a 75 gallon tank. Its been running for around 6mo. I do a 1 gallon watter change per day along with topping off the evaporated watter. Now this tank is not actually new. It had been shut down and inactive for about 2 years. I didn't start over when I brought it back on line either. I cycled with the watter that was in it already (adding what was needed also). If the detectable ammonia is not from the shrimp I"m at a loss to explain it. I do my best to keep things clean and I take care not to overfeed. As for stock i have one little clown fish lol. Not exactly a high bioload. I'm trying to go slow and do things right. My snails and button polyps have shown no signs of stress either.

[jimwat]

I have always lost my shrimp to molting accidents

Make sure there is no copper in the water. Make sure your iodine levels are correct. Make sure when you add top-off water to add it slowly.

HTH

[Dval]

You'll have to excuse me if this sounds ignorant but about the copper and iodine tests, are those considered not part of the "normal" testing? The reason I ask is that I bought a test kit that has i think 12+ test and neither are in there. The kit was sold to me as "This one will do it all for you". Are they considered something you would use to diagnose a specific problem and not something you would use regularly? Am I missing out on some important tests?

[Rafael]

hows your Nitrates? High nitrates will kill inverts

[WinnipegDragon]

Any chance they starved after the aiptasia were gone? Did you feed them anything else?

[jimwat]

I have never had a problem with copper killing my shrimp (that I know of), but I have read that if you have medicated your tank or ever used regular tap water for top-off then copper may be an issue (for inverts). I have also read that iodine is necessary for successful molting. Once again I can not confirm this either, as I dose my tank with Coral Vite (has iodine) and I still loose my shrimp to molting problems.

Originally posted by Dval
You'll have to excuse me if this sounds ignorant but about the copper and iodine tests, are those considered not part of the "normal" testing? The reason I ask is that I bought a test kit that has i think 12+ test and neither are in there. The kit was sold to me as "This one will do it all for you". Are they considered something you would use to diagnose a specific problem and not something you would use regularly? Am I missing out on some important tests?

My experience with multi-test kits is that they never have everything you need, and often have some things you don't. I have also found the results on some of the multi-test kits suspect.

You can probably take a sample of your water to your LFS and have them test for copper and iodine.

[Dval]

Rafael - Nitrate & Nitrite tested undetectable


WinnipegDragon - That really is the only other idea I came up with. I thought I was feeding them ok. The first couldn't have bit the dust because of starvation but I attribute him to the low PH. The second one i suppose its possible. I fed him 1/2 shrimp pellets at night. I'm not totally sure he always got them though. He never came out during the daytime so i had to kind of wing it. Maybe I was overly cautious in trying to not over feed. Also, he had an appetite for bristle worms, which I have plenty of. That was kind of a bummer because I like my little army of bristle worms. In the end... they took their revenge .


jimwat - Sound like good advice to me. I'll have to check into some other tests. Any recommendations for me on that?

Thanks to everyone for their input.
D

[aastretch64]

Maybe it was just their time to go...a moment of silence for the shrimp please....do you have any aggressive fish who would take a nip at the shrimp?

Alex

[Poisonus Yeti]

How low was your pH when you say it was "a bit low"?

[davew0670]

you can have mine!

[Dval]

aastretch64 - *bows head* thank you. I wouldn't call a false perc a "devourer of shrimp" but who knows lol.


Poisonus Yeti - OK so alot low. It was 7.6 now its 8.5. Thats why I didn't question the first shrimp death. I freaked when I tested it. "OMG get the buffer!" My wife bumped it faster that I would have liked though. 7.6 to 8.5 in one shot seems like alot to me.

BTW that avatar is awesome Yeti!


davew0670 - Aww you don't like yours? Mine were kick butt janitors. Well... the two weeks they were on the job anyway.

[Arati]

So if I am reading correctly you tank/sandbed/rock are 2and 1/2 or so years old. I have seen things live along time in deplorable conditions.

I am thinking here is a critter that could be as much a 2.5 yrs old and has survived a long time with no food, no anything. whatever it is it survived by eating everything else in the tank. now you bring the tank back. and start loseing small inverts.

I would be hanging a silverside or some food item in the tank at night, and useing stealthmode to see who is eating it.

[jimwat]

Originally posted by Dval
Poisonus Yeti - OK so alot low. It was 7.6 now its 8.5. Thats why I didn't question the first shrimp death. I freaked when I tested it. "OMG get the buffer!" My wife bumped it faster that I would have liked though. 7.6 to 8.5 in one shot seems like alot to me.

Changing the pH too quickly is probably what killed your shrimp rather than the low pH.

[Dval]

Arati - You and me both. I didn't have the funds to keep the tank running properly so I had to shut it down after a bad case of ich. But wow, in those two years I saw some strange stuff grow. Odd filter feeding inverts an piles of strange stuff (looked like bacteria). Couldn't believe it because obviously all the levels were way off.

jimwat - Boy, that would be pretty crappy if we caused that. I'm not if I'll try another. I'm not thrilled about gambling with live critters. Guess we'll see.

[Misled]

Originally posted by jimwat
Changing the pH too quickly is probably what killed your shrimp rather than the low pH.

Yep, that's it. Any change in ph will really affect them. Also slow down a bit. At 6 months I wouldn't say your tank is very mature. Give it a few months for everything to stablize a bit. Then look around a bit, while peps are ok, there's alot of different shrimps that do better in a reef. Did you know if they run out of food they can start nipping at zoos???? I'll be very happy when I change my tanks and I can get mine out. This guy can stay though!!!!