Cleaner Shrimp Died....potential causes?

[duganderson]

This morning, my cleaner shrimp (medium/small size) was laying dead in the back of my Nano Cube 28 (stock with CF lights). I bought him in Jan. 2012 a few weeks after getting a the tank used (had been set up for 1.5 years or so).

 

The tank has two oc. clowns, 1 firefish, 2 RBTA, a bunch of softies (leather, xenia, gsp, zoas, palys and shrooms) and one LPS (frogspawn). It has 23 lbs of live rock and all natural filtration (uses foam filter). I run stock pumps and one additional powerhead. The fish and coral seem to be thriving. The cleaner shrimp seemed to be thiving.....he would eat well when I feed 1 time per day. Also, he appeared to molt about every 4-8 weeks or so. He molted a few days ago. I change 5-6 gallons of water every three weeks.

 

I can't figure out why he died. I don't think any toxins entered the tank (cleaners, etc.). Any guesses what may have caused his death?

Should I run any specific water tests to check for any problems? I don't test water but my LFS has tested my water a couple times and the parameters have been great.

 

Do folks just have things die occasionally for unknown reasons or is there likely a problem I need to deal with?

 

Thanks, Doug

[thehobdenmarina]

could have been old, but more likely it was something else. did you just recently do a water change? like with in a couple of days of him molting? What is the salinity? temp? when you put the new water in, and what is it normally? If your shrimp just molted a few days ago, and a water change was recently done, I would point my finger at this, as I have done it before. I always wait about 2 weeks after my shrimp molts to do a water change, then his exoskeleton is nice and hard again. Also matching the salinity and temp to with in .001-.0015 so if your salinity is 1.026 you should try to get it at at least 1.025 and only .5-1 degrees temp difference, especially after molts. they are super sensitive at this time

[duganderson]

Thanks for the ideas.

 

The last water change was over 2 weeks ago. I make sure the temp and salinity match when I change the water. The salinity is 1.0255 and the temp between 78--80 degrees.

 

I don't think he was very old. I bought him from a LFS in Feb. and he was small/med size at that time.

 

Any other ideas or tips?

 

Thanks, Doug

 

could have been old, but more likely it was something else. did you just recently do a water change? like with in a couple of days of him molting? What is the salinity? temp? when you put the new water in, and what is it normally? If your shrimp just molted a few days ago, and a water change was recently done, I would point my finger at this, as I have done it before. I always wait about 2 weeks after my shrimp molts to do a water change, then his exoskeleton is nice and hard again. Also matching the salinity and temp to with in .001-.0015 so if your salinity is 1.026 you should try to get it at at least 1.025 and only .5-1 degrees temp difference, especially after molts. they are super sensitive at this time

[thehobdenmarina]

any recent changes to the tank? temperature spikes etc, when was the last time you tested the water? did you test it after he died? could have had a spike of ammonia or something, it happens. add carbon or anything like that to the tank lately?

[duganderson]

No recent changes to the tank.

 

I added some softies (leather, shrooms, zoas and palys) 4 weeks ago.

 

No major temp spikes....it got to 81 degrees for a few hours a few days ago.

 

I have not tested water lately. I will pull out water now and test it tomorrow at my LFS.

 

--Doug

 

any recent changes to the tank? temperature spikes etc, when was the last time you tested the water? did you test it after he died? could have had a spike of ammonia or something, it happens. add carbon or anything like that to the tank lately?

[thehobdenmarina]

do you not have test kits? its a must

I test a few days after each WC

[duganderson]

do you not have test kits? its a must

I test a few days after each WC

 

I don't have a test kit yet but my LFS will run tests for me.

 

What tests would you run after my shrimp death to try to diagnose what's going on?

 

--Doug

[TeflonTomDosh]

could have been old, but more likely it was something else. did you just recently do a water change? like with in a couple of days of him molting? What is the salinity? temp? when you put the new water in, and what is it normally? If your shrimp just molted a few days ago, and a water change was recently done, I would point my finger at this, as I have done it before. I always wait about 2 weeks after my shrimp molts to do a water change, then his exoskeleton is nice and hard again. Also matching the salinity and temp to with in .001-.0015 so if your salinity is 1.026 you should try to get it at at least 1.025 and only .5-1 degrees temp difference, especially after molts. they are super sensitive at this time

ahh, mine just died too. probably because of this. I recently took the heater out of my cube cause it maintains 77 or so degree for the most part with the hood closed. can get as high as 80 thought mid day with lights on. He just molted too so now I know.

Thanks!

[GrandLotus]

Mabey he had a stroke because all your paramaters seem to be on par?

[duganderson]

Mabey he had a stroke because all your paramaters seem to be on par?

 

Grand Lotus,

 

Comments like yours are the reason people quit using forums or quit the hobby. I have a much thicker skin that that but just thought I'd let you know.

[thehobdenmarina]

There's quite a few of them on this forum like that. Best to just ignore it and not even dignify them with a response. That's all they are after. Did you get your parameters checked out?

 

You might also look into stray voltage in the tank. If you have pc or t5 lights they are known to do this.

[duganderson]

There's quite a few of them on this forum like that. Best to just ignore it and not even dignify them with a response. That's all they are after. Did you get your parameters checked out?

 

You might also look into stray voltage in the tank. If you have pc or t5 lights they are known to do this.

 

The PH was a little high but the amonia was at .6

 

The gal at the LFS said this is likely due to the dead shrimp in the water. I found the shrimp dead in the morning, removed it, and pulled the water out for testing about 1 hour later. He probably died in the night so he may have been in there multiple hours.

[GrandLotus]

Grand Lotus,

 

Comments like yours are the reason people quit using forums or quit the hobby. I have a much thicker skin that that but just thought I'd let you know.

 

Dude, sometimes fish just die of old age/complications.

This is called life.

All off the OP's stats seemed to be great so this lead me to my conclusion.

 

Thanks for putting me down and insulting in a politically correct way.

[Islandoftiki]

One of my two cleaner shrimp died. I ran a full battery of tests and didn't find anything wrong. I got another cleaner shrimp to replace him and the two have been doing fine ever since. Could have been a number of untraceable problems.

[Mitch619]

hahahaha stroke! lighten up people that was funny

[duganderson]

Dude, sometimes fish just die of old age/complications.

This is called life.

All off the OP's stats seemed to be great so this lead me to my conclusion.

 

Thanks for putting me down and insulting in a politically correct way.

 

Grand Lotus,

 

I thought you were suggesting that my shrimp had a stroke because he was so shocked that my parameters were correct.......if that's was the intent, my politically correct put down stands (even though it probably is kinda funny).

 

If that's not what you meant, my apologies.

 

I know that sometimes fish just die. As a beginner, I was just trying to see if it was something I did or something preventable in the future.

 

--Doug