Cleaner shrimp keep dying?

[j.falk]

I had a cleaner shrimp that died recently after I did my tank transfer (when I upgraded from a 20 gallon to a 30 long). The cleaner shrimp was approximately 1 1/2 years old. Before it died, it was acting very strange. It didn't seem to eat as much, was very sluggish when moving and it would constantly hide out underneath the rocks...and then one night it died and I found it wedged underneath some rocks the next morning. I figured it might've possibly been old age since I read they live about 3 years in captivity and I didn't know how old it was when I first got it.

Yesterday - I bought two more cleaner shrimp and added them to the tank. Before I went to bed, I fed the tank. Both shrimp ate without issue and they both seemed alert and very active.

This morning - I found both of them dead underneath the rocks and I don't know why? There are no predators in the tank that would be killing off the shrimp.

I checked my water with Salifert test kits:

Ammonia: It's not clear in the testing vial, but it's not showing up as dark as <0.15 on the scale chart.
Nitrate: It's showing 10 on the high range scale side (the lightest color).
Temperature: 80 degrees.
Salinity - 1.025

I have three possible theories on what might be killing them.

1. When I upgraded the tank, I put a new versa top on and it's very tight fitting to keep the humidity down in the room. (I did add two water pumps aimed at the surface of the water to create turbulence which I thought would add oxygen to the water.) Would this lack of gas exchange possibly cause a problem that would only affect the shrimp? All of my fish, corals, and snails/hermit crabs are doing fine...I'm not seeing any issues with anything else.

2. I have a Devil's Hand (Finger) leather coral in the tank that shed right before the cleaner died and the last night the cleaner was alive, it sat underneath the coral and was acting really strange (arching it's back and splaying it's little appendages under it's tail while holding completely still). I am not running carbon on the tank...could the leather coral's sheddings be killing the shrimp?

3. When I upgraded to the new tank, I added some more dry rock to the tank. Most of the dry rock came from a local reefer's old tank and all of the rock was bleached and soaked in dechlorinated water.   My thinking on the rock is if it were something in the rock that was affecting the cleaner shrimps...wouldn't it also affect my corals and other inverts?

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Hazy]

I had 2 peps at one point and after about 1 1/2 years the small one died.. I thought it was old age like you. It had stopped eating the night before and the next morning I found my favorite hermit crab eating him, so I thought “oh well he must have been older than I thought.” I let the hermit crab eat him, and the next day the hermit crab died. It must be some invert sickness... None of the Other hermit crabs were affected though, and I pulled the dead one out before anybody else had a chance to have a munch on him and kick the bucket. The other shrimp is doing great though so I’m stumped🤷🏼‍♀️
 

When they do this:

22 minutes ago, j.falk said:

(arching it's back and splaying it's little appendages under it's tail while holding completely still).

Usually they are just cleaning their appendages... they spend lots of time grooming. Hope you find out what caused it I’m curious to know. 

[PerfectSatyr683]

What is the ammonia 

[j.falk]

1 hour ago, Hazy said:

Usually they are just cleaning their appendages... they spend lots of time grooming. Hope you find out what caused it I’m curious to know. 

It definitely wasn't cleaning itself.  I've watched many a cleaner shrimp groom themselves over the years and I've never seen anything like this.  It was a very stiff/rigid stance...almost like it was posing to be a statue...or possibly having a heart attack.

[j.falk]

2 minutes ago, PerfectSatyr683 said:

What is the ammonia 

Salifert:  Ammonia: It's not clear in the testing vial, but it's not showing up as dark as <0.15 on the scale chart.

 

This was ran after I pulled the 2 dead shrimp out this morning.   They were definitely rotting in the water...both of them smelled very strongly.

 

Ammonia issues were a first thought.

[PerfectSatyr683]

Yes I am an expert with shrimp and they are pretty annoying when it comes to sensitivity but they normally live up to 3 years

[j.falk]

9 minutes ago, PerfectSatyr683 said:

Yes I am an expert with shrimp and they are pretty annoying when it comes to sensitivity but they normally live up to 3 years

I've never had any cleaner shrimp die this quickly before...which has me stumped...moreso because it was 2 of them.  

 

The only thing I can possibly think of (not on my list) was that I bought them right after the pet store received them.

 

Distributor tank - -  > pet store tank - - > my tank in a short time period would be a very stressful situation.  That I could see easily doing them in.  

[Tamberav]

2 hours ago, j.falk said:

I had a cleaner shrimp that died recently after I did my tank transfer (when I upgraded from a 20 gallon to a 30 long). The cleaner shrimp was approximately 1 1/2 years old. Before it died, it was acting very strange. It didn't seem to eat as much, was very sluggish when moving and it would constantly hide out underneath the rocks...and then one night it died and I found it wedged underneath some rocks the next morning. I figured it might've possibly been old age since I read they live about 3 years in captivity and I didn't know how old it was when I first got it.

Yesterday - I bought two more cleaner shrimp and added them to the tank. Before I went to bed, I fed the tank. Both shrimp ate without issue and they both seemed alert and very active.

This morning - I found both of them dead underneath the rocks and I don't know why? There are no predators in the tank that would be killing off the shrimp.

I checked my water with Salifert test kits:

Ammonia: It's not clear in the testing vial, but it's not showing up as dark as <0.15 on the scale chart.
Nitrate: It's showing 10 on the high range scale side (the lightest color).
Temperature: 80 degrees.
Salinity - 1.025

I have three possible theories on what might be killing them.

1. When I upgraded the tank, I put a new versa top on and it's very tight fitting to keep the humidity down in the room. (I did add two water pumps aimed at the surface of the water to create turbulence which I thought would add oxygen to the water.) Would this lack of gas exchange possibly cause a problem that would only affect the shrimp? All of my fish, corals, and snails/hermit crabs are doing fine...I'm not seeing any issues with anything else.

2. I have a Devil's Hand (Finger) leather coral in the tank that shed right before the cleaner died and the last night the cleaner was alive, it sat underneath the coral and was acting really strange (arching it's back and splaying it's little appendages under it's tail while holding completely still). I am not running carbon on the tank...could the leather coral's sheddings be killing the shrimp?

3. When I upgraded to the new tank, I added some more dry rock to the tank. Most of the dry rock came from a local reefer's old tank and all of the rock was bleached and soaked in dechlorinated water.   My thinking on the rock is if it were something in the rock that was affecting the cleaner shrimps...wouldn't it also affect my corals and other inverts?

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

 

Did you test magnesium? 

 

A bad batch of salt with high ass magnesium killed a bunch of stuff... (shrimp, clams, crabs) but did not kill corals/fish/snails. Made sense as there are reports of these guys not doing well with really high mag. 

 

I also lost a pair of cleaners to high temps from a faulty heater. Fish looked rough but survived and only lost 1 coral to the high temps (though they were pissed). The cleaners were dead dead dead though. My hardier saron shrimp were fine. 

[j.falk]

37 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

 

 

Did you test magnesium? 

 

A bad batch of salt with high ass magnesium killed a bunch of stuff... (shrimp, clams, crabs) but did not kill corals/fish/snails. Made sense as there are reports of these guys not doing well with really high mag. 

 

I also lost a pair of cleaners to high temps from a faulty heater. Fish looked rough but survived and only lost 1 coral to the high temps (though they were pissed). The cleaners were dead dead dead though. My hardier saron shrimp were fine. 

I don't have a magnesium test kit, but you might be on to something.  I'll have to order one and check that out.  Thank you.  👍

[TerraIncognita]

4 minutes ago, j.falk said:

I don't have a magnesium test kit, but you might be on to something.  I'll have to order one and check that out.  Thank you.  👍

Another long shot, but just random info maybe will help, anytime I've gotten a cleaner shrimp that's not a baby, they molt shortly after I've re-tanked them. They maybe are trying to molt but are doing unsuccessfully in your system. I had 2 that died mid molt a few years ago.

[j.falk]

2 hours ago, TerraIncognita said:

Another long shot, but just random info maybe will help, anytime I've gotten a cleaner shrimp that's not a baby, they molt shortly after I've re-tanked them. They maybe are trying to molt but are doing unsuccessfully in your system. I had 2 that died mid molt a few years ago.

I thought about that as well.  Every time I've bought one in the past, they always seem to molt immediately after adding them to the tank...but the chances of two dying on the same day seem highly unlikely unless something is seriously wrong.  Something has to be off somewhere.  I've never had a skunk cleaner shrimp die this easily before and it really surprised me when I found them both dead this morning.

[TerraIncognita]

43 minutes ago, j.falk said:

I thought about that as well.  Every time I've bought one in the past, they always seem to molt immediately after adding them to the tank...but the chances of two dying on the same day seem highly unlikely unless something is seriously wrong.  Something has to be off somewhere.  I've never had a skunk cleaner shrimp die this easily before and it really surprised me when I found them both dead this morning.

Yeah, you're probably right. I hope you can figure out what is/was.

 

But I wouldn't chase it for too long. If you have other inverts in there, it might've been the LFS or something they had before you even got them.

 

Hard to believe you have a tank surviving with that many other species doing fine, but then 1 day after purchase the 2 inverts die. Seems like the source is to blame my friend and not you.

 

Even if it was your system, normally it takes 2-3 days for signs of distress let alone death, with that said I know inverts can be much more sensitive and drop dead at the turn of a hat, but I think from experiences Skunk Shrimp seem to be pretttyyy hardy....

 

That's just my 2 Cents.

[FollyFish]

I bought a fire shrimp from a LFS took it home driped it for 1hr and added to my tank. It acted like yours and died an hour later. Turned out the salinity at the store was way low compared to my 1.026. Is it possible that you had a salinity swing?

[j.falk]

6 hours ago, FollyFish said:

I bought a fire shrimp from a LFS took it home driped it for 1hr and added to my tank. It acted like yours and died an hour later. Turned out the salinity at the store was way low compared to my 1.026. Is it possible that you had a salinity swing?

I thought of that possibility but I neglected to test the store's salinity when I got home.  I've bought quite a few of my livestock from them and never had an issue like this before so it never crossed my mind at the time I was adding the shrimp to my tank to see if their salinity was different from mine.  I will definitely be checking next time.

[debbeach13]

Maybe you can call the store and ask if the other shrimp from that shipment are doing ok? Hopefully they will understand you are just trying to figure things out.

[j.falk]

3 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Maybe you can call the store and ask if the other shrimp from that shipment are doing ok? Hopefully they will understand you are just trying to figure things out.

I've already contacted the store owner...waiting for him to get back to me.  I bought the only two they had and they were in a tank by themselves.