Cleaner Shrimp dead: New Fish or Water Problems? (please read description)

[Nasabeau]

So, my tank is almost 3 weeks old now, definitely have a strong diatom bloom going on, but I noticed today I hadn't seen my cleaner shrimp in a day or two. he likes to hide, so it didn't occur to me. I started the tank with two clowns, and I added a coral beauty angelfish after week two. Upon searching the tank, I found what I believe to be what is left of my shrimp. basically just some legs and antenna (unless that's just some really weird looking algae). Upon finding this I tested the major water parameters and got SG: ~1.022 (which is weird because that is down from Monday which was 1.024), Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 30 pH 8.0. I have a sinking suspicion that the CBA Killed and ate him, but its also possible that the clowns did it. the CBA had never really been bothered by him, where the clowns had been observed being territorial around him. The question is why would they wait over two weeks to kill him? I feed every night, so I don't think anyone should have been hungry. is it possible that the water quality killed him and then the rest of the CUC just did their job? I don't notice any parameters super out of whack, is there something else I should test for? its worth mentioning that 1 astrea and 1 trochus snail are at the surface of the water ( 1 trochus on the rock, one astrea "missing??", and 3 Nassarius snails buried in the sand like normal). so, now that you have the background, I'd like opinions.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Are you positive it's dead and that wasn't a Molt you found? They will hide when molting...

 

[Nasabeau]

Are you positive it's dead and that wasn't a Molt you found? They will hide when molting...

I will be honest, I have no clue if its dead or not, I cannot find anything of him except for this reddish stuff and what appears to be a leg and an antenna... it is very possible it is a molt... I did not realize they molted...

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Sounds like a Molt to me. Can you snap a picture? I always think my crabs and shrimp are dead when I see a Molt

 

[Nasabeau]

I'm sorry, I know this is a really bad picture. it was the best I could do. the reason I have doubts is he's a fairly big shrimp, and there aren't really a lot of places he could be in my tank that I couldn't find him if I was REALLY looking, and I cannot find him at all. this was bigger earlier but a combination of the tank flow and the clownfish have kind of broken it up

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Ya I'm going Molt on this one. Give it a couple of days, I bet the shrimp reappears. Unless of course you really looked for it. Fwiw imo when something is hiding or stressed the last thing you want to do is start moving rocks around causing more stress. I believe this should be a very hands off hobby

 

[Nasabeau]

Ya I'm going Molt on this one. Give it a couple of days, I bet the shrimp reappears. Unless of course you really looked for it. Fwiw imo when something is hiding or stressed the last thing you want to do is start moving rocks around causing more stress. I believe this should be a very hands off hobby

I am DEFINITELY not moving my rocks. I've done that exactly once and it was so difficult to get back into position I never want to touch them again XD. I just looked in the tank as good as I can. I will keep an eye out for him over the next few days. can you think of any reason salinity may drop like that? do my parameters seem okay to you? is there a chance the water hurt him/ is hurting my fish?

 

[vetteguy53081]

the molt will look lie it minus flesh. A dead shrimp will have the meat still within shell.
They do well unless poorly acclimated to tank

 

[Nasabeau]

the molt will look lie it minus flesh. A dead shrimp will have the meat still within shell.
They do well unless poorly acclimated to tank

this looked like pieces of what it was, but I just chalked it up to an overactive CUC and some fish that seemed interested in the molt/corpse. actually wouldn't have found it if it weren't for the clowns paying so much attention to it. I acclimated it for about a half hour, and he's been perfectly fine for the past almost 3 weeks since he's been in there.
idk. I will keep looking for him. thank you guys for your help

 

[Mical]

Just an outside opinion, but you might want to slow down a bit re: adding livestock. Your tank is only 3 weeks old and you're adding a pretty hefty bioload in a short amount of time. Granted not knowing the tank size,parameters or equipment (IE skimmer, filtration) I'm speculating, but I never add anything until tank has fully cycled and I can verify "some" stability in parameters.

 

[Kinjirra]

My fire shrimp just molted last night...never thought about it so instant panic for me too lol. Mines way more lively and likes to interact with his people so I saw him soon after however. Good luck with the tank!

 

[Nasabeau]

Just an outside opinion, but you might want to slow down a bit re: adding livestock. Your tank is only 3 weeks old and you're adding a pretty hefty bioload in a short amount of time. Granted not knowing the tank size,parameters or equipment (IE skimmer, filtration) I'm speculating, but I never add anything until tank has fully cycled and I can verify "some" stability in parameters.

the tank is 75 long, and the ammonia hasn't been detectable since day 2. I put in the two clowns after the ammonia zeroed out from 1ppm in a night. there was a minor nitrite spike after adding the clowns. that was gone in two days, and when that went back down I added the scavenger CUCs which are net neutral (possibly net negative) on free nitrogen. saw some algae growth and a diatom bloom starting at the end of week one, so I added the non-scavenger snails. after two weeks of the clownfish only having had stable conditions, I added the Coral beauty angelfish, and again, saw no change in parameters. now almost a week later the only thing that's changed in all that is the nitrate is up a tad and the salinity is down a tad. I figure this weekend I'll do a water change to balance it out. the minute the stability of my nitrogen cycle or the pH or the salinity is compromised I'll deviate from my plan, but the current path I'd been recommended is add a new fish pair (or single larger fish) every other week assuming parameters are stable, and CUC as needed. right now I no longer have a problem with detritus build up, so CUCs are fine how they are (other than maybe a couple more algae snails, depends how long this bloom lasts). I appreciate the concern, and yeah, my tank cycled a LOT quicker than I expected, but I do promise, I am not overstocking. I'm reading my tank, which has been telling me it can support more fish.

I did use live sand and a mix of live and dry rock, and added a significant amount of bacteria, so that's very possibly why it cycled so fast.

 

[Nasabeau]

My fire shrimp just molted last night...never thought about it so instant panic for me too lol. Mines way more lively and likes to interact with his people so I saw him soon after however. Good luck with the tank!

mines very friendly most of the time. in fact, whenever I have to put a hand in the tank, he immediately jumps on my arm and begins cleaning. my wife continues to find that hilarious. he just spends a lot of time hanging towards the back so its not always odd to not see him if I'm just sitting down to watch them.

 

[Anubisxii]

My cleaner (skunk) shrimp moltes every few weeks.

 

[Nasabeau]

My cleaner (skunk) shrimp moltes every few weeks.

I really hope that's all this is. it didn't even occur to me that they did that. I'd hate to think I lost the little guy! I hope he just molted and that's what I'm seeing

 

[Anubisxii]

Does he come out at feeding time? Mine turned in a marathon runner every time we feed and runs all over coral and rock trying to get extra food. You might be able to get him out that way.

 

[Anubisxii]

Mine just hangs out on this rock 24/7 unless it's dinner or fish cleaning time.

 

[Nasabeau]

Does he come out at feeding time? Mine turned in a marathon runner every time we feed and runs all over coral and rock trying to get extra food. You might be able to get him out that way.

worth a shot. He is normally super active when I feed although I can't say I noticed him last night. it's actually getting about that time, so I'll go do that and watch to see if he comes out

 

[Nasabeau]

Does he come out at feeding time? Mine turned in a marathon runner every time we feed and runs all over coral and rock trying to get extra food. You might be able to get him out that way.

Alas, no dice. if he's hiding because he just molted, food is not drawing him out

 

[dhanking]

Yeah shrimps hide after they molt. Think about it in the eyes of an emperor angelfish, there are two shrimps in front of you, one is freshly molted and soft skinned and tender, just the way he and all emperor angelfish prefer it, and the other one is tasty but hard and crunchy. Which one are you gonna choose? The tender one of course! So thats why they hide. Don't sweat about it, those things are like the cockroaches of the coral reef.