Why did cleaner shrimp die so quickly?

[ItalCanadaReefer]

I introduced a cleaner shrimp to my newly setup tank, and it died within 48 hours. I currently only have a pair of clowns in there and they weren’t even paying attention to the shrimp at all. I noticed that he got “sluggish” within the first 12 hours and did not move much at all (he would pick a spot and stay there without much movement for hours). I noticed that the salinity in the shipping bag from the LFS was at around 30 PPT and my tank is at 35PPT and is very stable in terms of salinity due to ATO. I acclimated by first floating the bag for about 20 mins to temp acclimate, then adding about half a cup of water into the bag every couple of minutes for about another 30 mins until the water in the shipping bad was around 33PPT. I then put the shrimp in. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[tnw50cal]

I've had my cleaner shrimp since week 2 or 3 of my tank being cycled. Maybe a PH issue? Maybe you just got one that wasn't doing well?

Same here.

 

[ItalCanadaReefer]

Hi all, I have just thought of something... the shrimp died immediately after a water change where I mixed up and siphoned the sand bed. I do this every week to keep it clean and at that point the tank was only a month and a half old so I don’t think there were toxins released into the water. Rather, I believe that mixing the sand bed released lower PH into the water, and would have need to sudden of a change for the shrimp to handle. Any thoughts on this? I’d like to get another so I want to avoid this happening again.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Thanks, never fun. There’s no copper to my knowledge, I always carefully take fish out of shipping bags carefully with my hands as to not add any of the water.

When I first got into saltwater I used a brass fitting on a pump and it took a while to leach copper into the water, but I didn't know then.

Keep any metals out of your tank you can I know pumps are something different but like I said I put that brass fitting never thought anything about it, someone with experience pointed it out to me. So lessons learned, acclamation methods differ the longest ones are probably best and no metals with any inverts..
Thats all I got for 2cents

 

[ItalCanadaReefer]

When I first got into saltwater I used a brass fitting on a pump and it took a while to leach copper into the water, but I didn't know then.

Keep any metals out of your tank you can I know pumps are something different but like I said I put that brass fitting never thought anything about it, someone with experience pointed it out to me. So lessons learned, acclamation methods differ the longest ones are probably best and no metals with any inverts..
Thats all I got for 2cents

Thanks a lot. Actually I just recently got a second cleaner shrimp that also died within the first few days. This time around the acclimation was 6 hours long with a very slow drip and the shrimp was eating the first days and seemed very healthy until it died roughly a week later. I have no idea what is happening.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Thanks a lot. Actually I just recently got a second cleaner shrimp that also died within the first few days. This time around the acclimation was 6 hours long with a very slow drip and the shrimp was eating the first days and seemed very healthy until it died roughly a week later. I have no idea what is happening.

temp and salinity are important when acc. i always check the incoming new salinity and temp and take a while to make it match mine. you can go further matching alk/cal/mag. but ive thrown inverts right in before with no issues do you have any other inverts in the tank so we can rule out heavy metals?

 

[ItalCanadaReefer]

temp and salinity are important when acc. i always check the incoming new salinity and temp and take a while to make it match mine. you can go further matching alk/cal/mag. but ive thrown inverts right in before with no issues do you have any other inverts in the tank so we can rule out heavy metals?

No, no other inverts, other than nassarius and trochus snails and . Temp was the same and so was salinity when acclimated. I dropped for 6 hours then once salinity matched, I floated for 25 mins to match temperature.

 

[laverda]

What salinity was the water the shrimp came in? Usually shrimp and inverts are not kept in low salinity like fish are. If your LFS is keeping them in low salinity, find another store. You should not need to drip acclimate for 6 hours and if you do you need to keep the temp consistent. You should not need to temp acclimate them after. In this case I suspect temp swings added to the problem if not caused the problem.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

What salinity was the water the shrimp came in? Usually shrimp and inverts are not kept in low salinity like fish are. If your LFS is keeping them in low salinity, find another store. You should not need to drip acclimate for 6 hours and if you do you need to keep the temp consistent. You should not need to temp acclimate them after. In this case I suspect temp swings added to the problem if not caused the problem.

I stopped going to a lfs because they keep their water at 1.20 and had the worst luck with acc. Now my go to store, uses instant ocean( I use reef crystals) and they are at around 1.025 or so.. its much easier to acc.

 

[ItalCanadaReefer]

What salinity was the water the shrimp came in? Usually shrimp and inverts are not kept in low salinity like fish are. If your LFS is keeping them in low salinity, find another store. You should not need to drip acclimate for 6 hours and if you do you need to keep the temp consistent. You should not need to temp acclimate them after. In this case I suspect temp swings added to the problem if not caused the problem.

I use the Poseidon Salinity Pen Plus and my salinity is at 34 PPT, 1.025 SG. I always calibrate my pen so I do not think my readings are off. The shrimp came in salinity that was at 31 PPT. It is strange that they keep it at such low salinity because they keep their shrimp in the same system as all their corals and they are all thriving.

 

[laverda]

Inverts and corals are not normally kept in low salinity. I would check your pen against another device. Do you have the correct calibration fluids. I assume you pen is measuring electrical conductivity, which takes a different calibration fluid then a hydrometer. Calibration fluids have been known to be off as well.

 

[Reef.]

Hi all, I have just thought of something... the shrimp died immediately after a water change where I mixed up and siphoned the sand bed. I do this every week to keep it clean and at that point the tank was only a month and a half old so I don’t think there were toxins released into the water. Rather, I believe that mixing the sand bed released lower PH into the water, and would have need to sudden of a change for the shrimp to handle. Any thoughts on this? I’d like to get another so I want to avoid this happening again.

Doubt it was this...adding a little water over 30 minutes would be my guess, if the shrimp came in say half a gallon of water, a few half cups of water added to the bag is not going to bring salinity from 30ppt to 35ppt in only 30 minutes.

 

[ItalCanadaReefer]

Inverts and corals are not normally kept in low salinity. I would check your pen against another device. Do you have the correct calibration fluids. I assume you pen is measuring electrical conductivity, which takes a different calibration fluid then a hydrometer. Calibration fluids have been known to be off as well.

Thanks I am using calibration fluid which calibrates at 30 PPT. My corals are all healthy, the only issue has been the two shrimps that died within the first week of introduction.

 

[unchaotic]

You didn't list Nitrate levels in your parameters and you said you didn't test pH. Do you have tests for these? High nitrate levels can knock out inverts.

Also, do you have good surface agitation to promote gas exchange?

 

[ItalCanadaReefer]

You didn't list Nitrate levels in your parameters and you said you didn't test pH. Do you have tests for these? High nitrate levels can knock out inverts.

Also, do you have good surface agitation to promote gas exchange?

I do not have a PH tester but nitrate is at 2.5 ppm.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

whats your water source and salt mix?

 

[ItalCanadaReefer]

whats your water source and salt mix?

I use RODI water from the Aquatic Life Twist-In 4-Stage unit and my salt mix is the Fauna Marin Professional Sea Salt.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I use RODI water from the Aquatic Life Twist-In 4-Stage unit and my salt mix is the Fauna Marin Professional Sea Salt.

What are your 4 stages and do you test for any chlorine or metals, add iodine?

What are some possibilities you are thinking it may be?

I'm thinking something with acclamation if it were a copper issue the snails would be toast too, but it could be something in the water the are sensitive to,
Maybe a few test are in order, or if thats your only issue....don't get cleaner shrimp....

 

[vetteguy53081]

These do not respond well to changes especially sudden changes. The acclimation needs to be at least three hours and water tested to compare to tank its going into.

 

[ItalCanadaReefer]

These do not respond well to changes especially sudden changes. The acclimation needs to be at least three hours and water tested to compare to tank its going into.

As mentioned, my second shrimp, which I added a couple of months after the first, was drip acclimated for 6 hours to match salinity. I then floated him for another 25 minutes to ensure the temp was exact. My only guess is that my salinity pen may be off or my LFS keeps them in too low salinity (which I am unsure of since although I read 30 PPT from the shipping water, that water is from their coral system, where their corals thrive).

 

[ItalCanadaReefer]

What are your 4 stages and do you test for any chlorine or metals, add iodine?

What are some possibilities you are thinking it may be?

I'm thinking something with acclamation if it were a copper issue the snails would be toast too, but it could be something in the water the are sensitive to,
Maybe a few test are in order, or if thats your only issue....don't get cleaner shrimp....

I have no idea. I am thinking it has to do something with low salinity from the LFS at this point. Will buy from another LFS next time around. My 4 stages are sediment, carbon, RO membrane, deionization membrane.