Ghost shrimp died.

[[email protected]]

Hi,

One of my ghost shrimp that I got almost a month ago died saturday.

Yes it was white.

What was weird was the timing.

The other shrimp has already moulted once and is kicking all over the
place with no problems.
I don't have an Iodine source for them, I have put a bit of eggshell in
the tank to provide some calcium, but I have no idea if anyone eats
it. :)

As I said, the timing is suspect because on saturdays in the morning I
always do a 25% water change.
And at the same time I add a 1/4 teaspoon of aquarium salt for the
crabs (which are doing good so far).
I also usually put a capfull of plant gro after the water change.

But not this past saturday, instead of one I put two capfulls.

And now oen shrimp is dead and the crabs had a feast with it. :)

There is a minimal amount of copper in the plant gro fertilizer.

I am led to believe that this change in the water is probably what
killed the shrimp.
Maybe it has about to moult and was weak.
Who knows... anyway I am going to see if the lfs has more shrimps. :)

I like them, they make the tank so much more fun.

[Freud]

In article . com>,
says...
> Hi,
>
> One of my ghost shrimp that I got almost a month ago died saturday.
>
> Yes it was white.
>
> What was weird was the timing.
>
> The other shrimp has already moulted once and is kicking all over the
> place with no problems.
> I don't have an Iodine source for them, I have put a bit of eggshell in
> the tank to provide some calcium, but I have no idea if anyone eats
> it. :)
>
> As I said, the timing is suspect because on saturdays in the morning I
> always do a 25% water change.
> And at the same time I add a 1/4 teaspoon of aquarium salt for the
> crabs (which are doing good so far).
> I also usually put a capfull of plant gro after the water change.
>
> But not this past saturday, instead of one I put two capfulls.
>
> And now oen shrimp is dead and the crabs had a feast with it. :)
>
> There is a minimal amount of copper in the plant gro fertilizer.
>
> I am led to believe that this change in the water is probably what
> killed the shrimp.
> Maybe it has about to moult and was weak.
> Who knows... anyway I am going to see if the lfs has more shrimps. :)
>
> I like them, they make the tank so much more fun.
>
I'm curious about your mention of an iodine source - I had a couple of
ghost shrimp in with my rasboras for a couple of months and they seemed
fine, then they both died over a weekend (my tank is at work). I do
change the water on Fridays, and it seemed suspicious that they both
would die at the same time, but I wonder if they were weakened by a lack
of iodine, which I haven't read anything about before. I've been
hesitant to get any replacements because I don't want to kill any more
through incompetance.

[[email protected]]

I've been reading that they need Iodine to molt sucessufuly, but I also
read that they don't need it either.

So I don't really know what to believe.
In my case, I suspect the sudden water properties change with the extra
Iron and copper in the water.

Maybe I am wrong, but that's my impression at this time.

[John Cuthbertson]

Hi there,

On Mon, 09 May 2005 11:10:38 -0700, wrote:

> Hi,
>
> One of my ghost shrimp that I got almost a month ago died saturday.
>
> Yes it was white.
>
> What was weird was the timing.
>
> The other shrimp has already moulted once and is kicking all over the
> place with no problems.
> I don't have an Iodine source for them, I have put a bit of eggshell in
> the tank to provide some calcium, but I have no idea if anyone eats
> it. :)
>
> As I said, the timing is suspect because on saturdays in the morning I
> always do a 25% water change.
> And at the same time I add a 1/4 teaspoon of aquarium salt for the
> crabs (which are doing good so far).
> I also usually put a capfull of plant gro after the water change.
>
> But not this past saturday, instead of one I put two capfulls.
>
> And now oen shrimp is dead and the crabs had a feast with it. :)
>
> There is a minimal amount of copper in the plant gro fertilizer.
>
> I am led to believe that this change in the water is probably what
> killed the shrimp.
> Maybe it has about to moult and was weak.
> Who knows... anyway I am going to see if the lfs has more shrimps. :)
>
> I like them, they make the tank so much more fun.

I think you answered your question yourself. I think the dosage of Plant
Gro is 1 teaspoon (1 capful) per 10 US gallons. What size size your tank?
Is 2 teaspoons of Plant Gro an overdose? I change about 15% of my 29G
roughly 3x per week and add 1 capful of Plant Gro and 1 capful of Kent
freshwater plant Fe and K at each water change.

My guess is that the shrimp molted and you changed the water before the
new shell had a chance to harden and enough copper from the Plant Gro was
absorbed through the shrimp's soft shell.

As for adding iodine and calcium - I really don't think they need it if
your tap water is hard enough. I live in San Jose (CA) and the water is
fairly hard and I have never needed to add any chemicals for my Amano
shrimp. I've had them for almost a year and they molt about every six
weeks or so. Mine are now a monster size (almost 2 inches each). The one
thing I do is to leave the shells in the tank after the shrimp molt.

I don't think you really did anything wrong - it's just unfortunate timing

HTH

John Cuthbertson

[[email protected]]

I agree with you. The timing was bad... I have a 33gal tank.

I will only put a cap of plant gro once a week...

Im not sure it molted. could be in process of doing it, but there was
no shell anywhere... I looked. :)

The other is doing fine and it is getting big.

Yesterday went to the lfs to get a couple more and one of them was full
of eggs. I was thrilled to get it, but my excitment died last night. It
died... I guess the stress was too much for it but I was looking for
the hatching. :)

Oh well, the lfs will have more soon... I wish they would get some
other varieties to choose.