The mysterious ghost shrimp turning white and dying disease.

Some people say it's a parasite, others say it's due to lack of iodine
or some other mineral, whitel others say it's due to pH shock.

I purchased a group of 6 ghost shrimp (feeders) to put in a six gallon
aquarium and lost two of them within a couple weeks, the other four lasted
about two months with none of them turning white. About four months after
purchase one of them turned white and stayed that way for a couple weeks and
then died.

I dind't add iodine to the water, but I did feed the shrimp hermit crab
food wich contanes alot of iodine and other beneficial minerals for inverts.

I don't know what caused it. But the white condition could be more of a
symptom. Like a runny nose, lots of different things can cause it.

Ghost shrimp are found all over the world, from the gulf of mexico to
the florida everglades to british columbia all coming from very different
water conditions. Some people say that If they get their ghosts to breed in
a tank the offspring never show any sign of the mysterious whitespot that
the parents might eventually show.

But as for me, I use amano shrimp. They don't mystiously die on me, in
fact, they seem nearly bulletproof, having been transfered between three
tanks with very different water conditions. They scavenge just as well and
never raise their claws and try to have a stand off with a tetra over a
piece of food. They are alot cuter too (until they reach full size, then
they look kinda creepy).

--donovan