My First Death!

[fishy55599]

this morning i wake up and find 1 of my cleaner shrimp dead
this cleaner was the less active, and alway round the back of the tank. stress or something?
ill check my levels later, everything else seems ok

 

[MrLiam]

Oh no sorry for your lose.

But are you sure it isn't a moult.

 

[fishy55599]

nope, couldnt see him anywhere else, when i took it out it was heavy so i knew it wasnt a moult

 

[jaylam]

Fish tend to leave cleaner shrimp alone because of their cleaning capabilities so I would test your water asap, they can be very sensitive to fluctuations in water params. Either that or you have some form of killer crab in your tank.

I lost mine to a hairy brown crab I didn't even know was in my tank, getting him out was fun!

 

[weezawoo]

Oh dear fishy

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

Aww

 

[fishy55599]

Fish tend to leave cleaner shrimp alone because of their cleaning capabilities so I would test your water asap, they can be very sensitive to fluctuations in water params. Either that or you have some form of killer crab in your tank.

I lost mine to a hairy brown crab I didn't even know was in my tank, getting him out was fun!

ill test my water now, ive only got pom pom crab and emerald crab (if hes still alive)

 

[fishy55599]

levels are all fine.
the other fine fine happily swimming everywhere.

so i take it stress of being transported and new environment

 

[MrLiam]

Most probably stress or he had a weak immune system or something.

 

[fishy55599]

yeah that is what im thinking

 

[fishy55599]

im defo putting it to stress, as nothing else i can think...

 

[ben1987]

they dont live very long fishy, so if it was a big one it might be old age

 

[Donya]

Cleaner-family shrimp also have a fair number of diseases and parasite sorts of things that they can end up with. Not all strange cleaner deaths are just molt/water/stress/age-related. This is more an issue for wild-caught ones than aquacultured obviously. I had a cleaner that literally froze all of a sudden and keeled over dead in the middle of cleaning a fish; after some poking around, my best guess is that it had some kind of infection on its gills. Nothing to do really about most problems like that except to be cautious about buying shrimp (aim for aquacultured and avoid shrimp with any unusual dark/light areas in the coloration) and to wait a few weeks before adding another shrimp if a problem does crop up with no obvious cause. I'm not saying that was the case for this particular shrimp, but it's worth bearing in mind for mysterious crustacean deaths where environmental causes are ruled out.

 

[fishy55599]

i know there were some black spots on it, the other also has these im scared for the other now

 

[Donya]

Where were the spots on the shrimp? I have seen something referred to as "black spot disease" in cleaners, but I don't recall the details offhand (will have to dig it up when I get home) and some shrimp can also get strange mineral deposits that are dark-colored and harmless.