My cleaner shrimp suddenly died!

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ajreefer721

Member
Last night i did a water change on my tank. I later noticed my cleaner shrimp out on the sand and not moving. I thought he may have been munching on something but after 15 minutes or so he didn't move at all. Sure enough he had passed :(
All of my other livestock is moving on about their business, healthy and happy. I checked all my params and it all seems to be in check. I test for alk at 8, calcium 420, ammonia 0 , nitrite 0, nitrates less than 5 and phosphates 0.
just wondering if anyone has had any similar experiences with cleaner shrimp, or may have any other suggestions as to why he must have suddenly passed.
 
Neebles

Neebles

New member
Hmmm how are your other inverts? Could a contaminate gotten into the water? My cleaner will molt after a water change now and then but has always come out fine. Did the salinity match the existing water? Temp? Are you sure it's not a molt?
 
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ajreefer721

Member
Neebles said:
Hmmm how are your other inverts? Could a contaminate gotten into the water? My cleaner will molt after a water change now and then but has always come out fine. Did the salinity match the existing water? Temp? Are you sure it's not a molt?
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My other inverts include various snails and hermits, and they are doing fine. the salinity did match and is at 1.025. The only thing that i did notice is that the temp was a bit off and went down by 1. i keep the tank at 79. it goes up to about 80.1 during the day.
i've seen my shrimp molt quite a few times, but this is not a molt unfortunately.
 
Neebles

Neebles

New member
Yeah that sort of temp difference wouldn't do anything. That sucks man...just keep a look out for anything else to go south. Maybe your shrimp was older than you thought and it was just his time to go. The water change could have been a strange coincidence.
 
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ajreefer721

Member
Neebles said:
Yeah that sort of temp difference wouldn't do anything. That sucks man...just keep a look out for anything else to go south. Maybe your shrimp was older than you thought and it was just his time to go. The water change could have been a strange coincidence.
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Thanks. I'm really hoping that's what it was. He was pretty big and I had him for about a year and a half.
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
ajreefer721 said:
Thanks. I'm really hoping that's what it was. He was pretty big and I had him for about a year and a half.
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That's likely it. I never got more than about 1.5 years out of an adult. I always kept pairs which would spawn monthly. They'd usually pass after spawning one last time during the next day molt.
 
K

kdog23

Member
I have had one for over two years----the other not as long. But I tried to add a third 2x-----no dice they always eliminate the new guy. But I believe if you don't have iodine in the water the shrimp can't molt and die. There might be enough trace iodine in the salt water changes.
The real wierd thing about my two cleaners---they seem to want to eat my firefish-----they go after them for a meal---not a cleaning---not sure if anyone else has seen this before.
 
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chiblackhawks4

Member
I had a Fire shrimp suddenly die that I had for over a year and a half. Fine one day and then dead on the sand the next. Anyone have an idea of their life expectancy?
 
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eric85

Premium member
I had a cleaner shrimp for about a year, would disappear for about a day when he molted. One day he just disappeared during a molt.....
Maybe my bubble tip was finally fed up with him stealing his meals!
 
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