Problem with cleaner shrimp

hitropics09

hitropics09

New Member
I purchased a cleaner shrimp for my tank tonight, i have a 45 gal. bow front, with 2 clowns , yellow tang, threadfin, 2 hermits, and a green anemene, and live rock. about an hour after puting the shrimp in i checked the tank to find him dead lying on his back! can anyone answer why? or maybe why?
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
It could just possibly be a molt, this is very common, how did you acclimate the shrimp?
More importantly, why do you have such large fish in a small tank?
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
Look at it really good and should be able to tell if it's a molt or not. I'm always surprised when this happens so soon after being added to a new tank. Can / does this happen because of stress?
 
al&burke

al&burke

Active Member
Originally Posted by mrdc
http:///forum/post/3297607
Look at it really good and should be able to tell if it's a molt or not. I'm always surprised when this happens so soon after being added to a new tank. Can / does this happen because of stress?
THis happened to mine right after I got and then he hid pretty good in the rocks. Could be stress.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by mrdc
http:///forum/post/3297607
Look at it really good and should be able to tell if it's a molt or not. I'm always surprised when this happens so soon after being added to a new tank. Can / does this happen because of stress?
Yes, it's stress.
 
al&burke

al&burke

Active Member
It is just their normal way of growing - Exoskeleton. Did you find the live shrimp yet or did he actually KTB
 
ernestpolska

ernestpolska

Member
oh i thought he died from it but its just his molt laying around, lols
if it mold then i think not sure but there should be a crack on the back if you turn it around, then you could tell if its the real shrimp or the molt ,if you found the shrimp swimming around then its molt lols
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

Shrimp are very easy to kill. When I was moving I had two in a container, they moved just fine. While waiting to be placed back in the tank, one just turned over and died.
Yes they do molt from stress and it is how they grow. They deliberatly leave the shed skin in the open to make preditors think they are dead. They do hide until the new shell is no longer soft.
Cleaner shrimp are as a rule very out in the open kind of critters. If it does not make an appearence in a day or so it is gone. Look for those long white wiskers.
 
ernestpolska

ernestpolska

Member
are shrimp really affected by bad water quality? ive read a post from 4 years a go and a kid had a cleaner shrimp in bad water and the fish died before the shrimp died how is that?
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by ernestpolska
http:///forum/post/3297657
are shrimp really affected by bad water quality? ive read a post from 4 years a go and a kid had a cleaner shrimp in bad water and the fish died before the shrimp died how is that?

Sudden change kills faster than "bad" water. I would doubt the bad water killed the fish since the bad (nitrates, ammonia or nitrites) would affect the shrimp first.
The OP just purchased his shrimp, that first few hours is a critical time, once a cleaner shrimp is acclimated they are pretty hardy.
 
hitropics09

hitropics09

New Member
OK i am very confused, i have yet to find the actual shrimp if it's a molt but i can't find a crack on the back, i have had these two clowns, and yellow tang for a while, my anemone is nice and hardy eats everytime i feed it, but the shrimp was first to go last night once i acclimated it, i get up this morning to find the threadfin, lying on the bottom with horrible coloring, my levels are all great, my protein skimmer running strong everything, what is going wrong?
 
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