what's wrong with my shrimps?

i love fish

i love fish

Member
I have had 2 skunk cleaner shrimps for 6 months now in my FOWLR system which is 95g.
Water perametres are as follows: ammonia 0, nitrates 0, nitrates 10-25 ppm,
temperature 80 degrees, Kh 6, pH 8.2.
I have 1 blue legged hermit crab, emperor angel, foxface , 2 clowns, fire gobby, regal tang and a dwarf angel.
I feed home made frozen food, mysis shrimp, nori, and on occassion pellet and flake food enriched with iodine.
The shrimps molt every 2 weeks (sometimes even less) and just recently they've been losing limbs after their molts and 1 of them is getting black spots all over it's body and legs.
What r these black spots, how do I get rid of them and why r they losing limbs.
I think they r a male and female and they don't fight and always share the same rock.
Please help if u can.
Thanks
 
crabbychris

crabbychris

Member
have you been adding iodine to the tank? if so maybe the levels are way too high. i really dont know what your problem is but it has to be something in your water.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by i love fish
http:///forum/post/2879165
I feed home made frozen food, mysis shrimp, nori, and on occassion pellet and flake food enriched with iodine.
The shrimps molt every 2 weeks (sometimes even less) and just recently they've been losing limbs after their molts and 1 of them is getting black spots all over it's body and legs.
Iodine poisoning.
Iodine is toxic to Shrimp. Their version of a liver removes Iodine from their blood and stores it in their exoskeleton along with other toxins. When the exoskeleton becomes saturated they must molt to shed the toxins. If you feed shrimp Iodine or overdose it in the tank water then they must molt repeatedly to get rid of the poison. It takes away a lot of their energy if they are forced to molt more than once a month and this is why they are losing legs.
Originally Posted by i love fish
http:///forum/post/2879165
I think they r a male and female and they don't fight and always share the same rock.
They're not a male and a female, they are both male and female.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by CRABBYCHRIS
http:///forum/post/2879859
thats what i figured but i wasn't exactly sure.......
shrimp are male and female? didn't know that.
Not all Shrimp, all Lysmata species are hermaphrodites though. An example of a Shrimp with a defined gender is the Coral Banded Shrimp.
 
i love fish

i love fish

Member
Originally Posted by Bang Guy
http:///forum/post/2879666
Iodine poisoning.
Iodine is toxic to Shrimp. Their version of a liver removes Iodine from their blood and stores it in their exoskeleton along with other toxins. When the exoskeleton becomes saturated they must molt to shed the toxins. If you feed shrimp Iodine or overdose it in the tank water then they must molt repeatedly to get rid of the poison. It takes away a lot of their energy if they are forced to molt more than once a month and this is why they are losing legs.
They're not a male and a female, they are both male and female.
Sorry I haven't been able to respond sooner, anyway, my SG is 1.023 and I don't dose my tank or anything else with Iodine. all other perametres in the tank r fine expect the Nitrates sometimes reach 50ppm and the Kh is about 7 and will not go up no matter how much or how often I add buffers to the water.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by i love fish
http:///forum/post/2930737
Sorry I haven't been able to respond sooner, anyway, my SG is 1.023 and I don't dose my tank or anything else with Iodine. all other perametres in the tank r fine expect the Nitrates sometimes reach 50ppm and the Kh is about 7 and will not go up no matter how much or how often I add buffers to the water.
You should bump up the S.G. to 1.026 - 1.028. 1.023 isn't fatal to Lysmata sp. but it will cause stress that's easily avoided.
Nitrate would be a little less stress than your low salinity but it's still a small stress. Perhaps not so easilt avoided. There are thousands of posts on Nitrate reduction in the board.
For KH you need to look at the whole picture. This includes Calcium, Magnesium, and even Salinity to some degree. Buy the test kits if you don't have them, it's worth it.
I assume you are using a hydrometer to test the Specific Gravity. That's fine, but they can be inaccurate sometimes. Have it tested against a meter or a refractometer just to make sure it's not wildly inaccurate.
 
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