Color Change in GS

[southerndesert]

Hello All,

I do in fact realize that there is info regarding GS turning a milk or chalk white color and what I have reviewed all seems to indicate impending death of these shrimp. So naturally when this fellow turned color and I read the info regarding same I feared the worst.

Now it has been 2 months or so and this shrimp has shown no signs of stress, lack of appitite, or anything else indicating there is a problem. The shrimp remains this chalk white color and totally without the usual "see through" coloration as it's tank mates

So I now am confused about it's fate...slow to meet his maker or is it possible this is simply a new color for this shrimp and not an indication he is on the way out?

Picture quality lacks a bit, but I am working on getting a better camera.

Thanks for your thoughts, Bill

[Cactus Bastard]

...what I have reviewed all seems to indicate impending death...

A chalky shrimp is stressed or unhealthy. They do usually die.. Maybe this guy's a trooper?

[southerndesert]

Perhaps thats it None of the others look stressed though and there are a couple generations as well as RCS and Bamboo shrimp in this tank. Water is fine so who knows what it's problem is. Thanks for the reply

Bill

[Baby_Girl]

hi. I've had a few ghosts do that. They invariably died, though some took as long as a few days. They looked exactly as yours does, seemed to do OK for awhile, but always died in the end.

Unfortunately, I think ghost shrimp are just often low-quality. It's due to poor housing and rearing practices. They're considered cheap feeders so usually people don't put much effort into them, especially not mass producers that supply to pet stores.

I tried breeding some myself, just to get a healthy pet stock. But all the adults I acquired from local stores were so poor quality that none lived more than a couple months. Never even saw a female berried with anything more than sterile eggs. (Of course, back when I wasn't trying they were berried all the time, but that's a different story )

[southerndesert]

I guess we'll have to go with the "trooper" theory and figure on the critter expiring, it was curious to me that this shrimp has retained it's white color for 60 days or so and is still alive. I have had them breed and have young, but by no effort of my own to help as they are in a 29 gal community tank with heavy plants and any that survive the guppies must be crafty.

Perhaps the aquarium bread GS are stronger than those from the LFS

I began to get curious about shrimp only after seeing young in the tank then naturally learned the bright green "saddle" is eggs, then about how the young are born, etc. Finding this site has been more help than I could have imagined, but also has now seriously sparked my urge to get more tanks and raise more varities of shrimp.

I then moved on to RCS and I fear I am now hopelessly hooked

Bill

[badflash]

Mustafa has stated that shrimp can gain color from the environment via food or other sources and retain that coloration for life. This may be how the orange and blue shrimp get their colors while their offspring have none. The white color that leads to death is usually internal, not in the shell. This shrimp appears to have the white in the shell.

[southerndesert]

It does in fact appear to be just the shell itself and even the tail is white, hmmmmm interesting....

[AnneRiceBowl]

I saw a few ghost shrimp just like this at a big box store. I was tempted to get them, but passed them up.

[geofied]

First post here, wanted to chime in on the "milky" ghosts. I've been observing this with most of my ghost shrimp as well, and it has typically warned of the eventual demise of the shrimp.

I disagree with Badflash on the color change being internal, all of the ghost shrimp I have observed with this (few dozen now) apparent "calcification" of the exoskeleton seem to be rotting from the outside in. It would seem that they stop moulting at some point, and I have to wonder if this causes the shell to dis-color. I also surmise that if they cannot moult, they die. I've noticed that the milky shrimp seem less mobile, and they almost seem seize up as the condition worsens(I liken it to the rusty Tinman on OZ).

At first I thought they were stressed or otherwise felt threatened, thereby post-poning their moult, but I've started a GS only 10g tank and nearly all of the 8 adult shrimp I started with have gone milky. Fortunately they have already bred in that tank and hope to see what the second generation has in store. Unfortunately, though, the other ghosts that I recently bred in community tank are already exhibiting the milky shell as reach maturation. *sigh*

My Cherrys and Amanos do not exhibit anything similar, thank goodness. I have to wonder if there is some mineral deficiency at play here, or if as others have suggested, the health and quality of the poor feeder GS we typically see is to blame.

[badflash]

The ones I've seen this on had their meat go white, not the shells. What is happening with yours may be some sort of external fungus or bacteria.

[geofied]

Thhttp://www.petshrimp.com/discussions/posting.php?mode=smilies
View more Emoticonse ones I've seen this on had their meat go white, not the shells. What is happening with yours may be some sort of external fungus or bacteria.

j

No offense badflash, but that is highly improbable. Unless you are suggesting there is a Ghost Shrimp specific strain of bacteria or fungus going around. There is no sign whatsoever of this affecting any of my other inverts (or fish, but as Mustafa has mentioned there is no known shared fish/invert disease). I have purchased my ghosts from no less than 5 sources locally and each batch has exhibited this phenomena in various tanks.

There is no growth or fuzziness on the shell, it simply looks as you would expect if a shrimp could not, or did not moult. I have seen numerous descriptions of the same thing I describe mentioned in the forums here, but your account of rancid meat , if you will, is a first to me.

Fortunately I've had no problem breeding and raising these ghostys, even in a tank with a Dwarf Puffer (maybe she doesn't like extra crispy?). I'm hoping that by taking good care of them I can breed them into a healthier strain. Time will tell I suppose.

[badflash]

geofied- What makes you think that fungus or bacteria can only be caught from fish or other shrimp? Either can be airborn, or transferred in any number of other ways. It could also have been latent in the shrimp all along. Fact is we know next to nothing about this shrimp other than the picture. Fact is the shrimp looks odd an other shrimp do not show this.

What is your theory?

[geofied]

geofied- What makes you think that fungus or bacteria can only be caught from fish or other shrimp? Either can be airborn, or transferred in any number of other ways. It could also have been latent in the shrimp all along. Fact is we know next to nothing about this shrimp other than the picture. Fact is the shrimp looks odd an other shrimp do not show this.

What is your theory?

badflash, I wasn't asserting that a fungus and/or bacteria would be only transferred via animal contact, I apologize if I was confusing. I am saying that if there is a bacteria or fungus that is attacking shrimp, be it water-born, air-born, etc., then it would likely affect my other inverts as well (which it hasn't). I agree it is plausible that if this is a disease (non-fungal/non-bacterial) endemic to Ghost Shrimp, it may be latent and comes out in time. That could explain why only Ghost shrimp seem to show these symptoms. I think this will be difficult, at best, to prove, however.

I'm still in the process of laying out the pieces, and am not sure I have a working theory yet. I've been searching the forums here and on the rest of the web for additional clues. My GS only tank I setup a couple of months ago has more-or-less eliminated some of the environmental factors I was considering as potential causes (stress from other livestock, overcrowding, to name a few). At this point I am leaning toward an as-yet unknown variable that is causing the GS to stop moulting. The questions that come to mind are:

1. Do Ghost shrimp have different specific requirements than the other Dwarf shrimp that we keep in the hobby?

2. Are there folks out there that do not have this problem with their GS? And if so what factors are different from those of us that do?

BTW, badflash, the picture posted above is exactly what my stricken Ghosts look like, and what many others have described. I'll try to get a few snaps of my own, time permitting.

-Regards

[Mustafa]

I've seen this happen many times with ghost/glass shrimp. It's a sign of demise sooner or later, but the shrimp can live on for weeks or even months. They just get slower and slower until (although still feeding) until you can almost pick them up with your hands. I'm not sure if it's actually a disease or just a physical adverse reaction to bad or inappropriate water parameters. This is *not* the same as a shrimp turning "milky" in color.

[southerndesert]

Howdy Mustafa and All,

I monitor my water very closely as well as do water changes usually weekly. This naturally does not mean there is something else I am not aware of involved.

This shrimp is now as you guessed showing signs of being in trouble and is far less active even at feeding time although it is still eating.

Thank you for all the input all as it has been very educational to say the least and now perhaps one day this will get figured out as to what is causing problems for these shrimp...No others in this tank have ever shown this problem as of yet and they are well established in an old planted tank.

Regards, Bill