Fuzzy growth on cherry shrimps

[Leilani]

Hi:

I'm a new shrimp owner/keeper/companion. I have a ten gallon tank with several cherrys maybe 40 or so hard to keep track they move alot and have been busily breeding. I originally bought 10 from aquabid.com Sept. 2005 and they've been busy multiplying. I've given a dozen away to friends and put a dozen in another tank I have.

I did numerous searches on the forum and read the varities page and articles and still didn't find anything about this. Sorry if it's been discussed earlier...

I noticed a few of my shrimp have a sort of whitish fuzzy hair like growth on the two front sticky-outie things projecting out on their face just beyond their eyes and the fuzz seems to also come up the head a bit in between the eyes. They're busy eating, swimming, breeding, running around the tank, but the fuzz is new. Or am I just noticing?

Any thoughts?

feel freaky worried like I'm overfeeding, bad water or just being paranoid,
Leilani

[badflash]

Did you change anything recently?
How often do you do water changes?
What sort of tank mates do they have?
Do you test your water?

[GunmetalBlue]

Hi Leilani, there's some possibility that it might be some sort of fungus. You might want to watch and see if it still grows back after a molt.

I very rarely hear about fungus growing on shrimp, so not too much info on it. The only info I personally have read is that a product called CILLEX by Brustman may help. Unfortunately I have no idea how/where it's available or if anyone has successfully tried it. And of course, before using any medical measure, you'd want to be sure your shrimp really has a problem first.

Hopefully someone else has some experience or further comments ...

-GB

[Mustafa]

From what you are saying that fuzzy growth seems like fungus, although a picture would help a lot. This kind of fungus thrives when water conditions deteriorate due to heavy feeding and lack of water changes. Unfortunately, just feeding less and performing more frequent water changes does not solve the problem once the fungus is already established.

Here is my recommendation (which works every time): Do a 20% water change. Stop feeding altogether and raise salinity to about 6 ppt (1.004 specific gravity) with a sea salt mix (from the pet store). It's important that you get a hydrometer from the pet store so you don't overshoot (or undershoot) on the salinity target Do not perform any water changes for about a week and do not feed during that time period. During that week the fungus will disappear. At the end of the week you can start feeding again (but obviously *reduce* feeding from before) and start performing more frequent 20-25 percent water changes. Keep that regimen up to prevent any further outbreaks. You do not need to perform a large water change to decrease salinity. Salinity will decrease automatically due to your normal regimen of water changes.

My najas (and all snails) take the increased salinity just fine but other plants might suffer, so you might want to take out more sensitive plants before treatment if those plants are known to be sensitive to increased salinity. Hope this helps.

Edit: The salinity method obviously only works for shrimp that tolerate higher conductivity (or in simple terms although not completely correct, "harder") water like Red Cherry Shrimp. This method will almost certainly kill shrimp that need soft, acid conditions such as Tiger Shrimp, Bee shrimp etc.

[Leilani]

Hi all:

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll let you know what happens. I tried taking photos but that's a whole different problem [me - new to dig camera and sucking at getting the little guys in focus.]

Thankfully they're alive and active and I'll hopefully get 'em back to normal.

Leilani

[badflash]

I suggest you get a salinity drop test, rather than a hydrometer. Hydrometers are hard to read accurately unless they are a swinging arm type, and those are not very accurate at the low end of the scale.

[Mustafa]

Unfortunately, drop tests are hard to find in local stores. My instant ocean "swing arm" hydrometer works pretty accurately actually, even at the lower end. If you are at 1.003 or 1005 instead of 1.004 should not matter all that much. It's close enough to work for the intended purpose.

[badflash]

It pays to work up a relationship with your LFS. They order anything I want, which is something you won't get from Petco. I'm not so confident about my swing arm hydrometer, so I ordered the drop test. I'll be needing this for tight controls on brackish water for my next experiment with Bamboos and later when my prawns come of age.

After all my disasters I want a little backup on my chemistry.