Opae ula disease?

[QsusieQ]

Hello.
Am a newbie, both here & with opae ula (but not new to aquatic life or shrimp keeping).
I have two small tanks, each one is a gallon.
One is (almost) a complete crash and the other is stable.

Tank one:
The almost crashed tank is nearing it’s end because there are only two survivors left
Sand substrate
Crushed limestone/coral gravel in the back
Black lava rock
Plastic coral decor
Tiny algae mossball from mustafa

I read only a few starting comments, but no followup in detail, just hypothesis.
So is it a disease? A few had “algae” (yellowish fluff) growing on their swimmerets. For some, the “algae” would be on their swimmerets AND antennae too.. When they’d swim, it would be frantic upward vertical jerks and then they’d fall backwards and start all over again. By the time the algae became visible to my eye, they’d constantly be sitting on the sand, not even trying to swim, visible algae on their swimmerets, and would constantly be fanning themselves, almost as if they were suffocating.
Pictures are of the last one taken out (sorry for the quality)

Any comments on cause, prevention, or anything at all would be appreciated.

Also, if the last two surviving opae don’t make it (one has some fluff on its swimmerets and the other is very still on the sand, so it looks grim )... should i just deep clean the tank or should i start from scratch for the next go around?

[Mustafa]

I've never seen this on any of my shrimp....ever. Supershrimp usually do not develop diseases, at least not the ones that have been captive-bred for many generations. However, if your shrimp are from the wild (which almost certainly they are from the looks of it) then all kinds of pathogens/parasites may have found their way into your tank with them. This looks like some kind of parasite infection.

[QsusieQ]

Thank you for replying Mustafa. This is very sad. The seller said he’s been breeding for 8 years... i know i can’t take everything for face value, but by the reviews he had, he seemed genuine *sigh*
Read a few more articles, but nothing conclusive in the way of a solution or remedy..

If it is a parasite infection, could this logic be followed: no hosts, than no parasites?
After the inhabitants are cleared, i know the wise thing would be to purge and start from scratch. But before a complete tear down is done (bc the cycling took a while)...
1) Could a 100% water change be done and wait for a period and reintroduce a few at a time?

Or

2) If a tear down is safest- decor can be scrubbed, but what about the sand? It’s very fine. Would that be best to just buy new?

Open to any and all suggestions - Really appreciate the help

[shrimpnoobie]

Hello, I’m sorry for your loss ),: I think you are right- if it is a parasite then no host means no parasite. That being said, I really just wouldn’t risk it. Scrap everything you can’t boil to disinfect and start anew. The sand is questionable. Technically you can boil it but why not just be safe and buy new. Good luck.

[QsusieQ]

Thank you for your kind words and advice shrimpnoobie

Will be tearing it down this evening.
1) Pouring boiling water on lava rock (not boiling the rock itself, hoping no “rock explosions” happen )
2) hot water and vinegar for glass tank
3) boiling the sand and crushed limestone gravel (because LFS is closed- drunk driver went through their store front and is closed for reconstruction- sad times but no one was hurt)
4) boiling plastic coral decor
5) question: the only “live thing” i have left is the tiny algae ball from mustafa... i read about quaratining it.. but is there something i can do to actively save it for the next setup safely? Squeeze and change water a few times? Or is there a dip or something to prevent any transfer of disease? I’d hate to toss this little cute fluff of green out

[SuperProofer]

Susie,

Do you happen to remember how you first noticed something was wrong? I'm noticing some white fuzz-like stuff on some of my shrimps feet. Almost like they are wearing little socks. It's only on their front feet, the ones they use to grab stuff with. I recently had a bit of fouled water (at least I'm assuming it was fouled water) which resulted in a 50% water change, but I noticed this after the change. Other than this new development, however, I don't see any other problems.

I did get my shrimp from Mustafa, so that rules out the possibility of a wild-born disease.

Thanks!

[QsusieQ]

That’s interesting because I distinctly remember commenting “aww it looks like they have tiny boxing gloves!” when they were picking at the rock... and it was after a major water change (i had a mini ammonia spike even though it had all the signs it was cycled before i got them)... just now i checked the other tank (tank two) that was setup at the same time, those opae ula do not have distinct “white boxing gloves” that i noticed on the others in the crashed tank (tank one).

Since this is my first time having opae ula, i can’t say for 100% certain that was the first thing i noticed when things began to go awry. Their anatomy feels much smaller than the freshwater neocaridina species i had before, and i wasn’t familiar enough with opae ula to know it was a strange feature. I hope this is pure coincidence and you’re opae are fine!!

There are a lot of other possible factors in my situation. If you’d like, i can spell out the entire situation that amounted to a total loss in tank one. Because i complicated things, i’m unsure which did them in, but honestly, it could’ve been all of the above.

[SuperProofer]

Yeah, for the life of me, I can't figure out what might have gone awry in my tanks. Used Mustafa's method for set up, used aquarium approved decor, haven't changed anything in the tank since putting the shrimp in. I assumed the water got mucked up due to some construction work we had going on at the house and that's why they started dying. I can't recall if I noticed the "gloves" before I changed the water.

I, too, hope it's just a coincidence. I would feel awful if I did all this to give Trooper (my 9-yr-old ecosphere survivor) a better life just to have him taken out by something I did wrong and not know what it was.

[Mustafa]

Susie,

Do you happen to remember how you first noticed something was wrong? I'm noticing some white fuzz-like stuff on some of my shrimps feet. Almost like they are wearing little socks. It's only on their front feet, the ones they use to grab stuff with.

Thanks!

As I've said in your own thread, that's part of their normal anatomy to enable them to pick up microscopic food items. They basically "sweep" them up with the "fuzz". Just repeating here for completeness' sake.

[Mustafa]

Thank you for replying Mustafa. This is very sad. The seller said he’s been breeding for 8 years... i know i can’t take everything for face value, but by the reviews he had, he seemed genuine *sigh*

Unfortunately, *everyone* who tries to sell wild shrimp (caught and exported from Hawaii mostly illegally) claims that they are "breeding" their shrimp, partially because they know that taking these shrimp from the wild isn't sustainable in the long run, and partially because they may know that what they or their suppliers are doing is illegal. In any case....every time you see ridiculously cheap prices for these shrimp you can be more than sure that the shrimp are from the wild as this species doesn't exactly breed like rabbits (i.e. slowly).

As for the parasite....theoretically if you leave the tank alone without shrimp for a few weeks or month or two, everything should be ok. I don't think scrubbing or boiling anything is needed.

[Euphotica]

I wonder if it might have been Ellobiopsis or Vorticella or one of the other parasites that is known to infect freshwater shrimp. Perhaps it would eventually strike opae ula kept consistently in brackish water instead of getting hit with occasional high salinities as happens in the wild.

On that chance that it might be one of those things that goes into persistent spore-like forms I'd go to all extremes to clean the tank. A good long sit in pure vinegar for everything, boiling or baking whatever can be boiled or baked, and a dry tanning session under UV light for good measure.

https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2015/05 ... er-shrimp/

[QsusieQ]

It did not have the distinct white spikes of Vorticella, but I was nervous about the possibility of Ellobiopsis- the fringing on the swimmerets was similar, but it coated bits of their antennae in the end & it was different in color... more light orange than the green that characterizes Ellobiopsidae

Either way, to be on the safe side, a total “redo” was done JUST in case... poured boiling water on decor, rocks, and gravel.. hot water scrub for tank itself... threw out the infected tank sand and added a thin fresh layer... the only thing i couldn’t “sterilize” was the algae mossball.. i just squeezed and resqueezed in freshly made brackish water... Since it’ll be another month to cycle, hoping it’ll be safe by then. It’s been returned to the clean tank and seems to be doing great- it floats and bounces up and down regularly and has thrown out quite a few buds- 5 teeny ones and one more compact one!

There are also two wisps of green that looks different- i’m guessing it’s either a string of chaeto that stuck on when mustafa sent it... or maybe it’s hair algae...
how can i tell?

The mossball hogs the picture in the background, but i managed to focus on a wispy bit that came off- so hair algae OR stray chaeto? What do you think?

[Mustafa]

I wonder if it might have been Ellobiopsis or Vorticella or one of the other parasites that is known to infect freshwater shrimp. Perhaps it would eventually strike opae ula kept consistently in brackish water instead of getting hit with occasional high salinities as happens in the wild.

Even though it might be something like Ellobiopsis it's highly unlikely that it's because the SS (Supershrimp) were kept "consistently in brackish water". Having seen my fair share of imported wild shrimp (literally thousands over the years), they do come with their fair amount of diseases and parasites. Shrimp bred in captivity over many generations have *no* diseases or parasites. That applies to freshwater shrimp too. People introduce diseases and parasites when they add imported shrimp to their tanks.

So, it's pretty obvious to me...or at the very least most likely that the above mentioned SS were from the wild or at least had contact with shrimp from the wild recently (some "breeders" like to keep buying wild shrimp so they can sell them as "captive-bred" along with the last batches of wild shrimp they bought prior that may not have had the parasites, diseases).