New amano turned white inside and died in a few hours time

[Hailey]

I have not heard/read good things about shrimp turning white...it seems to always be a forteller of doom. Well, I just bought 5 amano shrimp 2 days ago and added them to a 38 gallon heavily planted tank that already had other shrimp in it. The new shrimp were all very active when I added them, right up until this morning. Then I noticed one being very listless and lathargic, and not eating with the others. Within hours it had gone white inside and died. The others all seem very well still (eating voraciously, swimming, and my cherry shrimp...some of which are pregnant or are fry themselves...seem fine). There was one acting odd when I added it to the tank...swimming constantly for hours, never stopping on anything, but it calmed down. I assume that may have been the same one.

There are new plants in the tank (I just added wisteria, asian ambulia, watersprite, and hornwort 2 days ago as well), but I washed them very well first. I could tell the watersprite was grown emersed though...the rest was submersed. The ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm, and the nitrate is maintained around 10ppm with fetilizers. I fertilize with a PMDD mixture of Mono Potassium Phosphate, Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Sulfate, and Iron Chelate, and Flourish Trace. I was told that this would be safe for shrimp (that is a priority since I have had amano shrimp, cherry shrimp, and tiger shrimp in the tank).

Is there any way to tell if this is going to be an ongoing thing? Is there something I need to do to ensure their safety?

[Hailey]

I just noticed too that some of the other amanos are either cleaning themselves or scratching...I have never seen the one I already had do this. They are using their front legs to scrape their heads like a cat does when it is washing, and using back legs to scrape their backs. Is this normal and I just never noticed it or is there something wrong with these shrimp too?

[Hailey]

One more thing I remembered is that I recently switched from Jungle Start Right as my dechlorinator, to Wardley's Chlor-Out because Start Right has "slime coat enhancers" that irritate my fish's skin, and remove heavy metals (like copper and iron, which I need to fertilize my plants). Could this be the reason? If so, how can you have a plnted tank with shrimp in it?

[Mustafa]

Yes, white milky shrimp are extremely stressed out and are most likely going to die. Read through the following article and it might help you identify some reasons for your shrimp deaths and help you to prevent them:

http://www.petshrimp.com/articles/whyshrimpdead.html

[Hailey]

Thanks. The other shrimp seem fine now though...I think that one may just have been in poor condition at the store (they were wild caught accroding to the employee I spoke to). The others are active and eating well.

Does anyone know if the scratching/cleaning with the front and rear legs is normal though? Like I said, I have never seen that behavior before, but I may just never have looked close enough.

[Acsuth]

all my shrimp and crays clean themselves periodically -- they do it more when getting ready to molt.


Amanda

[Hailey]

That's good...and mine should be getting ready to molt right now (every time I add new shrimp to the tank or move shrimp from one tank to another they molt).