I have recently noticed in my aquarium dead shrimps
Just before the death they've looked like in this picture: http://www.beepworld.de/members22/strei ... ite/v4.htm http://www.mack.neostrada.pl/pasek.JPG
They die after about 24 hours. This concerns mainly pregnant females but males (and youngs) suffer the same fate as them. The only alarming symptom is a white stripe behind the head - the shell fracture.
What disease it may be?
How to treat it?
Should ill/dead exemplars be separated?
What may cause such an illness?
What is the life expectancy of fire red shripms?
I personally don't believe that's a disease. Almost all the shrimp that get stressed out by one of the factors mentioned in my "Why are my shrimp dying?" article turn like the shrimp in the pictures before they finally die. The so called "shell fracture" is not the reason for the death but just a consequence of the adverse living conditions and the accompanying stress. Nothing really fractures by itself, but something seems to be happening to the physiology of the shrimp when they get stressed out that causes these changes. Many people mistake this phenomenon as a "failed attempt" at molting. That's a fallacy in my opinion.
So...there is also your answer. Something in your tank is stressing them out. Read the above mentioned article and try to figure out what it might be. Alternatively, and this applies to imported shrimp bought from stores and importers, the shrimp might have already been irreversably stressed out before they ever reach hobbyists tanks. Shrimp very rarely recover from severe stress and adverse living conditions. It's usually a one-way ticket to the "grave" for shrimp.
i had shrimps do that when the temp is too high, and i have also had the shrimps show a strip behind there head when the NO3 or KH was too high. NO3 at around 25ppm and KH at about 7. dont leave out bad water conditions will cause this along with stress.
My personal experience - this happens when the water parameters change dramatically and too quickly. Too big water changes also cause this problem My idea is - the parameter changes provoke molting, while the shrimp itself isn' ready to molt. Does this make sense?
when shrimps have a white strip behind there head, maybe people call it the "failed molting" the shrimp itself is not ready for the condition but the shell is willing to come off. try adding some iodine to your tank, i found this helped sometimes, also try and reduce the heat in your tank. those are the 2 things i did and the white strip tends to disappear after a while
Unless I have missed some major development, there is no evidence that shrimp can absorb iodine from the water. They get their iodine from the food they eat.
it is said to help with molting, im not sure if it works or not, its only a myst thats out there. but i havent lots a shrimp to molting when i added that.
i currently have 2 shrimps like that ( with white strip on behind there head ) but the thing is after doing a 5% water change, adding a bit of iodine, and making sure the temparture is under 27dC they white strip is slowly disappearing
Bradimus wrote:Unless I have missed some major development, there is no evidence that shrimp can absorb iodine from the water. They get their iodine from the food they eat.
You did not miss any major developments, Brad. There will be an iodine article coming up in the future that should summarize my experience and research about it. Either way t's extremely hard to dispel misconceptions as you can see.
The only way the iodine that people add into their tanks will get "into" the shrimp is when the algae "suck up" the iodine and the shrimp eat the algae. However, since pretty much all fish food has more than enough iodine in it already (even enough to feed the algae in the tank) adding additional iodine is totally superfluous.
