I've had two of them, one since Oct. Got the second in December, the second one moulted just moulted 3 days ago (second time he has moulted) so I assumed all was well. Not so, today he is out with the light on, he does do this sometimes, but this time he is not feeding, walking very slow and fell on his side once. He has moved from the usual hangout to right in front of the filter outtake and is not moving, respiration looks slow. Help, I don't want to loose him!
Water parameters are not very bad but the PH and KH both have dropped so I am doing water changes. Questions:
will salt help shrimp as it does fish? I was considering putting in 1 teaspoon per gallon but am not sure if I should.
any other additive or thing to do that will help him with getting through this?
thanks,
~D
Need help quick, distressed Atya gabonensis
Moderator: Mustafa
I saw him after his last moult and he was weak but not like this. Last time he was a darker colour after moulting and this time he was very pale.
Sooo, I did water changes, added a small amount of non-iodized salt and then went and got some Seachem Iodide, my searches indicated he might not have enough to properly build his shell - I added one drop of this per 10 gallons, then turned off the lights.
At midnight he was laying on his side not moving and stayed that way for an hour so I went to bed thinking he was gone. But this morning I turned on the lights and he was moving about in a different place so hopefully he will make it.
I have my fingers crossed, I really like his personality and the other vamp would be lonely, they love to hang out together normally.
Sooo, I did water changes, added a small amount of non-iodized salt and then went and got some Seachem Iodide, my searches indicated he might not have enough to properly build his shell - I added one drop of this per 10 gallons, then turned off the lights.
At midnight he was laying on his side not moving and stayed that way for an hour so I went to bed thinking he was gone. But this morning I turned on the lights and he was moving about in a different place so hopefully he will make it.
I have my fingers crossed, I really like his personality and the other vamp would be lonely, they love to hang out together normally.
The only thing that might have helped your shrimp are the water changes. The iodine and salt are useless. If you search this forum you will find tons of explanations why. It's basically snake oil for the shrimp keeper. It's always important to isolate cause and effect properly. If not, then you can add sugar and pepper with your water changes and think that the sugar and pepper might have helped your shrimp (although it was really the water change). In any case...I hope your shrimp will be fine in the end but you will only know that your shrimp is fine if he/she starts filtering again and bahaving normally.DatDamWuf wrote:Sooo, I did water changes, added a small amount of non-iodized salt and then went and got some Seachem Iodide, my searches indicated he might not have enough to properly build his shell - I added one drop of this per 10 gallons, then turned off the lights.
Mustafa,
I posted my response before I saw your posts/rants about iodine/iodide. I can see your point of view and didn't realize I was hammering a sore spot
. However, I tried it because it appears to do no harm and while there is no evidence it helps, there isn't really any evidence that it doesn't.
As for the salt, I've used small amounts of salt in my freshwater fish tanks since the 70's to good result with sick or stressed fish. My post asked if it would help shrimp as well. My logic for thinking it might is that the vamps go to brackish water to breed so it seemed possible that salt and indeed iodide might be beneficial. My good results with salt and fish were independent of water changes, since I wouldn't use it until I saw that the changes were'nt having the desired effect.
the sick gabonensis is still holding on. My original gabonensis, loaches, otos and cardinals are still healthy and having no issues. The GH, KH and PH had dropped slightly and this may have been enough to stress the moulting gabonensis while not bothering the rest of the inhabitants. I am continuing to do water changes slowly.
My normal parameters are:
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0
GH: 115
KH: 80
PH: 6.5 - 6.8
Half planted and using Seachem Excel and Flourish supplements. This is also a possible issue with the moult since Flourish has small amounts of iron and the Excel label says "has iron reducing properties which promote the ferrous state of iron (Fe2) which is more easily utilized by plants than ferric iron". On the other hand I've been using both supplements since I got the shrimp with no huuhuu. Any thoughts?
I had knee surgery in Jan and since then have not been able to keep the tank as optimum as I'd like. Pinkie is suffering for it I think.
~D
I posted my response before I saw your posts/rants about iodine/iodide. I can see your point of view and didn't realize I was hammering a sore spot
. However, I tried it because it appears to do no harm and while there is no evidence it helps, there isn't really any evidence that it doesn't. As for the salt, I've used small amounts of salt in my freshwater fish tanks since the 70's to good result with sick or stressed fish. My post asked if it would help shrimp as well. My logic for thinking it might is that the vamps go to brackish water to breed so it seemed possible that salt and indeed iodide might be beneficial. My good results with salt and fish were independent of water changes, since I wouldn't use it until I saw that the changes were'nt having the desired effect.
the sick gabonensis is still holding on. My original gabonensis, loaches, otos and cardinals are still healthy and having no issues. The GH, KH and PH had dropped slightly and this may have been enough to stress the moulting gabonensis while not bothering the rest of the inhabitants. I am continuing to do water changes slowly.
My normal parameters are:
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0
GH: 115
KH: 80
PH: 6.5 - 6.8
Half planted and using Seachem Excel and Flourish supplements. This is also a possible issue with the moult since Flourish has small amounts of iron and the Excel label says "has iron reducing properties which promote the ferrous state of iron (Fe2) which is more easily utilized by plants than ferric iron". On the other hand I've been using both supplements since I got the shrimp with no huuhuu. Any thoughts?
I had knee surgery in Jan and since then have not been able to keep the tank as optimum as I'd like. Pinkie is suffering for it I think.
~D