Can Shrimp Get ICK?

ucanbyteme · Post by **ucanbyteme** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:43 am

I am setting up a clean shrimp tank for the tiny Red Volcano Shrimp. These are kind of brackis living in both salt and freash. I read that some people feed them Spiralina, Shrimpgro while other put in a algae covered rock from another tank.

I want to keep these shrimp as healthy as possable. So if I introduce a rock from anther reef tank could I be giving them ICK without knowing it?

Since shrimp are filter feeders, not sure if they get ICK or not.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:54 pm

No they don't get ich. Salt would kill the ich anyway.

Those shrimp are not filter feeders.

crazie.eddie · Post by **crazie.eddie** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:07 pm

badflash wrote:Salt would kill the ich anyway.

There are saltwater ich also.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:14 pm

The salt in the water would kill the Ich. Salt is sometimes use to treat a tank that has Ich.

crazie.eddie · Post by **crazie.eddie** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 12:45 am

FYI, there are ich that thrive in freshwater, brackishwater, and salt water. Even if the ich does not affect the shrimp, putting salt in a tank already containing salt (brackish water) for a brackish water ich, doesn't really do much.

Also, Aquarium salt has less salinity that the salt used to make a brackish water tank, which sea salt is used.

Do a google search on "ich"+"brackish water". You can see puffers, archer fish, etc. all can get ich, and THEY ARE brackish water species.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 1:03 am

Good to know, thanks for the information

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 4:03 am

In general, most parasitic organisms have specific hosts and cannot live on/in other organisms.

Just as you won't get ich from your fish, your shrimp won't either.

merlin03 · Post by **merlin03** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:08 am

In setting up the tank for the red volcano shrimp keep in mind that you need a fully cicled tank ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate less than 10ppm, PH 8.2-8.4. Specific gravity should be around 1.012 but try to make the salinity of your tank to match the salinity they are beeing kept. this to minimize deaths they can tolerate a wide range of salinities but are very sensitive to sudden changes. As for the algae dont worry much about that you will grow your own. just keep in mind to feed them a little bit more while your tank is still bare. Dont overfeed!. Good luck! Enjoy these shrimp are fantastic.

ucanbyteme · Post by **ucanbyteme** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 11:30 pm

Thanks guys, I plan to keep everything as close as possable to what they would actually live in. Unfortuantly for me, that basicly means no plants. They dont really live in brackish water, its more of a 50/50 mix wich is much to high for most freash water plants, and too low for corals or Macro algae.

Oh well so in place of that I made them a nice lava rock wall that they can play on. They live in Anchialine Ponds wich is a bit different. See link

http://www.fukubonsai.com/M-L2b1a.html

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~natpoor/ ... aline.html

As for ICK, OMG who told you its only in freash water. Its got to be one of the number one problems in marine tanks. Trust me, one of my tanks had an out break and it was a total nightmear to treat. Some fish (cowfish, seahorses, etc) cant handle certin types of copper based meds. I did some reasearch and lucky I found other meds and didnt lose any pets.

ucanbyteme · Post by **ucanbyteme** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 11:49 pm

Talking to myself here and found out some info I wanted to pass on.

ICH needs a vertebrate host like most fish but as you guys know, shrimps are Inverts so they do not ususaly get that particular sickness. I guess thats why cleaner shrimp never get sick. I suppose they could get other things though.

Baby_Girl · Post by **Baby_Girl** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:29 am

yes, as said already, inverts do not get ich. Their shells, however, CAN be a place for the ich parasites to settle (in their non-mobile, non-fishy stage that I've forgotten the name of). So it's possible for fish to get ich from shrimp that happen to have the parasite encysted on their shells. If you make sure the shrimp do not come in contact with any fish for a few weeks, though, the ich parasite will die without a fish host for that stage of its development.