Hi
I have a 2.2 gal tank with 4 ecosphere rescues & lots of mustafa’s snails that are almost 4 years old. In the four years i’ve had the tank, I have done very little. Just top off the water and throw in some fish food like once every 6 months. Really I just did it to free them from the ecosphere.
Today I find a fly somehow snuck in and died, it was floating on the water. I scoop it out and throw some food in. Within ten min I have the palest shrimp I’ve ever seen swimming sporadically, but not sideways or twitching around. But they’re basically translucent. I added prime. I tested for ammonia barely anything. Salinity is 10 (1.008). Please help ):
Pale anxious shrimp ):
Moderator: Mustafa
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shrimpnoobie
- Tiny Shrimp
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Re: Pale anxious shrimp ):
More info: maybe the fly released ammonia when I picked it up. But I feel like the prime would have resolved that.
maybe the shrimp have had enough of being in the same water for four years? Should I do a 50% change or will that just stress them even more?
I scooped out whatever food I could manage. I feel like as of me writing this my shrimp have been behaving like this for about an hour. Still so pale just flying around the tank.
maybe the shrimp have had enough of being in the same water for four years? Should I do a 50% change or will that just stress them even more?
I scooped out whatever food I could manage. I feel like as of me writing this my shrimp have been behaving like this for about an hour. Still so pale just flying around the tank.
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shrimpnoobie
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Re: Pale anxious shrimp ):
I wanted to add I have a big snail in here that is also unusually mobile, crawling up and down the tank since this episode started.
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dherrington1
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Re: Pale anxious shrimp ):
They do go nearly translucent when stressed, usually they'll bounce back to red within a short amount of time once the stressor has passed. It wouldn't be completely out of the question for the fly to have brought something into the tank. You gotta remember they basically live on shi*, so all the nastiness on their exoskeleton might have leeched into the water, but with that volume of water I doubt anything would affect the shrimp from the fly. If your ammonia test came back in parameters, it might just have been the thrashing of the fly while it was trying to die that left the shrimp stressed. You could try kicking the light off and letting them have darkness to destress them. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it unless it keeps up more than a day or so.
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shrimpnoobie
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Re: Pale anxious shrimp ):
they are looking a little better, no frantic swimming and a little pinker. i notice a lot of my snails at the water line though. do you think if they continue pale though i should consider a water swap? or is there no point in that if the ammonia is fine..dherrington1 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 20, 2022 3:53 pm They do go nearly translucent when stressed, usually they'll bounce back to red within a short amount of time once the stressor has passed. It wouldn't be completely out of the question for the fly to have brought something into the tank. You gotta remember they basically live on shi*, so all the nastiness on their exoskeleton might have leeched into the water, but with that volume of water I doubt anything would affect the shrimp from the fly. If your ammonia test came back in parameters, it might just have been the thrashing of the fly while it was trying to die that left the shrimp stressed. You could try kicking the light off and letting them have darkness to destress them. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it unless it keeps up more than a day or so.
thanks for the perspective.
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dherrington1
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Re: Pale anxious shrimp ):
From all my research, if your numbers look good, ammonia and whatnot, then a water change really won't help. However, if for some reason there is something in there that your test strips are not detecting, a water change couldn't hurt. Just remember that you'll need to make it brackish before adding the new water into the tank. Snails at the water line shouldn't be a concern, they're just up there eating. I have snails that hang upside down from the surface tension to eat the bioload all the time. It looks very weird the first time you see it but it's pretty cool when you think about it.
Re: Pale anxious shrimp ):
My shrimp become pale and swim around anything there is any sort of disturbance in the tank. They get back to normally within hours, usually. I wouldn't worry.
Re: Pale anxious shrimp ):
That never happens. I have tanks that have had the same water for 15 years, no problem at all and tons of breeding going on. As others have said, these shrimp go pale and swim around when disturbed, so that's simply what happened and they are back to normal.shrimpnoobie wrote: ↑Sun Feb 20, 2022 9:08 am maybe the shrimp have had enough of being in the same water for four years? Should I do a 50% change or will that just stress them even more?