cherry shrimp and diseases

[scarletrain]

Hi everyone! I'm completely new to shrimp--I don't have any yet but I would like to get some for my planted 10 gallon. I currently have four platies in there, but I don't think they're much longer for this world. Unfortunately, I didn't quarantine a new fish and he brought in some awful bacterial disease (columnaris, I think.) Anyway, I'm still struggling to treat the disease, but if I do lose all my fish, I'm afraid I don't have the heart to tear down my tank and sanitize it. If I can't get anything to live in it, I may just maintain it as a plant-only tank.

Would cherry shrimp be prone to getting whatever my fish have? I don't think they would be, but as they're expensive, I want to make sure. They are beautiful, I like the fact that they eat lots of algae, and they'd be a nice break from the fish (I'd keep a shrimp only tank).

Thanks for any info!

[whipachaw]

As far as i know, fish and inverts do not have any parasites that attack both. So i would say no, unless your fishes illness was caused by water quality problems, then in that case the shrimp may die as well but for different reasons.

[Lotus]

If you have been medicating the tank for the fish, you will need to be very careful that all the medication has been removed from the tank, as that's more likely to kill the shrimp than the fish disease.

[Mustafa]

If I can't get anything to live in it, I may just maintain it as a plant-only tank.

This statement concerns me. It implies that you have not manged to keep anything alive in your tank for a while, not just this time. If you have not managed to get anything to live in it, I highly doubt you will succeed with shrimp. Shrimp are much more sensitive than fish. I would not recommend buying any shrimp at all until you have managed to *at least* keep some fish alive.

While you're here, read the articles I wrote and perform some targeted searches in the forum. Then you'll see how sensitive shrimp really are and what special requirements they have.

[scarletrain]

No Mustafa--it's not that I haven't been able to keep anything alive in my tank. You misunderstand me. My tank has been running beautifully with no problems for over a year--perfect water conditions, stable pH, no ammonia and no nitrite, low nitrate. I do weekly 25% water changes. The problem began when I brought in a new fish that I didn't quarantine. He got everyone very sick with some sort of bacterial illness, which I am having a hell of a time with. The platies I have kept for well over a year, and they are prolific breeders, which I'm getting tired of, but up until now they've been extremely hardy and healthy.

My concern is, that if the current bacterial illness wipes out the tank, then I WILL HAVE to tear it down and sterilize it if I want to bring in new fish. But if shrimp aren't prone to getting the same diseases, well...then maybe I don't have to tear it down.

My water quality is fine for shrimp, I think. But, the only other concern I have is pH shifts, because I recently started to do diy co2 for my plants. I know shrimp are very sensitive to pH changes so that's another factor I would have to consider carefully.

[Mustafa]

Oh, I see. Fish diseases should not affect decapod invertebrates, but there just isn't enough research on this to verify this 100% (or close to it).

Yes, the CO2 injection can cause sudden PH fluctuations which are almost certain death for shrimp in the long run. Some shrimp can take very low PH levels, but the PH has to remain stable.

Also, if any of your medications contained copper or other heavy metals you cannot put shrimp in that tank. The copper will most likely still be in the tank.

Hope this helps further.