Sick Cleaner Skunk Shrimp

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JJMS86

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
40
Location
South Florida
My cleaner shrimp has been acting weird the past 2 days. He normallt molts every 4 weeks...but I never have seen him do it. He hasnt eaten in 2 days either. He normally jumps near my hand when Im feeding the goby...but nothing the past couple of day. Then tonite when I get home he it upside down under the cave in the LR, but he is barely moving. When he saw me he came out...but the back/bottom part of his tail was hanging off him and his eyes were glazed over. Since then he just went back under LR...still barely moving. Is this a bad molt or mayber something else gone wrong. He has been in my tank since the second week, doing great (up until Wednesday)

I followed the concensus here in chat room to start doing more PWC. (did it on Sunday) But followed my same routine...all arameters are normal (as posted) I used to do PWC every other week...nowgoing to do every week (but wondering now)
Thoughts would be appreciated...I think I'm losing him quick...:-(
 
How long have you had it, and was it large when you first bought it? I think the normal life expectancy in our tanks for these guys is only about 3 years.
 
Well, this morning when I got up, my cleaner shrimp was dead on bottom of tank :(
I bought him back in June and he was about 2" -2 1/2" long, so fully grown from what I was told. He was such fun to watch, which is why we named him ''Stevie Wonder'' He was always jumping about, quick like lightning! He had gotten used me hand feeding the goby, so he would jump near my hand and wait for his treat too!

I wonder if a few weeks ago, when goby spit out the Rx food, and shrimp ate it, could that have bothered/hurt him?
I also want to ask if the PWC could be a smaller amount, but 2 or 3 times per week, but only about a gallon each. It is just too stressful for my fish to drain about half the tank every week. Would that way be ok?
Thanks for your help!!
Joyce
 
Since your cleaner was fully grown, it's possible that it was just his time. As long as nothing else is showing signs of stress, that's probably what it was. For the water changes, how much water are you changing out weekly? You can do just 10-20% weekly and that should be fine. You shouldn't need to drain half (50%) of the tank each week.

Remember, even though your tank is 8 gallons, there isn't 8 gallons worth of water in there. With the sand and rock, your looking at about 5-6 actual gallons probably, so a 1 gallon change a week would be fine.
 
JJMS86 said:
Well, this morning when I got up, my cleaner shrimp was dead on bottom of tank :(
I bought him back in June and he was about 2" -2 1/2" long, so fully grown from what I was told. He was such fun to watch, which is why we named him ''Stevie Wonder'' He was always jumping about, quick like lightning! He had gotten used me hand feeding the goby, so he would jump near my hand and wait for his treat too!

I wonder if a few weeks ago, when goby spit out the Rx food, and shrimp ate it, could that have bothered/hurt him?
I also want to ask if the PWC could be a smaller amount, but 2 or 3 times per week, but only about a gallon each. It is just too stressful for my fish to drain about half the tank every week. Would that way be ok?
Thanks for your help!!
Joyce

Hi Joyce

Did you ever find out what happened to Stevie? I added a 2" cleaner to my tank and he died after 2 days, though he seemed very happy at first. I don't know what went wrong.
 
Steps taken...

Hi...sorry to say I never really knew what killed him, other than.what was suggested, old age. I replaced him with a much younger smaller one several months ago. The new guy is cute but still not the same as my old '' stevie wonder shrimp'', he has grown super fast tho! All.the other fish n critters in my tank have been great. I do a 1 gal PWC twice a week, then every month also do a full cleaning (removing all the empty shells and boiling/bleaching and sand sifting etc...) and everyone is super happy and more importantly, healthy. It has been 8 months, and parameters stay in great shape. Hope you find the cause of your little guys demise, I have read they are super fussy about salinity changes, or maybe he was sick when you got him. Did you drip acclimate him before putting him in your tank?
 
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