Rock shrimp missing and sailfin pleco dead after vacation?!!

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VWVR6Love

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 31, 2005
Messages
33
Location
Mobile, Al.
i just got back from Vacation today. i was gone for 6 days.
when i got back, i found my sailfin pleco dead on the bottm and my rock shrimp is no where to be found.


WHAT IS THE DEAL!!!! :?:

i did a water change immediately to make sure the water's levels are correct, and the nitrates were kinda high, but after the water change, they went right back down...

but about the shrimp..... it was a smaller rock shrimp(about 2 inches long)
i have no traces of him ever being there.
my lil ghost shrimp seem to be fine though... anyone know what may have happened to my rock shrimp?? should i get rid of my ghost shrimp before getting another rock shrimp? i will be getting another Pleco shortly, i just dont understand why it died yet.(gotta figure that out first)

thanks for any help guys, L.J. :)
 
The rock shrimp obviously got fed up with your Pleco's constant nagging, so he murdered it and then left town. Are any of your credit cards missing? VCR?

Or maybe, the ghost shrimp went insane and ate the rock shrimp then killed the Pleco cause it saw it killing the rock shrimp and it was afraid that the pleco would squeal, which it probably would have.
 
LOL!!! i like that one!!!

I found out i simply Acclimated it incorrectly so the Sailfin Pleco got shocked by the sudden water differential.

I feel so badly about it, i hate to see a fish die, especially by my hand.

but as for the Rock Shrimp, still no show. i guess hes ghost shrimp bait eh??!!

has anyone ever had a problem with ghost shrimp and rock shrimp not getting along??

My Rock Shrimp was doing great before i put the 12 Ghost Shrimp in there. he even molted approximately three weeks ago. I put the Ghost shrimp in just about 8 days ago.
 
If your pleco died and caused an ammonia spike or high nitrates it probably claimed the shrimps life. Shrimp are very sensitive to ammonia and high nitrates. Ghost shrimp though are quite tough as far as shrimp go and much more likely to survive poor water quality. I guess it could also have starved with more competition for food. My ghost shrimp have never gone after other shrimp even those much smaller than themselves.
 
that would explain the dead shrimp, but why cant i find him??? did his molting stage not complete before he died? so that would make him a softshelled shrimp delight for the others??
 
Shrimp bodies aren't made of much and I would think even the ghost shrimp should be able to eat it down to nothing. Any fish would also make short work of a dead shrimp.
 
Well, I bought another Sailfin today, and I Acclimated it correctly this time. filled the bag with about 1/2 to 1 cup of water three times in an hours time.then pulled him out of the bag and put him in the tank. hopefully this time i have better luck with it.
i held off on buying another rock shrimp until i find out whats going on with my tank.

i think it is alright, but i guess i could be wrong. my water tests are:

PH---6.4 to 6.6
Ammonia--0ppm
Nitrites-----0ppm
Nitrates----10ppm(supposedly 2-3ppm according to the LFS)

they say the nitrates tester tests TOTAL Nitrates and i have to divide it by 4 to get the proper readout. anyone else heard of this???
 
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