Vampire shrimp finally showed up... but not looking so hot

[ciantarah]

So I bought a vampire shrimp about 6 weeks ago. As soon as I put her in the tank, she disappeared.

She resurfaced last night for the first time ever... but now she is brown in color and hasn't moved more than a few inches that I have seen. She's sort of hiding out in a corner of the big coliseum decoration I have. I crushed up some food very finely, suspended it in water and blew it past her with a turkey baster, but don't think she bothered feeding.

Is there anything I can do for the poor girl? I had given up hope of ever seeing her again, but am worried about her now! That brown color can't be good.

My tank is a 29-gal, over six months old and there's a pretty decent current in some parts due to the filter, so she ought to be able to feed OK. Any suggestions?

 

[Son1cbo0m]

Hmm, i'm not sure i can help, but brownn isn't really a bad sign in a shrimp, all my vampire mountain etc shrimp go brown, and are all healthy, maybe shes just eating at night when youre not around and its quieter?

 

[ciantarah]

I am glad to hear that brown is OK... I thought they were supposed to be blue. It could be... I work from 3-midnight and so I'm around during the late night as well as the day. I figured I would have seen her before now... but very happy she is alive! thanks again

 

[Son1cbo0m]

they change colour quite a bit when younger, my older shrimp was blue, but occasionally goes brown whenever he wants.

 

[ciantarah]

Well, I got home this morning to find my poor little shrimp lying on her side, totally motionless. Yes, upon further examination I found that she was completely dead. I guess she crawled out from where she was hiding just to die. I am so sad.. and I feel like I've done something wrong... but how could I help her if I couldn't even find her anywhere till now?

What I want to know is what went wrong... she didn't look nibbled on or damaged. I would have thought there would be plenty of food in my tank for her, but I definitely would have fed her with food crushed into powder and suspended with water if I ever caught a glimpse of her before now.

I would love to buy another vampire shrimp, but won't until I am sure my tank can sustain one. Any suggestions?

 

[Tigroscr]

Sorry to hear about your shrimp that's really sad! :-( I wish I had some advice for you but unfortunately I don't know very much about vampire shrimp, have you checked all your tank parameters?

 

[StuG]

Did you maybe have high nitrates? My understanding, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, is that inverts are much more sensitive to nitrates

 

[ciantarah]

Invertebrates and nitrate levels

You're right... I do have high nitrate levels in my tank. 60 PPM right now...

I wasn't too worried because my fish, my ADF and my snail are all fine. After talking to some more folks I'm pretty sure that the shrimp was far more affected by this... poor little gal. Well, now I have a project... getting those high nitrate levels to come way down and stay there before I try this again!

Thanks!