Disappearing shrimp

[SaraB]

So I have an 8.8 gal aquarium with some yellow and "blue" shrimp. Blue being in quotes because that's what they were sold to me as but only one of them was blue and the other 2 were chocolate (I think).
I've noticed that they've started to disappear to the point where I went from 8 shrimp to 3.
I did a massive search today and couldn't find the other shrimp.
Some answers before you ask
1. Yes I looked in the filter
2. Yes I do a daily walk around the tank to make sure they didn't somehow climb out.
3. I removed a large feature rock from my tank thinking they were somehow underneath but they weren't
4. Yes i checked all my plants.
5. No i don't have any fish in the tank or a cat outside of it.
6. Yes I know they hide when they molt but the've been gone for longer than a molt lasts
7. Water quality is fine and if they died I should be able to find the bodies right?

At this point I don't know what to do and will probably just sell the remaining 3 shrimp before anything happens to them.

 

[Autumnsky]

They tend to eat the dead. You might see shell parts laying around.

What are the water parameters -
ammonia
Nitrite and
NitrAte

pH
GH - general hardness
KH - Carbonate hardness or alkalinity
TDS - Total dissolved solids

How old is your tank
and did you do a fishless cycle,
if so how long did it take,
did you use any additive products?
do you know the parameters at the time when you added the shrimp?

 

[SaraB]

Yes it's cycled. The tank itself has been running for 3 years as my betta tank.
I'm going to get the water tested for the gh/kh today and i'll let you know. That would be my concern since I use R/O water and have to remineralize it myself.

 

[Autumnsky]

It is important for the GH/KH to be at the proper level for shrimp, and good to know periodically that it is accurate. Being that you do the remineralization yourself it might be fine.

Do you use RO exclusively for refilling evap? If not, you might gain minerals since the water evaporates but the minerals in the tank do not. It then could be too high TDS, or GH/KH.

 

[SaraB]

I exclusively use RO water for fill ups. I ran out of test strips for that and so did the store ><. Fortunately one of the workers there said he has some at home and will test the water there, I have to wait for a call.

 

[SaraB]

Gh 120 ppm
KH 80 ppm (is that too hard?)
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0

 

[Autumnsky]

My liquid test kit shows this chart info and 80ppm seems at the top end but not too crazy
https://www.apifishcare.com/pdf/GH_and_KH_Test_Kit_and_KH_Test_Kit_58-59_Insert-1.pdf

2-4 drops in this case equates to around 35-71ppm
https://www.google.com/search?q=kh+...KHfI9DrsQ9QEwA3oECAAQCg#imgrc=XYiJy7QvH_d-mM:

Most times the deaths can be attributed to something specific. Did you get them from shipping order or buy at the store? If at the store, how long did they have the shrimp in from their shipping order before you bought them?

Shipping can be hard on them also depending on how many were in the bag and if they suffered poor water quality in that process.

How long have they been in your tank since you noticed them being missing?

They tend to molt after shipping within around a week. Then can hide from a half day to a few - say 4 days or so.

 

[Autumnsky]

Oh meant to conclude that above thought with sometimes there is a problem in molting and since they can not finish molting they can die.

Did you notice any white strings (horse hair worm in shrimp) in them, or green appendages ("Green Fungus" Ellobiopsidae)not normally a shrimp body part.
https://www.google.com/search?q=hor...UIDigB&biw=1280&bih=606#imgrc=3wJHdMPWKLlyGM:

https://www.discobee.com/blogs/news...eocaridina-shrimp-parasite-and-how-to-cure-it

 

[SaraB]

I got them from the LFS. Not sure how long he had them but I bought 6 yellows. They were in fish bowls and the water there looked brown but I just figured that that was from the indian almond leaf in there.
The only weird thing I noticed was what I already described in another post which was one of my egg carrying shrimps looked like the eggs had gone bad. However when I took her body out (she died a little later) she just had regular unhatched eggs and no mold.
She was the only one that looked like that.

 

[Autumnsky]

Not sure about the eggs gone bad looking part. Did it look like the Ellobiopsidae? Green or not all the way green?

 

[Autumnsky]

There also are times when we can't figure out what happened.

Generally water issues are the biggest death causer.

It seems some sort of disease, could have been the cause.

What is your temp?

 

[SaraB]

not all the way green

This is going to sound stupid but are blue lights bad for shrimp? I usually start the day off with the blue lights for like 30 mins before turning the lights on. The same goes for when I turn the lights off. It's just a habit I got myself into when the tank had a betta in it.

 

[Autumnsky]

Not that I have heard. Many people use them the way you describe. The only thing I've found is they seem to promote algae if left on all night too many times.

Eggs can also be green. What do you think, diseased or greenish eggs? Do any others seem to have odd growths? Or starting to get them?

 

[SaraB]

The eggs were yellow. honestly when I first saw them I thought she was holding her guts but then I saw eggs so I thought "oh hey maybe the eggs didn't make it and they started to mold."
But then I saw her a few days later and no mold. Eggs looked fine too.

 

[Autumnsky]

That was at the store or in your tank? That does seem like a water quality issue which maybe being corrected allowed her to be a little better..... She died too?
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

How are the remaining shrimp behaving? And looking?

 

[SaraB]

At home. However she may have been carrying a piece of dead shrimp (I didn't know they would eat the dead like that)
Yes she died too. All the adults did. The young ones are the 3 that survived.

 

[Autumnsky]

They are scavengers so they like to eat the dead stuff.

Well it is difficult to know something is wrong but not exactly what it is. I have had some bad experiences too.

Try to do the best possible for the survivors. Did you happen to get the pH and temp?

If they were mine, I would go through a series of pwc, say 20% each over each day or so miss a morning, do one in the evening, and do that for say a week or so. This freshens up the water, helps remove/dilute any possible bad stuff we just might not know about.

Keep up on 2x per week pwc and see how they are doing. They should be busily cleaning and picking at all the surfaces and fluttering around sometimes. lower temp to maybe 76F if you have an adjustable thermometer. Bacteria multiply more quickly the warmer it is.

 

[SaraB]

The PH is 7 and temp is around 72. I had to add a heater as it's been getting too cold at night and it keeps the temp stable.

 

[Autumnsky]

Temp and pH seem right on.

 

[SaraB]

How do I add a photo without it being a link? My one chocolate shrimp now has a large orange spot on its head area.