molting and the need for iodine??

[EBR]

Hey Everyone --

The cleaner shrimp the we've had for a year has suddenly died. Now, leading up to this unfortunate event, I will admit that the nitrate was a bit high for a couple of weeks (20-40-ish). Things were busy, and I was admittedly procrastinating, reasoning that although it's best to have zero nitrates, a small amount (as I've read) is not harmful to fish (my mistake being to not think of the inverts).

Not until he died, did I also put together that he molted "off schedule" recently. He usually molted what seemed llike every couple of months. His last molt was just two weeks after his previous one.

So now I'm trying to figure it out. Was it the non-zero nitrates over an extended period that did him in? or some other stressor that also caused him to molt early. If the latter, is a sudden molting enough to do him in (ie, did he just tire himself out?)?

In some of my post-mortum reading, I've seen mention of needing to treat shrimps with iodine for proper molting. I looked for test kits at my LFS to see what mine were, but no luck -- can someone clue me in on all this? Is iodine something you test for, or just blindly dose?

Thanks.
Matt

 

[quarryshark]

Thats the problem, I don't believe that they make test kits for iodine. I could be wrong, but I have never seen them.
IMO I don't add anything that I cannot test for. You salt mex should have enough iodine in it. I have never added it and my invert molt all the time.
Sorry for your loss.

 

[Phyl]

I have a salifert test kit for Iodine/Iodate. The first kit I got was so covered with dust that you could barely read the top of it. It also didn't have an expiration date. Hmm.... got it home and tried to run the test and the chems were all off. Took it back and got one of the new kits with an expiration date on it.

I don't remember my actual readings, just that the test kit left me wondering if you'd ever dose based on what readings you got. The cautions were enough to have me shrug... and do a water change

Also sorry for your loss. My Skunks (x2) are currently MIA. Not sure if they're hiding (regretfully doubt it) or if they've gone off to the fishpond in the sky.

 

[X the Outsider]

I've never used iodine in my tank for my peppermint. I was told on here if your water chemistry is good you don't need to use it. So I would think it was possibly your nitrates that did him in. Sorry.

 

[steve-s]

Could very well have been age. The life expectancy of Lysmata sp shrimp is generally 1½-2 years.

Cheers
Steve

 

[midiman]

I don't believe that they make test kits for iodine

I have a kit for iodine (bad) and iodide (good), but my tank water is WAY below the reference sample, even with 1-drop per week Lugol's solution. I've read that too much iodide can spark a diatom bloom, and I have some diatoms right now.

A saw a molt skin, sadly, from what I think is my mantis shrimp, so molts seem to be on track.

 

[EBR]

Could very well have been age. The life expectancy of Lysmata sp shrimp is generally 1½-2 years.

Well, this actually makes me feel better. when we got him about a year ago, he was already his body was about 1-1.5" long. In the year we've had him, he had grown quite nicely to over 2".

Thanks.
Matt

 

[LittlePuff]

Seachem makes an iodine/iodide test kit also, but you almost need to be a chemist to use it.


Kim

 

[midiman]

Seachem makes an iodine/iodide test kit also, but you almost need to be a chemist to use it.


Kim

LOL Yeah! That's the one I have. Everyone rates Seachem tests highly, but I don't really like them. The colors that I see in my water never really match anything, and those little sliders don't have a mark on them pointing to a specific value. I assume that means that the tests can only report within the range represented by the little window. I thought I had nitrates of above 20, but the reference sample they sent says "10", and my test color was WAY lighter than that.

SIGH

 

[quarryshark]

Seriously, if you animals are molting normally I don't see a need to add more iodine. The good salt mixes have a balance of such elements and if you have a good water change schedule, I don't see anything good coming out of adding more.
Sorry, didn't know they made a test kit, I really never looked for one and I don't believe my primary LFS carries them.
Nitrates in the water are more of a concern to me as far as invert health goes.