Forty Dollar Fish Food
25 April 2007Yes, that’s right. I don’t know what the equivalent would be in our terms, but the crabs and fish had Cleaner Shrimp feast.
The cleaner shrimp died about a week ago now. It started to moult while sitting right on top of the rocks. I thought it a little strange that it was there, unprotected. It had sort of stopped mid-moult with it’s head and abdomen pulled out halfway. I was a little concerned, but figured this was just what they do. As it was night-time, I went to bed. (See third picture below)
The next moring, the shrimp had moved down into a cave below where it was. It was difficult to tell what was going on, but now it seemed to be dead. Again, I waited.
After several more hours, I “called it”, as they do on ER. “Time of death…”
I reached in and grabbed one of the antenna. The old skeleton came out and behind it, what was left of the shrimp, just some of it’s tail meat.
Lacking any Aquarium CSI team, all I can do is guess what happened. Either it was sick and died during it’s moulting process, or something attacked it while it was in its very vulnerable state. I suppose a crab or the Bandai Cardinal could have done that.
The other shrimp, a peppermint, and all other animals are thriving. So I don’t think it’s any water quality issue. I suppose I could have just acclimated it poorly as it survived less than a week.
Live and learn. Or not. Well, learn anyway.
In memory of the cleaner shrimp…rest in peace.
Here it is early on.
This one was taken just hours before its demise. I did notice at this point that it had really started to let “stuff” accumulate on its antenna. In hindsight, this may be because it had started to moult.
And here is the shot in mid-moult. This is where it sat for at least a a few hours before ending up down below these rocks where I couldn’t get a good photo. The red blob on the bottom is hte peppermint shrimp, and of course the cardinal upper left.
on April 25th, 2007 at 7:15 am
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on April 25th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Hey Scott.
This could be a sign of dangerous water parameters. Cleaner shrimp are pretty hardy creatures, so you might want to be careful with the new livestock that you just added.
It’s nice to see another person getting bit by the reefing bug, but be careful, its a highly addictive hobby. I started out with a six gallon tank about two years ago and now I’m up to a 300 gallon reef!
on April 25th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Thanks Jon,
Yeah, I’ve been testing the water myself and bringing some to the shop for testing and all seems ok.
There’s another shrimp in there and a lot of snails and crabs that are all doing well. So I’m hoping it was just an isolated incident, albeit an expensive one.
on April 26th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Hi Scott,
Sorry to hear about your cleaner shrimp – always sad when you lose one
As Jon said this ‘might’ be a water parameter issue, however it could also be an acclimitisation issue.
Shrimp require certain water supplements in order for them to grow and maintain a healthy shell which is one of the reasons you need to spend a long time slowly acclimitising them – about an hour with the lights off should do. The majority of shrimp molt quite quickly when they are introduced into a new aquarium – this is their way of acclimitising themselves to the new water conditions.
I don’t think that it would have been attacked by a hermit etc as they are quite slow moving and the shrimp would easily get out of the way, however once it had died it would quickly have been consumed. Although shrimp are at their weakest when they have just molted they still do have their wits about them – normally it is fish that get them at this stage.
Could be a number of things but how about posting your parameters up so that your viewers can take a look or you can email them to me if you wish to do so.
Peter