# my shrimp is dying



## Superpettoysrus.com

Well ive had my tank set up for around 6 weeks now and its doing great. Ive got some mollies a red finned shark a small plec and some guppies. Whilst at the shop the other day though i did buy a shrimp...great little fella although i got to say i hated putting my hands in the tank after putting him in.......im not normally scared of creepy crawlies ut:

Anyway i didnt get much information about him before getting him as it was just on a whim and the young lad in the shop couldnt tell his arm from his elbow hehehehe 

The night i brought my new fish back i noticed them flicking on leaves so i added some white spot treatment....got up the following day and poorley plec and my other scale less fish...oooops

Did a big water change and all is good with them now...but i never noticed my shrimp was not well

i got up this morning and couldnt believe my eyes...my shrimp had already shed its skin and now he is lying on his side moving his mouth and occasionaly his legs.

does anyone know much about shrimp??

what do you think caused it.....any of my fish?...the treatment??......or the fact that when getting my fish my nitrites peaked a little???

i feel terrible...poor poorley shrimp


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## Guest

Keep testing the water. What type of treatment did you add to the water exactly? Many treatments (especially those that treat whitespot) contain copper, which is lethal to invertebrates.


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## MattDe

Is it a fan shrimp like this










Its not uncommon for shrimp to shed after being introduced to a new tank.

when the shed they are at their most vulnerable as they need to harden their shell again. You should provide them plenty of place to hide , wood , caves etc.

I would hold off adding any treatments or chemicals, try to keep things as natural as possible. Small water changes are best, but not to often. Treating the water with conditioner before adding to the tank.
I've kept tropical fish for about 9 years now, used medication twice. 
Things like shrimp are very susceptible to treatments and chemicals.

Matt


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## Superpettoysrus.com

I think the poor guy may have died since posting this he is curled up now....dont think it was the same shrimp tho.

It was [email protected] home brand whitespot treatment i think..i never looked at what was inside tho.

Poor lil guy i feel terrible....suppose now my OH can finally fry him up for dinner ...mind you wont be much of a feast


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## MattDe

Pleccy said:


> Keep testing the water. What type of treatment did you add to the water exactly? Many treatments (especially those that treat whitespot) contain copper, which is lethal to invertebrates.


good tip luke


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## MattDe

Superpettoysrus.com said:


> I think the poor guy may have died since posting this he is curled up now....dont think it was the same shrimp tho.
> 
> It was [email protected] home brand whitespot treatment i think..i never looked at what was inside tho.
> 
> Poor lil guy i feel terrible....suppose now my OH can finally fry him up for dinner ...mind you wont be much of a feast


Has it changed colour? if so its prob a gonna.
let your water settle down again and get another one. 
good luck


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## Superpettoysrus.com

When you say has it changed colour...do ya mean gone dark?....cos no it ios like an orangy red colour...but when we got it he was a greyish colour...weird....i only said yesterday how great he looked cos he had gone a lovely red colour.

The skin was partly under my bogtwood and at first i thought he had got caught and then freed himself by shedding his skin and maybe lost a few legs...but looking at his skin i dunno cos they look around the same number of legs

he all curled up now tho ....think im too scared to take him out the tank he looks creepy


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## goldendance

Superpettoysrus.com said:


> Well ive had my tank set up for around 6 weeks now and its doing great. Ive got some mollies a red finned shark a small plec and some guppies. Whilst at the shop the other day though i did buy a shrimp...great little fella although i got to say i hated putting my hands in the tank after putting him in.......im not normally scared of creepy crawlies ut:
> 
> Anyway i didnt get much information about him before getting him as it was just on a whim and the young lad in the shop couldnt tell his arm from his elbow hehehehe
> 
> The night i brought my new fish back i noticed them flicking on leaves so i added some white spot treatment....got up the following day and poorley plec and my other scale less fish...oooops
> 
> Did a big water change and all is good with them now...but i never noticed my shrimp was not well
> 
> i got up this morning and couldnt believe my eyes...my shrimp had already shed its skin and now he is lying on his side moving his mouth and occasionaly his legs.
> 
> does anyone know much about shrimp??
> 
> what do you think caused it.....any of my fish?...the treatment??......or the fact that when getting my fish my nitrites peaked a little???
> 
> i feel terrible...poor poorley shrimp


i bought my son 2 tiger shrimps [i think they were called that] by the next day they were dead, so i put them in the freezer till i could go back to the fish shop at the w/end. they replaced them with 2 more, but this time they lasted only 2 days so i marched them bk to the pet shop for a refund this time, i got it in full, i gave up on the idea of having shrimps, the man at the pet shop did say on our last visit that they should be in a tank with lots of free flowing water,


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## Superpettoysrus.com

well im not impressed.....looking a bit closer at my tank....2 of my mollies are now resting at the top of the water above one of my plants. Another fish is resting on the bottom.....i only added 3 plants and an airstone last night they was fine before that.


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## MattDe

Superpettoysrus.com said:


> When you say has it changed colour...do ya mean gone dark?....cos no it ios like an orangy red colour...but when we got it he was a greyish colour...weird....i only said yesterday how great he looked cos he had gone a lovely red colour.
> 
> The skin was partly under my bogtwood and at first i thought he had got caught and then freed himself by shedding his skin and maybe lost a few legs...but looking at his skin i dunno cos they look around the same number of legs
> 
> he all curled up now tho ....think im too scared to take him out the tank he looks creepy


Yeah sounds dead to me. 
Get some kitchen tongs on the go, get it out before it starts to effect the water.


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## MattDe

Superpettoysrus.com said:


> well im not impressed.....looking a bit closer at my tank....2 of my mollies are now resting at the top of the water above one of my plants. Another fish is resting on the bottom.....i only added 3 plants and an airstone last night they was fine before that.


Dam , what a nightmare. 
cant be the plants or the airstone. 
I blame dodgy pets at home fish. Stay clear.


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## Superpettoysrus.com

HI,

I didnt buy the fish from there just the plants.....i get my fish from my local aquatics centre there great for fish but dont seem to have a big selection of other things i need for my tank so i got to [email protected]

one of my mollies has had a swim round maybe its me being paranoid i dunno but my bottom feeder doesnt look happy...gonna do a water test in a bit me thinks


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## candysmum

Superpettoysrus.com said:


> HI,
> 
> I didnt buy the fish from there just the plants.....i get my fish from my local aquatics centre there great for fish but dont seem to have a big selection of other things i need for my tank so i got to [email protected]
> 
> one of my mollies has had a swim round maybe its me being paranoid i dunno but my bottom feeder doesnt look happy...gonna do a water test in a bit me thinks


this is why i gave up my fish tank. it was beautiful to look at and the fish were great but once i started having problems NOTHING helped at all. i had book and books and treatments and i got vets advice and in the end i sold the tank and what fish were left in it.

i hope you can sort it out though i do miss my tank. lol


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## Superpettoysrus.com

ok this is weird...i checked again and all fish swimming round great..must be me being paraniod now my shrimp is ill...i say ill cos he has suddenyl raised from the dead and is filtering food thru his mouth but still laid on his side.....what is wrong with him ???


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## Superpettoysrus.com

well after reading a thread about dying shrimp on another site it seems i have found my culprit....the new plants. Apparently they need soaking to remove copper from them 

Someone else had the smae problem after adding new plants...im gutted cos he was sucha weird character which way he swam round lol.


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## Guest

Superpettoysrus.com said:


> ok this is weird...i checked again and all fish swimming round great..must be me being paraniod now my shrimp is ill...i say ill cos he has suddenyl raised from the dead and is filtering food thru his mouth but still laid on his side.....what is wrong with him ???


It could be stress, when you carried out the water change, did you add the clean water back to the tank at the same temperature and pH?


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## poppypal

Hi,

Sorry to bring this old post back up, but just wondering as I have a friend with sounds like same problem. Had added new plants/stones but now has newly purchased shrimp inclined to laying on its side looking ill. Sorry to ask but did you ever find out what the problem was? I have heard that some lobster lay on their side when they desire to mate, but I have no idea with shrimp?

Thanks


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## Superpettoysrus.com

Hiya.....the shirmp pulled through in the end that time, but i never learnt my lesson and just a few weeks ago i added an ornament and 3 new plants and the next day he died 

I would advise them to clean all plants and ornaments before adding them to the tank....i may also take my own advice next time


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## daveknight1979

hi.

we got 7 algea shrimp the other day from a great aquarium place near us. they all gave us a heart attack when we found loads of dead bodies on the bottom. but we did a head count and found too many alive compared to the amount of bodies so did a little research to find they shed after a new environment placing. so far, all are well and thriving it seems. we have added the usual water treatment chems and today added treatment for fungal growth on a dalmation molly, so remains to be seen if that affects them.

good luck, they are a great addition to our tank and fun to watch. (i personally wanted some little crabs but turns out they canescape and might eat smaller fish).


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## Superpettoysrus.com

Yeah i loved my shrimp, shame he has passed on, but to be fair when i added the new plants to my tank i also added a black ghost knife and was told i would have to seperate them when he got bigger as he would probably finish him off  ...then a few days later he was dead but still intact so i dont think it was related.


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