Cause of dead Fireshrimp

Inversus · Mar 27, 2022

Hey there!

So 2 weeks ago I bought the first livestock for my reef tank (Red Sea Reefer 250). 3 snails, a clownfish and two fireshrimp.
So far I would have said everything looks good but this morning I woke up and looked at the Tank like ervery morning and there was one of the fireshrimp lying dead on the ground

It was the smaller one of the two

I Just want to make sure I havnt done anything wrong or if so to not do it again. So maybe you have a clue what happend?

Here are my observations/Infos :

- Im cycling with Red Sea Mature Reef Kit and Im adding nopox daily. (The Plan is already finished, Just have to add nopox daily for nitrates).

- Light is on for 13 hours at max 30 percent power.

- Skimmer is on 24/7

- Yesterday I was wondering because both Shrimps wouldnt touch food, but I thought they were just still satisfied from the food at morning (feeding two Times). I have 3 diffrent meals (flakes, Substrate and frozen) and feed each time diffrent.

- Shrimps were chilling together (nearby), there was no real aggression between them. But the bigger one defenetly had the upperhand if He wanted something

- Reef Tank is smelling diffrent since a few days. I think its either the food or the nopox dosing (even though Im dosing it like 1-2 month now).
Its kinda resembling chlorine, bit I cant really ID it. The Skimmer is also going crazy from time to time, thats why I would think its the nopox.

- The other Shrimp seems fine so far. But thats something I would have said yesterday too.
Fish and snails are fine.

Measuring:
Nitrite: 0.2ppm
Nitrate: 8ppm
Phosphate: 0
Ammpmia: 0
Ph: 8.2
Alkalinity: 8.5

For me as a reef newbie I would say the values are fine. Maaaaybe the alkalinity is too high for shrimps? I read some where that they need 7.5 - 8?
Or nitrates are too high?

Any advice? Was it just bad luck or was something wrong?

blaxsun · Mar 27, 2022

The NOPOX could be affecting the skimmer, yes. Since the tank is still relatively new, I would stick to cheap snails and hermits for your cleanup crew for the time being. Some inverts need a longer acclimation period and even then they don't always survive, as the salinity they're shipped or homed in the LFS is often well below what we run our tanks as.

Blue leg and scarlet hermits (2-4) are great scavengers. Trochus snails (2-4) are great for the glass and spiny astrea snails and ring cowries (4-6) are great for the rocks. A small orange lip conch (down the road) will be awesome for sand duty.

Also note that since you don't have a lot of algae yet for your cleanup crew to feed on, you may need to supplement with seaweed for a few months. I like Two Little Fishies SeaVeggies green. Take a 1/4 sheet, rubberband to a rock and toss in 1-2x per week (or as it disappears) for your scavengers and snails.

Lasse · Mar 27, 2022

Are your sure that it is a dead shrimp and not only the exoskeleton of your small shrimp that have molt. It is normal that shrimps that have molt leave their exoskeleton in the open and hide for a couple of days. If it is a question of molting - your small shrimp will turn up again after a couple of days.

Sincerely Lasse

Inversus · Mar 27, 2022

Lasse said:
Are your sure that it is a dead shrimp and not only the exoskeleton of your small shrimp that have molt. It is normal that shrimps that have molt leave their exoskeleton in the open and hide for a couple of days. If it is a question of molting - your small shrimp will turn up again after a couple of days.

Sincerely Lasse

Unfortunately its not the exoskeleton

Lasse · Mar 27, 2022

What brand do you use for your NO2 and NO3 readings?

Sincerely Lasse

Inversus · Mar 27, 2022

Lasse said:
What brand do you use for your NO2 and NO3 readings?

Sincerely Lasse

I have the Red Sea Testing kit

Lasse · Mar 27, 2022

NO2 in the water will impact your NO3 readings. If you really have 0.2 ppm NO2 in your water - your readings of NO3 is false and to high.

Sincerely Lasse

Inversus · Mar 27, 2022

Lasse said:
NO2 in the water will impact your NO3 readings. If you really have 0.2 ppm NO2 in your water - your readings of NO3 is false and to high.

Sincerely Lasse

It was the first time I was using the pro kit. Before that I used the starting kit. Maybe I did something wrong. Testing again and will update here.

blaxsun said:
The NOPOX could be affecting the skimmer, yes. Since the tank is still relatively new, I would stick to cheap snails and hermits for your cleanup crew for the time being. Some inverts need a longer acclimation period and even then they don't always survive, as the salinity they're shipped or homed in the LFS is often well below what we run our tanks as.

Blue leg and scarlet hermits (2-4) are great scavengers. Trochus snails (2-4) are great for the glass and spiny astrea snails and ring cowries (4-6) are great for the rocks. A small orange lip conch (down the road) will be awesome for sand duty.

Also note that since you don't have a lot of algae yet for your cleanup crew to feed on, you may need to supplement with seaweed for a few months. I like Two Little Fishies SeaVeggies green. Take a 1/4 sheet, rubberband to a rock and toss in 1-2x per week (or as it disappears) for your scavengers and snails.

My plan was to buy more fish next week. I wanted to add a second clownfish and a Yellow Watchman Goby with a pistol shrimp. I assume the pistol shrimp is as "sensitive" as the fireshrimp?
Should I wait on the goby for the sake of the shrimp? Or are there other hermits/shrimps for a symbiosis with a goby that are more resistant?
Oh have you edited your post or have I missed it completly?

You're right with the missing algea, thats why I dont want to add more CUC, but I also could feed them, thats true

Lasse · Mar 27, 2022

About no visible micro algae and CUC - IMO it exactly when you do not see any visible algae you should add CUC and enough of them. The micro algae are there directly when you start the light and if they can build up a such biomass that you can see them - it can be to late to add a CUC or you have to add a huge CUC in order to have consumption equal with production. May I ask how you know that it is not an exoskeleton you see?

Sincerely Lasse

Inversus · Mar 27, 2022

Lasse said:
About no visible micro algae and CUC - IMO it exactly when you do not see any visible algae you should add CUC and enough of them. The micro algae are there directly when you start the light and if they can build up a such biomass that you can see them - it can be to late to add a CUC or you have to add a huge CUC in order to have consumption equal with production. May I ask how you know that it is not an exoskeleton you see?

Sincerely Lasse

Good to know, thanks for that.
It wasn't an empty shell. Filled with flesh, had eyes and while I do have hiding spots, its not like these are not visible for me if I want to

I did the testing again. No2 stays at 0.2, No3 is something between 20 and 50. Thats more likely?

Lasse · Mar 27, 2022

I do not know the conversion factor for Read Seas tests but if you look at this video and you will understand my concern. It is in German but looking at your location - it should not be a problem

'

Sincerely Lasse

Lasse · Mar 27, 2022

If you have seen flesh - you maybe have a dead shrimp - but the eyes will follow the old skeleton in a molt. I'm stubborn but I've been fooled by this many times.

Sincerely Lasse

Inversus · Mar 27, 2022

Lasse said:
I do not know the conversion factor for Read Seas tests but if you look at this video and you will understand my concern. It is in German but looking at your location - it should not be a problem '

Sincerely Lasse

Hm okay, so Nitrite can distort the nitrate test (Shouldn't this be considered by the test kit itself?). But how can I now test the right nitrate value (without sending in probes)?

Lasse · Mar 27, 2022

Fauna Marine NO2/NO3 test and Tropic Marine Pro NO2/NO3 include conversion factors and with their tables you can calculate the right NO3 concentrations.

Sincerely Lasse

Inversus · Mar 27, 2022

Lasse said:
Fauna Marine NO2/NO3 test and Tropic Marine Pro NO2/NO3 include conversion factors and with their tables you can calculate the right NO3 concentrations.

Sincerely Lasse

Hm okay, Im looking into it. But for me its hard to get over that this is something not reconsidered in the red sea (or in general) test kit

PhilMStudy · Mar 27, 2022

before I transferred tanks the only loss I had was a second fire shrimp… I had two skunk cleaners and two fire shrimp…

one of the fire shrimp passed away… no rhyme or reason why (75 gallon)…

doesn’t help you much but sometimes the two just don’t get along or are both males

Inversus · Mar 29, 2022

Second one died over night

really depressing.
This time I first thought He might molted, but as I looked closer it was him.
I dont know how he did it, but he was stuck(?) at one of my flow pumps (tunze 6055, on a pretty low setting. The Propeller was too far away to destroy him though, but maybe sucked in there? But Yeah no idea, I would say flow is way to low for this to happen )

The reason I thought He might molted was because on his head it looked like he skinned, but Yeah it was pretty fleshy. Whats weird too, is that his head area was really soft and squshy. Dont know if thats normal

Inversus · Mar 29, 2022

Hm I thought a little bit about and I dont want to take the blame away from me (didnt really know that the shrimps are relativly sensetiv regarding New tanks) and in the end I should have known better before buying, but I also cant stop thinking that the local fish store owner should have said something. We talked for a long time and I made clear that Iam a newbie and that my tank is new and Im there for the first livestock that is recommended for the current state. And He recommended without a doubt the shrimps to me. Not sure if Im too happy with that

The thing I learned is that I should really get all informations from unbiased sources before a buy

Sink_or_Swim · Mar 30, 2022

Inversus said:
Hm I thought a little bit about and I dont want to take the blame away from me (didnt really know that the shrimps are relativly sensetiv regarding New tanks) and in the end I should have known better before buying, but I also cant stop thinking that the local fish store owner should have said something. We talked for a long time and I made clear that Iam a newbie and that my tank is new and Im there for the first livestock that is recommended for the current state. And He recommended without a doubt the shrimps to me. Not sure if Im too happy with that

The thing I learned is that I should really get all informations from unbiased sources before a buy

Fire shrimp are $50 each where I am and skunk cleaners are $40 each... not saying you got a greedy LFS guy for sure but... he definitely made some money recommending those shrimp to you. That said, I got 2 cleaner shrimp when my tank was about a month and a half old - slowly acclimated them, and they did great. Sometimes things just die unfortunately and it can be hard to pinpoint a reason. Don't be too hard on yourself.