Juvenile cleaner shrimp dead in 24 hours.

[Thomasflynn15]

I bought a very small (pinky finger length) cleaner shrimp from my LFS. It died in 24 hours. My hypothesis as to why is that since it was collected at such a small size/young age it wasn’t fully adapted to captive life before it was shipped to the retail store. It probably went straight from the fishery to the wholesale to the store in a short time period. Usually wild caught livestock have time to grow and mature while in captivity before sale but for little guys like these they were probably rushed in and out. Can someone back me up? I’ve bought adult cleaner shrimp that have done fine.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

No worries, you're not on trial.

 

[TCoach]

How did you acclimate the shrimp? The smaller they are, the more delicate they tend to be.

 

[DaJMasta]

I don't know if younger shrimp are all that more or less hardy than larger ones, but I think acclimation and tankmates are key here. Longer acclimations (drip), especially if from differing parameters, are important, but keeping the temperature up while doing it is needed too. Otherwise, a small shrimp around larger mouths or other things living in similar habitat could be bullied enough not to be able to settle in - it's even possible for some anemones to eat them if they are scared enough into it for a good portion of their body to contact the tentacles.

Otherwise, there is always some risk with new arrivals - it could be that a short time at the LFS didn't show an existing problem, or that a short time there, short time at the trans shipper, short time at the collection point, all in quick succession were just too much stress for it to be in good shape on arrival.

Also worth confirming you haven't dosed anything with copper in it, are running a normal salinity, and didn't do medicated dips for it prior to adding - there are a lot of potential variables.

 

[Lavey29]

I've never had a problem with shrimp being hardy. I have banded, cleaner, red and peppermints. I just drop them straight into the tank from the LFS bag too. Certain parameters in the water can be bad for inverts though.

 

[Thomasflynn15]

How did you acclimate the shrimp? The smaller they are, the more delicate they tend to be.

I will admit that I did acclimate it for 30 minutes and released it right into the tank. But likewise with @Lavey29 I have never had an issue with this method for shrimp. Maybe I should have taken the more cautious route and just drip acclimated like I would a fish