NEED HELP: Cleaner shrimp keep dying?

[j.falk]

I had a cleaner shrimp that I lost recently after I did a tank transfer (I upgraded from a 20 gallon to a 30 long). The cleaner shrimp was approximately 1 1/2 years old. Before it died, it was acting very strange. It didn't seem to eat as much, was very sluggish when moving and it would constantly hide out underneath the rocks...and then one night it died and I found it wedged underneath some rocks the next morning. I figured it might've possibly been old age since I read they live about 3 years in captivity and I didn't know how old it was when I first got it.

Yesterday - I bought two more cleaner shrimp and added them to the tank. Before I went to bed, I fed the tank. Both shrimp ate without issue and they both seemed alert and very active.

This morning - I found both of them dead underneath the rocks and I don't know why? There are no predators in the tank that would killing off the shrimp.

I checked my water with Salifert test kits:

Ammonia: It's not clear in the testing vial, but it's not showing up as dark as <0.15 on the scale chart.
Nitrate: It's showing 10 on the high range scale side (the lightest color).
Temperature: 80 degrees.
Salinity - 1.025

I have three possible theories on what might be killing them.

1. When I upgraded the tank, I put a new versa top on and it's very tight fitting to keep the humidity down in the room. (I did add two water pumps aimed at the surface of the water to create turbulence which I thought would add oxygen to the water.) Would this lack of gas exchange possibly cause a problem that would only affect the shrimp? All of my fish, corals, and snails/hermit crabs are doing fine...I'm not seeing any issues with anything else.

2. I have a Devil's Hand (Finger) leather coral in the tank that shed right before the cleaner died and the last night the cleaner was alive, it sat underneath the coral and was acting really strange (arching it's back and splaying it's little appendages under it's tail while holding completely still). I am not running carbon on the tank...could the leather coral's sheddings be killing the shrimp?

3. When I upgraded to the new tank, I added some new dry rock to the tank. Most of the dry rock came from a local reefer's old tank and all of the rock was bleached and soaked in dechlorinated water. One of the pieces of new dry rock came from an antique mall. I don't know the history of the rock but it's definitely an old piece of Fiji live rock. This rock was also bleached and dechlorinated. My thinking on the rock is if it were something in the rock that was affecting the cleaner shrimps...wouldn't it also affect my corals and other inverts?

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[j.falk]

@ReefSquad #reefsquad

 

[rkpetersen]

Sorry to hear.
I don't think your first two possibilities are likely. However adding some GAC probably wouldn't hurt.
The third one is possible. Have you checked for copper in the water? That's an easy one to do at home, with a Hanna checker for example. Might consider sending in a water sample for ICPOES testing to make sure there isn't some strange heavy metal in the water.
Have you ever used Bayer insecticide as a dip for new corals? In my experience, scarlet cleaner shrimp may be particularly susceptible to this agent, if even trace quantities get in the tank.

 

[j.falk]

Sorry to hear.
I don't think your first two possibilities are likely. However adding some GAC probably wouldn't hurt.
The third one is possible. Have you checked for copper in the water? That's an easy one to do at home, with a Hanna checker for example. Might consider sending in a water sample for ICPOES testing to make sure there isn't some strange heavy metal in the water.
Have you ever used Bayer insecticide as a dip for new corals? In my experience, scarlet cleaner shrimp may be particularly susceptible to this agent, if even trace quantities get in the tank.

Thanks for replying. I haven't checked for copper although that thought has already crossed my mind. The rocks that came from the local reefer's old tank were from a long established reef tank full of corals and inverts. The rock from the antique store is a possibility...but if there were copper present, why would it only kill the cleaner shrimp and not all of my inverts? I would think even the corals, snails and hermits would all be affected if there were copper in the water?

Negative on the Bayer. All of my corals came from a friend's tank. He doesn't have any pests in his tank so I've never felt the need to dip anything.

 

[rkpetersen]

I agree, copper is unlikely if everything else is doing well. But I myself would still check for metals.
Good thing about the Bayer.
Did you acclimate the shrimp before adding them to your tank? If not, perhaps osmotic shock harmed them.

 

[j.falk]

I agree, copper is unlikely if everything else is doing well. But I myself would still check for metals.
Good thing about the Bayer.
Did you acclimate the shrimp before adding them to your tank? If not, perhaps osmotic shock harmed them.

I acclimated them they way I do everything and they seemed normal acting and healthy for the 7 hours I observed them before going to bed. I just find it weird that they would die overnight as I've had several cleaner shrimp over the years and never had an issue with them dying so easily. More-so that it was both of them that died. If shock were to happen, wouldn't it be a lot quicker and not hours later? I've seen shock happen in inverts before and, in my experience, it usually happens within minutes of adding them to a tank. They move erratically and then fall over dead. I don't know on this one...maybe I just got unlucky and picked up some shrimp that the fish store had recently got in stock. I could see the stress of moving from distributor tank - - > pet store tank - - > my tank in a short time period might be a strong possibility of why they died...maybe I'll never know. I'll definitely look into the metals theory if my other inverts start dropping off.

 

[rkpetersen]

Agreed, it's puzzling.
Iodine can theoretically also be an issue for shrimp. Either too high or too low, causing problems with molting.
Another possibility is a scarlet cleaner shrimp-specific pathogen in the water, but there's no real way to test for something like that.
That's about all I got!

 

[j.falk]

Agreed, it's puzzling.
Iodine can theoretically also be an issue for shrimp. Either too high or too low, causing problems with molting.
Another possibility is a scarlet cleaner shrimp-specific pathogen in the water, but there's no real way to test for something like that.
That's about all I got!

Thank you. I appreciate the advice.

 

[j.falk]

I ended up buying another cleaner shrimp from a different pet store and it's been doing fine for the past week. No problems at all.

 

[j.falk]

Unfortunately the new cleaner shrimp ended up dying too. It started harassing my randall's pistol shrimp and the pistol shrimp popped it and killed it.

The end. No more cleaner shrimps. I'm done buying them.