Help identify if shrimp is ill :(
Hello friends,
I recently added shrimps into my 12 gallon tank about 2 days ago. Yay... After cycling for 1 month+ I have 2 issues needing your help to clarify:
1. I noticed one of my shrimp is pregnant and seems to be juggling the eggs constantly.. is that normal?
2. Another shrimp came with bubbles inside its body.. It cant seem to swim properly and keeps getting BULLIED! I think its gonna die.. Sian la.. Anyone can help?
I've taken a video and posted on youtube. LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q2XZUvWJSs (New channel don't judge lol..)
0:06 seconds (pregnant shrimp "juggling eggs")
1:48 seconds (yellow shrimp caught being bullied.. It has bubbles inside it's body and keeps floating.. poor fella. What's wrong?!)
Thanks guys!
Berried shrimps moving the eggs around their underside is normal, that's how they re-arrange and rotate them to ensure good circulation around the eggs.
Can't do much about the shrimp with bubbles in its body, probably a defect or deformity which allowed that effect to occur... just have to see if the bubbles naturally disappear over time.
Noted about the eggs. Quite sad to hear about the other fella though... Btw my temperature fluctuates between 28-30℃. Is that too hot?
For the neocaridina species of shrimps (ie. the yellow ones you have), 28-30℃ shouldn't be much of an issue as they are quite hardy and adaptable, just make sure that the water is well oxygenated (either from sufficient surface agitation or active photosynthesis from plants).Originally Posted by reeshee
For the caridina species (ie. the crystal red shrimps), they can tolerate those temperature too if the water is well oxygenated and kept clean, though their stress level might be increased to the extent that breeding and shrimplet survival rates may not be as high as compared to if they were kept in cooler water conditions.
Hi UA, really appreciate your detailed reply! You sound like a professor in shrimp keeping hehe..
I'll prob invest in a chiller soon. tho my room is quite cramped for a typical huge one. Not to forget how expensive they are as well.. I thought I could start this hobby with small investment.. NOPE! Spent like close to $700 already for a start haha.. Considering one of those TEC types that costs about $200..
Btw, I noticed a white wriggly hair like worm thingy in my tank. it's like a white hair.. very thin and fine. Used pincer to remove it. What's that? Sorry no photo.. I think there should be more.
I think the white worms are planaria. I find that using a pipette to suck them out is the easiest. Using a pincer might risk splitting them into 2. If you read about them, they dont die when you split them into 2. One just become 2.
That's just gross la... I don't overfeed. Wonder if they appeared becsuse of high temperature.. mostly 29-30℃ nowadays..
I'm not an expert... there are many others here who are way more experienced. My observations are just based on my own trials and tribulations keeping shrimp, i've gone through many disastrous tank resets and enough dead shrimps to finally figure out how to at least keep them alive and breeding.
Yeah, once you start looking into caring for CRS shrimps, purchases of all those equipment and special foods/vitamins/tonics start to add up very quickly. They live in better conditions and eat better foods than most of their shrimp keepers.
If the worms are thin and the width of a thread, then they are most likely just detritus worms or nematodes... those are a common inhabitant of every tank environment and eat the detritus and excess food in the tank. They are harmless but when you see alot it usually means there is ample of food for them to consume and reproduce.
Their population tend to increase and become more noticeable in shrimp tanks because of the abundant food the shrimps get (shrimp keepers are always worried their tiny shrimps have not enough food to eat, and shrimp food tends to get scattered everywhere) and especially when there are no small fishes as predators to eat them (most shrimp keepers are scared to add fishes in case they also eat shrimplets).
Note that the worms don't just eat shrimp food, they also eat rotting plant matter so if your tank has plants, the worms also have access to it too (especially if there are alot of rotting stems or leaves, therefore having healthy plant growth matters too). They are scavengers and help to breakdown the excess organic matter in a tank, so they can be considered a useful part of the tank ecosystem.
The next creature to look forward to appearing are seed shrimps.
Seed shrimps harmless right? See them appearing in my crs tank..
Yeah, they are harmless... just unsightly when their numbers get to epic "biblical plague" levels that everywhere you look in the tank there are swarms of them. Then you start to notice there can actually be many different species of seed shrimps living in the tank too!
The annoying thing is if you see seed shrimps in a tank, it actually means the water conditions are good... all the nice expensive food, minerals and vitamin supplements that we happily give to our shrimps also benefit the seed shrimps too (they are shelled invertebrates too). So as our shrimps prosper and breed, the seed shrimps also prosper and breed even more.
Luckily i discovered that my baby endler fry love to eat seed shrimps, so the shrimp tank double up as a seed shrimp farm to harvest free live food for the endler grow-out tank. Win-win situation.
I'm not an expert... there are many others here who are way more experienced. My observations are just based on my own trials and tribulations keeping shrimp, i've gone through many disastrous tank resets and enough dead shrimps to finally figure out how to at least keep them alive and breeding.
UA, i'm going to call you Prof now onwardsI can see myself going through these trails and tribulations too! haha. Every night when I get home, I rush to check on my shrimps.. secretly hoping I don't see any dead ones.. So far so good.. It's quite stressful sometimes haha!!
Yeah, once you start looking into caring for CRS shrimps, purchases of all those equipment and special foods/vitamins/tonics start to add up very quickly. They live in better conditions and eat better foods than most of their shrimp keepers.
You got that right.. So many stuff available for shrimps.. and I want to buy them ALL! Now actively seeking a chiller.. Owner sting on using Aircon at night but don't mind running chiller for shrimps haha..
If the worms are thin and the width of a thread, then they are most likely just detritus worms or nematodes... those are a common inhabitant of every tank environment and eat the detritus and excess food in the tank. They are harmless but when you see alot it usually means there is ample of food for them to consume and reproduce.
Their population tend to increase and become more noticeable in shrimp tanks because of the abundant food the shrimps get (shrimp keepers are always worried their tiny shrimps have not enough food to eat, and shrimp food tends to get scattered everywhere) and especially when there are no small fishes as predators to eat them (most shrimp keepers are scared to add fishes in case they also eat shrimplets).
Note that the worms don't just eat shrimp food, they also eat rotting plant matter so if your tank has plants, the worms also have access to it too (especially if there are alot of rotting stems or leaves, therefore having healthy plant growth matters too). They are scavengers and help to breakdown the excess organic matter in a tank, so they can be considered a useful part of the tank ecosystem.
The next creature to look forward to appearing are seed shrimps.
You're right Prof! They are detritus worms! I googled it.. so gross haha.. wriggly stringy monstrosity! I am so perturbed by the sight of them.. Makes my tummy churn haha. If I don't actively look for them, I can't really see la.. Now that I've seen them.. I can't UNSEE them anymore haha.. I don't wana use any medication and risk killing my shrimps as well.. Should I stop feeding my shrimps for a day or so perhaps? My plants are diligently trimmed if rotting matter is spottedSeed shrimps.. no thanks! haha!
By the way, my shrimp just gave birth.. yipee! Any idea what my shrimplets should be fed? Or should I just let nature take it's course? They are hiding in my moss ball now. I did put in some Mosura BT-9 2 days ago as I read this would hele create biofilm. Is that enough for them?
Shrimplets eat the same things adult shrimp eat (which is pretty much anything), so not really necessary to feed special foods... but some people like to feed those baby foods designed for shrimplets which are in fine powder form, can try those, though those tend to get scattered and dispersed everywhere so it's more like feeding every other inhabitant in the tank too.
I guess that's part of the objective, the food feed microfauna, bacteria and algae which the shrimplets in turn forage and feed on too.
UA, you are right. What I have seeing all along was Detritus worm and not planaria. No wonder I don't seem see them in my tank after adding an air stone. Seems like better aeration keeps them in the substrate! Thanks for pointing out.
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