Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping => Invertebrates - Shrimps and Snails => Topic started by: Fiona on February 25, 2016, 08:55:40 PM
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Found a dead adult shrimp under a catalpa leaf when I got home and spotted another under a leaf that looks like it's having problems shedding its skin. All the mortalities since restocking have been the reddest cherry shrimps. I'm assuming these are more inbred and therefore more prone to problems.
Can I help the one which seems to have a percentage of 'dead skin'' trapped round its abdomen, the poor thing keeps stretching and having seen last week how complete the shed skin process should be, I'm guessing he's stuck.
Also i there anything I can do to prevent this reoccurring?
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I forget ( :-[ ) are you using beta glucans? I was recommended to use that when my shrimps were dying of a failed moult.
Natalia, who helped me enormously, said
your shrimp may be suffering from a shrimp specific bacterial infection. I know that some people swear by Seachem Paraguard to cure these but personally I use milder and more natural remedy as a preventative measure (that what it is actually) – it is called Beta G. It is a powder which is beneficial to fish as well as shrimps...
You could always try the Paraguard.
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I've not been using anything so far Sue, it's the first time I noticed there was a problem.
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Sorry, I tend to forget who has used it and who hasn't. And after spending an hour sitting in the waiting room at outpatients yesterday morning then all afternoon with no electricity, my brain had gone into shut down by the time the power came back and we'd finally had dinner ;D
Beta glucans, often called just beta G, seemed to do the trick for my shrimps. I got mine off ebay but there are more places that sell it. It is a powder and you don't need much at all for small shrimp tanks.
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Hello Fiona,
I've been using Beta G in my shrimpery since Sue recommended it a while back. I was steadily losing all my original red cherries, but like Sue, I was left with babies. Since starting to use it, my colony has thrived. It could be that my problems were, in fact, caused by the wormer I had used previously, but I will not know until the Beta G runs out!
I started adding it once a fortnight with a w/c, but I have now relaxed that to once a month. The only difficulty with it, is that in a small tank it is impossible to accurately measure the dose. The recommendation is "1/5 spoonful twice a week in 100 liter water". I just cover the tip of the handle of the very small plastic spoon provided. I think Sue uses a laboratory spatula in a similar fashion.
Hope this helps,
Skittler
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I shall have a look online and see if I can buy some, hopefully it'll put an end to the deaths.
Thankee :)
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Can somebody point me in the right direction please? I can only find the capsules
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This (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genchem-Beta-G-Betaglucans-Immune-System-Booster-for-Crystal-Tiger-Cherry-Shrimp-/262214562184?hash=item3d0d34b188:g:eikAAOSwkNZUnZYc) is the one I have.
Try googling Genchem beta g. It's on Ebay, Amazon and a few on-line shops (pro shrimp, aqua essentials,)
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Ta Sue, I'll order some
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Beta G isn't a 'cure' ; it's an immunity booster to help the shrimps deal with anything they don't like in the tank. But it did help my shrimps.
I haven't used it routinely for ages now that my colony seems to be thriving. I do get the odd death but I have so many babies being hatched now that I'm in danger of them taking over. But when I buy new shrimps, I do add it for the next few water changes.
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Just found the shrimp that had problems last night dead under a leaf. I refuse to be disheartened!
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I do sympathise. Have you read my thread in the invert section, the oldest one in there.
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I'll go look.
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I don't normally think much of suggestions to add various things to a tank, usually unnecessary. But Istarted with 10 Cherry shrimps which died one by one over a year or so, perhaps there is something in using Beta G. Never saw a single baby, but all my shrimps looked identical, maybe all male though that sounds improbable.
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I've seen 9 babies at one time but there may be more, there's a lot of plant i the tank and they do seem to like to inhabit the stack of catappa leaves in the corner of the tank, you frequently see them grazing on the biofilm.
The Beta Glucan arrived in the post this afternoon, very speedy delivery as I only ordered it yesterday afternoon, they included a shrimp care booklet by Dennerle which was very nice of them. I'll add the BG to the shrimpery when I give it a clean later and then wait and see if it helps. I'm going to pick up a few more shrimp tomorrow to replace the lost adults.
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You could be very sneaky and ask them to catch only berried females ;D
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The guys in MA are pretty obliging, I'm sure they will :) I want to try and find out where the consignment of stiphs came from too. I still havent identified some of them, so many of the females loo alike.
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Pfft found another dead adult just now :( I've got 6 of the original adults left and they're all the ones that aren't bright red. There weren't any RCS in my MA yesterday but the guy said he'd bring some in if I visit next weekend.
I'm a bit worried about setting up the new tank for them now. I was going to do it today. I got a soil substrate for it and some black glass gravel to top it. Apart from transferring all the plants, bogwood, pebbles and as much water as possible, is there anything else I can do to cut down the risk of casualties.
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Since you'll be transferring lots of things covered in biofilm, and presumably have a fully cycled filter, I can't think of anything else.
The soil substrate - soil as in garden soil or one purpose made for aquariums? I have heard about some of these aquarium soils leaching ammonia, so if that's what you are using make sure it doesn't leach ammonia or if it does, run the tank without shrimps until it stops.
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Its john innes number 3. I've used it in other set ups, so hopefully it should be ok. I'm quite tempted to not use any soil tbh and just use the gravel.
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I too found a dead cherry in the tank this morning. It was possibly the largest in there, and it did look like a failed moult. However, if you think that these shrimps are probably up to a year old when we get them, a further year or so on, and they could be dying of "old age" whilst trying to moult? Does anybody have any idea of an average life span for a Red Cherry?
Skittler
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1-2 years I believe.