help please, cleaner shrimp sick?

[super stooge]

hi,

i have to 2 scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp in my tank. they have been in there for a few weeks and dont seem overly shy and will happily clean any fish (or hand ) that presents itself.

today i noticed on 1 of them, while it was out in clear view that it had sum black spots on his side and on top of him lower down close to his tail. any idea what these are and should i be worried about it? if so, what causes it and what can i do to fix the problem?

thank you for any responses, id really hate to loose these guys

[greenbean36191]

There are several diseases that cause black spots. Almost all of them are untreatable and eventually end up killing the shrimp, however that takes a long time. In the meantime the spots will come and go with molts. The best thing you can do is keep water quality good.

[Capt_Cully]

I have noticed that my cleaners would appear sick around the time of molting. I'm afraid you'll just have to wait and watch. keep us posted. I hope it is just pre-molting behavior/appearance.

good luck

[super stooge]

so theres not much i can do to help these guys?

[bertoni]

Nope, there's no treatment, as far as anyone knows.

[super stooge]

dang so is this a guarenteed death situation or is there a chance they can pull through?

[greenbean36191]

They're short lived animals to begin with, only living about 2 years in the wild and up to 4 in captivity. Whether it dies prematurely will mostly depend on how old it was when it got the disease. Most of the problems that cause brown/black spots eventually end up killing the shrimp if old age doesn't do them in first, but they can still live for quite a while with the diseases.