Can't keep peppermint shrimp alive!

[BigRedSpecial]

Are peppermint shrimp known to be fragile? I can't seem to keep them alive. I've added them on two separate occasions; both times they lived long enough to molt twice, but immediately after the second molt disappeared. I thought it was strange because I had a blood and a cleaner shrimp who did very well, but I assumed the blood shrimp was chasing the peppermints enough to kill them.

2 months ago, I lost the blood and cleaner in a pH crash, so two weeks I added two more peppermints; they molted last week then this morning I found one dead. What gives?

pH 7.8
temp 80/26C
SG 1.025
kH 11 dkh
Ca 340
NH3, NO2 NO3 all 0
PO4 0, Cu 0

The only thing I could think of this time would be either starvation(I've never seen one of them eat), or ingestion of joe's juice(I injected sever anemonies on the rock they hung out on)? I'm grabbing at straws here... any ideas?

[sunfish11]

When they molt they are very sensitive to water quality issues and if they are going to die that will usually be when they do it. They need a lot of calcium and a lot of food to eat to be really healthy.

lisa

[sunfish11]

Your PH and Calcium also need to come up.

[oct2274]

pH is borderline, if it never gets below 7.8 you are ok. If you don't have a skimmer to aerate the water to help bring ph up then try taking a powerhead and angling it towards the water surface. Increased oxygen exchange might be the cure to your low ph. definitely bring the calcium up to around 420. i don't see you testing magnesium this should be around 1300-1350. I would get that straight before raising calcium because if it is low your calcium will probably just precipitate out or cause a snow storm. I would also run a poly filter just to make sure there is no copper or other chemicals that could be causing their demise. peppermints are pretty tough for a shrimp. get everything inline and you should be ok.

[BigRedSpecial]

pH is low, but it's stable at that level. I've already pointed my powerhead at the surface, and there are two hob filters on there(no media of course) stirring up the surface. I asked for a bottle of kalk for Christmas, so hopefully that will help with both issues. I don't have a Mg test kit yet, but that's on the list.

I also tested for copper, and it came up zero, but I don't trust my test kit(Seachem); I have some cuprasorb so I'll put it in the filter to be sure.

Oh and I forgot to say but the only livestock other than corals are hermits(5 red leg and 3 zebra) and a single clown goby, so I don't think aggression is the issue.

[BigEivlSquid]

what do you feed the clown goby?Some food needs to make it to the bottom for the shrimp. I always make sure a few pellets get to the bottom to feed my pep shrimp. They will even dart out from under the rocks to get the pellets off the bottom.

[BigRedSpecial]

I feed Prime reef flakes, and Spectrum 1mm sinking pellets, plus cyclopeez for the coral 3 or 4 times a week. All the shrimp I've had before would almost panic to get to the food that hit the bottom, and the blood and cleaner would actually jump into the water column to grab pieces of flake that floated by.

Out of these two shrimp though, I've only seen one shrimp at a time go after food, so I'm assuming one was too shy to come out for food and possibly starved to death. Once again, just grabbing at straws though.

[BigEivlSquid]

Sounds like your doing everthing right. The pep shrimps will be all over the tank at night, so that will get fed just not right away.

I might try shrimps from a diffrent LFS if that is an option for you.

[BigRedSpecial]

These 4 peppermints came from 2 different lfs' though... I'm thinking I should just give up on peppermints and get another blood and cleaner(or maybe a pistol?).

The other side is that the tank is only a 10, so regardless of how active they are, if they aren't eating when I feed the fish, they probably aren't finding much.

[BigRedSpecial]

I came home from writing an exam today(Last one, I'm done until Jan 8th now:D ), and saw the remaining peppermint on top of my palythoa rock; I've read stories of peppermints being poor reef inhabitants due to stealing food from corals, so I took a closer look to see if he had done any damage to the coral...


He wasn't eating the coral, the coral was eating him!

Of his four antennae, three were completely ingested by two different polyps, and he was trying his best to pull them out(in vain). I reached in with a wooden stick and pulled them out, and he's been standing in one spot ever since(20 minutes).

Here he is:
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5518/shrimpcoralxz8.jpg
Note the slimy antennae(from the polyps trying to digest them), and how white he is... I have no idea if he'll live though this or not, I can imagine it's pretty traumatic.

The culprit:
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/5044/palysk5.jpg

[BigRedSpecial]

well the shrimp is dead. I figured he had a 50/50 chance of making it, since the cloudiness in his body started to diminish, but I guess it was just too much for him.

Oh well, no more peppermints for me. After Christmas I'll get another cleaner; if it dies, I'll give up shrimp and plan for a future with triggers and/or puffers.

[Matt Paul]

You got out of it what you put in it .

[BigRedSpecial]

huh?