Help, my cleaner shrimp just up & died

[mnewsome]

I got up this morning and found my cleaner just lying there dead. I have no clue what happened to him, he was perfectly fine last night. I've had him for about 4 mos and never had any problems with the fish being aggressive. The other tank mates are yellow tang, coral beauty, 2 percs, firefish, yellow sleeper goby, cleaner wrasse, peppermint shrimp, 4 turbos. Everyone has always gotten along very well, I can't hardly believe that any of the fish would have killed him. PH is 8.3, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 15, spec gravity 1.027, temp 82 F. I just cannot understand what happened.

[romunov]

He could have molted...?

[spanair]

maybe he molted as already said, I was once surprised to see the molt laying there and I thought it was the actual shrimp, it just looked like the shrimp died or something, but then I saw him. :)

[mnewsome]

No, I'm positive he is dead, I took him out of the tank and inspected him all over for signs of being attacked (which there were none).

[spawner]

Where his gills black, or did it have any black spots on it?

[mnewsome]

No, his gills were puffed out though

[naruto_kun]

Was there a drastic change in your water parameters? Such as a quick drop or rise parameters such as in Salinty, PH, and temp?

-Steve

[mnewsome]

Nope

[rshimek]

Hi,

Your specific gravity is a bit high. They do best at 1.025 to 1.026. However, that may not have anything to do with the death. They do have a life span of 3-4 years, and it is possible that it simply died of old age.

[mnewsome]

I only had him for 4 or 5 mos and he was so tiny when I bought him, it just seems that he could not have been very old. He grew really fast too, I think he almost doubled in size by the time he died.

[rshimek]

Hi,

Well, sorry to say it, but unexplained mortalities do occur. These could be caused by reactions to other animals, to toxins produced by other animals, to aerosols in the aquarium room, or any other of myriad of sources. Many of these causes are difficult to determine, and effectively impossible for me or someother online person to guess at.

If the mortality is a one time occurence, it probably isn't too significant. If you start to get more animals dying, then you need to really start to re-examining your system.