dead shrimp

[zily]

hey,

well my poor peppermint shrimp just died. had a ltitle less than a month, cleaned out all of my aiptasia, molted twice, and found him dead.
he was well fed brine shrimp, and got to a point where he wasn't very shy. i wasn't concerned too much about the molting since he always seemed active, and figured he was young. he was very small, about 1 1/2".

Not sure why he died. I have lots of coral, which are doing amazing. my bird's nest coral is even growing some buds off the sides. I also have a hermit crab that is fine.

possible causes
1. Salinity swings. I have a 5.5ga tank, so two days without top off can bring the s.g. to over 1.03 probably. never actually measured it, but i assume it can't be good. corals seem unaffected.

2. aluminum poisoning-- not metal has been inserted to the tank, however hte brine shrimp i fed him had aluminum foil on the top. I'm thinking maybe his food concentrated the aluminum in him so that nothing else was affected.


that's all i can think of. He cleaned out well over 20 anenome's was very active, and had been feeding brine shrimp for about 1 week. I didn't feed him for two days, but i figured that shouldn't be bad.

i doubt it, but i do have lots of bristle worms and a hermit crab. the shrimp was found with his head somewhat broken off, but i'm not sure i that was actually the casue of death.

anyways, thanks for the help. I want to get anotehr shrimp, but i don't want him to die

-daniel

[mikchabe]

Probably the salinity swings (1.03 is pretty high). Shrimps are sensitive to water changes.

If your aquarium does not have a cover, you might look into one to reduce the evaporation.

Hope this helps.

[chrisstie]

Inverts can be really sensative to salinity swings. Another thing I wonder about would be diet.

Peppermints don't need to survive on aiptasia alone and will commonly accept prepared foods.

If you are feeding brine, however you may want to reconsider your tank's diet. Perhaps you dont have many\any animals that need to have meaty foods, but if you do or plan to upgrade to a larger tank in the future I would encourage you to check out the nutrirional value of brine (very low unless freshly hatched usually for babies) compared to that of mysis shrimp and other meaty foods.

Mysis tend to have more protien and vitamins compared to brine where brine tastes great and is almost like candy- your animals love it but nutritionally it'd be like a lollipop instead of a balanced meal.

Just work on the evaporation and consider a healthier diet and perhaps your next try will be more successful, good luck!

[zily]

I guess I'll try getting another shrimp when i'm feeling confident, and maybe get a differnet kind since I only have 1 aiptasia left.

thanks!