Cherry Shrimp Death-Failed Moult?

[ubergrrrl]

hi-it is with great sadness i write this as in the past 4 days i have had the sad passing of two of my cherry shrimp

all other occupants of the tank are fine and dandy (amano shrimp,other cherry shrimp,vampire shrimp,danios,tetras and otos) in fact a couple of the amanos have moulted within this four day period.

Four days ago i found a cherry shrimp corpse,and wasnt too concernered as obviously,these things happen, but did note that it had a white "crack" running around his midsection (roughly about where the saddle would be)

Two days later,i noted another adult shrimp who i think was berried (i have a couple of berried at the moment and they are in hiding!) was looking a bit sorry for herself on a plant.Just standing still. Last night same shrimp was lying on its side,again with a white crack arounds its midsection,so i grabbed it and shoved her in some water out of my other blue pearl tank. She stayed pretty much the same after a few hours (was expecting a passing yesterday evening) so i popped her in with the blue pearls overnight,but she didnt make it

is this a failed moult?-i still have the corpse so i can photograph if needed,and it looks like the moult has tried to come away but hasnt,but im not 100% sure.

I have had a major outbreak of snails last week,and was wondering if they could of taken calcium out of the water and caused this? I have only got a dip test strip so cant be too exact with figures,but it looks like the water has gone alot softer than it was-KH dropped,PH dropped. I have a couple of thoughts what has happened-

1-failed moult (just one of those things-possible but two in a week-odd)
2-failed moult due to lack of something in the water (possible but amano x2 and succesfully moulted in the last week-one last night)
3-ammonia spike due to addition of tetras (possible but no other shrimp been affected including a very berried cherry)
4-big lump of bad luck!
I would do a water change,but im worried in case this affects my berried shrimp-i dont want her to drop her eggs-this is my first shrimp pregnancy!

help!

 

[ubergrrrl]

Just found a dead oto as well have changed 30% water. All other occupants still looking well,just noticed Mrs Amano shrimp is full of eggs as well,poor thing,they will all die without brackish water for the lava when born

 

[Baccus]

I would say the water has got too soft for the shrimp, did you see the shrimp feeding on their shed shells at all? Or could your filter have whiske it away before they had the chance too? A snail explosion could also explain the lack of calcium etc needed for strong shells.

It is possible to get mineral blocks (even special dedicated shrimp gravel which is not cheap), a lot of people use the mineral blocks for keeping their crystal reds and blacks healthy. Or you could do what I generally do, a varied diet including defrosted bloodworms, dead (non poisonous) tree leaves in the tank and when ever possible squish a few pest snails in the tank. The fish and shrimp will come over to feast on the squished snails and the crushed shell being left in the tank allows the shrimp to also feed on that.

 

[ubergrrrl]

i dont actually SEE them eating the shed skins,but they disapear after about a day,not sure if they were just disolving or something as i never saw anything snack on them!

All other tankmates are fine and dandy-currently have 2 berried cherries (found them!) and they both still holding there eggs so am hopefull that in about a week they might make me a shrimpy grandma!

what sort of mineral block is used? i have started squishing the snails that i can now-we had a major problem and removed the bigger snails from the tank-wish i had squished them now-but them big ones make too much of a loud crunch for my liking!