Dead Shrimp

[rdd1952]

I found one of my ghost shrimp dead last night before I did my water change. I had noticed that since I changed to the black sand a couple weeks ago that one of them was a lot whiter than their normal brownish clear color. I didn't think a whole lot about it thinking that the shange to black sand from the play sand might be causing the color change. Is it normal for them to do this before they die? How long do ghost shrimp generally live? I got him back in January.

 

[emma12321]

They seem to go whiter as they get older. Average age is supposed to be 2 years but i have had one of my original 3 for just over 2 years.

Emma

 

[rdd1952]

He must have just died when I found him as he was still softish. The only other one I ever had die was pretty firm, kind of like boiled shrimp that you would eat. He was pretty big when I got him so he might have been kind of older already. I've never had any other problems with shrimp though.

 

[mattbeau]

ghost shrimp need an iodide supliment to help with the molting process

are you using any plant ferts like nutrafin Plant grow, some contain trace elements of copper which is bad for invertabres (I found this out the hard way)

Other than that, generally the whiting is a sign of not being able to molt correctly, and there are plenty of reasons for it, I dont know a whole lot about ghost shrimp but I lost about 10 this month to the same thing

I really cant think of anything else though

good luck

 

[rdd1952]

I use some ferts but have been using them for about 6 months without any problem. I will check the labels for copper. I also have 5 amano shrimp plus one more ghost shrimp in there and they're still doing fine.

 

[mattbeau]

I also noticed that my shrimp pellets have copper sulfate in them, wonder if that is just as bad