# What's wrong with my ghosts shrimp



## MelodiousBlue

I'm not a beginner with freshwater fish but I put this question here because this is the first time of taking care of these creatures. 
I got 3 ghost shrimp on saturday and slowly introduced them to there new tank (no other fish), which is a 6 gallon tank. The water is at the right temperatures and I believe it's clean. I checked it and there was no ammonia, I had just set it up and let it run 1 day before getting the ghost shrimp. 
My ghost shrimp look like they are dying or they are dead....I can't tell. 
At first it was just the female, she was upside down on the bottom and I thought she was going to have babies cause she was pregnant. But after continued to check on them I noticed she was curling up a little. She is not pink or white though like they look when they are dead. She does not move either and she looks the same way this morning. One of my males I could not find yesterday until I spotted him under a plant...upside down?!
I checked on him this morning and he was the same way, with his tail curled towards himself. But he is not pink or white either and he won't move. It's like they are frozen, are they molting or dying? I don't know how long it's supposed to take for them to molt. 
My other male is sitting in the corner and he's not moving much, but he's not upside down or anything. Yesterday he was sitting with the female, which I thought was just pregnant. 
I feel so bad for them and the male who's still alive! I don't know what to do with them and I don't want the male to have to see them dead if they are. 
The temperature of the water is 68-73 degrees. 
I did have a large seashell in there, was that the problem?
I took it out last night, maybe it caused the Ph to go to high?
It was weird because yesterday morning the female was swimming around normally and they all seemed just fine. 
I put a marimo moss ball in there from my bettas tank (healthy betta, he did have ich recently but it was treated and gone before I did that and a squezed it out).


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## MelodiousBlue

I just did a water change and I guess i'll wait to see if anything happens...
They are still this way, I got a picture of them if it helps:
http://www.fishforums.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=418&pictureid=3410
In the corner...kinda hard to see, sorry about that. 

http://www.fishforums.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=418&pictureid=3411
Right above the brown frame.


I'm sorry, I forgot to say hi when I posted this since I'm new to these forums. So hi. :]


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## MetalHead

Probable Causes:

1: No Ammonia isnt always a cycled tank. what are your Nitrite and Nitrate readings.
2: Is there any Copper in the tank?
3: Do you know the source of the shrimp? are they wild caught or tank bred?
4: How long did you acclimatize them for?
5: Is this planted tank? if it is planted, do you have CO2 being dosed? Also, do your have an airstone running in the tank through the night?


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## MelodiousBlue

I will check the nitrite and nitrate and post back soon. 
It is a new tank and I planned to cycle it before getting the shrimp but I ended up adding them sooner. I added the moss ball from my bettas tank to help build good bacteria. 
The tank only has a orange plastic plant for them to climb on (and hiding places), I was planning to get some live plants for them next weekend since I couldn't find the right ones this last weekend (when I got them). 
Their is no copper in the tank and I let the bag they were in float for around 40 minutes to an hour before adding them in. They were acting just fine till now, and eating (I think, I saw the males eat some, the female I hadn't seen eat, but assumed she was since they are scavengers, I put several flakes in the bottom and replaced them with new ones (taking the old ones out) each day so it wouldn't dirty the water. 
I put tropical flakes in there, but I also tried giving them betta sinking pellets and I got them from Petsmart. 
Do you think the changes just bothered them too much? 
I don't know what was fed to them at the store. I do have an airstone in their running at all times and a filter (as safe one for them).
It is a little noisy though. 

Thanks for answering!


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## MetalHead

let me confirm this: the 2 shrimps at this moment are translucent, unmoving? if so they are dead. a molt must have gone bad. you need to find a way to supplement the calcium content in the water if you want them to have a good easy molt.

am pretty sure its cos your tank isn't cycled though.


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## MelodiousBlue

I tested the water and the nitrite and nitrate is 0. Which makes sense with it being uncycled....thank you for helping me figure out what was wrong. 
I know what I need to do and not to now. 
If I leave them in there, will they help cycle the tank since they are gone now?
All 3 of them are the same way.....
If I get more, I will make sure the tank is safe and cycled with live plants first.
I have read that when you buy them from chain stores, they are not taken care of well when shipped because they are considered as feeder fish. Maybe it was this too that lowered their chance of surviving.


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## Corwin

it could be due to your tank not being cycled prior to getting them.

Also its really sad but most ghost shrimp are sold as feeders (which is why they have such low prices), the side effect of this however is that they are usualy poorly handled in transport (no one needs them to have a long life sho why be overly nice kind of thinking). As a result people who buy them as pets usualy report death rates of at least half the shrimp they buy. Your shrimp could be etreemely stressed due to something that happened to them from transport, or they could simply be dying as a result of it. My recomendation would be to like metalhead said find out how the store you bought them from obtains their shrimp, and what they usualy sell them for. If they are sold as feeders, wait for your tank to finish cycling and then buy a bunch of them (expect a die off of at least half), and remove the ones you lose.

Also as far as I know ghost shrimp shrimpletts require planted tanks to survive, but I could be wrong regarding that. (the plants provide them with a constant supply of food), also I would get a sponge to put over your filter if you have ambitions of breeding them, its not uncommon for filters to goble up shrimplets who drift too close.

Oh and if you go to the invertebrates section of the forum, there is a thread someone did some time back that has some really quality detailed information regarding ghost shrimp and breeding them, I would recomend going there as most of the information out on the net is foggy and confused.


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## MelodiousBlue

Thanks! ^_^
I will go there, I probably should have posted this there too, haha 
Sorry about that.


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## MetalHead

i wouldnt really do that. i use Sera's Instacycle to kick start my cycle. i can introduce my shrimps and add this liquid as well at the same time. i have a 97% survival rate on an average.

i'm not a very patient hobbyist as you would have already guessed.


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## MelodiousBlue

Okay, 
Haha, I have a hard time with patience too.


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## Corwin

either way ghost shrimp have a high mortality rate when first purchased, it probably isnt something you did.


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## MelodiousBlue

I have one more question. Since they died, I left them their till I took them out today (deciding what to do). I'm going to burry them. 
But I was wondering, should I clean the whole tank before adding new fish to it?
I don't know if ghost shrimp carry parasites or anything that could harm other fish....or if they were sick.


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