Does anyone know why my ghost shrimp could be turning white?

Also this is the same tank that I lost three Pleco in. All three came from the same store. Nothing else has died or showed signs of any type of illness.

The chemestry of the tank is balanced. The temp is a nice 74, though I prefer to swim in waters much warmer. (ha ha) Tanks only 38 gallons won't hold me no matter how much weight I lose. I have really worked hard to figure this out and keep coming up blank. It's my femals mainly- and at first I thouth they were going to lose there exoskeckeloton as they were staying very close to this rock that came all busted up. We didn't notice it in the store, but I figured it make a perfect hiding place for the shrimp.

Any way if you have any Idea's about that or where all my shrimp are going in a tank of Danio's please let me know. The only other thing that had lived in the tank of does live in the tank is, 3 plecos, 2 snails, Yes i know could be or is bad idea, neon and white cloud tetra. There are 10 danio's 6 glofish-which by all reality are still danio's just very expensive ones, 4 neon tetra's and 3 white cloud Tetra's. Nothing that could'really or would really eat them...so are they eating each other?

Well you never know when lights out. I would suspect the plecos are eating them. As far as loosing fish it is never a good idea to introduce new fish without acclimating them first. I would suspect you introduced already sick fish. What is your maintnance schedule? How long has the tank been up. Filtration etc? BTW Welcome to FWM!

I did establish my tank before adding fish. Then I added everything but the pleco's and the Dano's the first day it was safe to add fish. I had to wait for them to get their shipment of Dano's in as I wanted old fashion zebra's. It had been up and running a good couple months before adding pleco's and I suspect not enough food build up though I was adding the pellet's and removing what was't eaten in 2 hours as directed. Is it possible the pleco's were all ready sick? They are the only ones that have died, and the only other ones it seems to be affecting is the ghost shrimp.

I would suspect they were already sick...from what you describe I can't think of anything else.

Yep I am thinking I bought sick fish because tank 5 is now looking icky. Really Bad Too. I have a Snail in there and I am scared to treat as I don't want to hurt my snail, but I also can't stand seeing my other fish babies included suffer. Did I mention I have six Tanks, 3 Parrots which is my experteeze, and 2 dogs all living in my bed room? The six tanks go like this:Tanks 1-3 are all 3 gallon. and yes a little over stocked. Tanks 1-Red Beta Apple snail, and a small algae eater that as it increases in size will be moved to tank 4 then 5 then 6 then 7 when and if I get it. Tank 2 Same as tank 1 but blue Beta splenda, apple snail, algae eater, tank 3 Royal Crown Beta that is absolutely astounding~! Apple snail, chinese algae eater. Tank 4: is my 38 Gallon previosly described. Tank Five was given to me by my grand neice and my sister in law: It is a 15 gallon, and contains 1 dwarf pleco= short and plump- 1 large chinese algea eater, 5 phantom tetra and a molly female, loner marble I dumped in there because she was very aggressive in the live bearing tank and I hate aggression! Tank six is a 14 gallon that is for my live bearing fish. Right now that is the tank that is sick. It has a female and male platy, balloon belly platy, single black molly as I lost the male early on. Three to seven baby molly's and one serious Pleco. All very Icky. Oh and my favorite of all a snail all the tanks have one apple snail except the 38 gallon which has two mystery snails.

I hope everything gets better for you. It' hard to say just what went wrong. Yeah, I believe your tanks are a little overstocked but i'm not the one to judge. Is there a way to pull the snail out so you can treat the sick fish? Maybe put it in one of the non infected tanks.
One more question-What is your maintenance scedule on the infected tanks? With sick and dying fish you would want to make sure the water is very clean. Clean water is a must with sick fish.

One more thing I meant to say was, in my experience with ghost shrimp they turn white right before they die.(sorry)

Plecos eat ghost shrimp for sure. I throw a few in now and again for the big one here.

If they're vanishing I'd blame the pleco, if they're dead and you find them, you don't have enough ghost shirmp.

I get a 100 or so perhaps (a big scoop) every two weeksish. They live in a unheated filtered 10g tank. I've noticed they seem to have a higher mortality rate the warmer the water is.

Mine are kept to feed Figure 8 Puffers though so I'm not committed to keeping them long term.

kygrl wrote:

One more thing I meant to say was, in my experience with ghost shrimp they turn white right before they die.(sorry)

They'll also turn white if they get an internal bacterial or fungal infection. No way to cure it, either. Where did ya get yer shrimp from? A lot of wholesalers ship shrimp that are relatively old and past their prime to the retailer, so the lifespan of these shrimp is shorter than those ya'd get from a specialized dealer. If ya look on-line, a lot of on-line sources advertise they ship young shrimp. These critters don't live long anyways, and even less if they're already past their prime.

WYite

Ok live and learn. ghost shrimp are not a keepable pet. I can deal with that. I just loved watching them go through their lives, shedding their outer shells, growing new ones and eating the old. Eating food, and the insides of their body turning the color of the food. I spent countless hours watching them.

Can this hurt the other fish left in the tank? This white sickness?

I went a head and treated my tank snail and all, thinking if I didn't, and I moved the snail he could infect the other tanks.

I hope he makes it through and my one last pleco does. I still have the one my Grand neice gave me and that tank is so dang healthy it's not funny. So I am down sizeing tanks as fish die. I am allowing proper inches per gallon round abouts or doing more frequent water changes.

I do water changes weekly now. I take out 1/4 to 1/3 of the water and replace it with filtered water that has sat out opened to the air for 48 hours. I add my treatments and pray like the rest of you. I know you can do every thing right and still lose every fish in your tank, and you can do it all wrong and not one dies. My cousins, never clean the tank and you can smell the amonia when you walk in the house. smells like cats litter box but they have no cat. The have never lost a fish in all the years I have been around them. I keep track of levels on paper what fish I lost to what on what date, if I know and so on test the water often and write it all down and can't seem to keep a quality tank going. *Sigh*

Some fish can tolerate filth, and keep on living. Doesn't make it good for them and doesn't mean it won't cut their life expectancy short. In my experience it's mostly goldies, but I've been amazed at some of the downright nasty conditions I've found them living in.

Well I hope my dano's and glofish are exceptionally tolerant. No more ghost shrimp.

My 15 gallon tank has it's limit- with 5 phantom tetra's, a dwarf pleco that is the ugliest thing I have ever laid eyes on, and a pretty big bottom feeder/chinese algae eater. Do you think if I changed the water ever two weeks, it could tolerate 4 neon tetra's and 3 small white clouds? The Neon's are small at this point too. Less then a 1/4 of an inch each. The white clouds are 2 small like the neons and one about a 1/2 inch. I could move the chinese algea eater to the big 38 gallon tank once I clean it and figure out what to do with the ghost shrimp. I have had several burried females drop eggs under the big rocks and I don't know what will become of them if anything.

emogurl wrote:

ghost shrimp are not a keepable pet. I can deal with that. I just loved watching them go through their lives, shedding their outer shells, growing new ones and eating the old. Eating food, and the insides of their body turning the color of the food. I spent countless hours watching them.

I wouldn't go so far as calling them not keepable. Just make sure ya get 'em from a reputable breeder, and get them young enough that they spawn in your tank. Give then a small tank of their own and your shrimp population will sustain itself.

emogurl wrote:

Can this hurt the other fish left in the tank? This white sickness?

I wouldn't discount the possibility, depends on the nature of the infection.

emogurl wrote:

I went a head and treated my tank snail and all, thinking if I didn't, and I moved the snail he could infect the other tanks.

What did ya treat it with?

emogurl wrote:

I hope he makes it through and my one last pleco does. I still have the one my Grand neice gave me and that tank is so dang healthy it's not funny. So I am down sizeing tanks as fish die. I am allowing proper inches per gallon round abouts or doing more frequent water changes..

"Inches per gallon" is not a good rule of thumb. Doubling the length of a fish doesn't double the body mass, it actually increases the mass by a factor of 3 to 8 times depending on the shape of the fish. As a very basic rule for very small (2" or less) fish it's workable, but I don't reccomend it. It can not be used successfuly with plecos.

emogurl wrote:

... The have never lost a fish in all the years I have been around them. I keep track of levels on paper what fish I lost to what on what date, if I know and so on test the water often and write it all down and can't seem to keep a quality tank going. *Sigh*

Fish that have been kept in a tank without a water change for years can gradually adapt to those conditions. I would guess that the pH of that tank is very low, that little or no nitrification is taking place and that the ammonia smell is coming from ammonium ions rather than actual ammonia. The ammonium ion is formed when ammonia picks up an extra hydrogen molecule, converting the NH3 (ammonia) to NH4+ (ammonium ion). As a simple definition, acidic water is water with a high concentration of free hydrogen (H+), which attach to the ammonia. Ammonium will often catch another molecule to form an ammonium salt. Ammonium is not toxic. In addition, the nitrates that have never been removed have probably stabilized. Fish can adapt to an amazingly high concentration of nitrate, dependent on pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature and species of fish. Fish living at over 200 ppm of nitrate is not unheard of and actually occurs in some environments in nature. Ammonia and nitrite are very toxic to fish and if they were present in any great concentration those fish would not survive.

Here are the problems with their set up. First, the high concentrations of the above metabolic wastes, as well as others, is not good for the fish's health and may have stunted growth. If they decide to add new stock as these fish die off, the new stock will not be able to handle the water conditions and will die quickly. Finally, a sudden and rapid increase in pH (such as due to a water change) would likely cause severe health problems, possibly even death, in the fish now in the tank as the ammonium disassociated, releasing a large amount of ammonia into the water.

I have an article I wrote on paper last week when the power was out that goes through all of this. I need to get it typed up and submitted in the articles section. In the meantime, hope this helps.

WYite

As for your 15 gallon tank, I'd advise water changes no less than weekly, get the algae-eater out of there, and adding either the neons or white clouds, but not both for now. If ya want to add both, then go with twice a week water changes. BTW, ya didn't mention whether ya had live plants or not. Though they don't mitigate the need for water changes, live plants do use nitrate, phospate, carbon dioxide and other metabolic wastes given off by the fish, allowing a little bit of wiggle room on stocking and the water change schedule.

WYite

We want to try live plants but are a bit timid about it and when I say we I really mean me! It's my room, my fish, my tanks and I am the one trying so hard to learn how to manage them correctly. I appreciate all your guy's help! More then you know.

So if I add live plants-can they be started from bulbs or do I buy the plants already in progress.

I would think there would be less chance of transfer if I start from bulb? Transfer meaning if the plants are in a tank they could potentally carry in a disease?

Plants from most fish stores shouldn't have issues with disease. You may end up with small snails as hitchhikers, but I've never run across any problems with plants.

That being said, it's mostly a matter of lighting and preference. I'm a fan of moss balls, sometimes called marimo balls depending on your area. They're very sturdy, and have managed just fine in low light. Peace Lilly has also worked well for me in low light situations. Peace Lily get big though. I had one start out at around 8 inches, and is now near two feet tall.

The bulbs, if they're the Aponogeton ones they need to be stuffed into something unless you want them floating around your tank.

I think I will print out what you have here and take it with me. When I put in the live plants do I remove all plastic plants, or just the ones in the area of the new live ones. I have the plastic / silk plants hiding my air stones across the back, along with two huge fake rocks, and a huge fake log which hides my air hose. I would start with the plants in the large tank, to see if I could save some shrimp. I so much do like to watch them.

Plants won't save your shrimp if they're old or funky. Plants help filtration by getting the nitrites out of the water and look neat too.

You don't need to remove any of your fake plants either. Depending on what plants you pick up you may want some small clay pots or something to keep them in.

The marimo balls can just be tossed in and they'll move around on their own in the tank. No, really. Sometimes they float other times they sit on the bottom. It's why I like 'em. But most other plants come bare root.

I get small clay pots at the hardware store, or sometimes the art store and use gravel as "dirt" to hold them down. If you want to get really hardcore about it, you can turn your potted plant into a sponge filter too.

What do these marimo balls look like? Do they look like something you would throw in your dryer or washer on the rinse cycle? I have seen these things before but I thought they were odd. I didn't even realize they were plants.

Think a fuzzy green golf ball.

Too lazy to go take a picture of mine, but here's one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marimo_lake_akann.jpg

nope never seen those anywhere here. Hope I can find them
They are cool. Can you put to may of those in your tank?

I've never given much thought to the max plant capacity of a tank. I normally just throw in some plants because I like them.

The turtles here kinda wreck most of my plants, so I've never hit any limit. Well besides hitting the limit of picking bits out of the filter. I've have seen some tanks that were insanely planted. Growing out the top of the tank and all that were doing fantastic.

I'm sure there is a limit, but so long as you watch them and keep trimming off the dead and funky bits you should be oke.

I have four moss balls in my snail tank.(wish I had more) Saint's right, mine are never in the place they were the night before.
http://www.freshwatermadness.com/freshwater-invertebrates-f2/my-snail-babies-and-their-tank-t861.htm
They are available all over the web. You could post here in the classifieds to find them. Try Aquabid and Ebay. Try this guy. I saw this this morning on AC.
http://www.aquabotanic.com/

Be careful though some are selling what they call "moss balls on a string" these are not origingal moss balls. I've seen them in LFS's and they look nothing like the original.

Saint-Have you posted pictures of your turtles? I would love to see them!! I want some but don't have the room.

The moss balls on a string are java moss wrapped around some styrofoam, at least in my area. They look completely ghetto so you shouldn't have too much trouble telling them apart.

This place is one of the cheapest I've found online that has 'em:

http://www.aquariumplants.com/product_p/moss1.htm

I've posted one or two pics, but haven't done too many. I'll try and get some more up after all the easter nuttiness dies down.

I've seen the same thing, SF. Some even come wrapped around a small rock...lol.