death of my cleaner shrimp

[little urchin]

hi...i had a pair of cleaners....bought big full sized ones...a mated pair....the female full of eggs

today came home and she was dead on the sand...surrounded by a clear jelly -like substance....with no eggs in her swimmerette, and no sign of them

any ideas???

tested water immediately and all is fine

nick

 

[sadielynn]

are you sure it is not just molt ?? some times when they molt they disappear ....for a period of time till the new shell hardens I am not sure what the jelly like substance was other than perhaps some kind of discharge ? You may wish to take some of your water to a lfs and have them cross check your results .. Sorry for your loss :sad:

 

[mikeguerrero]

It sounds ironic that just one shrimp would die if water parameters are bad. Sounds like she molted but then again you mentioned that they were full sized shrimp and very probable that one died of age...

Hopefully she just molted....

Mike G

 

[little urchin]

it definately wasn't a moult...she's done it twice before with no problems!!! very strange...
spec grav.......1.023
ammonia........0
nitrite.............0
nitrate............3
dKH................9
ph.................8.1
calcium..........420
phos..............0

thanks for the input

 

[sadielynn]

other than the ph being a little low but everthing else is in check hum not sure why she died :sad:

 

[mikeguerrero]

She died of natural causes, many invertabrates die after laying clutches of eggs. The female octupus and squid have short life spans after propogation.

I really suspect yours died of age, I had large female die with clutches of eggs and I had her for about 2 years and when I first got her, she was very large adult size.

Mike G

 

[skipm]

Cleaner shrimp are hermaphroditic so any two of them will make a pair. It sounds to me like old age was the culprit but it doesn't make the loss any easier. Sorry for your loss, Skip