Coral banded shrimp

[kenandmoose2]

My coral banded shrimp was acting funny last night. I couldn't figure out why but in the end he/she tore its claws off. After that it was just hanging out in the tank. Not hiding like normal but I thought it was a little weird. This morning I noticed one of its antennas was laying on a rock and it was just chilling out on a different rock. Im guessing that it was something to do with the coral I added yesterday. I did dip them and rinse them good but thats the only thing that changed. Unless moving rock around really pissed it off. Up tell them it was doing really well. Im guess it wont make it but time will tell I suppose.

 

[Snid]

What type of coral?
Where did it come from?
Was it Quarantined and/or acclimated in any way?
Did it get dipped in any way, and if so what was it dipped in?
Water parameters?
How old is the Shrimp?
Tank size?
Age of tank?
What do you feed the Shrimp?
How often is it fed?

 

[goma]

Did it just molt?

 

[Snid]

Did it just molt?

Heh. I should have asked that first.

 

[Steve L]

My coral banded molts about every 6-10 weeks. Sometimes the molted shell is sitting on a rock and I don't notice that it's just a shell until it starts floating around in the current. They molt everything including the antenna.

 

[Snid]

Yeah... My Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp molts about at the same rate as your Coral Banded Shrimp Steve. I debated about telling my wife it would happen or not just to see if she would freak out. I ended up telling her from the get go that it was bound to happen.

 

[kenandmoose2]

I dont think it molted. I added an acan, a hammer, and a mini max all of which opened up as soon as they were in the tank. The acan and the hammer gladly took food last night and the mini max nem attached solidly as soon as I set him on the rock. I rearranged all of my rock last night and disrupted the whole tank. Didn't test the water after I was done as it was 10:00 pm and I had to get up at 3:00 am. For work. I moved everything around including a zoa colony that was attached to the rock it was on. I may have torn it a little when I moved it. My tank is 3 or 4 months old and the shrimp seems to be the only thing in distress. All of my other inverts were hard at work. Tank size is a 40 breeder. I feed him a chunk of silver side every couple of days and what ever he gets when I feed. Not sure how old

 

[Snid]

Keep a close eye on him, and double check those water parameters when you can. Sometimes they remove their own arms and legs as if they are outgrowing them and then grow them back in about a month after a few molts. His arms may have gotten damaged when things were moved around and he removed it for that reason. He might also be behaving a little oddly because he had established a territory and now it has been mixed up.

 

[kenandmoose2]

I will check the water parameters as soon as I can.

 

[kenandmoose2]

Made home last night to feed and check on my tank and it appears that what ever had my coral banded shrimp pissed didnt kill him. I didnt have time to check water parameters but I found one of my lights cranked up to 100% blues and 100% whites........dam.....think I burned a couple of coral. I normal run the lights at 20% white and 50% blues. Anyhow my next challenge haha nursing a few corals back from a "sunburn".

 

[Snid]

Heh... Poor lil' guys.

20% white seems very low to run at normally. I'm no coral/light expert, so speaking up in hopes that all will explain this to me. Why so low? It seems like it would be more cost effective to buy cheaper lights and run them closer to 100% than buy lights so powerful that you only run them at 20%. I'm confuzzled, mostly because I run mine at 100%.

 

[sirrealism]

Snid I ran a chinese d120 over my 40b and had to keep the whites at 30% to keep from burning corals. Remember that tank is shallow and if corals are not on the bottom they might be in 6" of water or less so the par can be crazy high at that depth. I did run my blues at about 75%

 

[kenandmoose2]

I believe I have basically the same lights, sirrealism. 2- 3w cree 165w fixtures over the tank. There is more than enough light there. I dont know what the par is but im sure it is really high on the sand if I have them cranked up. Keeping them backed down should help with heat and light life too.

 

[kenandmoose2]

Well the shrimp pulled though. He seems to be doing well. His claws and the 2 legs he pulled off have grown back and he took food last night.

 

[sirrealism]

Very cool.

 

[kenandmoose2]

I think this shrimp is super sensitive to the coral dip I have been using. I bought a new torch and dipped it rinsed it really well and put it in the tank. The shrimp started doing the same dog and pony show except this time he pulled off his antenna's all 6 of the are less than an inch long. Guess I'll have to come up with a better system for doing this
Hes still alive though and his claws have grown back.

 

[Snid]

A quarantine process before introducing them to the DT would help with this. Quarantining corals is slightly more difficult than fish though as the water needs to be perfect and there still needs to be appropriate light and flow. I would think, however, that even a one day quarantine process would help dilute anything that the coral was dipped in prior to it being introduced to the DT and for such a short amount of time the coral should be okay. I would think.