Sudden shrimp death

[Wannabe29]

Hey, all. So, about a week ago I bought 5 peppermint shrimp from my lfs. I noticed that the shrimp had some spots on their gills but I figured that it was just some "stuff" that got caught on their gills and they would flush it out after they got settled in.

Ok, so I drip acclimated them for an hour or so and added them to the tank. I had one peppermint shrimp in there and one scarlet cleaner shrimp. One of the new shrimp had a weird bulge on the side of its carapace. It had the same coloration of the rest of the shrimp, it just looked like a bubble on its side. Unfortunately, I didn't see that until after I added it.

Well, as the days passed I started seeing fewer and fewer peppermints. I figured they were hiding. Then, the scarlet stopped coming out to attack the turkey baster at feeding time.

Today, a few days after the scarlet stopped coming out to feed, the scarlet is dead and I can see one peppermint. I can see black spots on the scarlet's gills and, oddly enough, it has eggs on its swimmerettes (I say "odd" because it's the only scarlet in the tank). I'm assuming the peppermints had some kind of disease related to the black spots on their gills. Has anyone had this happen to them before? Do I have to do anything to treat my tank before adding any new shrimp? Will time simply kill off whatever caused this and will my hermits be affected?

Thanks for any input. The remaining pep. does not appear to have spots on its gills at this time.

Oh, the tank is a 40br. All water params are within norms.
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 0
phos reads 0
calcium ~410
mag 1450
alk 8ish
sg 1.026

All corals are fine. All fish have always ignored the shrimp (I have 2 convict blennies, 1 bangai cardinal, 1 occelaris clown, 1 royal gramma, 1 possum wrasse, 1 yellow watchman goby, 1 helfrichi firefish)

[Wannabe29]

Bump....nobody? Is this some new super-disease?

[bnumair]

shrimps are very sensitive inverts. they require very good water quality and dont do good with nitrates. also they require very slow drip acclimation process, they also dont do good with shipping or transferring.
peppers usually do hide and molt often. they only come out to feed and at night u can see them in dark looking for food.
got sure on what happened to the shrimp that died by my guess would be stress of collective of things i mentioned above or maybe a bad/sick invert to begin with when u got it.

[Wannabe29]

I'm leaning towards sick to begin with. As posted, my parameters are excellent. I do weekly water changes with RO/DI water. Sandbed siphon each time and the filter sock gets changed at least once a week. The shrimp were drip acclimated for an hour or so. I have a mix of lps, sps, and softies and all corals are doing great. So, I would be utterly shocked if there was a water quality issue.

I started out with only 1 pep and the scarlet/skunk cleaner. I had those for about 10 months before adding the new pep's. Within a week or so of adding the peps, all but one of the 7 shrimp I had are dead. Also, I haven't seen my emerald crabs, either. I usually get a glimpse of at least one of the 2 at feeding time. However, since adding the peps, nothing.

I'm almost certain it's a disease I'm dealing with. I'm just curious as to what it could be and how to proceed from here. Again, the skunk cleaner looked awesome when it died, with the exception of the little black spots in its gill area, under the carapace. It definitely didn't have those before I added the peps. I noticed the spots on the peps gills just after I added them and thought it was a little odd. So, I did look at the skunk and it didn't have them. I remember thinking that, if it did get them, there was something wrong and that it would have come from the peps. Within a few days after its last molt, the skunk was dead and most of the peps were nowhere to be found.

[Vince272992]

OMG that is wht happened to my peps.... i recently got 2 peppermint shrimp and a week or so after i got them they both dissappiered, i cant find them any where not even during the night and one of the peps i bought had a couple balckish dots on him

[ojonas81]

I had a very similar thing happen to me earlier this year. Could not figure out what was going on. Everything in the tank looked good but kept losing shrimps. I thought all my water parameters were good as well but one day I decided to take my water to my LFS to have them test it and the one thing that stood out was that my readings of my salinity was way off. My refractometer showed 1.025 but in reality it was closer to 1.030. I had my refractometer re-calibrated and then slowly lowered the salinity until I ended up at 1.0245 where I try to stay. I have since this not lost another shrimp.

[bnumair]

guys not saying they didnt die but they are excellent hiders too.

[Wannabe29]

Dude....really? I have a 40br. Yeah...I have plenty of rock work. However, I don't have so much that I wouldn't be able to see 6 peppermint shrimp, the majority of whom were at the max size for their species. C'mon, now.

Anyone else?

Oh, as for the refractometer, I use calibrating solution before each test. I'd have to assume that if it was off, I'd see some effects on the other tank inhabitants. I just can't see it being the water based on what the tests are telling me and the maintenance schedule I have.

[DownwardDawg]

The last 3 peps I put in my 29 gal tank died in short time. One disapeared rather quickly and the other two disapeared a few months later. they hung out with my yellow watchman gobie for a while then I just quit seeing them.
And no, they're not hiding. I watch my tank constantly at night with a red lens flashlight looking for my Berghia Nudibranch's.

[bnumair]

i had 5 peppers in a 120 gal tank that disappeared after first few days. i saw 2 die as bodies were floating around but 3 i assumed dead. after 1 yrs or so i tore the tank down to re do the aquascape and i found then in the bottom of the buckets i kept the rock in. anyways i just wanted to share my experience with u. it may not be the case in ur situation.

[Wannabe29]

Yeah, I could easily see losing them in a 120. While I do have crevices and caves in my 40, I think I'd be hard-pressed to miss any them, especially given how frequently I've been inspecting the tank. Plus, when they were alive, they usually made an appearance at feeding time. The original one would attack the turkey baster I feed with just the same as the skunk did. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to keep doing my regular maintenance and try again in a little while. Hopefully, with time, I can get rid of whatever killed them off in the first place. Thankfully it doesn't seem to be affecting the hermits. Hopefully they won't act as a carrier if it's a virus of some sort.