Peppermint shrimp keep dying?

[Squibege]

I first bought a trio of peppermint shrimp several months ago to help tackle an apastia (I call them my 'weeds') problem. My newest piece of live rock came with quite a bunch... so I put the rock in my QT tank and added the shrimp so it would be their sole food source (yes they were the right type of shrimp. The store that I got them from only imports the ones that are good apastia control).

One shrimp died after about a week in QT (lots of weeds left). They didn't seem to be consuming much, so I decided to put the two in my main tank for the sake of having some shrimp and to possibly get the odd weed that was hanging around in there. I found remains/ a molt within 2 days of being in the big tank. Zero signs of the last shrimp within a week. I'm currently nuke-ing my 'weeds' with kalk paste instead.

Several months later (about one month ago) I decided to try another trio to keep the 'weeds' out of my main tank and because I would like to have some shrimp. First two weeks all were present and accounted for. Last week, I was only able to find two... this week just one! They always came out when I fed frozen, I've only seen one molt so I don't THINK they are hiding...

90G+ sump
SG (refracrometer) is 1.025/6
Nitrate- undetectable
Phosphate- undetectable
Ca, Alk, Mg are a little low but not way out of whack.
10G Water changes every week or two
Tank has been up since February '16. Only losses have been shrimp and a few snails... what can I do here?


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[backdraft]

What are your tanks other readings?

ph, NO4, Ammonia,...ect.

Do you dose anything?

What type of fish do you have?

Any extra info will help to figure out what is going on.

[Squibege]

NO4 and ammonia have been non existent since my cycle was done. pH i haven't tested in a while but it's usually around 8.

Occasionally dose a bit of Kalk by adding a small dose to my top-off tank. Haven't run kalk in a while because right now I'm trying to clear out a never-ending diatom outbreak so I'm siphoning off small amounts of sand to rinse at a time and replacing with freshly made water.

I have two juvenile perc. clownfish, a purple fire fish, bangaii cardinal and a YWG.


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[Tautoga]

What is your pH?

If it is below 8.0, it could be a problem for the shrimp. Water changes alone might not keep the pH up.

I had this problem when I first set up my tank. My RO unit makes acidic water (5.0) and even with the salt to 1.025 the pH was still around 7.6. I didnt know this and added a shirmp to the tank and it was dead 24 hours later. I adjusted the pH and makes sure it stays above 8.0. Ive now had 2 shrimp for almost a year now.

[AlSimmons]

Are you finding the dead bodies or are they just disappearing? If it's the latter then you might have some sort of unwated hitchhiker lurking among the rocks.

[CrayolaViolence]

Not all peppermint shrimp will eat aptasia. If you aren't feeding them, then they are probably starving to death.

[Squibege]

Disappearing mostly. I know I have some kind of crab lurking in the rock... only seen him twice though.
I'll monitor my pH closer. I figured watching my alk only would be okay.
I was worried about food sources for the first set, but the second went right into my main tank so they should have been able to scavenge, correct?


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[Sinthel]

Once they wiped out the aiptasia the only thing they would eat was Hikari Seaweed Extreme. My other fish didn't bother with it so it would drift onto sandbed or rocks and they would go scavenge it. The occasional aiptasia pops up occasionally and then vanish, so imagine they will dine on that when its available.

[Tanthaitrung]

the only thing they would eat was Hikari Seaweed Extreme
Really? Liveaquaria says, it's carnivore

http://m.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2971+701&pcatid=701

[nereefpat]

How are you acclimating?

[Sinthel]

Really? Liveaquaria says, it's carnivore

http://m.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2971+701&pcatid=701
I'll shoot you a video if you like. My peppermint starts swimming around when I drop it in to seek it out. No bs.

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[LarryZ]

I had a moderate aptasia problem a few months ago. I bought 4 peppermint shrimp and they took care of the aptasia in only a few days. I read in several places where it is not uncommon to never see them after initial stocking since they are nocturnal. However mine were fairly active even when the lights were on. Especially during feeding time when I fed with the pellets. They would pick the pellets off the bottom and LR.

Slowly though they would pass until after about 3 months when the last one died.
The owner of the LFS I go to said that it wasn't unusual for them to only last a few months.

[anthonys51]

i never had luck with peppermint shrimps either. i bought 4 they all died within months. my skunk cleaners have been around for about 18 months and my blood fire cleaner around 12 months. so not really sure why . also had a harely for 12 months

[Preble]

I have found that peppermint shrimp need an hour or more of acc. Time.


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[anthonys51]

Maybe I'll try that next time I buy them


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[monkeysee1]

never had luck with peppermint shrimps either.

Ditto here - I can't keep those for ANYTHING! I know they don't like fluctuatioins in alkalinity or pH. Once I caught my Pakistani butterfly honing in on one I had when he thought I wasn't looking! Lol! Aha moment!
But what's weird is that I have a Fire Shrimp and a Scarlett Skunk cleaner shrimp and BOTH are as happy as can be, and I've have both for over a year now!

[Betaktical]

Definitely hit and miss. Bought 3 and never saw 2 of them so bought 2 more and they paired up with the 3rd and have been fine. Except for one day when one went rouge and decided to kill about 50 small featherduster so had in the tank. Annihilated all of them in 2 days.


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[LarryZ]

Definitely hit and miss. Bought 3 and never saw 2 of them so bought 2 more and they paired up with the 3rd and have been fine. Except for one day when one went rouge and decided to kill about 50 small featherduster so had in the tank. Annihilated all of them in 2 days.


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Mine did that too. Took care of the aptasia but also eliminated all of our little feather dusters that came on our live rock. Shame cause my wife and I really liked the littler feather dusters.

[Betaktical]

Mine did that too. Took care of the aptasia but also eliminated all of our little feather dusters that came on our live rock. Shame cause my wife and I really liked the littler feather dusters.



Yeah if I could have caught him with out tearing the rock work apart he would have been in the freezer. But they do awesome to clear aptasia and I have added around 20 lb of live rock since my tank was done cycling and have not had any problems with it since the first month of having my tank. Hasn't touched coral or anything else. Just lost his mind one day and decided he didn't like the dusters


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