Small black dots on my cleaner shrimp appearing?

[funman1]

My shrimp has all sorts of black dots appearing on him.
They go away with each molt, but then they come back, and more seem to appear between molts.

It started with one black spot and now after 4 molts he's up to 20-25 small black dots..

I searched all over the forums for anything like this and can't find anything??
Help??

Thanks
~Steve~

[jaymz101]

Its a disease. Pink shrimp (the kind you eat) get it too. Its either a virus or bacteria depending on which type. There are two types Taura Syndrome Virus (TSV) or Black Spot disease AKA Shell Disease (bacterial). I dont know causes or treatments, or even if they occur in Lysmata species. Most of the research is on Pennaeus species (mainly food shrimps, pink, white, brown, etc.). Google it.

[spawner]

I've found a lot of vibrio problems with cleaner shrimps, are there any black spots on the gills? Do they go away after the molt then come back?

[funman1]

The spots go away after a molt, but they are not on the gills, just the shell..

[spawner]

Its bacterial most likely. Do you have more than on in the tank? how old is the shrimp, this normally kills older shrimp as it takes a few more days for them to molt and thus allowing the infection to worsen.

[funman1]

nope he is the only shrimp in the tank, he is about 6 months old.
If I add another shrimp will he infect it too??
If he dies how long should I wait before adding another shrimp with out fear of contamination??

[Jeffrey Porter]

when i caught my scarlet cleaner shrimp it had one 3-4 mm black spot on its right side above his legs. after a few molts it disappeared and it never returned. any ideas?

[spawner]

that is a bacterial (vibrio) infection of the gills, very common.