Mass Cas Ghost Shrimp!!!

Hello!

I have had my freshwater 10 gal tank established for about two months and had ten ghost shrimp in it since the beginning with my comet goldfish. They were all healthy and acclimated well, with no casualties at all until two weeks ago. That is when all of them began dropping by the day.

At first, I assumed the first two casualties were due to my goldfish, as one of them was torn apart (head separated from body, both parts still in tank). I removed the bodies but left the rest of the live shrimp in the tank for a day more while I got their qt running. The next casualty was just curled up, white and limp at the bottom of the tank. As I transferred them all to qt, I watched their population slowly decline to one. At the same time, I was cycling a new 30 gal tank and decided to get the last remaining shrimp out of the qt and into the new tank (because I guessed the ammonia levels were high). He did well but because he was so tiny in a larger tank, I lost track of him the next day.

Two days ago, I added another 5 more ghost shrimp and I have already removed two shrimp due to casualty. Ghost shrimp used to have no problems with my setup, so I’m very confused as to why they keep dying now.

Also side note: I now have loaches, but they are very peaceful and do not seem to bother the ghost shrimp at all.

Tl;dr: I have had success with ghost shrimp in the past and suddenly I cannot seem to keep them alive for the life of me. Water parameters are well kept. No copper in water. One comet goldfish and three loaches in tank.

hello!

Last night I came home very late from work and took a quick glance at my 30 gal tank (stocked with ~3 ghost shrimp now, 3 loaches, and one comet goldfish). I saw a milk white body of a dead ghost shrimp buried under the body of a sleeping loach. Not wanting to bother the loach, and being exhausted myself, I figured I would wait until the morning to clear out the tank as I was medicating the tank for ammonia starting today. Now, I cannot seem to find the ghost shrimp body anywhere!! Is it possible that the shrimp was not dead after all?? Or that the body was eaten? Would this cause illness in my other fish and should I do an early water change?

 

Welcome to FL

What type of loaches do you have? Some loaches are known to eat RCS and shrimp in general. I made the mistake of putting in RCS ( about 50 of them ) in my main tank and they were all gone in a few days thanks to my dojo loach.

 

Are you sure it was a dead shrimp & not a moulted skin? Have you got hiding places in the tank? if so the shrimp may be hiding until it's exoskeleton hardens???

 

You say the parameters are good, but can you test them and post the number results? What is the temp? Shrimp are pretty sensitive to off water parameters and will die off easily due to poor water quality.

My guess is the goldfish. A comment goldfish will pick at the substrates constantly and will happily eat ghost shrimp. He may be small but I wouldn't put it past the goldfish. Even if he isn't killing them directly, his waste products may be doing it too. Goldfish create so much waste that it builds up quickly. Goldfish need a much larger tank than a 10 or even 30gal because of this. A 75gal is the minimum IMO for an adult comet goldfish, even then I say it is best to keep them in ponds. Very few tropical fish can be kept with goldies as well, shrimp being one of the many that do not go well with them. What kind of loaches did you get?

 

The fish or the other shrimp could have eaten it, since it was left in the tank.