Shrimp disease information

Shrimp disease info and shrimp-safe meds

While helping another member I found some good info about shrimp diseases I thought I would share. It seems many have problems and with shrimp there is very little info out there. Also, shrimp issues are more common in the summer due to elevated temps and higher amounts of bacterial activity in our tank.


Shrimp Disease info with photos to help diagnose -

Good thread with lots of good photos...

Page from JBL info on shrimp....

Recognising shrimp diseases and reacting in time


Here are some shrimp safe medications and treatments that could be used when treating shrimp and/or your fish in tank.

1) Seachem Prime – water conditioner that removes chlorine, chloramine, and detoxifies ammonia and heavy metals

2) Pimafix – mild treatment and/or preventative for fungal infections. Can be combined with Melafix for improved efficacy

3) Melafix – mild treatment and/or preventative for bacterial infections. Can be combined with Pimafix for improved efficacy

4) Kordon ICH Attack/Rid Fungus – These are 2 products which are the same just sold under 2 different names. It is a natural based treatment for Ich and or fungus

5) Seachem Paraguard – treatment for parasites and bacterial infections

6) HikarI Prazipro (praziquantel) – treatment for gill flukes, tapeworms and other parasites found in fish and occasionally shrimp

7) Indian Almond Leaves – these are leaves from the Indian Almond tree. They are great natural source of anti-bacterial agents. Shrimp will also eat them as they breakdown in the tank. They are sold on eBay as well as other sources. They are thrown in the tank and will tint the water a little bit as they release tannins into the water.

8) Alder cones – these are small pine cones from alder trees that are used much like Indian Almond leaves. They also have some anti-bacterial qualities.

9) Fenbendazole (Dog dewormer, sold as "Panacur" or "Safe Guard") - used to treat Hydra and/or Planaria. While it is safe for shrimp,it is NOT safe for snails though. Here is a link that explains how to use it (from planet inverts)...




Hope this helps. Also, @ the mod team, Mike, Lucy, Aquarist, ryanr, Rivieraneo, could this be a sticky perhaps in the inverts forum, seems like a common questions recently about shrimp deaths and disease.

EricV - do you know of any other sites with good info on shrimp disease?

 

Stickied
Thanks for writing this up Dolfan.
It will really help members and visitors when looking for shrimp safe medications.

 

Nice write up! It should really help out new members and others too.

 

Nice job! I'm sure this will prove to be extremely useful to people looking to keep shrimp, or with people that are dealing with meds in a shrimp tank!

 

Thanks for writing this!

 

Thank you! I needed this list! I've read some conflicting reporting on safety of Prazipro for nerite snails, Anyone have any experience or do I need to run an experiment on one of my poor snails?

Definitely saving this as a reference!

 

I'd like to add a few things.

One is the use of hydrogen peroxide to treat bacterial infections. I was slowly losing shrimp and unsure of the cause. This was the first time my shrimp had ever been sick, so I was scared to diagnose or treat them. I stumbled upon a video by Marks Shrimp explaining how to use hydrogen peroxide to kill bacterial infections. As a bonus, it also kills many types of algae. This treatment saved my colony. One of the best parts is that I was able to buy it after midnight on a weekday, since in the United States you can buy it at pharmacies and grocery stores.

Lets go over dosing again one final time just so this is super super clear.

1. Measure the water volume of the tank to find your liters or gallons.
2. Turn off those filters.
3. Use 3% Hydrogen peroxide at 1.5ml per gallon or per 4.5 liters.
4. Evenly spread your hydrogen peroxide across the surface of the tank.
5. Give the water a gentle stir with your hand or something similar to spread out the H202.
6. WAIT for one hour
7. Turn those filters back on.
8. The same week do a water change and add your favorite bacterial supplement back to the tank.

Secondly, I would like to throw in that Paraguard is not always invert safe. I took this from Seachem's website Seachem - ParaGuard

We do not sell or market ParaGuard™ as invert safe because it would be impossible to test it with every available invert under every potential water parameter. We have had people use it with invertebrates with no problems, but we have also had people encounter problems. If you decide to use it we stress caution; dose at 1/4 to 1/2 dose and observe how your inverts and soft corals react. If they seem to tolerate the dosing, increase slowly up to no more than the prescribed dose as long as they are tolerating it.

This goes with what I saw reading personal accounts on different forums. Some people had zero issues with it, even treating shrimp at many times the recommended dose. Other people lost shrimp because of Paraguard. Use with caution!

 

Thanks Dolfan this is a good place to send people to learn about diseases ect, it saves having to type out what you've compiled as an easy access and read I've always found myself double checking on things as we can't remember it all.

 

Glad to help. I also have put together an article on getting started with freshwater shrimpkeeping it's in the "Members Articles" section at top of page, see link below...

Freshwater Shrimp Keeping

Also, put together one on easy low light planted tanks...

How To Set Up a Low Light , Low Tech Planted Tank

Thanks Dolfan this is a good place to send people to learn about diseases ect, it saves having to type out what you've compiled as an easy access and read I've always found myself double checking on things as we can't remember it all.