causes of shrimp death

last night during his molt one of my cleaner shrimp died.
What are the causes of death during molt?
there is no copper in the water.

 

Well if it is anything like a stomatopod they can't breath while molting. If the old cuticle gets stuck for any length of time they will suffocate.

 

I am not an expert on what iodine levels are supposed to be in NSW, but I have heard that iodine helps with molting... I wonder if low iodine levels could cause something to go wrong during molting?

Also, maybe something attacked it while it was in a vulnerable state? My cleaner shrimp hides well into the rocks when he molts, and does't come out for about 2 days...

 

thats actually what i was thinking also. It was in my dads tank and i tell him to dose iodide occasionally but he forgets... I dosed some this morning once i saw the shrimp dead so hopefully all the others will have good molts.

 

The problem with dosing iodine is that it's not easy to measure and dose accurately. Because it can be toxic at higher levels, most of the experts recommend against dosing it. However, normal water changes should keep beneficial levels up.

 

It's been my experience that brand new cleaner shrimp will only clean fish but over time will switch to eating fish food as well (or sometimes entirely). If one feeds pellet and/or flake food, almost all brands have Iodine in them.

Probably the only tank that I would dose Iodine to would be one with a lot of decorative sponges or a planted marine tank.

 

You could always get an iodine/iodide combined test kit. Seachem makes them. Then, dosing wouldn't be too risky.

 

I heard massive oil spills kill shrimp....and everything else in the near vicinity.

 

unstable SG is very hard on shrimp... some molts just go bad though. they are very delicate in this process. Any picking on them at this point could be lethal too.

How experienced is your dad? I'd say this is probably bad advise. I advise folks against dosing iodide or iodine. I have never dosed it (and I rarely do WC's) and have no issues.

Right. It's hard to even measure accurately - most iodine test kits are still just an educated guess.

IMO, it would still be *too* risky, albeit *less* risky.

 

i had a fire shrimp die during molt recently too

my cleaner and peppermint are doing fine. the fire shrimp had gone for 2 months and had molted twice but the third time was the charm for him apparently...

i feed pellet/flake foods to the fish so i know theres iodine trace, but its not something i plan to start dosing just to keep my inverts living during their molt. the other disasters that i could incur from mis-dosing iodine out-weighs the use of it.

sorry for your loss dingo