# Shrimp turned white and died? - Found reason.



## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

Could have been something with acclimation or something in the water.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I acclimated them like I always acclimate. It took almost 1 1/2 hours. All the tanks have the same water, I even changed the water in all my tanks that day and no other tank has an issue.


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## aschaal03 (Feb 2, 2009)

Well, if you say all the water was identical then something MUST have gotten into the tank in question that you don't know about. If you were acclimating them from identical water sources then it couldn't be from acclimation stress.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I am sure you have to be right. Something might have gotten into the tank. Or perhaps there was a small untraceable ammonia/nitrite spike? 
I was wondering if it could be a disease that didn't show up in the lower temperatures? Kind of like columnaris speeds up in warmer temperatures? 

I want to use this tank, but I am afraid to without finding out what could have happened.


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

That kind of thing happens a lot to ghost shrimp, but luckily didn't happen to the ones I used to have. It might be high copper levels in the tap water. Maybe a CO2 malfunction, if you use CO2? Or maybe the shrimp died of age, which I doubt.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

are you sure its not a molt? i only kept amanos and cherries, and both turn redish-orange when they die (well the CRS turn redder). the molts are pale though.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Thanks guys. I have no co2 in any tanks but one. The one affected had no co2. The copper levels were zero. Their bodies turned white slowly (the ones that survived over night) and they eventually are 3/4 white and there is parts that look like light red - maybe orangish red. I just found another dead one, and I could take a picture. I don't know if it was a molt. The molts I usually see left over are clear like snake skin. 

I am only down to one of this stock, but I would like to avoid the repeat or determine whether or not to reuse this tank.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

For what it's worth: Green rocks can be deadly! I had what I thought was a piece of green slate in the tank with moss wrapped on it. Turns out it had copper in the rock. I checked my tank parameters in the 10 gallon after the final shrimp died. Sure enough, there was a small trace of copper in the water. Apparently, it is important to test the copper in your tanks, not just out of the tap to determine if anything you add has copper. I feel awful!


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## dindin (Mar 4, 2009)

Don't feel so bad. I have had ghost shrimp turn sickly white for a few days, then die. I still don't know the cause...part of shrimp keeping I guess.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Thanks for the kind words dindin. I hate when I find out I was the cause of a death.


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## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

Its not your falt. It's the rocks!


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## Shavemacman (Jun 21, 2008)

Shrimp turned white and died - I think that is called a "ghost shrimp"... get it?


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