# ULTIMATE WHITE LINE of DEATH Thread



## shoteh (Nov 13, 2007)

Like Puberty to Adolescents, play reviews to gamblers, oil leaks to gear heads, bar exams to law students, Judge Judy to shady car salesman, and BBA to Planted Tankers....the Dreaded White Line of Death (WLOD) is one of the biggest stress a Shrimper will come across. 

Ok, so after reading so many comments and new threads about the dreaded White Line of Death I suggest an Ultimate Thread where we can discuss our experiences and help each other diagnose, treat, and defeat this dreaded problem.

I'm a rookie when it comes to keeping Shrimp alive and am slightly embarrassed to say I spend more time researching and reading forums than actually keeping shrimp, but it's all fun to me.

Let's get down to business.

WHO: WLOD occurs in shrimps of all kind, all gender, all size, sexual orientation, etc. May also occur in nightmare of shrimp keepers who have repeatedly loss money, time, and relationships due to WLOD

WHAT: WLOD is self explanatory but if you don't know it's the WHITE LINE OF DEATH in shrimps.

WHERE: Usually seen between the Carapace and the Abdomen of the shrimp. Basically the divide where most chefs separate when making shrimp cocktails. (between the head and the body)

HOW: Develops usually when shrimps tries to molt and it cant. Molting is a harder process than we think. Some says this is just a "racing stripe, or a unique trait," well jolly that's nice for them however we won't be discussing this due to WLOD not WLOLife.

WHEN: Any time of day however usually seen after water changes or when introducing shrimps to new tanks.

WHY: Many different thoughts and opinions but here are a few suggestions from fellow shrimpers from multiple forums
-Lack of Calcium
-Poor Diet
-GH too high (hard shell)
-GH too low (soft shell)
-Poor Water parameters (Usually GH related)
-Inconsistent Water Temps
-Stress
-Too many water changes
-Un-established Tank
-Ammonia or high level of Nitrites / Nitrates
-Too much protein in food
-Low magnesium
-Old Age
-Poison
-Fear of being culled due to poor color

SOOOO, what can we do about the deaths? To answer this question one has to randomly pick out of the list of WHY's and try to solve that issue. If not then I would suggest a couple of ideas first:

1. Make sure your tank is fully cycled. (also I use RO water and remineralize with SALTY GH/KH)
1. Check your GH and make sure it's higher than 3 and lower than 9. Any thing higher or lower can still be OK as I have read from some people with bazaar parameters however in my opinion 4-10GH is the sweet spot. 
2. Add Calcium through food, egg shells, or Cuttle Bone. Personally I use Cuttle Bone in all my tanks, and have used calcium enriched food. In my experience I don't get enough Calcium from Salty GH/KH)
3. Feed regular Flake food until shrimp is stable. 

These couple of suggestions have personally allowed my 3rd attempt of 10 starter shrimps to populate to over thousands in my 10 gallon, 7 gallon, and 20 tanks within a couple of years. Good luck and add on as you wish. No one's perfect, we all learn through mistakes.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

The racing stripe is not the same as failed molt stripe. The racing stripe goes from head of shrimp down to the tail. In PFR cherries, the line actually encompasses the entire shrimp, so it appears "painted".


Racing stripe
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=37014&d=1320223340
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=53273&d=1346514826


Vs failed molt
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/attachments/attachment-php-attachmentid-95948-d-1337633255-jpg.6676/



Seeing that "WLOD" on a living shrimp isn't guarantee that it's a problem... only that the shrimp should be molting soon. If the shrimp is unable to molt, then it can indeed lead to the shrimps death.



When I first began with shrimp, I had the death issue. A lot of people say tap water is fine for cherry shrimp! Well, not mine! I thought we had hard water... turns out it's soft! So soft in fact that with over 10 berried shrimp, not one baby made it to adult-hood! Actually, most probably died within the first few days of being alive. Had 3 that made it at least a few weeks old, if not a bit older, but never to adult-hood. The adults slowly died off, too...

After the non-fish person of the relationship chose to investigate why (rarely ever saw a dead shrimp... didn't have fish that hunted shrimp, filters were made safe - still had fish though... that were scavengers!), it was realized that the water was too soft and it needed to be harder. Once the parameters were fixed, it was finally possible to have shrimp grow to adult size! And the adults have been living longer, too!


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## Supreme Fish (Dec 24, 2014)

Out of curiosity, has anyone ever measured shell thickness on failed molters and correlated that with high GH (shell thickness specifically, not just molting death)??


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## YumiChi (Dec 19, 2016)

Supreme Fish said:


> Out of curiosity, has anyone ever measured shell thickness on failed molters and correlated that with high GH (shell thickness specifically, not just molting death)??


Measuring the shell with a caliper?


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## Supreme Fish (Dec 24, 2014)

YumiChi said:


> Measuring the shell with a caliper?


Well, it is actually do-able with the correct equipment. Just curious where this bit of shrimp lore came from.


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