# Causes of bacterial infection in shrimp?



## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

usually bad water conditions.. :/


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Dirty water. Also if you purchase wild caught shrimp or if they are stuck in a dirty bag for too long, they can introduce a bacterial colony into your tank.


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## Zwei (Dec 10, 2011)

When they turn cloudy, I think it's usually something to do with the oxygen content of their bodies. It may be an infection of the gills or poor water circulation due to poor water conditions.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hm... could it be that I'm using tap constantly that's causing this? I checked my parameters though and they all seem to be in the ideal range for shrimp (RCS and tigers)....

TDS ~240ppm
kh 5
gh 5
ph 6.9
temp 71F


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Other besides that the shrimp don't seem stressed as they are constantly grazing. There's also always berried mothers and babies as well. So I can't imagine their environment to be "bad quality".

For reference this is the second "outbreak" of bacterial infection. The first time I successfully treated the tank with paraguard.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

kh is a bit high imo.. but the parameters aren't going to tell if you the water is free from bad bacteria.. tap could be the culprit.. but it could be new introductions and such too like mordalphus said.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Yeah but it's KH for regular tigers and RCS . That's why I can't keep anything really nice and expensive haha

I did have some new introductions. I guess shrimp can get infected on the way from stress, even if the person who shipped it had no infected shrimp.


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## jmowbray (Dec 20, 2009)

I have the same issues right now. Females a carring and I see fry in the tank. At least twice a week I have a dead shrimp and it's not old age. These are young shrimp. They get 20% weekly WC with filtered water and feed every other day. They are painted fire reds and are nice and red then all of a sudden they turn clear and within the next couple of days...dead. I'm thinking of putting a UV sterlizer in the tank to see if that helps.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Yea, like the causes listed don't seem to pertain to our cases. I read somewhere here that one person kept getting bacterial infections due to feeding a certain food. But I've been feeding the same flake food for like 5 months now...


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## ldaniel (Jul 4, 2011)

71 Celsius? that would be around 160F.


diwu13 said:


> Hm... could it be that I'm using tap constantly that's causing this? I checked my parameters though and they all seem to be in the ideal range for shrimp (RCS and tigers)....
> 
> TDS ~240ppm
> kh 5
> ...


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Whoops. Units mixed up. Not boiling the shrimp in my tank.

Does anyone else feed their shrimp tetra fish flakes? Could that be a possible cause?


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## jmowbray (Dec 20, 2009)

I feed Shrimp Lab brand so I hope that's not the problem.


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## EKLiu (Jan 14, 2010)

I have fed my shrimp quite a few various flake foods (not Tetra brand though) without any problems.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

jmowbray said:


> I feed Shrimp Lab brand so I hope that's not the problem.


You're better off since you're feeding more expensive, and most likely more nutritious for shrimp specifically, food. Whereas I'm feeding the leftovers from the point where I wanted a fish tank lol.



EKLiu said:


> I have fed my shrimp quite a few various flake foods (not Tetra brand though) without any problems.


Were the flake foods not specifically for shrimp but for fish?


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## splur (Nov 26, 2011)

How old is your substrate? Sometimes a decaying substrate can lead to bacterial infection, although that is simply a source for bad water quality.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Substrates flourite gravel and less than 1 month old. I also make sure to vac the bottom pretty thoroughly during weekly WC's so there isn't much buildup of shrimp poop either.


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## EKLiu (Jan 14, 2010)

diwu13 said:


> Were the flake foods not specifically for shrimp but for fish?


It was bulk fish flake, like the kind you find at Kensfish.com


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

that tds is actually sort of high. Is this tap water?

just as one example of many:
http://www.tdsmeter.com/what-is?id=0005


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

EKLiu said:


> It was bulk fish flake, like the kind you find at Kensfish.com


Hm... so that should be equivalent to what I'm feeding once a week now.



msjinkzd said:


> that tds is actually sort of high. Is this tap water?
> 
> just as one example of many:
> http://www.tdsmeter.com/what-is?id=0005


Yeah I'm using straight tap water. If you subtract out the KH and GH in ppm you end up with ~40 or so TDS. Which I heard was pretty darn good for tap? That additional TDS could be considered the "bad stuff" such as dissolved nitrates? Or is this incorrect?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Found three berried tigers now. They seem to all be holding their eggs so it shows at least I'm doing something right... right? *hopes*

Saw a ~1 inch long tubiflex slither into the substrate. Was too in shock to remove that sucker... something about a long blood red worm slowly digging into the substrate made my normally fast reaction time incredibly slow.


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## jmowbray (Dec 20, 2009)

ok so I just was looking at mine and there is a big female carring eggs around. WTF?!?!? They must be doing the same as yours.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Really seems like random bacterial infection. Unless it's really coloring from the tetramin flakes I'm feeding...


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## slvrknght8 (Oct 22, 2006)

any news on this?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Haven't had any shrimp get bacterial infection after this post kinda died down. Could've been the high protein content of the tetramin flakes as I cut down feeding with that to only once a week in small amounts. I'm still using tap water though and the TDS has been constant ~230-250. So no real definitive answers sorry )


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## slvrknght8 (Oct 22, 2006)

Glad to hear it. Just knowing this update proves useful. Thanks


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

No problem. Glad my problem can help others haha


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