# White fuzzy head on one of my cherries?



## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Maybe molting? Idk, it's kinda hard to tell from the pic but I'd think that first.. How long has it been there?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

I just noticed this morning and just found a 2nd one with it. Crap. lol. I got a few better pics here.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Well reading online, others have had this too. They suggest doing a water change and then doing a weak salt dip for a 15seconds with the affect shrimp. There are cherries anyways, so hopefully can take the quick salt dip and it will kill the fungus. Others just did a big water change and induced molting and it came off with the molt, so maybe I'll do a water change now and dig them later, I unno.


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## redfalconf35 (Feb 24, 2008)

Judging that the shrimp looks healthy and all, i don't feel guilty saying, "haha, that shrimp has hair!" 

In all seriousness, as long as the shrimp stays colored up and happy, i would be tempted to let it keep its hair.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Well I just did a 50% water change and I'll keep an eye and see if it clears up. They are still bright red, eating fine, the one is a female and saddled, and everything, hopefully they will molt soon. Going to put in a bit of Mosara Gravidis too to help the molting process. If they don't seem ok in a day or two, I'll try a salt dip I guess and go from there.

I did rescape my tank and set it up to 3 divisions instead of 2, so I did stir up a bunch of crap and I couldn't do much work on the cherry side because they are a dozen or 2 babies all running around the substrate and didn't want to suck them up, so maybe I stirred up too much crap and started a mini bloom or something.


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Looks like Vorticella, it is a fungal infection. Your water quality is likely poor.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

shrimpnmoss said:


> Looks like Vorticella, it is a fungal infection. Your water quality is likely poor.


Well I just did a water change. Should I try a salt dip, or try and do some more changes and let them ride it out?


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

I think you have to medicate. I don't know with what though...never had it.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

shrimpnmoss said:


> I think you have to medicate. I don't know with what though...never had it.


Well if you can find out anything, let me know please.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Well, whatever it is, it doesn't like the salt dip. I did 2 20sec salt dips, about quarter teaspoon into a 2lb margarine container the first dip to make sure nobody died from the dip, then another quarter teaspoon again for the 2nd dip.

The couple that I dipped so far, it's almost gone. As soon as it hit the salt water, it shriveled right up on them, so we'll see. I'll do a few more water changes over the next few days and going to add a few HOB filters to my tank. Having it separated into 3 units, the canister filter isn't able to pull the water from that area, so I'm going to switch to 3 aquaclears + 3 giant sponge filters and that should help keep the water in each area more filtered.


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

I seem to be having good luck with the Filter-Max pre-filters (from the people who make the Hydro Sponge sponge filters) on AquaClear hang on back filters (models 50 and 70 tested so far). Seem to be able to go a while without cleaning filter (it has a tube inside of the giant sponge filter so it doesn't 'collapse' like when you just put a regular sponge over the intake) and like any sponge filter surface the shrimp seem to love picking at it and climbing on it.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Well it seems to be getting worse, the salt dips didn't help that much. I'm setting up a QT tank and going to put some API ick/parasite meds and some API fungus meds, turn off the fan so it warms up a bit and put in a few tester cherries and see whats happens. I found a few more with it. I also torn down my tank today, cleaned all the substrate, added more filtration, etc, to try and avoid the conditions that caused it. I had separated my tank into 3 with plastic screen dividers, but doing that with the tank setup, I ended up with like 3" of gravel on the cherry side and all the mulm from the other sides and with 1 canister filter on the tank, the flow and intake wasn't doing good through the 2 screen dividers, so I cleaned the gravel, removed the canister filter and put 3 HOB filters on each division along with 3 sponge filters, so hopefully it won't get any worse and I will avoid each division having dead spots, but I still have to try and cure the ones that are infected still, whatever it is.


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## GDP (Mar 12, 2011)

I wonder if you could just split the intake tube into 3 intakes and the same with the output. Might have to use something like a 2217 or something though.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

GDP said:


> I wonder if you could just split the intake tube into 3 intakes and the same with the output. Might have to use something like a 2217 or something though.


Its fine. I rather have the 3 HOB filters on here and the Rena on my cube glass tank as thats where my crystals are. It had an aquaclear 70 and sponge filter, but rather have the canister on their tank since the crystals are the more picky of the species. lol.


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## gordonrichards (Jun 20, 2009)

Do water changes in the tank.

Happened to me in one of my cherry/crystal colonies.
Lost quite a few of them. Nasty infestation.

-Gordon


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

gordonrichards said:


> Do water changes in the tank.
> 
> Happened to me in one of my cherry/crystal colonies.
> Lost quite a few of them. Nasty infestation.
> ...


I just redid my tank today, so it got a full water change, gravel cleaning, upgraded filtration. I have the 7 I found that were infected in a separate tank with a half solution of API ick/parasite meds and API fungus cure, both containing no copper. I added 2 to see how they did, and they were fine, hanging on the driftwood looking for food, not freaking in the tank or anything, so I added the other 5 and will see in the morning. The first 2 that I added so seem to be doing better and the white looks likes its going down, falling off, or something. Its hard to tell with the water being tinted green from the meds though. lol.

We'll see and hopefully the rest in the tank that aren't showing any yet will be ok from the water/gravel change and the better filtration and the others will recover.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Well it still seemed to be spreading, with those meds and no improvement, so I ran some carbon and did at 50% to get rid of those meds, and got some Seachem Paraguard as I've read it has helped others. I did a 33% of a normal dose to test the shrimp reaction to it. Poor little fellers been through a lot. 

It does seem like a parasite though, after watching through it my magnifying glass for a while, they do seem to be moving independent of the shrimp moving, so hopefully this will help them.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

So overnight I slowly added more paraguard to test the shrimp to it and they seemed fine, so did a big water change this morning and did a full dose, everyone seems fine so far. Its hard to tell really if it a parasite, fungus or what. It look like little white creatures sometimes, then others like a fungus. In a tank with a filter moving water and shrimp that don't stay still, you can't tell if the white things are moving or being moved. The good thing is paraguard treats for parasite, fungus, bacteria and virus, so if that don't kill it, not sure what will. lol. So far though, all 7 are fine, eating, chilling on the driftwood. When I tried the other meds, they were flying around the tank too much for my liking and wasn't sure if they were trying to escape. With the paraguard they are eating normally and hanging out picking at moss and stuff, so well see. Keeping up on water changes each day right now on the main tank to make sure that if any others have it that I can't see, the clean water will help them molt and rid their shells of it, and keep them healthy. Also, took the fan off the main tank to let it warm up a bit and help fight any that I can't see being infected either.


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## RoyalFizbin (Mar 7, 2006)

Have you been keeping the shrimp for long? If you have, you should have a tank thick with cherrys. If it were me, I'd kill the infected ones and be done with it. It's not like its some expensive mosura crs.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Not long. Just got my first couple batches of babies. And 4/7 infected ones are some nice fire reds/painted fire reds that I'd rather not get rid of. I want to see this through, one to save them, and two, to see if its curable, to study the effect of paraguard on shrimp for future things, and who knows if they infected my main tank and the rest start to get it, and I know paraguard will kill it, then I could treat that.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Looks its working well. 3 or 4 or the 7 show no more signs at all and the rest seem to only have 1 or 2 little white tuffs left instead of 7 or 8. I saw a couple more from my main tank that seemed like they may be starting, so they went right in. I may treat my main tank with a weaker dose just to be sure as I have 60 babies in there and don't want to loose all them as well but so far the paraguard seems to be total shrimp safe and effective against it.


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## Leah (Jun 28, 2011)

I would be a little worried about a weaker dose allowing a resistant strain of what ever it is to develop, though I understand why you are thinking of doing it.

Thank you, by the way, for keeping us posted about the shrimp are doing and what is helping.

Leah


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Leah said:


> I would be a little worried about a weaker dose allowing a resistant strain of what ever it is to develop, though I understand why you are thinking of doing it.
> 
> Thank you, by the way, for keeping us posted about the shrimp are doing and what is helping.
> 
> Leah


Well I could have done what was suggested above and just kill them all but then I wouldn't know what to do if it cropped up in the babies, if someone else runs into this issue, and there seems to be limited resources online about paraguard and shrimp, so I wanted to test it for general knowledge. I will probably just keep with water changes for now and watch the babies for infection and remove and treat if needed. So far though, it seems to working well.


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## gordonrichards (Jun 20, 2009)

Keep up with the water changes. It will help keep things clean.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

gordonrichards said:


> Keep up with the water changes. It will help keep things clean.


I have been in my main tank and the QT tank.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

glad to hear it seems to be working bro! good luck and let us know ^^


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

HolyAngel said:


> glad to hear it seems to be working bro! good luck and let us know ^^


I will. Like I said, this was part experiment since I haven't found much info on treating this and treating shrimp with paraguard other than a few people that tried to cure black spot disease with it at lower doses but they're up to a full dose and doing fine, eating, foraging in the moss, acting fine except the parasites living on their heads, which are almost gone it seems. Still going to give them all a while and keep treating and watch for a while. I don't have anything to put in the tank really at the moment, so its not a big deal. Some of them are my nice solid fire reds with the stripe down the back and almost solid red legs, so I'd hate to loose them.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Well the paraguard was helping but slowly. I read on another forum I visit that someone else had the same problem and did a really strong salt dip and it killed the parasites right off the shrimp on the spot. I'm talking like 2 tablespoons of aquarium salt in a cup of water. 30seconds in the dip, rinse in fresh water, completely clear of anything, so I dipped all mine, put them back in the QT tank and if they seem fine by tomorrow, they can join the regular population, so cherries at least, can take a very strong salt water dip no problem.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Everybody seems healed now, no more parasites. Lots of WC's in the tank to rid the tank of any lurking, removing the molts so they don't eat them and get anymore on them, and the super-strength salt water dips. Been two days since I noticed any on any of them.


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## Leah (Jun 28, 2011)

Great to hear! 

Leah


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## gtu2004 (Feb 17, 2010)

thats good to hear. i wish i saw the thread earlier because paraguard was what I used and it totally eradicated the same problem for me. good to know that salt dip would work as well.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

gtu2004 said:


> thats good to hear. i wish i saw the thread earlier because paraguard was what I used and it totally eradicated the same problem for me. good to know that salt dip would work as well.


I tried the paraguard and it was working slowly but the salt dip worked amazingly fast. Killed them on the spot on about 80% of them and the remaining 20% needed a few more dips. I have no idea what the salitinity would have been with 2 tablespoon in a cup of water but I imagine it was through the roof as it took a while to even dissolve the last bits, so it had to be reaching super-saturation point of the water and the cherries took it like a champ. Could they live in it, probably not but I started with a 30s dip and the ones that needed another dip or two got 45s-1m dips. Just shows the cherries are the cockroaches of the shrimp world. lol.


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## 14litre (Sep 7, 2012)

GeToChKn said:


> I tried the paraguard and it was working slowly but the salt dip worked amazingly fast. Killed them on the spot on about 80% of them and the remaining 20% needed a few more dips. I have no idea what the salitinity would have been with 2 tablespoon in a cup of water but I imagine it was through the roof as it took a while to even dissolve the last bits, so it had to be reaching super-saturation point of the water and the cherries took it like a champ. Could they live in it, probably not but I started with a 30s dip and the ones that needed another dip or two got 45s-1m dips. Just shows the cherries are the cockroaches of the shrimp world. lol.


Hi GeToChKn,

Thank you so much for sharing your experience.

My cherry shrimps had the same problem and I gave this salt water dip a try and it works like a gem. My shrimps are cured now. I could have taken a longer time to cure them if I have not seen and chosen this saltwater dip treatment.

Thank you so much once again.

Btw, I came from another forum and I chanced upon this thread of yours while googling for a solution.

I have posted my experience back in the forum that I visit regularly and here's my thread to share around.
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/foru...hite-mold-fungal)-Treatment-on-Cherry-Shrimps

Cheers.


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## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

Would a Chamomile tea dip do the same?


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