Shrimp nastyness

[kreblak]

I am in the process of fishlessly cyling a tank, and I just wanted to ask a question of you wise sages of the saltwater world. Basically, the shrimp has formed some kind of "cocoon" around it. Maybe this is normal and I have just never noticed in larger tanks. Anyway, there is some sort of horrible slime that has grown on and around the shrimp. It had grown about half an inch in thickness all around. It is a yellowish color, yet transparant.

What is this crud?

[OrionGirl]

Bacteria, most likely. Not necessarily the nitrifiers--there are many kinds of bacteria that aid in the decay of an organism. As long as you are getting ammonia readings, I wouldn't worry much. Remove the leftovers before adding any fish, though the clean up crew would likely delight in chomping down on any remnants.

[kreblak]

Ammonia readings?!?!? I have a prawn in a 10 gallon tank! The ammonia is so high you could clean windows with the tank water! Seriously though, the ammonia is way over 6 ppm. The dsb on this tank is going to be absolutely teeming with bacteria by the time I'm done.

I tell you this much, the bacteria breaking down that shrimp are quite foul. Nasty stuff...

[OrionGirl]

LOL--I bet! Shocking how much nastiness comes from one little shrimp, huh? What are you going to put in the 10? I'm working on getting the space to set up a 10 for a frog fish, without having to take down any of the other tanks (4 FW, 1 BW, 3 SW already running!)

If you don't see the ammonia starting to come down, you may want to do a water change to get it close to about 5 ppm. There is some evidence that high levels of ammonia can inhibit the bacteria at higher pH...Just a thought! ;)

[kreblak]

I have cycled two other tanks, one with shrimp, and have never seen this crud on the shrimp before. It stinks, too! The other tanks are both 50+ gallons, so you could never smell it. The 10 is a much different story. For about two days, I could not go into the room with the tank, as the small was so....so.... words don't really do it justice.

Anyway, to answer your question, this will serve as a both a quarantine tank for new arrivals, and as a home for a some tiny blue green chromis I got. There are four of them, and they are all about half an inch long. The LFS can't get rid of them, so they sold the whole bundle to me for $4.99

I figure blue green chromis are peaceful enough so that I shouldn't have any aggression problems with new arrivals.