White fuzz problem

[dxq_canada]

We were just noticing today that our varied Amano Shrimp, Cherry Shrimp, and misc. Shrimp appear to have a white fuzz on their "head" area.

Does anyone know what this may be ?

We have only noticed this today. The fish in the tank appear fine.

[dxq_canada]

After time the white fuzz continued to "grow" on all of our shrimp.
The fish in the tank did not appear to have any of this.

We decided to move the shrimp.
We moved all of our shimp (14 total) to a small 5 gal tank.

We monitored the shrimp over time.
The tank (38 gal) fish still continued to thrive as normal ... the shrimp appeared to be recovering. The level of white fuzz started to decrease.
Eventually as all of the shrimp molted they lost this white fuzz.
This took about 4 weeks.
We did not medicate the tank at all.

The shrimp are now split up into our two tanks (38 gal and 75 gal), and are doing fine.

Thought you might want to know about the outcome.

[retardo]

Good to hear, dxq. Any result not resulting in death is a good outcome. Sorry we weren't able to contribute to id of the fuzz. :cool:

[Jane of Upton]

Did you examine the molt skins? Was the white fuzz still present on the molt?

I wonder what it was - if it was no longer attached to the shrimp after a molt, then it must have been something that did not penetrate the exoskelaton, but simply attached to it.

It sounds like you moved only the shrimp with this condition into the little 5 gallon tank, right? Have any of the shrimp still in this tank had a reoccurance? If so, it would indicate that the fuzz was something that has a freeswimming part of its life cycle, in which case it was a REALLY good idea to move the affected shrimp.

So, what's the situation now? I'm curious. Have there been any more instances in the large tank, or and recurrances in the smaller tank?

Did you find any possible ID from other sources?

Thanks!
-Jane