help!!! sudden death with PFRS

**stonedaquarium** · 20th Jan 2012, 02:01 AM

hi there all im new to the forum but have been keeping shrimps for a few months now. I had once had a successful colony of PFRS but sad to say things have changed after i came back home from my 3 week vacation. to my dismay i had my entire colony almost wiped out. so i decided to restock and clean out my tank. I took one of the dead shrimp that i just found to one of my buddies who was a seasoned and senior shrimp keeper he advised that it had been due to bacterial (where the body was milky white, and the head seemed to be separating from the body and the shrimp was in a cringe like position.

water parameters were fine
TDS of 180 to 190
Ph of 6.4 to 6.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 0

changed the entire tank and emptied it out... complete change of substrate plants and everything. and washed out one of the two filters i was using ... after doing that i had no deaths in the past two days after the tank was cleaned out. then on yester day i found one death
and today another one again.

could it be a bacterial infection again? should i do another major water change...

also prior to me cleaning out the tank i was dosing maracyn 2 for 3 days and during that period i still had shrimps dying every day... hence prompted me to clear out the tank and restart everything...

im still having a 1 dead shrimp a day... funny thing is my CRS and yellow shrimp colonies are doing fine... its just Painted fire reds that im having this weird problem... especially neocardinas are very very hardy.

im searching for some help... if anyone can share some insights it would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

**Dincho** · 20th Jan 2012, 12:06 PM

Sounds bacterial but its hard to tell, added a new shrimp to the tank lately?

You could try some pussy willow bark or Beta Glucan, these can help fight bacterial infections. Take a look here, a good article on bacterial infections: http://www.crustahunter.com/en/node/894

**stonedaquarium** · 21st Jan 2012, 02:53 AM

thanks where can you get beta glucan?

**myles** · 21st Jan 2012, 03:27 AM

thanks for the link dincho very interesting myles

**stonedaquarium** · 21st Jan 2012, 05:11 AM

thanks for the link very helpful indeed... yesterday i did an 80% water change and refilled the tank with water close to the original water parameters i had and today i noticed one death shrimp but it looked like it had been there for some time now behind the drift wood as the dead shrimp was almost crumbling which kinda concerned me as it could have been nibbled on by some of the other shrimps... the others looked healthy enough but paranoid that i am i did another 80% water change...

this time i loaded my 10 gal with about 5 indian almond leaves as i heard it helps. and i also read somewhere you need to do 80% water changes straight for 4 days? to completely rid your tank of bacteria... and dose with probiotics ( mosura BT9? or bio plus?)

would that help? I dont want to dose maracyn 2 again as i felt it didnt work...

water parameters as of today
TDS 180
PH 6.4
GH 5
Ammonia 0
nitrate 0

**stonedaquarium** · 23rd Jan 2012, 07:56 AM

observed the tank today and had two deaths... one from old age as the shrimp looked normal and healthy and one for sure due to bacterial infection as the body was milky white and the head looked like it was separating from the body... so i did another round of maracyn plus this time a liquid antibiotic. has anyone had any experience using this?