Cleaner shrimp is twitching

[Beastlyness 22]

I have had him for a month. Hes been doing great untill today. He's latched on to a rock and won't move off of it. He just keeps figgiting and twitching. I'm almost positive he's not going to make it he looks terriable. I dunno what happend i tried hand feeding him with my clown fish who is doing excellent but he's not scared of my hand and deffinitly won't eat anything. All the way up untill today he's been fine.

 

[little_fish]

Are you sure hes not about to molt?

 

[Beastlyness 22]

I dunno I watched my peppermint shrimp molt before and it only took about 5 min tops of some intense twitching for him to rip his skin off. This guy has been latched on and having ticks (small twitches) now for 4-5 hours since I woke up.

 

[AmberSunrise]

My cleaner gets really weird before molting. He has molted 3 times since I got him. He ALWAYS jumps in the "air" when I feed but if he is about to molt he has no interest in food at all and wont move from his spot.

Have you tested your water for nitrates or ammonia just to be on the safe side?

 

[pheasant29]

check for stray voltage. The will twitch and act like they are scratching if there is some voltage in the tank.

 

[Beastlyness 22]

Yea pheasent I have heard of this to. I was moving my hand around inside the tank to see if id get shocked (probobly not my smartest moves) but it seems fine. Ima test all my water conditions right now and see if you guys see anything wrong.

,thanks!

 

[little_fish]

Unless you have an open cut, you wont feel the voltage. You need to test with a voltmeter

Identifying, Locating and Curing Stray Voltage in a Saltwater Aquarium

 

[Beastlyness 22]

oh ive done this with coolant for my car before. Not a problem.

Annnnd here are my chemicals..

Phosphates- .25ppm
Calcium- 400 ppm
Carbonate hardness 150 ppm
Nitrates - 0 ppm
PH- 8.2
Salinity 1.024
Ammonia .15

I have also heard iodine is good for helping them molt. Is this correct? I have no way to test that as of right now. I only have a 10 gallon tank. Things tend to stabalize rather quickly.

 

[little_fish]

I would say he is reacting to the ammonia, which is toxic. I would do a water change ASAP

 

[Northstar24]

Ammonia is showing as > 0

If thats correct, thats definitely an issue....also looks like phosphates are a little high, but I dont think that would cause stress to the shirmp, but ammonia definitely would

Hannah, you totally ninja'd my post!

 

[Beastlyness 22]

10% Water change done. Also Found my power heads are giving out 2-3 volts into the water? Is this normal? I turned them off. Both of them are giving out voltage one of them 1.5 and the the other 2.8 volts AC.....I turned everything off for now and unpluged everything. I don't have corals so I dont gotta worry about lights for now or nothing. Anyways hes still twitching. I'll let the system be for now and see what happens to him.

 

[little_fish]

I would get a grounding plug to deal with the voltage issues, and that is the most likely culprit of your shrimps issues

 

[Beastlyness 22]

allrighty, hopefully I haven't fried his brain.

 

[Sir Alex]

Unless you have an open cut, you wont feel the voltage. You need to test with a voltmeter

Identifying, Locating and Curing Stray Voltage in a Saltwater Aquarium

Little fish, always trying to find the complicated way to do everything... :disappoin It's simple, just stick your tongue in the water and see what happens. :D

 

[Beastlyness 22]

You can lick your own butt....twice.

 

[Sir Alex]

You can lick your own butt....twice.

:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

 

[Beastlyness 22]

loooool

 

[Beastlyness 22]

OMG cleaner shrimp is on its back now taking its last breaths and a gigantic worm came out of the rocks right by him and burrowed into my cheato. What the heck?! Could that worm poked my cleaner and put him into shock? Thats insane. He had spines all across his body. The one time I loose my camara..

 

[Beastlyness 22]

Oh that worms going down!! FIRST MY PEPERMINT SHRIMP NOW THIS!! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! WORM HUNT!

 

[Sir Alex]

Is it possible what your seeing is the molt? I know, it sounds dumb.