# shrimp saddle blackening?



## urbnbtta (Oct 14, 2010)

hello, i have a heavily planted 2 gallon tank for shrimp, which has been cycled and stable for months. 

but i've been having a hard time keeping shrimp. my latest batch has been in the tank for a few days. i have no ammonia and no nitrates or nitrites. the temperature is mid 70s. i just ran out of my gh/kh strips, but this tank has pretty high gh. What should the kh and gh levels be?

i noticed today the shrimp have the blackening section near the saddle, that is inside the shrimp, not the shell. is the blackening a sign of something in particular?

in the tank with shrimp are 2 chili rasbora, 2 otos, and an army of ramshorns.

i have christmas moss, dwarf anub, dhg, parva, a crypt, wisteria, moss ball, emersed "devil's ivy"

please help. thanks, i've attached images to try to show the blackening i'm seeing.


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

That "black" area looks to be in front of the saddle... my guess, they're eating something dark in color. That's about the region where a shrimp's stomach is... sometimes if they eat something colored differently, it'll show through like that.


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## HolyAngel (Nov 3, 2010)

+1 asukawashere ^^


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

that isn't the saddle. the that's the stomach. which was mentioned already. its throbbing too right? the only color eggs for cherry reds are yellow and green


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## sandsea (Nov 7, 2010)

+2, mine get black stomach when i skip feeding a few days and they've been eating algae only.

and if you're having trouble keeping them alive.. at one point i noticed my shrimp were acting weird, so i checked my new "trace elements liquid" and it had copper. i still use it, but only about 1/4 the dose and i alternate between that and the stuff i used before. so i go 1. stuff i used b4 regular dose, 2. stuff i used b4 regular dose 3. stuff i used b4 regular dose 4. the trace elements at 1/4. then I start that cycle again.


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

Yes, the black stuff is actually green stuff, algae and microfilm they eat off the plants. Its good, it means they can go without a feeding for a while. Keep your lighting on the same schedule, good stuff for baby shrimps!


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

@sandsea. copper in supplements are okay to a certain extent. plants need copper as a nutrient and most fish foods contain copper. what are you going to do? obviously that copper can't be killing them. Plus usually we get our water through old copper pipes, are you saying that water should be kept copper free? water conditioner can only do so much.


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## vicky (Feb 18, 2010)

Yes, they need copper, but in very small amounts. It is well documented that copper can kill shrimp. In some places, the tap water contains so much copper that it kills shrimp, and must be filtered before use. Some tank treatments contain so much copper that it is absorbed by the silicone and released in great enough amounts to kill shrimp in that tank for a long time. If he used copper treatments/fertilizers/etc the substrate may now be toxic to shrimp. It is something to consider.


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## TarantulaGuy (Apr 15, 2009)

Copper will most certainly kill shrimp, and most marine invertebrates. I'm currently dealing with a copper "infection" in a reef tank I"m trying to get going, and its a major problem. It kills everything (other than fish) that go in it in a matter of hours. Copper in extremely small amounts though should be ok, my water comes through copper pipes and my 10 gal shrimp tank hasn't had any problems with it.


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## Option (Jan 14, 2011)

I've noticed the blackening in my red sakuras as well. And I only noticed this after coming home from a trip (not having fed the shrimps for about 4-days), so it would make sense that this is the algae they are feeding on as my tank is full of it.


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