WSS Virus on ghost shrimp?

[spinycheek]

A while back I had an outbreak of white spot syndrome virus. It looks like ich with little white dots on the exoskeleton but they are just calcium deposits. The virus acts internally, from what I've found, it's known in the shrimp culture industry, but not so much in the aquarium trade. I read that it has a 100% kill rate if it is contracted and a 90% chance of contracting it if it's present in the water.

My shrimp developed the spots, then about 2 weeks later did emergency moults (probably a reaction to the exoskeleton infection. About a week after that they became very crippled and disfigured and died soon after. I never found a cure and it wiped out my tank of shrimp. Didn't affect the fish at all.

I was just wondering if anyone else has dealt with this.

[southerndesert]

I have not heard about it before or seen it. Did you shrimp contract this after introduction of new animals to the tank or did it just show up? Sound terrible to deal with.

Looked it up and found this link

http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/...ome-virus-wssv

Bill

[spinycheek]

The shrimp I got about a month or two earlier. I am guessing they brought it in. Got them from petsmart. They were the last thing to go in the tank.

[southerndesert]

Now that will be bad if the LFS is spreading this around....

Cheers, Bill

[A Hill]

Originally Posted by southerndesert

Now that will be bad if the LFS is spreading this around....

Cheers, Bill

Wild caught shrimp being sold at petsmart, hardly them trying to doom us all...

-Andrew

[spinycheek]

It does appear to be pretty contagious though, so there may be others out there that got diseased shrimp from the same store. Hopefully, mine was just an isolated case.

[southerndesert]

Didn't figure it as a conspiracy Andrew.... Just not a good thing to have end up in your shrimp tank by introducing a infected animal from wild caught stock at a store.

Cheers, Bill

[A Hill]

Originally Posted by southerndesert

Didn't figure it as a conspiracy Andrew.... Just not a good thing to have end up in your shrimp tank by introducing a infected animal from wild caught stock at a store.

Cheers, Bill

Well if you go to petco or such a store for your shrimp...

So just stick to known hobbyists keeping and breeding the shrimp

-Andrew

[southerndesert]

Mighty good advise there!

Bill

[spinycheek]

Yeah, I think I'll be a little more cautious about my shrimp purchases in the future.

[honor]

my ghost shrimp have these spots too, but they do well for a long time. so i duno

[spinycheek]

Well, watch out. I'm not sure how long my shrimp had the spots because I didn't see them until my girlfriend pointed them out. White dots on a whitish clear shrimp are a little inconspicuous.