[mjhanna21]

So for the last few months i have been having big problems with my shrimp tank. Id like to thank everyone on this site for all the help. My tiger shrimp have been slowly dying and i am now convinced that it is not an issue with my water.
I lost a shrimp today and before it died i noticed small white worms on its head between the eyes. I did some research online and believe they are scutariella. I also have a infestation of what looks like rhabdacoela. Im not sure if they came with the shrimp i bought or the moss. I suspect the moss is more likely.
I tried to take some pics but my camera was not good enough to show any detail so i found some online that are very similar. Yea not pretty, and it seems to be a slow and miserable death for the shrimp.
I admit i am new to shrimp keeping but i have kept fish most of my life. I have learned that parasitic infestations can be very hard to deal with. Usually the medications can just as harmful to the tank as the parasite. Then there is still no guarantee you wont lose the fish.
I have about five or six tiger shrimp and mabey eight or ten blue velvets left in this tank.
So, what to do now? Is there a treatment out there that is worth trying? Or should i just call it a loss, break down the tank, bleach everything and start over.

 

[GeToChKn]

The white fuzzy head is usually a sign of very bad water. I had this before when I started keeping shrimp and after a million posts online, I came up with salt dips that cleared it up for me and many others that have tried after me. Here is the thread about it.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=146903&highlight=


As for the worms, I've had them and they seem harmless. They mostly live near the substrate and using a feeding dish and keeping the food in the dish instead of on the substrate cleared them up about 90% in no time for me. With no food falling into the substrate, they don't eat as much, don't breed and slowly die out or there is so few of them, you never see them. I never seen them even go near a shrimp.

You may be feeding too much, thus causing the worms and the bad water conditions with too much left over food that led to the fuzzy heads.

Tigers are a bit of weaker shrimp as they seem extremely prone to bacteria infections and really need nice clean water.

 

[ravensgate]

Yeah, Rhabdocaeola are harmless except they DO like to go in and out of snail shells...blech. But shrimp harmless anyway. And salt dips for the win on the fuzz heads.

 

[Newman]

yes the fuzz heads have parasites like you guessed. i think salt dips kill them. some other medication might kill them too. i think it may have been fenbendazole.

 

[mjhanna21]

Trust me my water is very clean and i do not over feed. Especially after i started having problems. The worms that are on the shrimps head are actually alive and seem to be boring into the shell. It is very disturbing.

 

[mjhanna21]

If i was to try a salt dip, how much do you use? And for how long?

 

[GeToChKn]

Well salt dip will take care of the worms, read my thread above I linked. The problem is these live on the exoskeleton of the shrimp, so when they molt, then other shrimp go eat the molts, they get infected as well so removing the molts if you see them for a while helps as well as the salt dip. I tried a million meds, and all different suggestions online and the only thing that worked was the salt dip. You can watch the worms shrivel up and fall off right as they are being dipped.

As for the other worms and the parasites on the shrimp, things like that usually come from bad water or overfeeding or a combination of both. Maybe it was something else but you say you are convinced your water isn't the issue. What makes you think that?

Something as simple as bad flow in the tank can create dead spots that allow things like this to flourish.

 

[mjhanna21]

I have them in a 30 gal tank. I have undergravel filters with air stones, a aquaclear hob filter and a eheim canister filter. I have been doing weekly water changes with half ro and half tap.( KH2 GH5 PH6.8 Temp 72 F) I alternate feeding algae wafers and Hikari shrimp cuisine. I try to remove any uneaten food and i vac the gravel every week. The last month or so i have added borneo shield twice a week. I have treated the tank with seachem paraguard twice for one week each time.

 

[GeToChKn]

Paraguard I found did nothing for the worms as did other meds I tried. Don't vac the gravel, you are stirring up all kinds of bad bacteria and crap. Fish can handle it better, they are surface dwellers. Shrimp spend their whole life usually on the substrate and every time you vac, you are stirring up all kinds of stuff and probably making your tank and water worse. All that deep stuff sitting there gets stirred up.

 

[mjhanna21]

Ahh, that makes sense. Im thinking about transferring some baby endlers into that tank so they can eat the worms. What have i got to lose? My shrimp are dying anyway.

 

[mjhanna21]

All these problems can be very frustrating and expensive. I guess if it was to easy i would just get bored and lose interest anyway.