[GirlieGirl04]

I have just bought a coral banded shrimp it has been fine but all of a sudden i was watching it on the rocks and it was like his pincher just fell off ...there were no fish around him..actually nothing was around him and then about 5 ins later the other pincher was laying on the floor as well.....Please help

[leebca]

Welcome to the Forum. Sorry to hear of the event.

I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing before, unless the shrimp had been previously injured and then, that would be weird for both pinchers to drop off.

You're sure it was the living shrimp and not its exoskeleton after a molt?

Coral banded shrimp are attractive but they can be the cause of many problems in some tanks. They tend to be belligerent and they have been known to attack fishes, crabs, and even other shrimp. To fight with fish or other inhabitants (crabs and other shrimp) would not be unusual.

You don't mention water quality and how old the tank is. If you want you can tell us more to see if we can spot any areas of concern. We'd need to know:

Water parameters (ranges of: pH, sp. gr., temp)
Water chemistries (everything you test for -- actual test results)
Water source
General tank appearance (blue-green algae, red algae, hair algae, brown algae, etc.)
Use of additives or supplements or any medications since you set the tank up?

Do you know anything about the water it came from (water parameters and chemistries)? How did you acclimate the shrimp to your tank?

[GirlieGirl04]

Water conditions all in specs i tested that before and after putting him in the tank...yes i drip accamulated him for about 2 hrs before placing in the tank. The tank is general clean execpt for a small amount of hair algae that i'm going to clean tomorrow. The tank is over 3 yrs old with a yr old sand bed. I know nothing about the water it was coming from i bought it from a different LFS then the one i normally deal with because they didn't have any in
Nitrate-20
Nitrite-0
Alkalinity-200
PH-8.0
Gravity-1.022

[GirlieGirl04]

And yes i'm sure it was the exoskeleton because i had previous had a shunk shrimp so i was use to seeing the skin laying on the ground...but last yr hurricane killed him

[leebca]

Did you mean that you were sure it wasn't the exoskeleton? (Because you wrote that it was the exoskeleton)

The numbers look good, although the pH could be higher. The 2-hour acclimation might be a bit on the edge for invertebrates. From what I've been told they need up to 4 hours to acclimate to the new water. That is one reason I asked about the water it came from. If it was a lot different than your water, the shrimp may have had a bad acclimation to the new water.

Other than the above small possibility, I have no other ideas. My specialty is marine fishes. You may want to try posting your post, with the additional information you posted above, in the Reef Aquariums Forum here at Reefland. Ninong or others there may have some experience or suggestions on what is going on with the shrimp. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.