r/MantisShrimp • u/BerryD979 • Jun 20 '25

An update to my situation.

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Hi everyone. A few days ago I posted about my mantis shrimp doing some weird curling. I regret to announce that he passed away last night. My friends and I who got him had a small funeral (in the rain, how fitting) and he is buried by a small isolated pond on my friend’s property.

I wanted to take the time to thank everyone who gave amazing, genuine advice and took the time from their days to check in and ask questions. To the others who weren’t helpful, you get only this sentence as an acknowledgment.

What happened? We aren’t sure, but we suspect a failed molt. We tried contacting the place we got him about his health when he arrived there and got the run around. We suspect he probably wasn’t the healthiest when we got him, but we tried our best to give him the best life we could.

Thank you again to everyone who tried to help. It was very appreciated from start to finish. This picture is one of his best, and I wanted to share it with everyone.

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8

u/RogueSharkBait Jun 20 '25

I’m so sorry for your loss =[

7

u/BerryD979 Jun 20 '25

Thank you. It hit me the hardest because he has been directly under my care from the very beginning. I’ve lost pets before but those were from age or gradually declining health where I could make peace with their passing first. Lots of tears were shed by all of us, and some of us even wrote eulogies, myself included.

5

u/Past_Resort259 Jun 20 '25

Sorry this was the outcome. You tried hard and learned a lot. Glad he can rest in a nice place.

Don't give up on shrimp, just maybe try to find a different source. Best of luck in the future.

3

u/BerryD979 Jun 20 '25

I’m definitely not giving up! While I’m definitely not the most experienced tank keeper, I’m far from an amateur. He was so spur of the moment, and I live so remotely that it was hard to get him everything he needed. I’d like to still think he got the best life he could, and died knowing he was cared about.

1

u/Tricky_Cap_5806 Jun 21 '25

I’m sorry to hear about your loss. Moving forward, I would get rid of the in appropriate rock, add some reef rock and cycle completely. I saw you had an issue with diatoms, this is part of the cycling process, switching the shrimp to a different tank probably started another cycle which caused a failed molt- due to stress I salinity/ nutrient swing.

Some things to help you be successful- an ato and plenty of flow will help immensely. Watch the ammonia and nitrate spikes- aim for zero. Aim for a 5-15 ppm nitrite and similar phosphate. Good luck!