So I am new to this hobby and ran into a problem. Yesterday, I braved to my LFS , water sample in hand to get confirmation that I had completed the great “cycle”. Brand new tank started in mid January my test results were showing that I had, but I saw a sudden spike again in ammonia so I waited a week after adding nitrifying bacteria. My LFS ran their tests and I about fainted when the manager came up and said that my water was perfect - even my pH was perfect and that was often an issue in our area.
I wanted a clean up crew because my substrate (sand) is a mess and I’ve noticed a film of “fuzz” on my live rock. I had pictures I showed them and they agreed. I got the following;
* 25 Blue Legged Hermits
* 3 Emerald Crabs
* 1 Cleaner Shrimp
Upon looking more at the photos the guy helping me asked the specifics again on my tank and I reiterated
60 gallon cube
20 gallon Sump system w/ 2 sock filters and 1 pound carbon
Sicce Syncra 3.0 SDC (800 pgh)
Sicce heater
Water temp 78*f
He recommended some fish specifically a foxface or tang. So I got both because they had some small ones and were quite a bargain. My 2 year old niece was with me and was enthralled with the “Nemo” fish. And the guy said that it was a safe idea. So I got that too. I was concerned about the bio load (probably from too much reading in these forums) and the sales guy asked me to take out the mollies and return them to be safe. Full disclosure and transparency, in addition to the CUC I added;
Blue hippo tang (about the size of a silver dollar)
Yellow Tang (same size as blue one)
2 ocellarus “Nemo’s” (pair)
1 spotted foxface (about 3” big)
So yesterday, I brought it all home, acclimated it all to the tank, released it in the tank, and woke up this morning and the cleaner shrimp is not moving looking half dead on the tippy top of the highest rock very near where it was released. I called my LFS who had me bring back the carcass/dead body along with a water sample. They detected slight elevations in ammonia, but nitrite, phosphates nitrates, and Everything else was in order. They gave me a new cleaner shrimp this one was double the size the one I originally purchased. I went through the same routine brought it home acclimated it into the tank. We went out to dinner and I came home and noticed that the shrimp wasn’t acting right. I noticed that it was pinned into the live rock by two Emerald crabs. That shrimp is dead, and I have photos and video of the crabs, eating and pinching at the shrimp. The one crab appears to be more (most) aggressive by dragging the shrimp up the rocks away from the other 2 crabs and all the hermits (that just follow). Currently the crab has the shrimp up under a rock high off the floor.
Tomorrow I call LFS again. Meanwhile, I’m worried because I really want one of those pistol shrimp/watchman goby pairs…
The fish are all doing great! I ran my water tests and everything was what it was except ammonia that was “perfect” (0.03) yesterday and registering 2.3 tonight. I did a 20 percent water change and now ammonia is 0.09.
Remember I’m new. I’ll figure out how to post a photo next. The photos from my phone are too big…
I wanted a clean up crew because my substrate (sand) is a mess and I’ve noticed a film of “fuzz” on my live rock. I had pictures I showed them and they agreed. I got the following;
* 25 Blue Legged Hermits
* 3 Emerald Crabs
* 1 Cleaner Shrimp
Upon looking more at the photos the guy helping me asked the specifics again on my tank and I reiterated
60 gallon cube
20 gallon Sump system w/ 2 sock filters and 1 pound carbon
Sicce Syncra 3.0 SDC (800 pgh)
Sicce heater
Water temp 78*f
He recommended some fish specifically a foxface or tang. So I got both because they had some small ones and were quite a bargain. My 2 year old niece was with me and was enthralled with the “Nemo” fish. And the guy said that it was a safe idea. So I got that too. I was concerned about the bio load (probably from too much reading in these forums) and the sales guy asked me to take out the mollies and return them to be safe. Full disclosure and transparency, in addition to the CUC I added;
Blue hippo tang (about the size of a silver dollar)
Yellow Tang (same size as blue one)
2 ocellarus “Nemo’s” (pair)
1 spotted foxface (about 3” big)
So yesterday, I brought it all home, acclimated it all to the tank, released it in the tank, and woke up this morning and the cleaner shrimp is not moving looking half dead on the tippy top of the highest rock very near where it was released. I called my LFS who had me bring back the carcass/dead body along with a water sample. They detected slight elevations in ammonia, but nitrite, phosphates nitrates, and Everything else was in order. They gave me a new cleaner shrimp this one was double the size the one I originally purchased. I went through the same routine brought it home acclimated it into the tank. We went out to dinner and I came home and noticed that the shrimp wasn’t acting right. I noticed that it was pinned into the live rock by two Emerald crabs. That shrimp is dead, and I have photos and video of the crabs, eating and pinching at the shrimp. The one crab appears to be more (most) aggressive by dragging the shrimp up the rocks away from the other 2 crabs and all the hermits (that just follow). Currently the crab has the shrimp up under a rock high off the floor.
Tomorrow I call LFS again. Meanwhile, I’m worried because I really want one of those pistol shrimp/watchman goby pairs…
The fish are all doing great! I ran my water tests and everything was what it was except ammonia that was “perfect” (0.03) yesterday and registering 2.3 tonight. I did a 20 percent water change and now ammonia is 0.09.
Remember I’m new. I’ll figure out how to post a photo next. The photos from my phone are too big…