Whats up with my cleaner shrimp?
 

Ok yea another problem I know... but seriously here it is. I just got a cleaner shrimp about 3 weeks ago and he always had a great appetite and very active always cleanin. Yesterday and today he seems to be twitching and laying on his back at times for up to five minutes sometimes, then suddenly he's back to business climbing rocks and doing "shrimp" stuff. My parameters are spot on except my calcium being slightly low at 360. No changes to anything in the tank or new diets or anything. Everyone else is fine corals are huge and opened nicely fish are getting along "swimmingly" but he is "tweeking out" anyone know what the problem is here? Is this out of the ordinary? He just molted yesterday morning so other then that its just the behaviour that is concerning me.

Anytime I have had a shrimp or crab molt, their appetite has not always been so stellar for a few days afterwards; however I cannot speak to the laying on the back trick.... that's all new to me.

Yeah he molted maybe every week or so, but I've never seen this, at the moment he's cleaning a rock but 10 minutes ago he had a "episode" lol my parameters are fine, I had about .15 ammonia this morning but changed the water right away!

Hmmm he is still cleaning now.. maybe ur was reacting to the slight ammonia content in the water? I hear they can be sensitive to that, maybe he's starting to "detoxify" lol

and 20 minutes later he died. wtf? I dont understand what I am doing wrong lol... this is so off putting

i would worry about where the amonia came from right now, amonia shouldnt be detectable at anytime if it is detectable even in small amounts its harmful but is also a huge sign that your tank isnt stable.

if you tank is on the stable/unstable fine line then a ittle time has to be given for the balance to work out.adding anyhing n ow or in the near future could keep it on this fine line.

another thing to note is inverts are very sensitive to salinity spikes and temp so be sure to make sure they are always consistent.acclimation is very important.


if your shrimp just molted it is also at its most vulnerable period, what do you have for fish?? notice any bad crabs you didnt buy??

+1
Overfeeding or something dying. It doesn't take much to get a rise in ammonia when the tank is still "new".

Well the ammonia came from a blenny I bought which died when I put it in after acclimating it improperly. I felt terrible but got the ammonia down to 0 quickly through a water change. I tried a bangai cardinal after and was successful with him. I just acclimated the blenny to long so I'd assume the oxygen ran low in the water he was in. Another noob mistake. I am goong to also test for any stray voltage tonight. Does anyone else have bad luck like me at first? Lol.

You should also test for copper.

Damn. Is that another test kit? Lol my widest going to kill me. Anything else? I know may. But I heard I don't need to test that until my tank is 1 year old.

@reefwars sorry I didnt see that last part, I have a ocellaris and a bangai cardinal, one emerald crab, 4 hermits, 4 snails. thats all. and some soft corals

absolutely when i first started reefing losing fish wasnt a big surprise, when i started in the saltwater hobby we(me and the girlfriend at the time) decided to do a clown tank to go with the cichlids i had going, we must have replaced that clown about 20 times lol no skimmers, no rock, no sumps,pumps or sand.

the biggest mistake just about everyone makes in this hobby is not going slow enough and telling yourself things will be fine ive done it and everyone on here has done it too its part of the learning process, sometimes someone telling you something isnt enough you need to try it for your self.....an old boss years ago use to tell me " if you dont know what the result of doing it wrong is you dont fully understand why right is right" basically even if we are sure we have something right knowing what can happen and how it happens when it goes wrong will make you that much smarter.

your doing fine just take it a bit slower, the amonia in your tank could have been cause by the blenny but in all honesty the blenny would have to be left to rot before it upset your water quality, the amonia is more than likely there because it cant keep up with the bioload yet , your cycle is finished but your tank is still very fragile so what you add now and in the weeks to come has to be done slowly so once you add something allow your tank to catch up and stabilize then consider something else.

now that you have some fish and some corals let the tank stabilize could take weeks for this to happen it all depends on the quality of your liverock, in the meantime it sounds like your going for a reef so nows a good time to think about corals or buy some corals(be sure theres no amonia though first)

your doing fine but save yourself some cash and focus on reading and asking questions.

ive had my 90g set up for 3 months now i havent added anything(frogspawn/small zoa colony/anemone) other than that its just been sitting there stabilizing growing pods and becoming healthy.after some time in the hobby you will set up many tanks and the more you set up..sell...take down..set up again the more you will realize that the rush of filling it isnt as important you wont even have to think about it it will just come second nature to let it stabilize.


if it helps some i lost 2 black clowns the other morning didnt even make it one night they didnt lol got bullied by my sixline and were thrown out of the tank....after 10yrs you would think i know that by now eh?? we all lose fish for different reasons the important thing is to learn from it and move on, dont let it discourage you but think of it as "now i know" no ones perfect by no means :):) cheers mate and keep up the good work your well on the way to where you need to be :):)

having a copper test kit is aways handy, age has nothing to do with it copper can come from different places but is always lethal to inverts such as your shrimp.


did the tank your using now use to be a freshwater tank??

awesome sounds great, for a 20g thats been set up for a month and a bit def slow it down a bit when it comes to buying fish youll be full in no time lol cheers:)

thanks reefwars. I appreciate that! My clown is probably my favorite part of my tank at the moment so I am focused on keeping my parameters stable, cause if he dies I would die lol (not literally obviously) but hes my little buddy, when I put my hand in the tank to clean the glass or move LR he swims around in my hand as if to host it. and I hand feed him every day he's my biggest accomplishment thus far. my bangai, quickly has become best friends with him. So thats a bonus. I'm still bummed about the blenny, cause I looked all over for one did some reading up on them talked to the LFS and got him home, and boom dead. that was so bogus. lol. It's like you said no matter how much you think you know or prepare yourself, theres always a surprise. For now I wont be adding anyone til' after the holidays, except a ricordea, this saturday, and that is it for a month. my next focus is working on my tanks filtration and lighting hopefully retro fitting some leds into a light I got dirt cheap over the weeked, anyone know how I could get some super bright (almost metal halide bright) leds into my oddysea 24 in" MH t5 combo light? I don't want to use the halides on this tank cause it'll for sure fry my corals. maybe when I upgrade to a larger tank down the road, but for now a nice retrofit is in order I believe. Other then that everyone is fine, in fact today my scarlet hermit crab changed shells for the first time since I got him 2 months ago, and that was pretty neat to see.

i used a 250w on my last 20g lol so frying them i woldnt worry about too much, but youve got the right idea for sure go slow and if you need to spend money spend it on equipment and bettering the tank itsself;)

oh and i wouldnt rule your hermits out from killing your shrimp.....hermits and all crabs for that matter are evil hehehe they will take an easy meal such as a freshly molted shrimp;)

you used a 250? I only keep low lights though like zoo's and ricordeas and stuff, in fact the only coral I have that could take higher light i believe is my hammer. its mounted about 6" above my tank, mind you my tank is a standard 24x12x12 20g. I was told by a few that it would fry my tank lol. so its off for the time being

You would be supprised what might like the light after being aclimated to higher levels.

so if I was to do the halide, it would be best to suspend it I take it and lower it every few days a bit at a time? its got a fan but it still gets very hot luckily I have a lid lol

yup +1 for the most part theres not "two much light" just two much two fast if they are acclimated properly alot of low light corals do fine with high light.but there are still some that do better with low light so it takes some reading or trial and error to find this out;)

zoas can do fine with lots of light or no light as do shrooms and alot of softies:):)

oops double post haha. ricordea? acans? these would be ok too? I hear halides are a real jerk on your power bill though?

Your cleaner shrimp molted every week or so?? Really? That's not typical. What is typical is for the shrimp to hide several days after a molt, as their shell is still soft. Sounds like you had a defective shrimp from the start.

I wouldn't worry about copper, you have other inverts that are fine. Don't add more stuff for a while, get good at keeping what you've got, them build on it.

yup start it up high a good rule of thumb is 24" from your sandbed and lower it slowly but watch the temps, a fan helps alot when dealing with the heat. lids ime arent the best for salt tanks as we rely on the open tops for gas exchange unless your top is vented:):)

I have rics, mushrooms and acans under a 250w in a 50g, they seem to love it.
One 250w bulb won't break your bank account :)

ricordias,acans hammers and zoas are all fine with halides and they do fine with t5's as well.....halides are costly though more so then anyother light.

that should be a golden rule very well said:):)

Hey nano, I just reread a thread I started in august on another site looking for some advice given to me...

"Key to this hobby is all about patience .patience and more patience....that being said a 6 month tank is a new born.after a year thats when it will really start to do its own thing and take care of itself.you can help it along with filters and skimmers.but nature needs to take its course over time.as the tank matures it will usually self correct except if you do something dramatic like add 5 fish at one time."

I was having all kinds of problems. Since then I've slowed down and while I've still had struggles, it's gotten better. I am loving my tank ATM. I've lost all my fish except 1, completely my fault, slowly restocking. It's hard being a newbie when so many have such gorgeous tanks, I get tank envy a lot which makes me rush or make bad decisions. Take the advice given and you will really start to enjoy this. Watch what's happening in your tank, you'd be surprised at what's already in there. I just found a plate coral that I have no clue where it came from!!
Cheers

thanks brad and reefwars, I have a sliding glass lid with a plastic peice at the back thats supposed to seal up the tank, but I drilled holes all over it, cause I know fish need oxygen lol. the reason I have a lid is cause I have heard of lots of fish jumping didnt want to risk it ya know? I guess I'll have to convince my wife to let me suspend the light lol, and find brackets for hanging this light, I know they make them, but I'm sure I could get away with something different

i help alot of people set up new tanks and one of the first things i tell people is think of your tank like a see saw(teetor totter)....it starts off on the wrong side and slowly it will even itself out ......the more you add to one side the more it tips in the wrong direction..... the trick is to let it get so far past the good side that when you add something it cant tip to far onto the wrong side:):)may not be scientific or alot of fancy words but the big picture is there:):)

haha cool a plate coral eh? Yeah I'm done adding anything aside from one ricordea but Only if I find one that I like more then the one I already have! haha. I noticed a large feather duster tube that has been growing on the rock for the past few days now about a 1/8-1/4 inch in diameter and maybe 1/2 inch long ATM, I havent seen the feather duster but it has gotten bigger, so maybe he's building lol. I also found one on the back side of my LR that is rather big too! about an inch in diameter he's very shy though! and a gsp on my rock that I dont know where it came from I have a neon gsp at the front of my tank but this one is just a green gsp that just appeared. I guess thats why they call it "live" rock. haha. Yeah definitely going to slow down. it hurts the wallet lol especially when it dies. patience is my new hobby. :lol:

whenever you get a chance do a search here for covers, alot of people make some good ones mine was made from mesh.........its one of the things im still learning after all these years ...i still dont have a cover lol:):)

you can get cables that suspend from your ceiling and i got the adjustable holders for the cable at aquagiant in edmonton it as $5 for the set of 2 and the cable;) or simply build a canopy...no jumpers and hidden light all at the same time hehehe:):)

no problem at all its why were here we are just happy to help:):)

oh hey good idea like that plastic mesh or what is it called like screen kind of but thicker lol. yeah that should work! all this stuff I have to get, watch my next thread will be titled, "anyone need a tank? the wife says either I go or the tank does" just kidding haha

My bf is attached to a worm that showed up right after our cycle was complete...weird. We've got tons of stuff that has shown up that wasn't intentionally added, thankfully all good. Ive got feather dusters growing on my frogspawn. Seriously no clue where the plate coral came from. Saw it a whi,e ago, just looked like a shell so we left it, then it disappeared. Saw it again a week ago, thought it was a mushroom, but it kept moving, grabbed it last night and yup, it's a plate with tentacles. It's a bit bigger too, size of a quarter.

i just used the metal mesh but ive also used netting before as well.so long as it doesnt block out the light your fine.



did you see my sig lol "turns out the misses wasnt reefsafe" yeahhhh that i put to the test and was true lol:):)

I saw a thread where a guy was trying to trade his wife for corals....be careful what you offer up...lol:lol:

lol mines reef safe she just hates the cost of things with a baby!! haha but so do i, luckily you dont have to buy it over and over. I have a turbo snail, I thought he was covered in small barnacles, turned out hes covered in small feather dusters, he's probably the best cleaner/filter feeder in my tank haha

lol thats rich!

good cover is egg crate, you can pick it up at home depot. Its useful stuff

funny thing is My dad has some in his garage, phoned him up, and he gave me a nice 24x16 peice which is more then enough to play with! score! now I just have to convince the Mrs. to let me hang up the light lol