emu1sive Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Goodmorning! I have a 10g tank I changed to the marine orbit lighting from 6 standard led lights and they are running on the coral acclimation schedule. WP-10 for flow and a Aqueon 10 HOB with carbon and for phosphate maintenance My frogspawn, zoas, kenya tree, and mushrooms are thriving BUT my poor candycane and acan (my favorites) are falling apart... I have seen my peppermint shrimp munching on my acan. They were marvelous! Absolutely marvelous a couple days ago. The acan's mouths are all skeleton except the newly sprouted head. One of the candy cane heads are now half skeleton and the other head is starting to receed. Water params: Calc: 420 Kh 9 Phos .25 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0Nitrate below 5ppm I think the peppermint shrimp may be demolishing them since he ran out of aiptasia to eat so he's gonna take a trip to the lfs. Please help. These are my favorite corals. I've moved them into low light/flow area. Should I try spot feeding? Link to comment
Pinner Reef Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 I'd say you nailed the culprit. If all the other LPS look ok then the shrimp is most likely the cause. Link to comment
emu1sive Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 That's a relief to know. I will never again trust a seller saying an invertabrate is "reef safe" and will look into forum archives for personal experience. In regards to some tls for the poor acan and candycane do yall have any suggestions? Link to comment
cruzH20polo Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 LPS can be fairly hardy, if you remove the peppermint, and isolate in a low/mid-light, and low/mid-flow area they should recover. Give if a few days for them to stablize a bit and hand feed the mouths that still healthy (they need both the proteins and CaCO3 from brine/mysis to rebuild the damaged areas). I've had echinata's try to eat many different types of other LPS and most of the time I can get them to recover easily Link to comment
emu1sive Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 Thank you guys so much. It was heartbreaking seeing my favorite corals being demolished. Not that I don't like my other corals but these were birthday presents from my dad and my first non "test" corals. I will miss his antics of trying to catch the mysis as I fed my clowns though Link to comment
cruzH20polo Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 dont stress it too much, the damage doesn't look too bad and just replace the peppermint with a cleaner shrimp, they are much more interactive anyway. If you get aptasia again use joe's juice or something along those lines peppermints are really hit or miss, also once they clean out your system of aptasia your corals up next on its feeding list Link to comment
emu1sive Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 He did do his job well with the aiptasia so he has earned the right to sit in the tank for another few hours vs me going kill bill on him. I loved having a shrimp and am researching what would be safest to replace him with. Considering: Cleaner shrimp or a porcelean crab. Thoughts on this? Link to comment
cruzH20polo Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 If you want something a bit more interactive, go cleaner. Also with a porcelain you'd want something that they can host comfortably Link to comment
emu1sive Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 Gotcha Regardless of the beauty of some of the more aggressive tank mates, beautiful as they are, I am working on a friendly tank where everyone loves one another. A symbiotic tank Link to comment
emu1sive Posted April 16, 2015 Author Share Posted April 16, 2015 So I took mr peppermint monster back to the store and brought home a cleaner shrimp. After 1 week everything is blossoming like crazy!!! Link to comment
ajmckay Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 Pepps are hit or miss... Also note that there is a VERY similar looking shrimp that is generally regarded as not reef safe called the camel shrimp. They look almost identical and I'm sure many people have purchased a camel shrimp thinking it was a peppermint. Glad things are getting better, got any new pics of the acans/candy's? Link to comment
emu1sive Posted April 16, 2015 Author Share Posted April 16, 2015 Yep:) I'll be taking photos later today after they're all open and I've had my coffee Link to comment
emu1sive Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 Here's the update! Can't even see the acan in question but the whole tank is looking better! PS Photo taken as I rushed out the door running late...of course. Link to comment
Thomas898 Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Nice tank shot! Really like the scape. Good choice ditching the pep shrimp, they are devils. My remaining one of 3 is trained to accept food only from a pipette now. Sort of a useless cuc member.. Link to comment
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