SaNChEz's First Pico (First Salt Too!)

[.Newman.]

whew, that's good news

still you shoulda gotten the refracto before you started...

it's still taking me time to learn how and with what to calibrate the damn thing for accuracy...for all I know my 1.024 salinity might be way off...

I calibrated with the 1.026 fluid from DFS and then test pure distilled water and I don't get 1.000 salinity >_<

If I calibrate with the freshwater I get a different reading from my tank...I'm so damn confused.

[sanchez]

whew, that's good news

still you shoulda gotten the refracto before you started...

it's still taking me time to learn how and with what to calibrate the damn thing for accuracy...for all I know my 1.024 salinity might be way off...

I calibrated with the 1.026 fluid from DFS and then test pure distilled water and I don't get 1.000 salinity >_<

If I calibrate with the freshwater I get a different reading from my tank...I'm so damn confused.

 

I ordered my refractometer before I started... It hasn't arrived yet. I guess it was backordered or something. My nano-mag hasn't shown up either so I can't even clean the glass! It's starting to get some algae on it, but hopefully Turbo and Speedy will take care of that =p

[sanchez]

Check up:

 

Nitrate - 5ppm

Nitrite - 0ppm

Ammonia - 0ppm

pH - 8.3

Temp - 78.0

Salinity - ???

 

So my Trochus and Cerith snails have either retracted into their shells, or my newly molted hungry-hermit ate them. When I left the office last night, they were both happily sucking on rocks, this morning they're both lying on the substrate upside down. The hermit is doing fine though, he's still munching away on whatever it is he is eating.

 

Bumble bee survived the night and is still stuck to the glass in the back of the tank. I dunno what kind of hermit this guy is, I picked him up at my LFS our of a tank with about 100 others and a bunch of corals. It's not too big either, his shell is conical and a little bit longer than a quarter. Am I correct in thinking my crab ate my snails? Or is it something else in my tank that I should be looking for. Should I take the dead(??) snails out of the tank so the ammonia doesn't go up?

 

Le-sigh... poor snails.

[Artie1a]

Check up:

 

Nitrate - 5ppm

Nitrite - 0ppm

Ammonia - 0ppm

pH - 8.3

Temp - 78.0

Salinity - ???

 

So my Trochus and Cerith snails have either retracted into their shells, or my newly molted hungry-hermit ate them. When I left the office last night, they were both happily sucking on rocks, this morning they're both lying on the substrate upside down. The hermit is doing fine though, he's still munching away on whatever it is he is eating.

 

Bumble bee survived the night and is still stuck to the glass in the back of the tank. I dunno what kind of hermit this guy is, I picked him up at my LFS our of a tank with about 100 others and a bunch of corals. It's not too big either, his shell is conical and a little bit longer than a quarter. Am I correct in thinking my crab ate my snails? Or is it something else in my tank that I should be looking for. Should I take the dead(??) snails out of the tank so the ammonia doesn't go up?

 

Le-sigh... poor snails.

 

Are you sure they're dead? They may have just fallen off the rocks or glass.Try flipping them over and see what happens. Snails can sometimes just hang out. Check to see if they are in their shells all the way, if not poke at them if nothing moves, well you know what that means.You can also pull them out and smell them. Dead snails stink pretty bad when they're dead, just like anything else

[sanchez]

Are you sure they're dead? They may have just fallen off the rocks or glass.Try flipping them over and see what happens. Snails can sometimes just hang out. Check to see if they are in their shells all the way, if not poke at them if nothing moves, well you know what that means.You can also pull them out and smell them. Dead snails stink pretty bad when they're dead, just like anything else

 

I flipped them over shortly after I got in, which was 3 hours ago, still no movement. The bigger of the two, the Trochus it seemed to be inside it's shell all the way, I saw something inside it, but it still hasn't come out. When I first put that one in, he was speeding all over the place.

 

The Cerith, same thing. No movement yet, and the bumble bee has been in the same spot on the glass all morning. Kinda concerns me. Maybe my salinity is high/low? Maybe the algae they ate was bad? Food poisoning for a snail?

[Artie1a]

Maybe the algae they ate was bad? Food poisoning for a snail?

 

lol.... not likely, but your salinity could be a concern. Just smell them you will know, trust me.

[sanchez]

lol.... not likely, but your salinity could be a concern. Just smell them you will know, trust me.

 

I really don't want to.... My cubicle is the first one you see in the office, with my luck the boss is going to walk by and see me sniffing it

 

I'll do it in a little bit, after lunch lol.

[.Newman.]

your culprits are the following if the snails are indeed dead:

1. hermit ate them

2. bumble bee ate them

3. wrong salinity killed them and the above two animals ate them.

 

When you're getting a hermit for a pico, it's really important to know what you're getting. you will not want anything other than dwarf hermits because all others will eat your snails. I'm not saying the dwarfs won't but they generally shouldn't if you supply them shells/ food.

I would identify the hermit if I were you ASAP.

[sanchez]

your culprits are the following if the snails are indeed dead:

1. hermit ate them

2. bumble bee ate them

3. wrong salinity killed them and the above two animals ate them.

 

When you're getting a hermit for a pico, it's really important to know what you're getting. you will not want anything other than dwarf hermits because all others will eat your snails. I'm not saying the dwarfs won't but they generally shouldn't if you supply them shells/ food.

I would identify the hermit if I were you ASAP.

 

The shell that it's in doesn't matter much because it could be any shell, right? It's legs are orangey/red with black bands. Looks like an electric blue, but... not blue.

 

Bumble bee snail would eat the others? Wow, never woulda thought.

[sanchez]

 

They look dead to me, also I'm starting to get a thick coat of brown microalgae on one of my rocks.. Time for a new CUC I think?

[.Newman.]

pretty crazy that the hermit and the bumblebee polished hose two off in one night 0_0

 

can you get a clear Macro pic of the hermit? sounds like some sort of reef and not dwarf hermit...might be more aggressive than you need in a pico..

[sanchez]

pretty crazy that the hermit and the bumblebee polished hose two off in one night 0_0

 

can you get a clear Macro pic of the hermit? sounds like some sort of reef and not dwarf hermit...might be more aggressive than you need in a pico..

 

I can try, all of my pics come from my cell phone, so we'll see what I can get. If not I'll bring in my real camera tomorrow to do it.

[sanchez]

 

That's as good as I can do for right now (which isn't bad for a camera phone) but anyway, yeah. Any ideas?

[.Newman.]

those should be good enough for someone to ID. I'll start looking around too

[sanchez]

those should be good enough for someone to ID. I'll start looking around too

 

Thanks dude! I tried yesterday, googling for like "bright red leg hermit crab" or "hermit crab with bright red antennae" didn't find much.. lol.

[.Newman.]

yours is a dwarf red-leg reef hermit, which is pretty much an equivalent of my blue-leg reef hermit. they both eat algae mostly. I think we can rule out his fault in the snail's demise. http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/productDeta...=2&pid=1114

[sanchez]

Interesting, I wonder what did them in? I just took the 2 goners out, re-aquascaped a bit and now the dust is settling. Maybe the Live Rock I got was bad?

 

Where should I go from here?

 

P.s. I did a 20% water change yesterday... I wonder if that was it? And while I was aquascaping I took out my live rocks and gave them a quick scraping in a salt water bath. Hopefully that got rid of any funky stuff.

[.Newman.]

thats ok for a start (what I did was I scraped my rock before introducing it to the pico) but make sure to not make that a routine weekly maintenance lol, you don't want to be killing stuff on the rock from now on.

we'll see what the salinity is once you get that refracto...

[sanchez]

thats ok for a start (what I did was I scraped my rock before introducing it to the pico) but make sure to not make that a routine weekly maintenance lol, you don't want to be killing stuff on the rock from now on.

we'll see what the salinity is once you get that refracto...

 

Haha, of course not. I'm familiar with the necessity of bacteria I guess you're right, hope the salinity isn't through the roof.

[.Newman.]

you know, you can probably get a cheap hydrometer right now to get an idea of where you're at...plus the hydrometer could serve as a good comparison once you get the refracto.

[sanchez]

you know, you can probably get a cheap hydrometer right now to get an idea of where you're at...plus the hydrometer could serve as a good comparison once you get the refracto.

 

I can't do it until this weekend anyway, I get out of work too late. All the LFS are closed, and my girlfriend doesn't have a car at the moment

[.Newman.]

ah w/e then, waiting for the refracto isn't all that bad lol

[sanchez]

Im scouring my area for Chaetomorpha.. can't find it ANYWHERE! I told some guy on craigslist that if he delivered it to me (my car isn't freeway capable) I'd pay him $20 lol.

[sanchez]

Found some chaeto locally, picking it up later.

[bruce922]

Nice Pico. It is your first saltwater tank also, wow good luck to you.