Jesse's 30 gallon reef + 10 gallon planted dorm tank

[jesseatam]

Well Alfie the talbot's damsel passed away, I think it must've been something bacterial or fungal that wiped him out since the prazi had no effect. On the bright side though Oreo the baby clown is becoming more and more of a pig today, I just hope he doesn't get whatever Aflie had.

[jesseatam]

Well more sad news, came home to the empty carapace of my emerald crab Emmie  She was the first livestock I ever bought for the tank. Whats upsetting though is that I found her cleaned out husk outside of where the suspicious hitchhiker crab has made his home, I can't help but think this crab murdered and ate Emmie. On the bright side however, Oreo appears to be doing very well  I'm just going to put in a second round of prazi after he eats just to clear anything out.

[dpoltsdsu]

Sorry about the Talbot. Such an underrated fish.

[kinetic]

Bummer about the Talbot. From the video, almost looked like he had some infection (maybe even ICH?) on his body. Good thing you're doing a QT!

 

By the way, I've always disliked any animal in a reef tank with claws. My emerald crab was an absolute terror. It ignored algae, and would eat all my SPS polyps, it would actually try to snatch fish (it grabbed my tailspot blenny once when it swam by and ripped it's fin almost completely off). It took me forever to catch him =( No more clawed animals in my latest tank, though I may eventually get some scarlet hermits.

 

Try to see if you can lure the hitchhiker with something like an algae wafer or raw shrimp piece in a glass bowl that's depressed into the sand. Or even a plastic or glass bottle that it could fit into.

[jesseatam]

6 hours ago, kinetic said:

Bummer about the Talbot. From the video, almost looked like he had some infection (maybe even ICH?) on his body. Good thing you're doing a QT!

 

By the way, I've always disliked any animal in a reef tank with claws. My emerald crab was an absolute terror. It ignored algae, and would eat all my SPS polyps, it would actually try to snatch fish (it grabbed my tailspot blenny once when it swam by and ripped it's fin almost completely off). It took me forever to catch him =( No more clawed animals in my latest tank, though I may eventually get some scarlet hermits.

 

Try to see if you can lure the hitchhiker with something like an algae wafer or raw shrimp piece in a glass bowl that's depressed into the sand. Or even a plastic or glass bottle that it could fit into.

I think what affected the talbots must've been fungal or bacterial since prazi had no effect, don't think ich  or velvet though since I saw no spots plus little oreo shows no signs either, well yet at least 

 

My emerald was well behaved, saw her pick at my zoas once but seemed to be going after something on them instead of the polyps themselves. Sorry  about your experience they seem like they can be hit or miss, if I was to get another I would want to try out the red variety.

 

I tried to manually go after that evil crab a few times but he's pretty quick, I've been meaning to set a trap for him but I've just been lazy to be honest. Definitely want to try get it out though before I introduce the clown.

[jesseatam]

Sorry for not updating in forever, there hasn't really been anything update worthy. The weird bio film/slime issue i used to have has returned and I have some cyano and some other stuff popping up but i think that's due to a lack of TLC and the thinning out of my CUC due to the crab that's lurking in my tank. Speaking of said evil crab, I have a dilemma. Little oreo has been in QT for 6 weeks and has showed no signs of ich and has been through prazi which makes me feel like he's ready to go in the display. However, with the crab lurking about I'm worried for his safety since he's so small and the crab is now a decent size. Do you think it'd be safe to add oreo since clowns are more open water swimmers?

[OldManSea]

I have had a gorilla crab catch and kill a clown.  You should figure out where it lives during the day, pull the rock and capture it.  I had to do that several times with one tank to get rid of the little monsters as they got larger.

[jesseatam]

40 minutes ago, OldManSea said:

I have had a gorilla crab catch and kill a clown.  You should figure out where it lives during the day, pull the rock and capture it.  I had to do that several times with one tank to get rid of the little monsters as they got larger.

The crab switches rocks/holes every once in a while, I took a stab at it the other night at now it's gone into incognito mode. I would rather not pull out the rocks if I have to as they're imbedded into the sand bed. I tried the jar style trap already but just ended up catching my hermit over and over again, I'm going to try a bottle trap next.

[jesseatam]

Sorry I haven't been updating this, it's just that nothing noteworthy  has really happened lately.

 

The baby clown has been giving me issues however, it has somehow finally started showing signs of what seem to be internal parasites after being treated with prazi multiple times? The little guy also hasn't eaten in like a week. I'm very nervous as prazi isn't seeming to have any effect.

 

Also I just came so close to getting my hands on that damn crab tonight. I waited until it fully exposed itself and went after it with the tongs. I must've grabbed it by the legs because as I was pulling it out it fell and some legs came off and before I could react the thing disappeared. I'm pissed beyond belief that I messed that up but I'm surprised that I was even able to get a chance at it as the crab is very elusive and quick. I hope the things dies from its wound but I doubt I'll be that lucky.

[Andreww]

No one seems to mention this but what are your water parameters?

ALK, CAL, Salinity, temp etc

You have a HOB filter that trap detrius, have you checked your ammonia levels? how about nitrates?

Your fish keep dying , same with the inverts. Make sure everything is in check. Also what is your water change schedule? You sure need to stay on top of that with no sump and no skimmer.

Best of luck!

[jesseatam]

1 hour ago, Andreww said:

No one seems to mention this but what are your water parameters?

ALK, CAL, Salinity, temp etc

You have a HOB filter that trap detrius, have you checked your ammonia levels? how about nitrates?

Your fish keep dying , same with the inverts. Make sure everything is in check. Also what is your water change schedule? You sure need to stay on top of that with no sump and no skimmer.

Best of luck!

My params are fine, the only thing that might not be 100% stable is the salinity in the qt as I have to manually top up and that thing has a surprising amount of evaporation. My fish, besides one who jumped all died from ich which was introduced from a new fish hence why I have the qt now. The only invert I've lost has been the emerald crab and some snails which have been killed eaten by the hitchhiker crab. If it was a parameter issue like salinity or alk I think I would see my corals or the shrimp go down hill first. Water changes I aim for every week but I do miss occasionally.

[kinetic]

17 hours ago, jesseatam said:

Sorry I haven't been updating this, it's just that nothing noteworthy  has really happened lately.

 

The baby clown has been giving me issues however, it has somehow finally started showing signs of what seem to be internal parasites after being treated with prazi multiple times? The little guy also hasn't eaten in like a week. I'm very nervous as prazi isn't seeming to have any effect.

 

Also I just came so close to getting my hands on that damn crab tonight. I waited until it fully exposed itself and went after it with the tongs. I must've grabbed it by the legs because as I was pulling it out it fell and some legs came off and before I could react the thing disappeared. I'm pissed beyond belief that I messed that up but I'm surprised that I was even able to get a chance at it as the crab is very elusive and quick. I hope the things dies from its wound but I doubt I'll be that lucky.

You might have tried this already, but put some food at the bottom of a slightly sloping bowl, and see if you can get the crab to slide into it (depressing into sand to make it easy to crawl into). He wouldn't be able to get out. I've tried pulling emerald crabs (100% not reef safe, not sure why anyone says otherwise) out and they always lose legs without batting an eye. Those little !@#ers are terrible.

 

Prazipro usually kills free swimming parasites, rather than entering the gut. For that you could try Seachem Focus to bind Seachem Metroplex to food. I was going to do it as a precautionary measure for my fish, but I was scared I would screw up the dosage and the fish were not showing any illness. If you can get a good measurement, I know a lot of people have had a lot of success. You could use focus, metroplex, and garlicguard, and then feed to the clown.

[jesseatam]

2 hours ago, kinetic said:

You might have tried this already, but put some food at the bottom of a slightly sloping bowl, and see if you can get the crab to slide into it (depressing into sand to make it easy to crawl into). He wouldn't be able to get out. I've tried pulling emerald crabs (100% not reef safe, not sure why anyone says otherwise) out and they always lose legs without batting an eye. Those little !@#ers are terrible.

 

Prazipro usually kills free swimming parasites, rather than entering the gut. For that you could try Seachem Focus to bind Seachem Metroplex to food. I was going to do it as a precautionary measure for my fish, but I was scared I would screw up the dosage and the fish were not showing any illness. If you can get a good measurement, I know a lot of people have had a lot of success. You could use focus, metroplex, and garlicguard, and then feed to the clown.

I tried using a container against the rockwork but all I managed to catch was my hermit over and over again 

 

I'll definitely look into those products, I'm just worried because he hasn't shown interest in food at all lately. However, I have not tried using garlicguard on him yet which I do have on hand.

[kinetic]

On 12/13/2017 at 1:31 PM, jesseatam said:

I tried using a container against the rockwork but all I managed to catch was my hermit over and over again 

 

I'll definitely look into those products, I'm just worried because he hasn't shown interest in food at all lately. However, I have not tried using garlicguard on him yet which I do have on hand.

Ah, try garlicguard and entice. Entice is banana flavored, apparently some fish love the entice but hate the garlic. If you can get him to eat with the metroplex, that would be best. I think there's something else called Kanaplex but not sure what that treats.

[jesseatam]

On 12/14/2017 at 8:03 PM, kinetic said:

Ah, try garlicguard and entice. Entice is banana flavored, apparently some fish love the entice but hate the garlic. If you can get him to eat with the metroplex, that would be best. I think there's something else called Kanaplex but not sure what that treats.

Thanks but the little guy passed yesterday. I'm  so bummed, he was doing so well then just suddenly went downhill. Is it possible I left him in qt for too long?

[kinetic]

4 hours ago, jesseatam said:

Thanks but the little guy passed yesterday. I'm  so bummed, he was doing so well then just suddenly went downhill. Is it possible I left him in qt for too long?

If your QT stressed him out a lot, yes. But that is only if your QT had bad parameters or something like that. It didn't sound like you had any ammonia/nitrite problems?

[jesseatam]

8 hours ago, kinetic said:

If your QT stressed him out a lot, yes. But that is only if your QT had bad parameters or something like that. It didn't sound like you had any ammonia/nitrite problems?

 I'm pretty sure it couldn't have been ammonia or nitrite. The only parameter I could see having caused a problem would be salinity swings due to me not being used to managing the evap on the smaller tank. I feel like I'm being overly cautious now. I should've put him in the main display right after 6 weeks, I was just worried he'd become crab food.

[kinetic]

3 hours ago, jesseatam said:

 I'm pretty sure it couldn't have been ammonia or nitrite. The only parameter I could see having caused a problem would be salinity swings due to me not being used to managing the evap on the smaller tank. I feel like I'm being overly cautious now. I should've put him in the main display right after 6 weeks, I was just worried he'd become crab food.

Yeah, salinity swings can cause a lot of stress. Could be a lot of factors, who knows =(

[jahnje]

On 12/13/2017 at 12:44 PM, kinetic said:

I was going to do it as a precautionary measure for my fish, but I was scared I would screw up the dosage and the fish were not showing any illness. If you can get a good measurement, I know a lot of people have had a lot of success. You could use focus, metroplex, and garlicguard, and then feed to the clown.

As an FYI metroplex when boud is a fairly difficult drug to overdose.  It's not like the sulfa and kana plexes. So don't stress too much.  

[jahnje]

On 12/18/2017 at 10:11 PM, jesseatam said:

 I'm pretty sure it couldn't have been ammonia or nitrite. The only parameter I could see having caused a problem would be salinity swings due to me not being used to managing the evap on the smaller tank. I feel like I'm being overly cautious now. I should've put him in the main display right after 6 weeks, I was just worried he'd become crab food.

I would think those would have to be some pretty darn big swings to stress them enough to kill. My bet would be on something else, and with the lack of eating, I'd lean towards the internal parasite esp. if you didn't really see anything on him.  I've had a real drop in mortality rates after doing the metroplex thing for a week in QT.   I mix it up pellets and algae wafers etc. then keep it frozen.  It thaws almost instantly upon hitting the water. 

 

[jesseatam]

3 hours ago, jahnje said:

I would think those would have to be some pretty darn big swings to stress them enough to kill. My bet would be on something else, and with the lack of eating, I'd lean towards the internal parasite esp. if you didn't really see anything on him.  I've had a real drop in mortality rates after doing the metroplex thing for a week in QT.   I mix it up pellets and algae wafers etc. then keep it frozen.  It thaws almost instantly upon hitting the water. 

 

I'll definitely look into getting some metroplex. Also besides him not eating he also has white stringy poop, I'm just bummed because I thought prazi was also supposed to deal with internal parasites.

[jahnje]

1 hour ago, jesseatam said:

I'll definitely look into getting some metroplex. Also besides him not eating he also has white stringy poop, I'm just bummed because I thought prazi was also supposed to deal with internal parasites.

white stringy = internal parasite. Yeah, my experience says that there are all sort of magic words and tonics out there , but unless they actually eat it, it won't fix what's on the inside of them.  I guess fish don't spend a lot of time actually swallowing water...   I use Paraguard as opposed to prazi, and have dosed kanaplex in the water as well, and it as of yet has never cured an internal parasite.  Which like you I learned the hard way. 

[kinetic]

5 hours ago, jesseatam said:

I'll definitely look into getting some metroplex. Also besides him not eating he also has white stringy poop, I'm just bummed because I thought prazi was also supposed to deal with internal parasites.

Prazi treats external and free floating. Metroplex gets into the gut of the fish. So unless the fish eats a lot of prazipro, it's not going to help. Metroplex that isn't bound to food doesn't help either.

[jesseatam]

Just put a LA order in 

 

[jesseatam]

Package arrived!! Fishies are alert and active, corals are all closed up but I expected that. I'm so excited!!! Hopefully I don't botch QT this time.