2 casualties (possibly casualties of war?)

[dmurphy]

ok.. had the tank for a little over a month got my cleaning crew as the first thing I put in a little over 2 weeks ago and now in the past 2 days I have found my first 2 casualties, a sally lightfoot and an emerald mithrax. No real signs of sickness .. I just come home from work and they are dead ( on different days ) the other sally and mithrax look fine and are eating quite a bit. My measurements look ok but maybe there's something else I could be checking the water for ? If it was a predator, would it be safe to assume they would at least be partially eaten ? Something ripped off 2 of the sally's legs but other than that it looks fine and the mithrax's under belly is torn a bit but pretty intact other than that. I figured it was more a product of scavenging.. Any thoughts ????????????????
DateTimeTempSalinitypHAmmoniaNitriteNitrateAlkalinity
10/8/020:00781.0258.20053.2

 

[fishfood]

What size is the tank? I've got a sally and an emerald in the tank right now. My first two emeralds didn't last long. I'm not sure how territorial the sallys are but i've seen numerous emerals in tanks before. Are you sure that the sally is dead? They do shed every once and a while. Mine just did it last week and even though i've seen it before i thought it was actually dead this time. I don't know what to tell you.

 

[dmurphy]

The tank is 90 Gallons with 90lbs of live Rock. He is definetely dead with 2 of his legs ripped off and laying next to him... actually looks pretty creepy. I would think if it was water my brittle stars would have been the first to go since I hear they are sensitive...but I don't know... I'm stumped!

 

[sistrmary]

I've had a lot of crab moltings that have fallen apart (especially sally lightfoot moltings) The easiest way to find out if they're dead or not is put in some food for them, see who comes out and who doesn't. If they did kill each other, it's likely because of lack of food. But crabs are known for molting within a few days of being added to a new system, and then again in about a month. If you kept the bodies/molting, you can always open the hinge and see what is inside...a lot of people mistake water inside the shell for body weight. You won't know until you open it up

 

[limeyreefer]

I's nosey pike a reef Fight Club!
I've got fifty quid on the mithrax!

 

[jim672]

dmurphy,
You mentioned your tank is only a month old. I'll go along with sistrMary's comment about starving to death. Unless you're direct feeding your clean-up crew, there's probably not enough naturally occuring food in your new set-up for them to eat. The damage you observed probably happened after they died, as you guessed.
Jim

 

[jckkc]

give it a couple days. sometimes mine will molt and go into hiding. after a couple days they will come back out. maybe it is after they are waiting for the new shell to harden. if they don't show back up, they're dead. although, you probably could figure that one out.

 

[dmurphy]

If it is the lack of food ....... Any suggestions on what to add to the tank to supplement the diet of stuff like mithrax, lightfoots, hermits and snails ?

 

[jim672]

dmurphy,
My crabs always go after the brine shrimp I'm feeding my fish. You could try some of that.
To the best of my knowledge snails will only eat algea. I've never heard of a way to feed them directly. You might want to consider asking the lfs where you bought them if they would "hold" them for you for a month or two until your system builds up some algea for them to eat. Or.....do you have a friend with a more established tank who could babysit them for awhile?
Jim