I fed the original frozen food this evening as a change of pace to see if the clowns would eat it and if the cardinals would eat it and they both did. I kinda overfed this evening on purpose to see if the shrimp would all come out. One of 2 things has happened to the missing peppermint. It either got squished in some rocks as some parts of the rock work arent that stable OR it got eaten. The shrimp that is missing is the one that is not so timid. It used to come right up to the glass during feedings to get what it can and the other one would stay in the rock work waiting for something to fall close to it. As far as being squished, nothing has moved in a week in the tank and there really is only one spot it can hide that i cant see with my flash light. But even hiding there, I would normally be able to see some kind of antenna or something on the shrimp. I am not going to say its dead and gone for good until I know for sure. However, I am thinking it got eaten. Out of all the things in my tank, the only 2 culprits are the fire shrimp and the peppermint shrimp yes? I really dont think clowns could do it and the shrimp has been missing since before the cardinals were introduced. I know there are worms in the tank but I dont think they could have taken down the shrimp. I dont think it was the peppermint that did it and I do believe it was the fire shrimp. Add to the fact that the fire shrimp just molted after being the last shrimp to molt makes me think he grew so fast because he got a good meal. The fire shrimp was terirorial towards his corner and even when the fighting conch goes near it he gets all "up in his face" about it. I saw the fire shrimp tap on the snail's shell today during the feeding and started to wonder if the shrimp could actually do damage to the conch. I do remeber that the fire shrimp could be some what agressive towards the others in the tank, but could it have eaten the peppermint and then actually take down the conch snail? So now I believe I am down a shrimp and there is a fire shrimp thats eating the other shrimp in the tank. This doesnt bode well for the sexy shrimp that are supposed to go into the tank. What to do?
So, as best I can, pull the hair algea off of the rock and try to keep it short? Once the water conditions improve the hair algea should go away?
As far as the rock I got, yes it was completely full of life. I only paid $6.49 per pound for it. I have been back to that LFS many times since then and they have not had rock that looks like what I got since. I have been to almost all the other LFS in the area and none of them have rock that looks remotely as alive as mine did when I bought it. I am on the fence about the rock too. I know that the alive rock introduced the problems that were in the tank, crab and mantis, and it has all the bad algea growing on it, and it had the most aiptasia growing on it as well. However, this rock also introduced all the feather dusters I have, all the nifty limpets I have (-1 now as I accidentally killed one trying to trim other algea), and all the other cool little things that are in the tank. I have yet to eradicate all the aiptasia I have, 2 left. And the headache of catching the crab and the nightmare of not catching the mantis, I am not completely sold on the live rock. The next setup I do will probably have completely dead rock introduced into the tank and I will just cure it myself.
I got a new heater for the QT and hooked it up. Havent checked the temp on it lately but I saw the light on so I knew it was working. Next purchase for the tank will probably be the purple firefish in about 2 weeks. Not sure what I am going to do about the Xenia. I know it grows like a weed and most people are trying to get rid of it, but usually when someone wants it, someone else will charge for it.
