Cleaned out clean up crew

gubber

gubber

Member
Okay, this is starting to bug me
I've had all my clean up crew die!!
I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or it's my sixline wrasse doing something

PH 7.8
Ammonia 0.2
Nitrite 0.2
Nitrate 20
Alkalinity 2
Salinity 1.020
Temp. 78F
It seem to happen on Sundays when I'm not at work, even thouth I do come in and feed them. The last one was my Sally light foot. Previous was my Cleaner shrimp, and before that was my Hermit crabs. Does anyone have any idea's as to what might be going on.
The only other living thing I have in my tank is a Mandarin and a Turbo snail.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
You need to raise your specific gravity. Inverts need 1.025 or higher.
I'm guessing your amm and trites are from the deaths. Have you done a water change yet to try to get those levels down?
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
I'd change out 2-3 gallons again today and then check levels tomorrow. Need to get the amm and trites down to zero. Then with your top off water I'd raise your SG to 1.025+ over the next week or so. Do it slowly not all at one time.
 
gubber

gubber

Member
I had the Sally light foot about a week before she bit it and prior to that the cleaner shrimp was a month ago. It lasted two weeks. But I didn't do a drip Acc.
 
gubber

gubber

Member
That's what everyone tells me but he's on his fith month and he's doing good.
He's eating good and dosent look sick or anything.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
Originally Posted by 05xrunner
i dont think your mandarin is going to live very long in a small 10g
Good catch. It will die. They need lots of live rock. I have 45 lbs in my 29 and that's not enough to keep a mandarin.
You should drip acclimate all fish and inverts (minus corals). I'm going to drip acclimate my clean up crew for at least 1.5 hrs.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Originally Posted by GUBBER
PH 7.8
Ammonia 0.2
Nitrite 0.2
Nitrate 20
Salinity 1.020
All of the above will kill inverts.
 
murph

murph

Active Member
Originally Posted by GUBBER
He's been eating blood worm and frozen mysid. I'm working on a refugium for him.
If your mandarin is eating frozen mysis your good to go. Mysis is an excellent food source for mandarins. Basically a larger cousin to the crustation people around here refer to as pods.
IMO the fish will actually do better in this smaller tank where it will receive far less competition for food and its dietary intake can be more easily verified. This of course is dependant on its contiinued willingness to take frozen foods.
 
gubber

gubber

Member
Thank you, finally some one who agrees with me. Thank you Thank you. I even turn off the pump until he's done eating. This way the food dos'nt fly away. I also feed my sixline first so that he gets as much as he can. I have them here at work with me so I spend 10hr. a day with them. Their are wonderful to watch. Co-workers and the bosses love them too.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
that's great. A lfs by me swears he can get them all to eat cyclops. Have you done water changes? Your ammonia and trites can also kill your fish.
 
gubber

gubber

Member
Originally Posted by Beth
All of the above will kill inverts.

I'm finding this out :notsure: I'm going to do a alot of reading before I get any more. Thanks Beth.
 
gubber

gubber

Member
Originally Posted by earlybird
that's great. A lfs by me swears he can get them all to eat cyclops. Have you done water changes? Your ammonia and trites can also kill your fish.

Yes, I did a 20% water change this morning and I got some Instant Ocean last night so I will introduce some of it slowly today.
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
GUBBER, there are many things wrong here.
PH 7.8
Ammonia 0.2
Nitrite 0.2
Nitrate 20
Alkalinity 2
Salinity 1.020
All of this will kill inverts.
It's a small 10g tank.

The only other living thing I have in my tank is a Mandarin and a Turbo snail.

I had the Sally light foot about a week before she bit it and prior to that the cleaner shrimp was a month ago. It lasted two weeks. But I didn't do a drip Acc.
If you never drip acclimated, had that poor of water conditions, and are keeping all of this in a 10 gallon, all of these are the reasons why things are dying. Did you cycle this tank? How long ago? Inverts need a drip acclimation of at least 3-4hrs. They require an SG of 1.025-1.026, a ph of 8.2, zero ammonia and nitrites, and a nitrate reading of under 10-15. A mandarine requires 100+lbs of very mature LR. I am happy that he has been "fine" for 5 months but, make no mistake about it, unless you are buying him pods and are feeding them to him daily he is slowly starving to death.
 
gubber

gubber

Member
Okay, I cycled the tank 4 weeks before I put anything in and I did acclimate the fish as per specs. I didn't know about the Inverts, I thought they were good to go. My bad.

I've done my a 20% water change and have added the Instant Ocean over a period of time and it's at 1.024 now.
PH is still low at 7.8 how do I bring this up?
Amm. is at 0.0
Nitrite is at 0.2
Nitrate is at 2
PS I agree about the Mandarine and that's why I working on a refugium.
 
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