Originally Posted by
HItropics09
http:///forum/post/3297687
OK i am very confused, i have yet to find the actual shrimp if it's a molt but i can't find a crack on the back, i have had these two clowns, and yellow tang for a while, my anemone is nice and hardy eats everytime i feed it, but the shrimp was first to go last night once i acclimated it, i get up this morning to find the threadfin, lying on the bottom with horrible coloring, my levels are all great, my protein skimmer running strong everything, what is going wrong?
How big is the threadfin? They are known to nip all smaller shrimps? Not saying that this would cause him to be ill, but he may have tried to eat your shrimp. Just a thought.
How did you acclimate your shrimp exactly and what are your water parameters?
Originally Posted by HItropics09
http:///forum/post/3297700
I'm not sure on my paramaters cause I'm at work at the moment I tested with strips along with a hydrometer everything read perfect like I said he was doing fine last night plus the other 3 fish I have are still going strong
You mean, you didn't test them as soon as you saw a problem? I'm confused as to timing of all this now.
Do yourself and your fish a favor and get a refractometer, they're not that much money. And if you have inverts, you really need to know exactly what your salinity is at, not a guestimate you're going to get with a hydrometer.
Get rid of the strips as well. As others have stated, they're highly inaccurate. I use strips for ammonia when I receive a new fish and need a quick reading, if the strip reads high, that fish is being thrown in new water immediately.. If the strip reads low, then I know that I have a little time to do a proper test.
Originally Posted by HItropics09
http:///forum/post/3297730
,yea it has cycled, its been up for a while but I just moved and maybe its getting settled again, my little hermit crab thinks he's the ---- cause he has live rock on his shell now and is purple n green lols
If you moved, it is probably recycling. There is just no way to completely keep the tank stable when you move. There are precautions one can take, but I've never seen it work completely. This being said, if your other fish are fish, it might just be one of those things.
How big is the threadfin, how long have you had it?
My assumption here is stress related since a threadfin doesn't belong in anything less than 100G, and even that is stretching it. Even if you don't have a mature fish yet, they need the swimming room offered by a larger tank. A smaller tank will inevitably stress it out much more and make it more territorial, this goes for all fish thrown in a tank that is smaller than the recommended size. Small threadfins are much harder to find and when you do find one, they're usually not as healthy or hardy for whatever reason, at least here in the Northeast.
If you still haven't found the shrimp, how much LR do you have? If it did in fact molt, it may be days before it shows itself again. After a molt, the new exoskeleton (shell) is very soft and needs time to harden. During this time the shrimp will seek shelter so that it isn't as susceptible to predators. If you still haven't found the shrimp by next week, it's probably dead, cleaner shrimp are fairly social fish, and they will usually come out during feeding time.
