Sushi, Saki, and a reef tank...

[soto]

So we're eatin sushi & slammin Saki bombs last night and i start talkin to the dude who runs the oyster bar. found out that when you eat oysters raw, they're still alive. that rules! so i ask him if they could survive in my reef tank and he gives us a couple of em to try it out with.
we pound more Saki, go home, and dump em in the tank. IMMEDIATELY these little feather-duster lookin things start poppin in and out of the oyster shells. there's like 40 of em on the outside of the shell. i've never seen, nor heard, of these things ever but it was a trip! then my scarlet cleaner shrimp starts goin crazy on em and eats up about half of em. i've never seen him attack anything live before but he went nuts!
anyone ever heard of these things?

 

[sign guy]

you are gonna go home and your tank will have crashed

:hilarious :hilarious :hilarious

:hilarious

:hilarious

 

[sign guy]

sorry
not funny

 

[sign guy]

soto how is your tank?

 

[reef bug]

I bought a cool looking live rock from a local LFS that had two oysters and a pile of mussles on it. Don't know if they're the same kind, but the oysters looked just like the ones on the raw bar. Mine didnt have any pretty feather duster things on it though, just regular looking oysters. Everyone pretty much left them alone.
They stay closed most of the time, but sometimes open a crack. One day I came and found one of the oysters open a bit too far. The shell was picked clean...sushi for the clean up crew! I assume it died, becasue I dont seee how anyone in my tank could have opened it. I left the empty shell on the rock becasue the live oyster is attached and I dont want to disturb it. I figured since the flesh was gone, the empty shell should not be a problem. Beside it still looks cool and my blenny likes to hang out inside...so cute!
If your oysters die, surely your shrimp/crab/snails will be back for seconds. How are the oysters doing now?

 

[soto]

well some of em have tipped over but it's doin ok so far. i did have a funky epidemic go down in my tank a couple weeks ago that wiped out my galaxy & torch corals. sux cause those 2 were my favorites. the whole thing doesn't look too healthy in general but i don't think my sushi's makin it any worse.
i think i'll buy one of those janitor packages on sale here.
stupid reef tank!

 

[babyb]

this is a dumb question but are you sure they are salt water, i crashed a tank with some that i was feeding and they ended up being fresh water and killed everything in the tank, they had to much iron for the tank to handle

 

[reef bug]

I bought mine from the LFS attached to a piece of live rock so I'm sure mine were saltwater. My reef is 125 gallons and there were only 3 oysters. I assume they were not much of an impact. Water testing didn't show any changes after their addition. I didn't think of testing for iron, but will do so tonight just to check. It's been a while since I tested for iron.
Sorry to hear you lost your corals. Hope you can find the cause and correct it.

 

[soto]

i was wondering if it may be due to another addition i put in around 2 months ago. i bought some freshwater plastic Pirates of the Carribean figurines and put em in.
wouldn't THINK they should do it any harm but who knows.
still looks cool having Davy Jones and Jack Sparrow battle in the reef. oi, oi, oi!!!!

 

[reef bug]

The paint on the figurines could be your problem.
Cool, but not so cool for your corals or fish though.
You should really get those guys out of there and do a few massive water changes. Maybe even some charcoal.
When you get your tank in order, buy a fish...and name him Jack Sparrow.
No more toys!

 

[soto]

But if the paint's messin stuff up, wouldn't something be wrong in the tests? everything checked out fine when i tested for nitrates, nitrites, calcium, alkalinity, salinity, ammonia, & ph.
is there any other test i could run?

 

[reef bug]

Honestly, I'm not sure. But there is a strong possibility there could be heavy metals or chemicals in the paint reacting with the salt??? It's not likely a lead based paint since its a toy, but there is no telling what could be reacting witht eh salt water. And maybe it's not the toys...could have been weak corals. Regardless, it's not worth taking the risk of harming your livestock to have some toys in there, and you yourself said it could be. You might be lucky only the corals were affected.

 

[misfit]

Originally Posted by Reef Bug
Honestly, I'm not sure. But there is a strong possibility there could be heavy metals or chemicals in the paint reacting with the salt??? It's not likely a lead based paint since its a toy, but there is no telling what could be reacting witht eh salt water. And maybe it's not the toys...could have been weak corals. Regardless, it's not worth taking the risk of harming your livestock to have some toys in there, and you yourself said it could be. You might be lucky only the corals were affected.
I agree on this one. Anything can effect the tank. I f you paint in the room with the tank,cleaning products in the air in the room with the tank. So I think painted objects in the tank could do something.In the ocean it can be washed away but in a closed environment, the toxins cant escape.This is something that you cant test for and I dont believe it would affect your parameters such as ammon, nitr, and such. Good luck and let us know how the sushi turns out :joy:

 

[soto]

can't be the corals stability cause i've had these babies for 3 years and they've survived 2 relocations.
good point though. i'll ditch the toys.
DAMMIT i liked em though!!

 

[misfit]

Well if you have had that much succuess with the corals , it leads me to think that is was the toys and if that was the only thing you changed, then its definetly them. Sorry

. I would do a water change right away.

 

[reef bug]

Water change(S). It will take more than one...
In addition to the changes, I would try running some reef carbon in the sump. May help remove some toxins.

 

[misfit]

Yes, i agree but one at least REAL soon.