what are these?

cathey

Member
Fairly new to the hobby. Have had my for tank for 1 year now. I have noticed a large accumulation of these in my filter media and even charcoal in my quarantine tank. There are a few in my display but these things have latched on to my chocolate chip starfish and he's not eating them.
 

cathey

Member
They have antennas and a red looking stripe down their bodies. Have had a few losses of fish lately and have never figured out what happened with them. Thought maybe these might be the culprits.
 

tthemadd1

Active Member
They are actually good. They are a sign of a healthy system. Great snacks for the fishies.
What is causing fish to die?
How long have they been in the tank?
What kind of fish have been dying?
Tank size?
Water parameters?
 

cathey

Member
Back in may I bought a flame angel and yellow tang. Quarantined them and acclimated into dt. Maybe a week after being in DT my angel was dead. Then one of my false perculas lost all color, even the black from his fins. Quit eating. Maybe 2 weeks later my fox face quit eating. Both would lay on the sand. Had a red spot on them and their mouths stayed open. Both eventually died. I kept close attention to water parameters and all was well. My other clown and yellow tang were fine. My urchin died next. So I said I wasn't buying anymore fish. But the hubby waited until we went on vacation and bought a coral beauty, 6- line, and (3) green chromis while we weeee on vacation. Put them all in qt when we got home and lost 2 of the chromis and the 6 line. Now I am left with the coral, tang, one clown, and 1 chromis. All are eating well and seem to be okay I am just scared of more fatalities. Have made sure to do water changes and bought a better filter and another powerhead. My husband seems to think we weren't feeding adequate nutrition. We were feeding flake, and enriched brine. Now I have added algae disks,mysis, and occasional krill along with the brine and flake. Seems like a lot of food though....
 

tthemadd1

Active Member
What do you test?
Nitrate?
Nitrite?
Ammonia?
Anything else?
How long has the tank been running in total?
Do you have live rock/sand?
What type of filter?
Where do you get the water from for the tank?
 

jeff512

New Member
Copepods (Cyclops variety) showed up in my 60gal cube this morning. They weren't there last night but now there are thousands. So I got my Celestron USB LED Microscope and decided to film the ones against the glass to try and I.D. them... a big one was eaten right as I was filming by a Sergeant Major! Take a look: http://youtu.be/cu4GLwULnwE

 

tthemadd1

Active Member
Nice vid. Love how things just "pop" up. The beauty of a saltwater tank with LR is that everyday you can find something new and exciting. One of the wonders of the hobby.
 

cathey

Member
What do you test?
Nitrate?
Nitrite?
Ammonia?
Anything else?
How long has the tank been running in total?
Do you have live rock/sand?
What type of filter?
Where do you get the water from for the tank?
 

cathey

Member

I purchase ro from Walmart and the LFS, mostly Walmart though. Right around this time they changed their unit.
I test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, and calcium. My DT tank were all at 0. With 475 calcium and 8.2 pH.
The tank has been up since August 11, 2012. So a year. My fox face and clowns had been in since after the initial cycle. Had them 8 months before they died.
Yes I have 60 lbs of live sand, and 53 lbs of live rock in there. I have an emporer 400with the bio wheels for filtration and a 60 gallon hob
 

cathey

Member
Display hardly ever spikes any ammonia or nitrite but I do a20% water change at least every 6 weeks. Now my qt tank is another story! Don't know if it has anything to do with lack of rock and sand or the size but when I had the sick fish in and were treating I had huge ammonia spikes and was doing changes on a daily basis... after the clown and fox face died I restarted the qt all together but lost still the 6 and green chromis. I wonder if their deaths had anything to do with traveling from fl to k.y. we had a 12 hr drive. Had them in a bucket with an air stone. When I acclimated them I trusted the water from the store and they had ammonia and nitrite from the fish store in fl. So that leads me to believe I got sick fish to begin with. I don't know. I think my next purchase will be a few chromis for my lil green. He needs friends again Lol. Keeping a close eye on all fish and water params and we will see how things go I suppose.
 
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