Who moved my shrimp?

[fish4me]

I think I need some ID help! I ordered live rock from this site, received it, and put it in the tank 8 days ago. When my ammonia levels were still 0 after four days, I added a raw shrimp to the tank to get the cycle started. Within the four days since, the shrimp has moved about 8 inches, and last night it completely vanished. There certainly wasn't enough water flow to account for at least half of the distance the shrimp moved (it got down into the caverns in the rock where there is very little flow).
So, my question is: what hitchhiker could have survived the 2 day trip from swf.com to me and still be capable of dragging off a Trader Joe's Fancy Colossal Shrimp?

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by Fish4Me
I think I need some ID help! I ordered live rock from this site, received it, and put it in the tank 8 days ago. When my ammonia levels were still 0 after four days, I added a raw shrimp to the tank to get the cycle started. Within the four days since, the shrimp has moved about 8 inches, and last night it completely vanished. There certainly wasn't enough water flow to account for at least half of the distance the shrimp moved (it got down into the caverns in the rock where there is very little flow).
So, my question is: what hitchhiker could have survived the 2 day trip from swf.com to me and still be capable of dragging off a Trader Joe's Fancy Colossal Shrimp?

Hmm, interesting situation. I would think that certain crabs or shrimp hitchhikers could be responsible, but without direct evidence it's hard to support either theory. Mantis shrimps and gorilla crabs are nasty and both could survive a cycle and possible even the trip to you, but again, if there's no evidence of either I couldn't say. Watch and listen over the course of your cycle and see if either appear or if you start seeing/hearing evidence. That might be tough too, cause mantis shrimps only emit a clicking sound when they're cracking open invert shells, so good luck.

You could also take each piece of rock out and do a freshwater dip and see what falls out. This sometimes gets desirable hitchhikers out too though.

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by m0nk
You could also take each piece of rock out and do a freshwater dip and see what falls out. This sometimes gets desirable hitchhikers out too though.
never freshwater dip.
drop the rock in hypersaline water (1.030 water) and you'd be surprised what jumps out.
you probably have crabs, mantis, worms, stars, copepods/amphipods, etc.

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by renogaw
never freshwater dip.
drop the rock in hypersaline water (1.030 water) and you'd be surprised what jumps out.
you probably have crabs, mantis, worms, stars, copepods/amphipods, etc.
D'oh, yeah, I meant hypersaline....heh. Sorry bout that, it's early.

 

[fish4me]

Amazingly, even with the dead shrimp in there for 4 days, the ammonia has never gone above 0. I know the test kit is working, because it showed an ammonia spike when I cycled my nano about a month ago.

 

[renogaw]

may have minimal die off. the weather's perfect for shipping right now

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by Fish4Me
Amazingly, even with the dead shrimp in there for 4 days, the ammonia has never gone above 0. I know the test kit is working, because it showed an ammonia spike when I cycled my nano about a month ago.
Were you testing nitrite as well? If ammonia is 0 the nitrite should be too, but just curious. I'd recommend testing both every step of the way with a cycle, just in case something goes wrong with the ammonia tests.

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by renogaw
may have minimal die off. the weather's perfect for shipping right now
This is possible too.

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by m0nk
Were you testing nitrite as well? If ammonia is 0 the nitrite should be too, but just curious. I'd recommend testing both every step of the way with a cycle, just in case something goes wrong with the ammonia tests.

plus, do you show any nitrates either? that is the end of the cycle. with minimal die off, with bacteria eating the shrimp (and something else... ), the cycle could seriously already be done. if you have no nitrates then you haven't cycled

 

[fish4me]

Nitrities might have edged above zero, but not by much. Nitrates were in the 10-20 range for about two days, and are at zero again now. It's an API Test kit.

 

[renogaw]

try ghost feeding flake food. something is odd with your tank...nitrates almost never get to zero.

 

[fish4me]

I think something is odd with the test kit. My nano, which clearly did cycle (spike in ammonia, then nitrites, then nitrates), tests at 0.
Maybe I'll toss another shrimp in the sump, where nothing can "steal it."

 

[fish4me]

If I was to do a hyper saline dip, wouldn't I loose good hitch hikers as well? I did get live rock because I wanted some life!

 

[renogaw]

no, what will happen is everything will jump out. put what you want back in

 

[college kid]

and if you have a large mantis make sure you put your fingers in right next to him to get out the "live stuff" you want

 

[1journeyman]

I agree that is a weird cycle.
Usually hitchhikers like Gorilla crabs and Mantis are more associated with caribbean rock. You certainly can get them on Pacific Rock, but seems more often to be from caribbean.
That said, you certainly have something. Could be a large Bristle Worm, crab, etc.
Do a search on here for DIY fish traps. I would bait a trap and see what you catch.

 

[fish4me]

Ok, one last question: If I do a hypersaline dip, how long do I leave each rock in the water? 2 minutes? 10 minutes? Until something scary slithers out?

 

[renogaw]

if there's something in there, it should shoot right out. i'd say max 1 minute, there should be copepods and amphipods that most likely wont leave the rock that you don't want to kill off.

 

[9supratt4]

Originally Posted by renogaw
if there's something in there, it should shoot right out. i'd say max 1 minute, there should be copepods and amphipods that most likely wont leave the rock that you don't want to kill off.
How do you know if your tank has amphipods and copepods?? I bought my tank about 6 months ago from some guy who didn't take care of it. It already had the LR and CC in it, but I am afraid that everything may have died off because of the condition it was in. So how do I know??

 

[fish4me]

Since we started this tank up, there are hundreds of 'pods. I can see them all over the glass, and for the time that I could see the dead shrimp, they were completely covering it. I'd say if you can see little white moving things in your tank, it probably means you've got pods!