Please Help

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Hey guys,

I am a virgin to this new fascinating world. Started out with a 1800x720x450, 620L reef tank. I have Indo live rock. Ive had it for about a month, and notices a small hairy crab. Meantime I cycled it with 3 Blue Green Chrommies. Prestine water conditions :). On Saturday I added two True Clown and two cleaner shrimp. This morning one of my Chrommies have dissappeared :(. Ive read all sorts of horror stories about crabs and getting rid of them.

What should I do?

Cheers

Vic:mumbles:
 
welcome to MASA.

1st You gonna pick up flake for cycling with fish.

2nd It might be the crab or it might be an Ammonia spike that killed the fish.

plan of action, add a bacterial based additive like sea chem stability or micrbolift special blend.
Look for crabs and catch them.they might be hiding in the rocks.
 
Found The Chrommis

Thanks for the help - I added mocroblift last night.

My wife found the fish - apparently just hanging out at the bottom. I also noticed the other two started bullying him since I introduced the other tank mates.

Do I quarantine him?

Ciao

Vic
 
Hello Vic.

First, "about a month" is a bit fast. Especially if there is die-off on the live rock. Unless you used boosters as mentioned, your rock most likely did not complete the initial cycle. Did you test the water parameters? And was it stable over a couple of days?

Anyway, Chromis is not the strongest fish. If it died, you have to remove it. Your tank is not mature enough although big enough to be able to take care of the dead by itself.

And welcome to this hobby
 
Thanks for the heads up and the welcome :thumbup:

I boosted the system after about a week and added conditioners. Ammonia, nitrite and Nitrate levels were perfect for two weeks before adding the Chromis.

Taking out the crab, well thats another story altogether :eek:.

Ciao

V
 
Welcome, I've read that Chromis in small groups are known to pick each other off occasionally or pick on the smaller one, something to do with dominance or an hierarchy structure in the group, so it could maybe have been an aggression issue between the small group of chromis.
 
Thanks for the heads up and the welcome :thumbup:

I boosted the system after about a week and added conditioners. Ammonia, nitrite and Nitrate levels were perfect for two weeks before adding the Chromis.

Taking out the crab, well thats another story altogether :eek:.

Ciao

V


Taking out crabs is always fun! If you have one it may be in the live rock, in which case using bait in a jar should bring it out of hiding.
 
If I were you I would rather try and hunt down that crab now before your tank settles or you add more hiding places for it to hide in :thumbup:

After a year I noticed various crabs in my tank and a few corals missing a few branches. Ended in me pulling the entire setup apart and found myself five unwanted little hairy crabs. I am hoping I got them all because I am not planning to move anything in my tank for another year :whistling:
 
Welcome to MASA. Hope you enjoy it here.

Like Hails mentioned, place a long glass in the sand a bit skew against some live rock and put a piece of fish in there. The crab will go in and cannot get out. If it's a clever crab, it might take a day or three :p

Just hope the shrimps don't get it as they can swim out.
 
Anyway, just an update as to yesterday. One of my clown fish died:026:. The burial was attended by myself and dog.

When I got home, one of the shrimps were nibbling on it. Im still gutted about losing my piscine friend. I found the one Chrommie that was missing. It looks like his one side has been pecked at and his fin is damaged so he was swimming lopped sided. So I took him out and put him in my quarantine tank. My other two Chrommies, clown fish and two shrimp are fine and the water is stable.

Maybe the stress killed the clown fish? I feel really kak about the clown fish and my poor injured Chrommie. This hobby is not for the faint hearted! Plus now I have crabs :blush:
 
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