HELP!

Fishfriend1

Fishfriend1

Fishlover Extraordinaire
Dec 11, 2009
3,958
3
38
Southeastern PA
Real Name
Mr. Palmer
I have some sort of thing in my tank. So far it has killed one turbo snail, and one clownfish. I have not seen the thing, but i know my water is fine (everything where it needs to be, water parims are fine). The total stocking (that i know of) is 1 clownfish, 3 green chromis, 1 firefish, 1 cardinal fish, 4 hermit crabs (the really small ones), 1 turbo snail, 4 small snails, 1 small anenamy, 1 small feather duster (i think). PLZ HELP ME! Thanks in advance.
 
What you're saying is very vague. Pointing the finger at some "thing," especially one you haven't even seen, won't get you too far in finding out what is wrong. There are lots of explanations, but without more concrete info, there isn't anything to establish an explanation from. Please post all your parameters anyway and re-test them prior to posting. List any changes in or around the tank, etc. There's just too little information.
 
Do you hear any unexplained clicking noises coming from your tank, particularly while the tank is dimly lit or dark?

You could have a mantis shrimp lurking about, picking off easy prey. Usually, snails and hermits start disappearing first. Alternatively, you may have an aggressive pistol shrimp, although I don't know anyone personally that had a pistol shrimp kill fish. Pistol shrimp are good at picking off snails and hermits though.
 
I know, my dad just told me about the snail, claims it was half eaten, also say he checked parims, it was 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate/nitrites, 0 phosphates. i think i may be forgetting something though. The problem is that the snails where fine until this happened, i tried everything else (ideas), i checked my parims, i know the snails where healthy when i left on monday, and i know that the anenamy didn't do it, too small for even larger brine shrimp yet. Any ideas for what it could be, even the most ridicules, would be helpful. I think the nitrates or nitrites may have been a .02 lat time i checked, I know it was the one that dosent affect the tank as much... I have a chart, but it is over my ads house.
 
fsn77 said:
Do you hear any unexplained clicking noises coming from your tank, particularly while the tank is dimly lit or dark?

You could have a mantis shrimp lurking about, picking off easy prey. Usually, snails and hermits start disappearing first. Alternatively, you may have an aggressive pistol shrimp, although I don't know anyone personally that had a pistol shrimp kill fish. Pistol shrimp are good at picking off snails and hermits though.
Click to expand...

Thanks, ill have to check next time im over my dads house, on monday. If it is one what do i do?
 
There's still plenty of possibilities. The best thing I can tell you is to keep observing carefully. It could be the snails were in bad shape and eventually died, even after appearing to be fine and were being subsequently eaten. There may actually be a predator of some sort, ranging from mantis shrimps, pistols, and many crabs. If you find any of these, I suggest removing the rock they reside in. Leaving the rock with the predator out in the air, but keeping it moist will cause many of them to try to escape and should be a bit less traumatic on the rock than other alternatives.
 
The tank is 30 gal, no medication, no corals (yet), alk was almost perfect well within limits, ph... u know its bad when you cant remember whet thats means (been about 5 days since i was there), but i know that it was fine.

Oh and thanks amp. If i fine a predator i will do that.
 
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I had a huge hermit crab that killed my bengai cardinal , because at night it pinched the left gill and it died from injury. Didn't appreciate that
 
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