My liverock ate my fish!!! Help me.

Germanman said:
they only sell for like $14..so thats like $4.60 credit...lol but they are safe in acrylic tanks.
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Thats much more than I expected them to sell for, especially with all horror stories I hear about them. At least they might be able to buy another damsel with that. My damsel cost $3.

Acrylic tank? That wouldn't be your standard cheap 10G tank for $11 at petco would it?
 
hey everyone,

thanks again for all the suggestions, i've been doing my research like a madman the last few hours. this tank/system is new so i dont want to screw anything up. how can i be for sure that it is a mantis shrimp? could a bristle worm do this kind of damage? i don't hear clicking sounds in my tank, but i've only had the live rock for less than 2 days now. do i need to keep waiting?

thanks,
 
I'm sorry about your loss. :(

I was also going to suggest looking at night with a red light. You don't seem to have much rock in there...maybe you want to replace it -OR- leave the rock out of the water (this is if you want the alleged mantis shrimp to die) for a while, get some new live rock, add this rock back in a few days and in a few weeks it will be live again.

Drs. Foster & Smith have this on their site:



[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Helpful Tips for Controlling Unwanted Pests:[/FONT]
Submerse the new rock into a bucket filled with saltwater with a specific gravity of 1.035 to 1.040 for one minute. Any invertebrates including mantis shrimp, bristle worms, and crabs will quickly evacuate from the rock and into the bucket of water.

I did the above when I received my last batch of live rock. If you try any of the above- WATCH YOUR FINGERS!!! :D


Edited to add- what's your ammonia and nitrite readings?
 
ammonia levels are low - rightfully so since this tank is only a few days into it's cycle. can i conclude, based on what we discussed here and the pictures above that there is definitely something in this tank that needs to be rid off? most likely a mantis shrimp. in which case my two options are two rid the tank of the bad stuff by either using freshwater or saltwater with high specific gravity. the other option is i try to get a trap to catch it. i'll try one.

thanks,
 
Ok i dont know if i read this wrong or something but from what i read i get this:

You just set the tank up and like a few hours/days later added fish and they died.

If this is the case i HIGHLY doubt that there are mantis shrimp or anything in the tank that killed the fish. Im willing to bet money that the cause of death was the fact that you rushed to put the fish in the tank before the water/tank was fully cycled. I am sure that your LFS told you that you can add some fish to hurry the cycling of the tank, however that really isnt the best idea. It is best to wait at least 2 weeks before adding any fish or livestock to a new set-up. I know that seems long but in the long run it is better for your wallet/purse and life of the fish. The best way to having any success with a marine tank is to be patient.

Again i could have read this wrong but like i said from what i read is that you only waited like a few hours or days before adding the fish.
 
that was my first thought as well calvary, but did you check out the picks.... there would have to be some insaneee amonnia levels to burn the damsel as bad as he was in picture 1, my vote goes to mantis

Jay
 
Hmmm, I was thinking that too. That's why I asked what the ammonia and nitrite levels were. The only things that had me guessing otherwise were the pictures and this sentence...

coolisjade said:
The second damsel looked eaten and noticed trails of it's fin on the rock.
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There are still 2 reasons I think it may not be the mantis- one is because they were found dead in the middle of the day. The other is because the ammonia levels were described as "low" (how "low" though?) and nitrite levels still weren't given. Damsels have been known to be aggressive to themselves as well as other fish.

At this point personally now that I think about it, I would go with a fishless cycle and still check out the tank at night with a red light- never know what one may find, good or 'bad.'

Edited to add- you can bait the alleged mantis with some food and see if it's gone in the morning
 
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