waiting for disaster

A

attack_squirrel

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Jun 25, 2005
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I just recently made the jump into saltwater, took my time to research & try to learn some of the basics to make it a little more successful, & cheaper. I'm starting w/ a 38 gal. w DSB that I've been trying to cycle w/ live rock that I've been buying as I can afford it. It's been up & running for 2 wks. now, & I have 40 + lbs. of live rock in it, 3 days ago, I decided to try some Bio Spira, & the #'s dropped to 0 in the 1st day so I waited 1 more day, & finally put some fish in it yesterday, I started w/ a firefish, a clown, an emerald crab, & a banded shrimp. Since I'm just starting out, I was a little picky choosing the live rock w/ the best growth on it, in hopes that it would be a good start to a decent tank, but to my horror, my girlfriend brought home a surprise for me, I came home & she told me she put her fish in, a yellowtail damsel, a sally lightfoot, cuz' she liked the name, & "some sort of really pretty red shrimp, that looked like Eddie VanHalens red guitar, w/ the white stripes all over it." Doing an i'net search, as close as she can tell, she loosed a camel shrimp in the tank. My question is, being new, & being that I do want the little coral that I'm trying to get to grow & spread, how do I get this coral munching shrimp out of here? I haven't even seen the little bugger yet, & she said she hasn't seen it since she let it go either. How do I catch something I can't find, & do I really need to get it out, are they that hard on corals?
 
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you are really un-lucky! I have never had a camel shrimp but from what I have read just now from websites, they munch on soft coral, anemones and that stuff. Why would your girl friend buy stuff before you knew!! That was stupid, she should at least reserched it, and what about the **** heads in the shop, couldn't they have told her! Shrimp come out at night, so however you are going to catch it, night would be the best time. Damsels are pains, get them out
 
I'm wondering if I'll be able to get the little sucker, I found him, he's up tucked into a crevice in my base rock in the rockwork, & he's skittish. On a good note, I'm not the only one that isn't too fond of it, the Banded shrimp is tormenting it too, driving it into the crivice, & looks like he isn't gonna let him out. As for the Damsel, halarious thing is, the clown is chasing him all over the place,
 
I've never tried this myself, but read it elsewhere and thought I'd pass it on since it sounds like you need some help!
Take a small water bottle (500m), cut the top 1/3 or so off (the 'neck' and 'shoulders' of the bottle), invert the cut section so the neck is facing backwards, into the bottle. Drop some bait into the trap, and hopefully the shrimp will crawl in to get it and not be able to get back out.
 
got the little sucker, had to tear 1/2 the rock work down to get him, he's a quick little bugger too, but I got him. Tomorrow, its off to the lfs, to see if they'll trade him for something a little more productive.
 
well done! un less you want to get only damsels and few, then trade the yellow tail too, they are very agresive and enoying to the fish, very terretorial! Better go for the clown, fire fish and others.
 
I have a yellow tail and 4 chromis that I used to cycle my tank. They started out as 3 yellow tails but the remaining one killed the other two... Be careful... it took a few days to happen! The damsel is a real bully... infact we are moving him to cycle our new quarentine tank. I wish I had never gotten him. If you like your other fish, and have researched what you WANT in the tank and how they all will get along then you should tell your girlfriend that it was a nice gesture, but you are worried he will hurt Nemo! Especially since he doesn't have the protection of the anemone.... ( not that you need an anemone with a clown... Anemones are way hard to keep happy, wait until you have more experience to get one!) But at least if you tell her that maybe it will soften the blow of telling her that every thing she put in your peaceful tank is agressive, and it is not what you wanted. Just a woman's opinion, but I would take it better that way! Good luck!
 
Well put Tanisheily, always better to hear it from a females mouth just how to deal w/ a female. Reading your reply made me glad I kept my tongue till I calmed down a bit. Unfortunately, the clown deleloped little white devil spots last nite, & is in quarentine for a couple weeks.figured I'd try to treat it w/ increased temps, & darkness before I go dumping copper in the new tank.part of me was blaming the damsel, just cuz' I'm not too happy he's there, but he hasn't been in there long enough to be the infector. Speaking of the Damsel, its been in hiding all day, the clown must have really done a number on him last nite.
 
I've been thinking about it , & I was wondering, this is the 1st sign of the ich, am I too late in stopping the spread in the main tank? it had to be in there somewhere to begin with, or it came in w/ him, & the stress wore down his imunity to it. When I bought the 1st round of fish, the clown & the firefish were actually tankmates, but since they'vs made it into my tank, the clown hasn't eaten very well, he eats whenever he sees the food falling, but he doesn't eat off the top, or the bottum, just when he sees it falling through the water column.
 
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