DrPheel
New member
After almost a year of running a very successful reef I wanted to add my first shrimp. I got a nice coral banded shrimp at my LFS , temp acclimated for 20-25 mins , dripped for 1h30mins , introduced with the lights off in the DT and after 2 hrs it had already lost one of its claw to what I assume either stress of maybe a aggressor that I did not see. After being very calm for 20-30 mins in a shaded area of the tank , the hermits and nasarius snails were making sandwiches out of him :sad2:
Checked my water , all was good as usual. PH/Ammo/Nitrate/Phos/Alk/Cal and Mg were all pristine like the last reading in my logs. I change water, do maintenance on Mondays and test on Tuesday. I go to the LFS on the weekend so I was thinking something may of been off. RODI still at 0PPM , even tested for Phos but it was 0.000. I then started to suspect my yellow wrasse or the hermits but since the lights were off I know the wrasse was sleeping.
2 months pass by and this weekend I got a deal on one cleaner skunk and coral banded for 40$, both very small and in good health. I pulled the trigger and as I am temp acclimating them in the DT I do a bit more research to make sure I was doing the right method. I had both specimen in a previous system with wayyy less equipment, knowledge and questionable maintenance but all was thriving and they both lived for a good year until I took down the tank. I then again temp acclimated for 30 mins , drip for 2hrs ( bumped up the time to make sure the drip was small and progressively rise the salinity to my level. Someone online mentioned that the reason of the long drip is when you do not know what salinity the shrimp was in and that most stores will run low salinity. I run 1.026, I called up the store and the system it came from was at 1.024. I took a little longer so as I was introducing them the lights were just turning on. The skunk climbed up my hand when I put it in the bag like it knew it was taking him in the tank , It stayed a bit on my hand and jumped on a rock a good minute after it got a look around. acting normal , perched upside down under a cap. I introduced the coral banded about 10 mins after and set him down in the opposite corner of the tank. he was a little more feisty so I had to take a cup with tank water and drain the bag until no water was left and I then doped him in the cup that I could put in the tank since it was all my water.
Coral banded stayed in the rockscape a bit but went in hiding and has never been seen since (4 days). The skunk cleaner on the other hand was in the other corner a little less active (30-40 mins had passed) but still walking around and grazing. I started to noticed his claws were not picking at his surrounding and it was just swaying in the waves... well it did not take long for the nasarius and hermits to smell him out and try to eat the poor guy :angryfire:
I was watching them both for the longest time to make sure nothing was getting at them but they just seem to not like my tank or water
I cant find a explanation for this , I have 6 thriving calm fishes and many picky corals like chalices , a few SPS and a GBTA that are doing well and growing. What am I leaving out ???
Lets hear it RC , help me get my head around this! :idea:
Checked my water , all was good as usual. PH/Ammo/Nitrate/Phos/Alk/Cal and Mg were all pristine like the last reading in my logs. I change water, do maintenance on Mondays and test on Tuesday. I go to the LFS on the weekend so I was thinking something may of been off. RODI still at 0PPM , even tested for Phos but it was 0.000. I then started to suspect my yellow wrasse or the hermits but since the lights were off I know the wrasse was sleeping.
2 months pass by and this weekend I got a deal on one cleaner skunk and coral banded for 40$, both very small and in good health. I pulled the trigger and as I am temp acclimating them in the DT I do a bit more research to make sure I was doing the right method. I had both specimen in a previous system with wayyy less equipment, knowledge and questionable maintenance but all was thriving and they both lived for a good year until I took down the tank. I then again temp acclimated for 30 mins , drip for 2hrs ( bumped up the time to make sure the drip was small and progressively rise the salinity to my level. Someone online mentioned that the reason of the long drip is when you do not know what salinity the shrimp was in and that most stores will run low salinity. I run 1.026, I called up the store and the system it came from was at 1.024. I took a little longer so as I was introducing them the lights were just turning on. The skunk climbed up my hand when I put it in the bag like it knew it was taking him in the tank , It stayed a bit on my hand and jumped on a rock a good minute after it got a look around. acting normal , perched upside down under a cap. I introduced the coral banded about 10 mins after and set him down in the opposite corner of the tank. he was a little more feisty so I had to take a cup with tank water and drain the bag until no water was left and I then doped him in the cup that I could put in the tank since it was all my water.
Coral banded stayed in the rockscape a bit but went in hiding and has never been seen since (4 days). The skunk cleaner on the other hand was in the other corner a little less active (30-40 mins had passed) but still walking around and grazing. I started to noticed his claws were not picking at his surrounding and it was just swaying in the waves... well it did not take long for the nasarius and hermits to smell him out and try to eat the poor guy :angryfire:
I was watching them both for the longest time to make sure nothing was getting at them but they just seem to not like my tank or water
I cant find a explanation for this , I have 6 thriving calm fishes and many picky corals like chalices , a few SPS and a GBTA that are doing well and growing. What am I leaving out ??? Lets hear it RC , help me get my head around this! :idea:
