Hanging upside down for hours!!

[Ahwagirl]

One of my 2 female erectus (5 months old) hung upside down all night hitched to the thermometer. This morning she righted herself when I fed them and after a few minutes of trying to eat from the hitch, she let go and joined her sister on a rock to finish breakfast.

We've had them about 3 weeks and things have been going well, eating frozen mysis very well, etc.

Is this upside down hitching (esp. for long periods of time) normal?? Seems odd to me for it to go on all night.

 

[ann83]

Yes, completely normal, especially if they're hunting. No need to worry unless it seems like she cannot right herself easily and is "stuck" upside down, or is swimming upside down.

 

[Ahwagirl]

She wasn't hunting that I know as she was no where near the bottom where the copepods are. She was hanging off the thermoter in the middle of the tank wall. But you never know... But she WAS able to right herself and swim, and eat, etc.

Bad news. No idea why but I had a .25 ammonia reading this morning. I just did a 50% water change so we'll see. The tank did go thru a cycle before I put the SHs in it. But better safe than sorry.

I'll keep you posted.

Thank you!!

P.S. Ann, are you class of 83? If so, so am I!!!:jester:

Yes, completely normal, especially if they're hunting. No need to worry unless it seems like she cannot right herself easily and is "stuck" upside down, or is swimming upside down.

 

[rayjay]

For ammonia, I learned the hard way to continually check ammonia levels until the tank has matured.
Until I learn what level of husbandry is required for the bioload I place on the system, and how the bio filtration handles such loading, I keep checking, and when I find ammonia, I immediately add ClorAm-X to cover the level of ammonia present and then some, even before I do a water change. Without a binding product, when you do a 50% change from ,25ppm you still have .125 and that's not acceptable to me in my tanks.
The ClorAm-X allows me time to rectify the problem and do multiple changes until the system is again stable.

 

[Ahwagirl]

I will get some at the LFS. Everyone seems none the worse for wear at this point. The 50% change brought the ammonia down to 0 at least for now. I was probably overfeeding in the beginning to make sure they were getting ample food. I vacuumed the substrate well when I did the water change. So hopefully the issue has been taken care of but I'll get some of that product.

Thank you!!

For ammonia, I learned the hard way to continually check ammonia levels until the tank has matured.
Until I learn what level of husbandry is required for the bioload I place on the system, and how the bio filtration handles such loading, I keep checking, and when I find ammonia, I immediately add ClorAm-X to cover the level of ammonia present and then some, even before I do a water change. Without a binding product, when you do a 50% change from ,25ppm you still have .125 and that's not acceptable to me in my tanks.
The ClorAm-X allows me time to rectify the problem and do multiple changes until the system is again stable.