mantis susceptiblies? Sick, injured...

[conjuay]

Hi!
My reef tank has been up a full month, and there are several spots I hear mantis clicks.
Last night I come home from work and a small 1 - 1.25 inch mantis is laying curled up on the sand, in the open.
It is obviously sick or injured. It surprised me by living through the night (it's in a bucket for now) but it is still curled up.
Water parameters are good, so far I have not noticed any die-off of any other critters.
It has no physical signs of injury.
Could it have been knocked senseless by one of his own?

Are mantis susceptible to any unique maladies, or super sensitive to any toxins?
Thanks for your help.

 

[Diet Plain]

They are weak to metals in the water, and also rapid changes in salinity.

 

[helipilot]

Perhaps a failed molt(?)

 

[conjuay]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11378040#post11378040 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Diet Plain
They are weak to metals in the water, and also rapid changes in salinity.

More sensitive than other shrimp, crabs?

 

[conjuay]

It MAY be metals...

It MAY be metals...

The tank was bought used from someone who had "given up", so there may be traces of copper etc from attempted remedies.

I have noticed quite a few dead crabs, snails, etc.

Besides activated carbon what else can be done?
(I'm tossing the decorative stuff he included, especially the coral skeletons)

 

[helipilot]

I think I'd get rid of everything in that tank including lr and ls, flush the tank several times and start fresh. IMHO

 

[oct2274]

First thing we need is for you to give us the water parameters of the tank. The following would be a good start

Temp
pH
Salinity and are you using a refractometer or hydrometer
Alk
Calcium
ammonia
nitrites
nitrates

as far as possibly removing copper the two options i know of are

poly filters - should be able to find these at a local fish store
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...atchallpartial&Ntk=All&pc=1&N=0&Ntt=poly&Np=1

or seachem cuprisorb
http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/CupriSorb.html

I would just go the poly filter route and run carbon for any other chemical issues you might have. You will have to run the poly filters for awhile because the copper will continue to leach.

 

[conjuay]

I'm going to run a water sample over to one of the LFS's, they're good people and will do a test for copper.

I don't have my water parameters in front of me(I'm at work). I will post those along with the Cu readings later this evening.



And thanks everyone, for the help.

 

[greddy]

Your not going to like this reccomendation. If you have traces of copper in you tank, you would probably want to remove all the silicone and re-seal the tank (or buy a new one). This is alot of work and can take a few times before its sealed properly (which isnt fun). If there are traces of copper in the tank/silicone it will slowly leach back into the water column, regardless of how much cleaning you do...

Alot of dead inverts, can be an indicator of copper...

Hopefully its something else doing this ?

 

[conjuay]

minimal copper

minimal copper

Had the water tested, they used the Instant Ocean/ Red Sea kit.
The sample chip is brown, mine tested as a weak yellow, so it's not copper.
One thing I did realize is my sponges haven't been affected, they should have been the first thing to go, shouldn't they?



In the meantime, I've added about 9OZ of carbon and will order some Cuprisorb, Seachem says it works on other heavy metals as well.