mass spawning in tank

[45commando]

I got home from work to find my tank looking very cloudy.I then noticed every Astrea snail in the tank,was up at the water line-spawning.I've carried out a water change & added a bag of carbon to the sump.All the occupants seem fine,in fact it appears the fish & some of the inverts have really been having a feast on the eggs.Has anyone had any negative experiences in the past if this has occured in your tank?Thanks in advance,regards,Darcy

 

[Rogger Castells]

I've had two Spawning events with the corals in my tank. The first time I did nothing thinking it was cool and 90% of my fishes died or were severely affected by the next morning, the ones that survived seemed stoned for the next few weeks.

The second time it happened I was prepared, I collected as much crap out of the water and did two water changes of 50 gal ea in a period of 24hrs. ran both skimmers very wet, added extra carbon to the sump and turned on the emergency air pump in the tank. Nothing negative came out of this, all the fishes did good.

I am not sure if the snails spawning are similar to the corals but I think you did the right thing by doing a water change and running the carbon.

 

[45commando]

Thanks Rogger.Now I'm a little concerned,because it appears that one or both of my Haddoni carpets are starting to spawn also.Both carpets are stood upright-something I've never seen them do & the blue in particular appears to be spawning about every 5 minutes.I guess another water change will be called for.

 

[Treeman]

Darcy,

If you have another astrea spawning. I would like all that you can gather.

 

[Rogger Castells]

Darcy, The research I did after the mass die off I had was that the sperm and eggs had a substance that consumed the oxigen out of the water rapidely, so it is not toxic it is just that the water basically gets stripped of oxigen, turn some airpumps on.

 

[45commando]

OK Rogger will do.Matt, if I observe the Astreas again-will do.Will keep you posted,thanks.

 

[ReefWreak]

I had my astreas in my nano spawn. it's kind of amazing that nothing died if that was the case, considering the small water volume with no extra air being pumped into it... I think it would be awesome to have spawning events in your tank if you're ready and equipped for it.

Rogger, you had corals spawn, not snails, right? Do you have moonlights running lunar cycles, or it just kinda happened? I'm sure the corals and fish would gobble up as much eggs as they could as well, could have caused even more of a breakdown of nutrients in the tank. Crazy ecosystems....

 

[Rogger Castells]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9634278#post9634278 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefWreak


Rogger, you had corals spawn, not snails, right? Do you have moonlights running lunar cycles, or it just kinda happened? I'm sure the corals and fish would gobble up as much eggs as they could as well, could have caused even more of a breakdown of nutrients in the tank. Crazy ecosystems....

Yes I had moolights with lunar cycles, the fishes did not go crazy trying to eat the eggs, they were all sleeping when this happened, it was around 2 am.

 

[jeffbrig]

Wow, hope everything makes it, Darcy. Keep us posted!

 

[45commando]

Well left the house at 6am for work & everything looked good.Got home this afternoon,all fish & inverts accounted for.The only thing that looks a little ragged,is the blue Haddoni carpet.It was still spawning when I went to bed-was just too tired to stay up & keep doing water changes.I did notice one thing,the spawning events killed my skimmer production.It has only now started to come back to full skimming power.Also was it a full/new moon last night or maybe the day before?Strange that this all happened when the lights were on,but it was cool to watch.I am trying to upload a small video clip of the Haddoni.If I get any luck I'll post it.Thanks for the help all.

 

[jessp]

actually i think it is full moon tonight

 

[acrodave]

i have a few diffrent kind of snails in ,my tank and in the past few weeks that have all spawed both eggs and sperm..... nutting has died and thre clowns were eating the eggs

 

[45commando]

Jess,I think you're right-the Wife is acting strange

 

[45commando]

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Ok hopefully this will show a small clip of the Haddoni spawning.The quality is not good,but I thought it would still be pretty cool to share.I'm not sure if the snail spawn triggered the anemone,or if it was independent.The green carpet in the background was acting in the same manner,but I did not observe it spawning.I knew something was happening,as both carpets were stretched up almost out of the sand(usually they lay very flat).The anemone was spawning about every 5 minutes,for at least a couple of hours.As you can see the fish were going crazy.I think I'll post this in the anemone forum,to see if I get any more info.Thanks for looking,Darcy.

 

[Rogger Castells]

That is pretty pretty pretty nice!

 

[45commando]

Thanks Rogger,I'm just so glad everything survived.I was really concerned after reading that you lost fish.