My mantis is sick

[crazyaggie05]

No, not physically sick, but freakin' mentally sick! I have the equivalent of Charles Manson living in my tank! I have been battling bryopsis for a long time (probably because I can't keep a clean up crew) and I decided to bring out the big guns. I bought a hefty new crew, including a royal urchin (of decent size I might add), a few zebra turbos, some nerite, black nassarius, margarita, and trochus snails and they are ALL DEAD except one zebra turbo that he has been working on. I can't beleive it. They lasted only a week! I figured the urchin would be safe sine it was a good sized animal, and not a snail or crab but I was wrong. I found half of its exoskeleton in the corner of the tank yesterday. The rest of the snails shells are littered across the tank. The last remaining turbo is in shock I am sure because my mantis has been chipping little pieces off its shell all day. It's not like I starve my mantis either, he eats pretty well! I hitnk he just likes to kill things. He must horde the meat somewhere... which might be another reason my I have so much trouble with algae. I caught him hording krill one week. I had fed him 2 or three items that week, and moved a rock and noticed two half eaten pieces of krill. He must save them for a snack.

Oh well, I still like Buster, he is just a pita! I really don't know what to do about the bryopsis. I cant keep crabs, urchins, or snails (except one large nassarius he doesn't mess with). He also doesn't mess with hermits for some reason, I guess they don't have enough meat on them to be worth it. Unfortunately they do nothing for bryopsis, or the pinkish cotton candy lookin algae I know have. (grrrr). Any other suggestions?

 

[reefkeeperfrodo]

Dont be sad, your not the only one.

Proffessor chaos, my O. Scyllarus, likes to keep his stock pile of live hermits herded on top of a rock. Then procedes to eat one a day.

Not to mention his favorite pass time is striking rocks while I try to sleep.

 

[DanInSD]

About the bryopsis -- I'm dealing with that myself. A cleanup crew is out of the question. My tank is also too small for an herbivorous fish (tang/blenny/etc). Things that I'm trying (and they *are* having an effect):

- Good skimmer (upgraded pump on my Remora to a Mag-3)
- Refugium on reverse-daylight cycle, with chaetomorpha
- Media reactor with granulated ferric hydroxide phosphate media
- Deep sand bed in both the tank and the refugium
- Aggressive manual removal, including scrubbing rocks with a stuff brush

Hope this helps!
Dan

 

[Pea-brain]

If yours is leaving hermits alone get some red legs. They eat any and every micro algae they can get ahold of in my tank.

Dan