My pistol shrimp is broken..

[JokersAce69]

It's been awhile.. Heh

I set up a new 40 gallon breeder almost 2 months ago. Just tested my water 5ppm nitrites 0 nitrates and 0 ammonia.
My stocking list.
- a pair of ocellaris clowns.
- sand sifter goby
- zebra striped dart fish
- red firefish
- yellow watchman goby
- bi color blenny
- 15 hermits
- Asterea snails
- tomorrow picking up my box fish puffer
And last but not least my broken pistol shrimp that I've had for 3 days now.
He doesn't dig.. He doesn't hide well.. He lays on his side.. He just isn't doing much. I have a 20 gallon reef set up for 4 years now and that tank is thriving like crazy. When I got my first pistol shrimp years ago he immediately took to digging and making his home.
What's the deal with this guy? I'm pretty sure at this rate, he'll be dinner for the puffer tomorrow. He has plenty of rock and holes from the goby and dart fish. Sometimes I think he's dead but wiggles around and walks about. I'm lost..

 

[oldbones]

Acclimation problems?

 

[JokersAce69]

That's what I was guessing.. But. I acclimated him just as I did everyone else with the exception of dripping him 30 minutes longer At a slower rate. At first when I put him in he darted to a corner and seemed to fall on his side and kick all of his feet around as if he was stuck. Now he ventures around (sort of) and then goes to a den. If I chase him out. Which is rediculously easy.. Which it shouldn't be. He goes to another hole.

 

[Shivsreef]

Your nitrites are way to high they should ideally be at zero

 

[Taahirs]

My pistol shrimp is broken..

+1 to the above. You sure that's correct???

If that's correct then ypir tank is no where near being cycled.

Also 7 fish since you've set the tank up???!!!! In two months

 

[Shivsreef]

By the book the rule is 1 fish a month so your trying to cram 7 months of bio load into 2 months of actually setting up a tank that's not even fully cycled

 

[Giants13]

+1 ur tank won't keep up with the bio load.

 

[JokersAce69]

I agree with all of you to an extent. The tank cycled in 2 and a half weeks. I even had the water double checked by the Lfs that I have been in connection with since I began this hobby back in 2008. I waited, not everything was added in a day.. I Retested 2 times this morning and the test read 0. Let's not forget that tanks can and do cycle in as little as a few days when it's seeded with rock/sand from another tank. But that's neither here nor there and I appreciate the opinions. As far as going by the "book" I have yet to ever read or see that. Now as far as the shrimp, he moved to another den and I was watching him dig as he should normally be doing. Maybe later I'll frag some of my hammers and move them over. ��

 

[CedzAquAddictio]

You do have high nitrates, but is it a possibility that the shrimp is molting?

 

[srope]

5ppm nitrites is not good.Better slow down on the bio-load.

 

[Taahirs]

High nitrates are fine. But 5ppm nitrites are off the chart

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I'm thinking those nitrites were a typo and that reading was nitrates.