Need help cuc dying off!

H

Hockey0000325

New member
hey guys,

I have had my tank up and running now for about a month and a half. I watched my tank take a cycle and even made sure my water parameters were good before adding anything to my tank. I have 2 Clarkii clowns in my tank and HAD 10 astria's 4 Trochus, and Emerald crab and 2 cleaner shrimp. I am now down to basically my 2 cleaner shrimp and the 2 Clarkiis. I have what appears to be my emerald belly up under my rock and all of the snails are motionless and some appear to actually be rotting. I am very concerned as I do not want my fish or remaining animals to die off either. Can anyone please explain what they feel this could be due to?
 
First thing I would get those rotting snails out of the tank. What is your salinity? Have you tested for copper?

What are your other levels?
 
I think you are rushing things if you already have two fish in the tank and its only a month + old. When the tank cycled, what did you see happening. You might not have enough food for the cleanup crew. Patience is the key to a successful tank.
 
I was advised by the LFS that I would be able to add the CUC and the 2 Clarkiis with no problems I have a 120gal with a 29 gal sump. I have hair algae in the tank. It was very odd when i placed the snails in they all seem to stay in the same spot and then eventually die
 
Ammonia levels? Nitrate? Inverts can't tolerate high nitrate levels. Did you acclimate (especially the snails) slowly-drip method preferred. I usually acclimate my snails for 2 hours. How big is your tank? You need to do a water change.
 
Hockey0000325 said:
I was advised by the LFS that I would be able to add the CUC and the 2 Clarkiis with no problems I have a 120gal with a 29 gal sump. I have hair algae in the tank. It was very odd when i placed the snails in they all seem to stay in the same spot and then eventually die
Click to expand...

How did you acclimate the snails?
 
Have to agree with B&U.

Sounds to me like you either got a lousy batch of CUC members(although unlikely to get them ALL sick) or you have some type of copper in the tank. That is to say that ALL paramaters are in good shape.

Ammonia and nitrite should be zero. Not even a BIT over that. Nitrates should be less than 20ppm. PH, alk, ca, mg, phosphate?
 
do you have any bubbles on the algae? do a search for cyno bacteria and dinoflagellates. I think dino's can kill inverts pretty fast.
 
I acclimated the snails same way as the shrimp and crab I placed in tank for 20 min in bag. then pured into a small pail and slowely added half cup of tank water to the mix. I am in process of doing a 30 gallon water change. and will do another in a few days. I was able to remove 7 of the snails that had died. however I am unable to get the others as they are under the rock. Does this mean tear down? Ammonia is at 0
 
slowly... first float a few minutes and slowly begin to add your water to the bag of snails and continue to add a little more untill you have more of your water than the lfs water. some do this for an hour or two. It took me about an hour and half for my sand siftin star.
 
Hey big and ugly nice to see a local reefer as well thanks for the input. I am in W irondequoit I go to Reef Shoppe they tested my water before I added anything
 
nanojg was not referring to bubble algae, but hair-like algae that traps bubbles of oxygen in them. I believe thats dinoflagellattes, and that is toxic to snails.

Temps a little low, most keep their tanks at 78-82. Doubt this is the issue tho.
 
Yea I am in the process of adjusting it up a little higher. I do not see any bubbles in the hair algae in the tank. I did read up on Dinoflagellattes anyways to see if that helped. How about the removing of the crab and the other snails I cannot get to. Do I need to do a tear down to get them out or will my system be large enough to handle this?
 
I am a big fan of the reef shoppe. Everyone there is friendly and I like the way the store "feels." It's more like a coffee shop then a LFS.

Snails are typically an intertidal creature. They can tolerate tremendous changes in water chemistry very quickly. They can not tolerate ammonia very well though.

When the snails sit in the bag with a little bit of water the ammonia starts to build pretty quickly, fortunately the pH starts to drop as well making the ammonia much less toxic. If you slowly start adding tank water to the bag you increase the pH of the water in the bag and begin to make the ammonia toxic again.

With snails it is best to get them set on temperature then drop them in the tank.
 
Yea I am definitely wondering if there was something killing them very quickly I am gonna go in to the Reef Shop again tonight to have them test everything and possibly pick up a copper test as well. I was told thought that copper in Irondequoit really isnt normally an issue. The other thing is the cleaner shrimp are doing just fine as well as the fish. they are all eating normally and color looks amazing!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

G
Back after 20 years - cycling advice
Replies
4
Views
144
Guygettnby
Guygettnby
B
Left Tank for a long time, now want to reboot
Replies
8
Views
367
SantaMonica
S
A
New to saltwater
Replies
3
Views
167
Acetaprofen
A
S
HELP! What are these?
Replies
10
Views
538
Sermanley
S
A
Please help reef tank
Replies
2
Views
688
SantaMonica
S
Back
Top