dp reefer
New member
O.k. so I have been having some strange problems with my tank. Heres the sequence of events over the past 2 months or so:
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Clams started looking bad (retracted mantles) after a minor crash cause by a tank re-arranging and an unexpected kh drop after a water change
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I left my fuge bulb on for about 3 days to help with the small amount of nitrates (around 10) from the re-arrange, got kh and calcium back to normal, swapped my possibly aging ushio 20k 250 watt MH for a new XM 20 k, and did a 20 gallon (about 80 gal total in my system) water change with properly buffered water, moved clams up for better light
.
Clams started open with the improvements, but a few in particular have badly tattered mantels from something eating or nipping at them. I've had the same fish and inverts in there for a while and had never seen any damage to clam mantles in my tank. The only thing I added during this time was a yellow headed jawfish
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A few days after noticing the clam nips I found my blue hippo tang a new home because it was getting close to outgrowing my tank and I thought it might be the one nipping at the mantles. At the same time, I noticed my firefish had been given a pretty good sized gash in its side.
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The clams and pretty much everything is looking much better at this point, but even after getting rid of the tang I'm pretty sure I'm seeing new damage on some of the clams (my smaller derasas and croceas are getting nipped but my larger 7 inch crocea and 2 inch maxima are not getting any damage). My tri-color fairy wrasse could still be a suspect although I've never seen it nip at a clam.
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Yesterday I woke up to my jawfish swimming around the tank with a bad case of vertigo after a month of appearing completely healthy and eating plenty of mysis and live brine both soaked in selcon and garlic. It didn't improve and died this morning.
.
.
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So, I have several thoughts and questions. First, I've heard clicking in my tank pretty much from when I first set it up a little over a year ago, but I've never seen any pistol shrimp or other hitchikers. Do mantis shrimp ever bother clams? A mantis shrimp could explain the gash in the firefish and possibly the death of the jawfish if it gave the fish a good blow to the head (but there was no visible damage to the fish). What possible hitch-hikers would damage clam mantles? The jawfish more than likely had some sort of internal infection that messed with its air bladder so should I now be worried about my other fish and especially the firefish? Can infectious bacteria be treated by just quarantining the fish and treating or would the system have to remain fish free for a while to get rid of the bacteria (is it fish to fish or in the water)?
Heres whats in the tank:
Fish: Tri-color fairy wrasse, purple firefish, royal gramma, four small yellow tail damsels
Inverts: Royal urchin, blue-legg hermits, emerald crab, sifting starfish, turbo and astria snails
Corals: millipora, mushrooms, zoos, green stars, clams
I also have some majanos ( I think thats what they're called they look like aptasia but with bubbled on the tips of their tenticles) that I have been injecting with both kalk-water and boiling water with a hypodermic needle and they wont friggin die.
Tank Parameters are as follows:
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Phosphate 0 (but I never get readings with api test kit)
KH 8
Calcium 370 (still getting it up after water change)
Salinity 1.25
Ok I know that was way too much info and too many questions for one post :fun5: but if anyone has any ideas of what could be going on with my fish and clams I would really appreciate it ~thanks
.
.
Clams started looking bad (retracted mantles) after a minor crash cause by a tank re-arranging and an unexpected kh drop after a water change
.
I left my fuge bulb on for about 3 days to help with the small amount of nitrates (around 10) from the re-arrange, got kh and calcium back to normal, swapped my possibly aging ushio 20k 250 watt MH for a new XM 20 k, and did a 20 gallon (about 80 gal total in my system) water change with properly buffered water, moved clams up for better light
.
Clams started open with the improvements, but a few in particular have badly tattered mantels from something eating or nipping at them. I've had the same fish and inverts in there for a while and had never seen any damage to clam mantles in my tank. The only thing I added during this time was a yellow headed jawfish
.
A few days after noticing the clam nips I found my blue hippo tang a new home because it was getting close to outgrowing my tank and I thought it might be the one nipping at the mantles. At the same time, I noticed my firefish had been given a pretty good sized gash in its side.
.
The clams and pretty much everything is looking much better at this point, but even after getting rid of the tang I'm pretty sure I'm seeing new damage on some of the clams (my smaller derasas and croceas are getting nipped but my larger 7 inch crocea and 2 inch maxima are not getting any damage). My tri-color fairy wrasse could still be a suspect although I've never seen it nip at a clam.
.
Yesterday I woke up to my jawfish swimming around the tank with a bad case of vertigo after a month of appearing completely healthy and eating plenty of mysis and live brine both soaked in selcon and garlic. It didn't improve and died this morning.
.
.
.
So, I have several thoughts and questions. First, I've heard clicking in my tank pretty much from when I first set it up a little over a year ago, but I've never seen any pistol shrimp or other hitchikers. Do mantis shrimp ever bother clams? A mantis shrimp could explain the gash in the firefish and possibly the death of the jawfish if it gave the fish a good blow to the head (but there was no visible damage to the fish). What possible hitch-hikers would damage clam mantles? The jawfish more than likely had some sort of internal infection that messed with its air bladder so should I now be worried about my other fish and especially the firefish? Can infectious bacteria be treated by just quarantining the fish and treating or would the system have to remain fish free for a while to get rid of the bacteria (is it fish to fish or in the water)?
Heres whats in the tank:
Fish: Tri-color fairy wrasse, purple firefish, royal gramma, four small yellow tail damsels
Inverts: Royal urchin, blue-legg hermits, emerald crab, sifting starfish, turbo and astria snails
Corals: millipora, mushrooms, zoos, green stars, clams
I also have some majanos ( I think thats what they're called they look like aptasia but with bubbled on the tips of their tenticles) that I have been injecting with both kalk-water and boiling water with a hypodermic needle and they wont friggin die.
Tank Parameters are as follows:
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Phosphate 0 (but I never get readings with api test kit)
KH 8
Calcium 370 (still getting it up after water change)
Salinity 1.25
Ok I know that was way too much info and too many questions for one post :fun5: but if anyone has any ideas of what could be going on with my fish and clams I would really appreciate it ~thanks
Also, I don't think tangs have much of an appetite for clams. There are a number of things that could be eating the mantles on your clams. My best advise would be to look at the tank at night with a flashlight and see if you can catch whatever is doing it in the act.
