Mysterious Invert Deaths

C

CarolynM

I'm puzzled. I have lost a pair of cleaner shrimp that have been in my tank for over a year as well as quite a few snails (I see a few empty shells and haven't seen many in the last few days).

I went on vacation came back and tank was suffering a cyano attack but other than that livestock were in good shape. I found numerous causes for the cyano (refugium pump was not working, TDS in top up water was 60ppm, phosban needed changing). I fixed those issues and then blacked out the tank for 3 days. AFter the black out I did a 15 gallon waterchange (tank is 90 gallons).

That was last week. I can't exactly say when the cleaners disappeared, I noticed I couldn't see them this past weekend.

I just did complete tank parameter tests:

Ammonia =0
Nitrates -25-50 (I can't decipher the pink shades very well)
PH=8.15
P04=0.5 (was 1.0 before blackout)
CA=340
KH=8.0

I don't see anything here that should have killed the inverts. Do you think it was a possible side effect of dieing cyano? I siphoned a ton of the dead cyano but I'm sure lots dissolved. My skimmer was full of thick yuck. Another occurrence was my fiji leather died in the blackout, do you think there were toxins released from that?

I want to replace the cleaners and refortify the clean-up crew but of course I want to be sure I've got whatever killed them gone.

Corals (other than fiji leather) all came through fine -even the few sps I have.

I will be adding carbon as I'm sure that will help.
 
Are you sure it was Cyano and not Dino's? Dinos will kill inverts that consume it, such as nails and shrimp. Its possible you kicked up something in the sand causing an ammonia release. If you have an ammonia test, run that and see what happens. I would also run a Nitrite test.
 
I'm pretty sure it was cyano- deep red and coated rocks and sand. Only thing I did notice is that is was like an actual film that when it died could be peeled off the rocks (I siphoned this off)

I did an ammonia test -looked like zero to me (could be .25) I'm using salifert and I can never distinguish 0 and .25.

Nitrites = 0

I didn't stir up the sand very much but anything is possible.
 
I don't know... thats a little puzzling. If they disappeared right after the change, I would suspect salinity or temp swings.

I would also suspect a predator like a mantis or crab, but if they had been in there for a long time in the same tank, you'd have lost something before that.

Have you added any new rock recently?? Do you run carbon?

The leather could have bumped some ammonia or something in there... but you have more than just the shrimp and snails.
 
It is perturbing....no new rock or corals that anything could have hitchhiked in on. Cleaners were fine before the blackout. Fiji leather that I lost during the blackout was on its way out before the blackout. I've never heard of them being any more toxic than other leathers.

I track salinity and it hasn't budged off where it has been for months (1.022). A temperature spike could be a possible cause as on the hottest of days (like this past weekend) our house's a/c doesn't keep up as well as it should. I was gone all day Sat & Sun and only home in the evening but the house temp was where it should be when I was home.

I don't run carbon and do plan on it going forward. I would have expected to see shrimp bodies as I often see their moults....but I have not. Fish all appear A OK as do the other corals (montipora caps, yellow polyps, millepora, a couple lps, green star polyps and leathers). I see a couple of snails out but not nearly the number I had, I do see a few empty shells...perhaps some were smothered by the cyano but that wouldn't account for the cleaner shrimp disappearance...
 
I found one of the cleaners hiding under a rock...I can see the antennae, I'm pretty sure it's alive and well as it is hanging on the underside of a little cave...weird...they have always hung out somewhere else and are always the first to eat...I wonder whats up...
 
Nassarious snails???

I doubt they would harm anything like that. Are you sure it wasn't a predator snail that looks like a Nassarious? Can't remember which one looks alike, but there is one.
 
@FranktheTank wrote:
Nassarious snails??? I doubt they would harm anything like that. Are you sure it wasn't a predator snail that looks like a Nassarious? Can't remember which one looks alike said:
That would be a welk you are thinking about I believe. :wink: I've only heard of nassarious snail's pouncing on stuff that's at death's door, never really on healthy stuff. Of course there's alway's a possibility of anything happening in nature. :lol:
Click to expand...
 
run carbon - household spray products can be very harmful to inverts - especially hairpsray (not to mention pesticides)

for example - even the slightest amount of hairspary in the room can kill a mantis shrimp

also check your iodine levels if you can - if they are low inverts can have issues with molting causing death
 
I had a 2-3" cleaner shrimp in my tank and he was always visible even when in his cave. He disappeared about two weeks ago and I looked everywhere, inside and outside of the tank including the sump. No sign of him or his remains. I will be doing some aquascaping today so the search is on. My suspicion is that my purple reef lobster got him. My firefish disappeared also and I am guessing the lobster got them while they were in their den at night. They disappeared one at a time a few days apart.

Do you have a purple reef lobster in your tank?

While we are redoing our reef design today (added more rock to the tank) I will find the little bugger (lobster) and ban him to the frag tank.
 
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