GRRRRRR!!!! IVE GOT A BIG PROBLEM!!!!

[FishGeek]

I have been wondering what has been happening to all of my coral. I figured that the spark of Black Algea was causing damage to them. Which might have been the part of the problem but I am now leaning towards something else. They are disappearing not dying, so I thought that it might be something else. Well after talking to someone I was told about the Mantis. She told me to listen to the tank and listen for a tapping/clicking noise. And if I heard it then I have a Mantis. Well tonight sitting here in the computer chair I just heard that noise! GRRRRRRRR!!!!!! Is there any advice that anyone can give me? HELP!!!!

 

[S.Reef]

hmm...mantis shrimp usually dont go after corals...mostly crabs and fish....anyhow they sell traps made to catch mantis shrimp.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

grrrrr : maybe a shaky powerhead..
clowns do grunt but it's very very hard to hear

 

[ram man]

maybe crabs! mantis shrimp dont go after corals. sure if it is a small frag they may us it to build a burrow. my mantis has tried but got freaked out when it closed on him. that lady gave you false info on them eating corals. poele like to blame the cool alien looking things... has any one gotten angry at a clown no!!! little nemo didnt do it! poeple at reef central will take it off your hands.

 

[FishGeek]

I was told by more than one person that a Mantis would go after corals. ??? I really dont know. I just know that my corals dissapeared overnight (1 or 2 at a time). Nothing that I (intensionaly) put in my tank eats coral. ???

 

[FishGeek]

I think that it is a Mantis! My corals were a Derasa Clam, Electric Flame Scallop, Mushrooms, Anenomies, Plate Coral, Feather Dusters, Frogspawn, and Alveopora. Maybe I killed some with this last episode of mine, at least the ones that werent ate. I just.....GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*ALL*

 

[ram man]

ive heard emrald crabs will eat corals. once again these pople are blaiming something on an innocent craeture because they dont know the truth. were they move or eaten? if move it was likely a mantis or a crab. if eaten nudibranches or a corla eating crab, also if zoanthids it could be zoa eating spiders. if eaten there is no evidence ever of a mantis eating coral. they are stict meat eaters.

 

[ram man]

clams , feathe rdusters and scallops are not corals. the scallop the mantis i know ate it. but they will only go after moving objects wich eliminates clam and feather duster...

 

[FishGeek]

I just read what there diet is. Clams, Scallops, Shrimp (which I lost 3 too), Squid.... Again I dont know I am just trying to figure this out. I have lost $300 in "coral" and I just want to know what happened. I have a feeling that part of it was because I got a little careless with my tanks for a little while. However I dont think that a clam dissappearing over night was my fault. I never saw it die. I just shut the light off before bed and turned it on later the next day and my clam shell was wide open and nothing was in it. It lasted in the tank for about 2-3 days. And that is when it all started. Actually the shrimp were lost first. I am sorry if I am a little witchy about this I am a bit frustrated.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Try a mantis trap, see what you catch. Otherwise, if you stalk the tank at night with a flashlight, you may see it out an about... if you can find where its hidey hole is, you can just pull out that piece of rock and get it out from there.

 

[ram man]

the clam thing sounds wierd... if the mantis killed it then it would be in pieces not opend up... shrimp were eaten by the mantis same with the skalop. if you can catch him i can identify him. they make cool pets. to bad the 5 gal. isnt empty. i can see why you are upset. just dont kill the little guy. promise me that, please?

 

[1979camaro]

i am going to ask the obvious question here...what kind of lighting are you running?

the mushrooms, zoas, and other softies will leave no trace if they die.

are there skeletons from the plate coral? frogspawn? have you looked around behind the rock, etc?

 

[wayne]

The shrimps were probably eaten by the eel - that's what they eat. Crabs would be at risk too.

I suspect the clam and scallops just died and got eaten straight away by everything else in there. You don't need to blame a predator here, I think you have some setup/livestock issues

 

[FishGeek]

If it was all my doing then what is this noise that I am hearing? The 3 shrimp that I lost were the biggest 3 in the tank and I think they were gone overnight. I never saw them after putting them in the tank. They were half the size of the eel! Right now a krill is big for him let alone a full grown Blood Fire Shrimp or even a Cleaner! My eel is very tiny right now, no bigger than a pencil, if he is even that long. The light that I am useing is the CoralLife Compact Lunar Aqualite (130 WATTS).

 

[aresgod]

you might have a mantis, what I think people are trying to say is that your mantis did not cause all of your problems. An eel that size could easily kill your shrimp, I think your main problem is that you have all sorts of incompatable fish, inverts and corals and now you are paying the price for putting them together. Did you not research each purchase and see that it would be incompatible with your other livestock? So really this is a warning for making purchases on impulse.

 

[aresgod]

again what are your water parameters?

 

[FishGeek]

Sorry I have been forgetting to put them in. I have them written right next to the keyboard and I still keep forgetting. Anywayz, these were before the water change that I did yesterday (I need to get some more):
Nitrate: just 20
Nitrite:0.5
Alkalinity: 250
pH: 8.2
I know that my Nitrites and Nitrates are a little high but like I said I had gotten a little careless with my tanks and it had been probably a month/month and a half since my last water change. After doing some reading I think that that is part of my problem with my corals and the other part was a Mantis. I took everything out my tank (except the fish ) and I found him all the way in the back corner under a rock and buried in sand. He wasnt very big (about 3 inches or so). I took him to my LFS and they took him.

 

[1979camaro]

the nitrates and the nitrites are undoubtably what is killing the corals

 

[ram man]

that is less than2 watts per gallon! no wonder the clam died! corals will not survive under that light. corals need alot higher light than high light fresh water plants! some things other than mantis shrimp make noises! as i have said on some other forums, it is easy to blame something befor blaming yourself. in this case you have been given some bad advise as far as mantis shrimp go. you may just have a pistol shrimp. these wont kill things in your tank. and before some one says i am being defensive of mantis shrimp, im not. my little guy has been buging me with his attitude

 

[FishGeek]

I only have a 29G tank??? O my sig say 75...I meant to put moving to 75. Sorry! I think that it was me and the mantis. But he is not going to be bothering me anymore. Thanks.