Reef Journal - First Build Ever!

[vox]

From which store did you purchase the checkerboard snails? I need something that does that kind of work. My urchin is just not cuttin' it. I would take a couple of those and turn them loose in my tank and they could strip all they wanted. I wish something in my tank would do that!

I bought the snails from Jerry at Atlantis Aquarium at the intersection or Old Canton and Roswell Road in Marietta. He said that they are his most popular snails because they are (1) pretty and (2) good cleaners. He is definitely right no both counts. I was surprised at how deep these snails clean the rock, they really take it down to bare bones. Don't I want "some" base layer of algae on my rock or is this "strip-clean" what I'm after?

As for the fire shrimp, how long did you drip acclimate it? I would suspect that, with such a sudden death, you may not have acclimated properly? Also, you did put in a very large bioload so there could be something in the water that's just not showing up on the test.

I have two fire shrimp and the other one looks healthy. I put them in my tank Saturday morning so they have been doing great for 4.5 days. I put them in a bowl with their bag water and ran a drip line for a total of 45 minutes, and double the water volume, to acclimate them before I put them them in the tank. I did put in a pretty big bio-load all at once. Probably too fast but I got a little carried away.

 

[vox]

Maybe my shrimp ate some toxic snail poo! :doh:

 

[vox]

I spoke with Jerry today and he said that Dan will be there on Saturday.

So, I could have a shrimp die from not acclimating well four days later?

 

[jennm]

I don't think it was an acclimation issue. The only time they may be a bit more vulnerable is right after they molt.

Bill - could the "dead" shrimp have been a molt? Did you remove it from the tank? If it was dead there would be flesh inside the shell, but a molt is just the empty shell (no eyeballs!).

I think 45 minutes is plenty.

I do concur that Bill has done a lot... very quickly - and hopefully that doesn't come back to haunt him. The "hurry up and wait" stage hurried up a bit fast

Jenn

 

[vox]

You didn't tell Jerry "my little secret" did you? Even though he's grumpy, I would never intentionally tell him and hurt his feelings.

Don't worry, your secret is safe with me.

Bill - could the "dead" shrimp have been a molt? Did you remove it from the tank? If it was dead there would be flesh inside the shell, but a molt is just the empty shell (no eyeballs!).

Definitely not in molt. I did remove him from the tank and he didn't move a bit and yes, there were eyeballs. :wow2: I might be the victim of bad timing as the shrimp molted within 24 hours of acclimation. Maybe the move in concert with the acclimation was too much for it's system.

The "hurry up and wait" stage hurried up a bit fast

True! Fingers crossed.

 

[vox]

A huge :thanks: to Matt and Amanda at Creation Reef for their generosity!