There's a black hole in my tank!

[seth the wine guy]

Had my tank up and running for a little more than two months. (Had great success using pure ammonia to hyper accelerate the cycle) I seem to have a black hole in my tank that only sucks in cleaners. I have bought 2 Fire Shrimp, 3 cleaner shrimp, and just recently a cleaner wrasse. All of them have gone totally MIA. The shrimp hung around for a couple weeks and the wrasse only a couple days.
Here is my livestock list
1 Spot Face Tang
1 Powder Blue Tang
1 Kole Tang
4 Lyretail Anthia's 3 female one male.
1 African orange Goby of some sort (Love him what ever he is!)
1 A Bangi Cardinal (I lost the other 3 due to a bad wild caught batch)
2 Onyx clowns
1 Percula Clown
My water parameters are outstanding for the most part. My KH is the only thing out of whack at 13.7
I feed well. Marine Cuisine twice a day and Nori sheets three times a day.
What could be eradicating my cleaner population? The Spot Face Tang has grown about 50% since I got him a couple weeks ago, eats like a pig, and is starting to bully the tank. All three Tangs have Ich and are being treated. I think they will all make it because they're eating like crazy.
I know the cleaners had no supply shortage of food. What else could it be?
When it was the shrimp disappearing I thought it could easily be something in the water since they are a bit more sensitive. But, after getting the cleaner wrasse a few days ago and disappearing too, I'm really puzzled.

 

[grouper therapy]

I have a fire shrimp I have only see three times in 4 years. just see him Monday!!!!

 

[merkywater]

Seth FWIW I too have gone through 3 cleaners just disappearing. I also have 3 peppermints which are doing just fine. So, I have no clue either bro.

 

[insane_reef_keeper]

My cleaner went MIA a few days ago also, and so did my aurmora goby.

 

[seth the wine guy]

It's just driving me crazy to see no sign of them. I'd be ok with a carcass floating around. Checked the overflow, sump, and all areas behind the tank. I hate to keep dropping $20 a shrimp. You can get two pounds at that price at Whole Foods!

 

[merkywater]

Seth The Wine Guy;648193 wrote: It's just driving me crazy to see no sign of them. I'd be ok with a carcass floating around. Checked the overflow, sump, and all areas behind the tank. I hate to keep dropping $20 a shrimp. You can get two pounds at that price at Whole Foods!

lol that's so true and I feel ya. I keep dropping the 20+ over and over because I love shrimp but I think I will be waiting a while before purchasing anymore.

 

[crew]

i see my shrimp about once a month MAYBE...

 

[jennm]

The cleaner wrasse was probably doomed from the start. That's typically a "rental item" (doesn't live long in captivity).

The inverts - well, have you ever heard unusual clicking? Could be a mantis shrimp in your live rock. They'll take down anything they can and you'll never find a body.

Not all mantis click, some are smashers (clickers) some are spearers (deadly silent).

That's a LOT of livestock in a short time...

Jenn

 

[crewdawg1981]

Did you really throw 15 fish in there at the same time?

 

[hnguyen]

Crewdawg1981;648221 wrote: Did you really throw 15 fish in there at the same time?

Please say you didn't!!

As for your black hole, I had the same problem with my old 60 cube. I put 6 peppermint shrimp in there and they disappeared within 2 months. Never found the bodies and no sides of them when I moved to my 93 cube. :sad:

 

[rbredding]

I have probably put at least 20 shrimp in my tank over the last year (cleaners & peppermints)...

I HOPE there's a "stabbing mantis" in there, because that would make me feel better about only having 5-6 in the tank right now..

(incidentally, I have much better luck keeping the larger shrimp than the smaller ones)

 

[mapleredta]

How are you acclimating them?

 

[rbredding]

mapleredta;648258 wrote: How are you acclimating them?

... drip

 

[hnguyen]

Rbredding;648262 wrote: ... drip

Same here, drip. I never had much luck with peppermint shrimp, but I've had good luck with cleaner shrimp. I don't really ever lose them.

 

[smallblock]

I've had zero problems other than the fire and skunk molting once a month, they are both very social and huge!!!!

 

[firstfear]

Hi Seth,
You said that the Tangs have Ick and are being treated. Are they being treated in the display? Many Ick treatments have copper which will wipe your inverts.. You most likely know this but it jumped right out at me as soon as I saw it and wanted to mention it to you.
Good Luck and hope you find the problem..
Scott

Seth The Wine Guy;648186 wrote:

My water parameters are outstanding for the most part. I feed well. Marine Cuisine twice a day and Nori sheets three times a day.
What could be eradicating my cleaner population? The Spot Face Tang has grown about 50% since I got him a couple weeks ago, eats like a pig, and is starting to bully the tank. All three Tangs have Ich and are being treated. I think they will all make it because they're eating like crazy.
I know the cleaners had no supply shortage of food. What else could it be?
When it was the shrimp disappearing I thought it could easily be something in the water since they are a bit more sensitive. But, after getting the cleaner wrasse a few days ago and disappearing too, I'm really puzzled.

 

[seth the wine guy]

JennM;648208 wrote:

That's a LOT of livestock in a short time...

Jenn

Crewdawg1981;648221 wrote: Did you really throw 15 fish in there at the same time?

I added about two fish a week. Keep in mind guys, I have a 120g sump on a 120g tank and I do 30g WC at least once a week. I would test the water before adding each fish... Everything tests at unmeasurable levels. I would also bring samples to the LFS where I was getting the fish and they confirmed my test results.

I can go into details if you like but I used a "Super Cycle" method of sorts. I'm quite confident I have a massive bio-filtration population in place. Before I could add fish I had to do two 30g WC a day for a week to bring down my Nitrates. They were off the scale since I provided so much bio matter/biofuel in the cycle. I know you're not a fan of some of these cycling methods Jenn, but I look at things like this.
With enough time, motivation, and resources at your disposal, just about anything can be done and is possible. Luckily, I had an abundance of all three. I also had a deadline of sorts to get this thing up, running, stable, and established. (My first baby is due in the next week)
The only thing I need to get dialed in is my Ca Reactor and that's coming along slowly but going in the right direction.
The only thing I'm not trying to rush is my Pod population. I have added a ton to the refugium and LR section of the sump. But, I will wait until they are jumping out of the tank before adding the Mandarin Goby.

Although the Tangs have Ich they are eating like pigs. I attribute the Ich to a bad error on my part. Accidentally hit the ON button instead of the AUTO button on the APEX for the heater. Tank shot up to 90 from 78 in less than a day's time. (800w heater) I think that stress opened the door for the parasite.
(The shrimp weren't around for this.)

 

[jennm]

Well, if I sold somebody that much stuff at once, and word got out, I'd be flamed to a crisp. (Just sayin'....)

We have an old saying around here:

Nothing good happens fast in an aquarium.

</em>And if the fish have ich, and your inverts are vanishing, something is amiss.

I'm guessing you didn't quarantine anything first either? Most people don't until disaster strikes. I hope your tangs recover.

Jenn

 

[seth the wine guy]

FirstFear;648331 wrote: Hi Seth,
You said that the Tangs have Ick and are being treated. Are they being treated in the display? Many Ick treatments have copper which will wipe your inverts.. You most likely know this but it jumped right out at me as soon as I saw it and wanted to mention it to you.
Good Luck and hope you find the problem..
Scott

When putting this build all together I had everything planned out perfect. Have a QT tank and separate hospital tank. I never anticipated the simple reality that once these Tangs are in the DT they are in "Till death do us part" I would have to pull out 100+lbs of rock and corals to remove them.
By treating them I am soaking their food in Garlic Guard adding Metronidazole. I keep the UV blasting 24/7 which I'm sure is wrecking my pod population. And, I'm trying to introduce possible natural/symbiotic organisms to help. Hence the cleaner wrasse. I've heard it both ways that cleaner wrasse's will eat ich and won't eat ich. I'm trying just in case.
Other than that, I'm just feeding them as much as they possibly want and they are plowing through some food. As long as they're eating like hogs, I'm feeling optimistic.
I'm also waiting to add anymore shrimp until this Ka is back in the norm. Thanks.

 

[jneel722]

Uh oh