Reef Discussion

[Dean Lovett]

Dear all!

My tank is a 63 L, (17 Gallons)

A few weeks ago i heard a loud ticking noise from my tank - much to my suspicion - a mantis shrimp was to blame. The two inch shrimp was, ahem - disposed of.

But, ticking was still coming from the tank - a much quieter ticking... I had thought that perhaps it might now be a pistol shrimp - I thought, what are the chances that I'd have TWO mantis shrimps...

Anyway, the ticking subsided, until I bought home my CUC (1 turbo, 1 strom, 1 hermit) as well as a toadstool coral.

Here is a timeline:

Saturday morning:
Toady and CUC added, Toady was pouting and wasn't impressed. Few hours later, the toady had decided to open up a little... but no polyps.

Saturday Arvo:
TICKING CAME BACK. I made an executive decision and discarded two pieces of live rock - hopefully removing the source of the ticking.

Saturday night:
Everything going fine. Turbo was.... Turbo-ing, strom sleeping and the hermit doing hermit related stuff.

Sunday morning:
Turbo being the live rock, where i then found some small crab shells... Went to the LFS and got some more live rock to replace what was discarded. The turbo didn't move all day. Strom still going strong.

Sunday night:
TICKING RESUMED. I then removed some live rock and the ticking has now stopped. BUT


To no surprise - the toady is NOT HAPPY. Polyps fully drawn in.


If the ticking resumes should I:
1. set the tank on fire, change my name and leave town?
2. Take the CUC back to the LFS to be held for the weekend while I find the source of the ticking.
3. Take the CUC back to the LFS and go somewhere else for new live rock?


How would the toady be feeling and is there anything i can do to help him out?

I'm finding this incredibly off-puting from the hobby and i DO NOT WANT THAT. So i'd really appreciate some general advice, as well as some prep talking! Just help me out :(

 

[MichelleShocked]

4) change your perspective on mantis shrimp ;) they're awesome pets.
If it's a mantis it won't bother your corals or your fish. It WILL eat your inverts though :-/
I'm not so familiar with pistols but as far as i know, they're more annoying because of the clicking than anything. They can stun fish though but probably won't eat your snails.
If you know the rock it's in, you can flush it with RO water into a bucket - it should come out. Do you have a sump? CuC will be fine in there til you have the rock sorted.

 

[ReeferRob]

Actually certain species of pistol shrimps eat snails exclusively where as mantis are opportunistic and will eat anything they can smash or spear. I remove ANY mantis shrimps I come across and certain species of pistol shrimp as well. The bulls eye pistols are the ones that you don't want in your system, they love escargot. Tiger, Randall's and Citron pistol shrimp are commensal with their respective gobies.

 

[Agent M]

I'm going to repeat back to you the steps you took so that you can see why it was a bad idea:
- Your tank finished cycling.
- You added some coral and clean up crew.
- Then you threw away some of the rock and added new un-cycled rock...don't do that again!

Because you added new live rock, you need to wait to see if the new rock causes the tank to cycle again. Keep testing your water daily and do a water change as needed because if the new rock causes any ammonia or nitrite it could kill your new snails and corals.

Don't be in a hurry to kill stuff that you find living on the live rock, that was an over reaction. I know they are strange but mantis are intelligent creatures and they make great pets. Most of us don't want them in our tanks because its means we can't keep other things but all you have to do is take the mantis back to the LFS to be put back in the live rock bin or put it in the classifieds to see if anyone wants to give it a home.

The toadstool is very new and just needs to be left alone now. It will close when the lights turn off, if something touches it, if its been moved around, or if its shedding its skin - all normal.

 

[Dean Lovett]

I'm going to repeat back to you the steps you took so that you can see why it was a bad idea:
- Your tank finished cycling.
- You added some coral and clean up crew.
- Then you threw away some of the rock and added new un-cycled rock...don't do that again!

Because you added new live rock, you need to wait to see if the new rock causes the tank to cycle again. Keep testing your water daily and do a water change as needed because if the new rock causes any ammonia or nitrite it could kill your new snails and corals.

Don't be in a hurry to kill stuff that you find living on the live rock, that was an over reaction. I know they are strange but mantis are intelligent creatures and they make great pets. Most of us don't want them in our tanks because its means we can't keep other things but all you have to do is take the mantis back to the LFS to be put back in the live rock bin or put it in the classifieds to see if anyone wants to give it a home.

The toadstool is very new and just needs to be left alone now. It will close when the lights turn off, if something touches it, if its been moved around, or if its shedding its skin - all normal.

Dear agent M, thanks for a thorough reply!

I was concerned about new live rock, but it was from the same batch of live rock that has been cycling/curing in tank at the LFS. So the biochemist in me decided that there shouldn't be significant die-off...

To be honest, the first mantis, I was so scared, I didn't know what to do! Haha.

Thanks for the advice regarding the toadstool! Looking forward to its polyps coming out, I woke up this morning and had a quick look and it looked like it was warming up to the water, few polyp arms stretched out!

 

[MichelleShocked]

To clarify: the mantis you'll find in your LR will be a "smasher" species of Mantis, with bulbous "hammers" for punching out a home in the rock, smashing up shelled prey and letting you know not to fuck with them ;) The clicking they make is them either bashing out a home or having dinner. They usually won't bother fish because they can't catch them. I kept mine with some local rockpool gobies and it didn't bother them though the gobies appeared to realize he was a predator and were wary around him.
The mantis that WILL eat fish are "spearers" and they have wicked claws - prawn fishermen know them well and are very very careful with them - they can tear your fingers to shreds. They don't click because they build tunnels in sand and as such, you're very unlikely to find them in your LR. Both species are opportunistic but if you keep them well fed (i fed mine a cherry shrimp each day) they'll mostly leave their tank mates alone. That's not to say you can or should keep them in a community tank - just that they're not quite as bad as people think, if you take a few measures. There's a video on YouTube of a beautiful Peacock mantis living in a reef tank. The tank and sump are just stunning.

 

[MagicJ]

You need to remember that live rock contains ... live .... things - that is why it is called what it is ;)

There are advantages and disadvantages to using live rock - finding pistol/mantis shrimps is one of the (to some people) potential disadvantages.

Getting live rock from another source is unlikely to solve your problem.

As for the corals, they just need some time to get used to the conditions you are providing. Out on the reef, everything is very consistent - the water conditions don't change significantly; the sun comes up in the morning and goes down in the evening. Your corals have been plucked from their environment and transported to a wholesaler with different water/light conditions; they have then been air freighted to the retailer with different water/light conditions; they have then been transported to your tank with different water/light conditions.