Lost Half of Cocktail Shrimp in my Live Rock

[BReefed]

In a 90g tank how paranoid do I need to be? I can't see it from where I'm at, should I be tearing up my aquascape to get at it, or trusting my clean up crew to handle it before it becomes a problem?

Next time I'm not trusting Butterfingers the Anemone to hang on to it unless it is practically placed in its mouth.

 

[tat2z_21]

Wow eating shrimp while working on your tank. That is a first for me. Is the tank still cycling? How old is the tank? If it has cycled and it is mature if you can't it should be ok. Watch your water parameters and look for an ammonia spike.

 

[returnofsid]

How big was this Cocktail Shrimp? A lot of people use a Cocktail Shrimp, to cycle their tanks. Is this what you were doing? If so, let it go, it'll decompose, as the cycle progresses.

If you have a mature, healthy tank, and were feeding the shrimp to something, and it's not a huge shrimp, you'll be just fine, as well. Snails/crabs/bristleworms, etc, will eat it.

 

[fulkerl]

Sounds like he was feeding a anemone and the anemone lost it. How old is the tank? what do you have for a clean up crew?

 

[returnofsid]

LOL Somehow I missed the entire sentence, about Butterfingers.

 

[TJL]

As long as it did not have Cocktail Sauce on it you'll be fine with your clean-up-crew converging on the All you can eat Buffet.

Cheers, Todd

 

[spllbnd2]

Just as TJL (Todd) has mentioned. Don't fret to much and let your clean up crew have a little feast.

I would be a little more concerned over feeding a coctail shrimp to the nem versus a uncooked wild caught shrimp. Next time you go to the supermarket look for the words wild caught and not farm raised. Also try not to feed the nem anything cooked or farm raised. You never know what type of stuff that can be in those things.

Just my 2¢.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[BReefed]

The tank is four years old, but it had a previous owner who let things go pretty bad before I received it. The Anemone's rode in with all of his live rock, and I've got to say I wish there was only one of them around. They both stretch ridiculously far and take up near to a third of the tank.

As far as a cleanup crew goes, he actually only had one hermit, all of his snails (or so he thought) were gone. Turns out that in the few months I've had it, a couple of stomatella's he didn't know he had turned into around 80-90 stomatellas, plus a small army of tiny collonista snails. I don't really have any scavangers however except the one large hermit and pretty big, not reef safe xanthid crab.

The shrimp that went into the tank was an uncooked shrimp LIKE what would be used in shrimp cocktail, I guess I could have said that better! I'm pretty sure it was farm raised however, I didn't know there was a problem with that?

I do have a bit of brown film on the glass today, going to test and water change. I've heard about people using a raw shrimp to start a cycle so I'm hoping that it won't start a new one in my tank.

 

[returnofsid]

It won't start a cycle. The decaying shrimp, used for a cycle, adds the needed amonia, to feed the growing bacterial colony. Once the tank is cycled, and yours being mature, you'll be just fine.

Something to consider, especially since your Anemones stretch out so much, taking up so much room. If you are providing the anemones with adequate lighting, there's absolutely no need to feed them, at all. Might help them not get so large!

 

[BReefed]

Sadly I was hoping it make them shrink inwards a bit if I upped their feeding schedule. I figured they might not have to extend as far if they were eating more.

I do have a brand new 400 w bulb above them, so they should be getting enough light that they don't need to stretch for it.

 

[TJL]

Hey, how is the anemone and tank doing now? Have you been adding livestock or just taking it slow and enjoying our rare sunshine lately?

Todd

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Yeah i wouldn't worry about it, i do worse to my 40 gallon breeder and everything stays 0.

Big snails like turbos dying are bad though they decompose super fast and dissolve into the water so fast. Shrimp on the other hand decompose fairly slow and your clean-up crew should be able to chow it down fairly quick. You'll have bristle worms, amphipods, snails, not to mention that non reef safe crab disposing of it.

I get kinda grossed out when my cleaner shrimp steals shrimp from my eel though. /shudder cannibalism

 

[BReefed]

Hey, how is the anemone and tank doing now? Have you been adding livestock or just taking it slow and enjoying our rare sunshine lately?

Todd

I've got the situation sorted with my chiller now, so I am operating at a consistent 80 degree max right now even on hot days. Might be a bit higher than the absolute ideal, but probably not bad enough to cause problems. I've actually been pretty bad about adding a lot of frags lately, and a couple of the colonies I've had for a while don't look happy about it. I think somethings playing chemical warfare with its neighbors.

Fortunately the shrimp didn't cause any problems, and the anemone got itself down to a slightly more managable size when I installed new Koralias lately. (Which coincided with a couple of older colonies clenching their polyps up, and having stayed that way for a bit.)

 

[BReefed]

Yeah i wouldn't worry about it, i do worse to my 40 gallon breeder and everything stays 0.

Big snails like turbos dying are bad though they decompose super fast and dissolve into the water so fast. Shrimp on the other hand decompose fairly slow and your clean-up crew should be able to chow it down fairly quick. You'll have bristle worms, amphipods, snails, not to mention that non reef safe crab disposing of it.

I get kinda grossed out when my cleaner shrimp steals shrimp from my eel though. /shudder cannibalism

Hahah! Yeah, I've had the same thought when feeding my fire shrimp mysis even though they aren't real shrimp. I guess it isn't really any different from one fish eating another in the wild though .

 

[TJL]

Good to here and 80* is not a bad temperature to hold at all as long as you have good water circulation to keep it oxygenated. Its a fine art in arranging a mix of corals together without upsetting a few of them. I had my system pretty well sorted out for awhile and all the neighboring corals tollerating one another ... then upset the balance by adding a few new ones like a Gonipora and some Acans. Have been battling the affects of aleopathy ever since. I try my best to place chemically superior corals down current from more sensitive ones and until I greatly overstuffed my little 75g it was working very well. Anyhow keep us posted and some pics would be cool too.

Cheers, Todd

 

[BReefed]

I certainly will, I have a tank thread, but I just now figured out how to link it on a signature. I will have to work on that.