Help aggressive ?

Chucky · Sep 7, 2022

So I purchased an emerald crab Saturday to help eat up some bubble algea because I read they love it, I also got a few snails and hermits as well. Yesterday when I got home I found my blue damsel and scooter bleeny almost dead and several empty snail shells. Is this crab the culprit? My tank was absolutely fine up until this point ! Biocube 32g with snails, crabs and 3 fish my clown, cardinal and green chromis are fine as of this morning the scooter passed last night

olonmv · Sep 7, 2022

I highly doubt it was the emerald crab. They really don’t bother nobody, maybe coral. At least I’m my experience.

Chucky · Sep 7, 2022

olonmv said:
I highly doubt it was the emerald crab. They really don’t bother nobody, maybe coral. At least I’m my experience.

It’s my only thing I can come up with everyone was perfectly fine up until now and only things I’ve added was the emerald, snails and couple hermits

olonmv · Sep 7, 2022

If you have scavenger snails like nassarius snails or similar, the snails that died could have died while you were asleep and their carcass's got eaten. The fish just might be coincidence. Only aggression mine had was with my dottieback…..but only because he was defending himself from the bully.

olonmv · Sep 7, 2022

Scooters need to constantly eat. Did you have enough pods in your tank? I’m not sure on the blue damsel. Maybe you had a parameter swing?

homer1475 · Sep 7, 2022

Hermits will kill snails for their shells, could explain the snail shells. Fish deaths are probably not related.

FWIW.....
A scooter blenny is pod eater, it may have died from not enough food in a new tank.

ReefGrammie · Sep 7, 2022

I agree with the above. I have had multiple emerald crabs in multiple tanks over the years and have never had a problem with emerald crabs involving fish, snails, or corals. I also agree that there might have been a parameter swing causing the fish losses. I'm sorry about your losses.

Chucky · Sep 7, 2022

ReefGrammie said:
I agree with the above. I have had multiple emerald crabs in multiple tanks over the years and have never had a problem with emerald crabs involving fish, snails, or corals. I also agree that there might have been a parameter swing causing the fish losses. I'm sorry about your losses.

just odd I lost one and possibly losing my blue damsel, however the clown, cardinal and green chromis are acting fine. I did test high for ammonia yesterday and nitrates but I did wc Monday and tested yesterday so may test today to see if I get more accurate numbers

ReefGrammie · Sep 7, 2022

That sounds like a good plan! An ammonia spike could definitely cause the fish losses. I tried a scooter blenny once in my 90, which is a very established tank with plenty of pods. I had the fish for several months, but it ultimately didn't make it. They can be tough to keep.

Smoke-Town · Sep 7, 2022

I'd definitely bet it's something bad in the water... the damsel gives it away. That's a fast tough resilient fish... nothing in that tank is gonna bother him except a chemistry issue. Everything else in the tank is much more sensitive

Chucky · Sep 7, 2022

ReefGrammie said:
That sounds like a good plan! An ammonia spike could definitely cause the fish losses. I tried a scooter blenny once in my 90, which is a very established tank with plenty of pods. I had the fish for several months, but it ultimately didn't make it. They can be tough to keep.

i just don't understand what caused the spike

ReefGrammie · Sep 8, 2022

I'm not a very "technical" person when it comes to tank parameters, but I can tell you a few things. The most obvious causes of swinging tank parameters that come to mind are 1) you have a new tank or 2) you possibly added too many fish too quickly.

I've had several reef tanks since 2008 and I'm pretty sure it took about a year before my first tank was considered established where I wasn't checking parameters as often. Even with my current 90-gallon tank, I only added one fish at a time when I set it up and waited a few weeks before adding another.

I also have a BioCube 16, so I'm familiar with the smaller tanks. I started that tank almost 2 years ago and I'm just now feeling that it's holding its own, as far as water parameters are concerned.

You can also go to "search" in the top right corner and type in keywords like "tank parameters" or "ammonia spike" (or the specific parameter, if you know which one might be causing the problem). I did plenty of searching using keywords when I first found this forum!

Chucky · Sep 8, 2022

ReefGrammie said:
I'm not a very "technical" person when it comes to tank parameters, but I can tell you a few things. The most obvious causes of swinging tank parameters that come to mind are 1) you have a new tank or 2) you possibly added too many fish too quickly.

I've had several reef tanks since 2008 and I'm pretty sure it took about a year before my first tank was considered established where I wasn't checking parameters as often. Even with my current 90-gallon tank, I only added one fish at a time when I set it up and waited a few weeks before adding another.

I also have a BioCube 16, so I'm familiar with the smaller tanks. I started that tank almost 2 years ago and I'm just now feeling that it's holding its own, as far as water parameters are concerned.

You can also go to "search" in the top right corner and type in keywords like "tank parameters" or "ammonia spike" (or the specific parameter, if you know which one might be causing the problem). I did plenty of searching using keywords when I first found this forum!

Thank you for your input and advice