My emerald lasted 3 days.. what the heck????

[Lemony Lemons]

I bought him from the LFS on Saturday, he passed yesterday - poor guy.

Keeping this as short as possible because I'm typing on my phone - params are great (i know someone's going to say 'we need to see your parameters for a better evaluation blah blah), but I'm in my bed. I test regularly for calc, mag, alk, ph, trites, traites, phosphates, ammonia, they're all on point, 0's where there should be none and my calc and mag are up where they should be too. I use an ATO and my salinity is always at 1.025 buy I check that with a refractometer every day anyway to be sure.

I've got 2 nausillus snails, 2 bumble bee, 1 turbo and 1 hermit. 1 chromis 1 allardi and 1 starry blenny. It's a 30g tank. Skimmer, canister, t5 lighting etc.

Ok, so there is tons of bubble algae - this is why I bought him. I drip acclimated him for about 1.5-2 hours. I introduced him and he went right to eating something that looked like a sponge off my LR. Then he hid. The next day I found him still in the same spot so I attempted to feed him some nori. I've got corals and didn't want him to munch on em. He took the nori and then let it go. I tried handing him a piece of bubble algae, mysis, krill etc. Nothing, no interest at all.

I left him alone and last night came from work and he was half hanging off the underside of my swim thru holding on with 1 claw. I blew him with a power head and he fell off onto the sand (3 inch fall), twitched a little and the snails came out and got him.

The only thing I'm thinking is I don't dose iodine and I read it helps with molting. New emeralds molt in new environments and without iodine the molt may not have been successful?
The other theories I hear are mainly starvation issues but he wasn't taking from me or the tank so I don't know what to do with that theory.

Anyone have any ideas? I'd like to get another one and have it actually live. Thanks!

 

[Zachary.gingell]

If all the parameters are good as you say and assuming there is no copper in the tank since it's a Reef and you didn't dip him with anything just acclimated I don't think molting would be that big of an issue try another emerald it was probably just a fluke I wouldn't read into it too much unless it happens a second time

 

[Lemony Lemons]

Alright, thanks - yeah no dip and I've never used copper. This LFS only had 2, I chose this one because he was green and the other was reddish. I'm going to get another from a different store with more to chose from and get the one that puts up the most fight just to make sure he's extra strong

 

[kpiotrowski]

It may have been your lengthy acclimation. not supposed to drip those.

here is a link, hope it helps. Acclimation

 

[Lemony Lemons]

It may have been your lengthy acclimation. not supposed to drip those.

here is a link, hope it helps. Acclimation

Sorry - Not sure what it is on that link that applies to my situation, maybe you can clarify... I would never put a bag in my tank though - and from what I gathered that site is explaining why you shouldn't bucket your new arrivals, because of the shipping procedures and lowered ph keeping the ammonia levels down that are in the bag etc.

That doesn't apply to me since he was in the bag for maybe 15 mins total.

I always drip acclimate - from my LFS, and would never put someone's bag into my tank just because I don't want that 'bag' junk getting into my system...

Maybe Im missing something here about acclimating crabs? Everything I read before purchasing him says to acclimate 1-2 hours. Slow drip until you replace the water and the ph and salinity matches your tank as to not put them into shock etc.

 

[kpiotrowski]

right, its doesn't apply as much to you since you bought at lfs. but it applies to some degree. just trying to help you figure out all the possiblties. sucks how frequently in this expensive hobby stuff just dies!

 

[*SENSI*]

emeralds, snails, shrimp, i jus drop the bag in acclimate scoop them out with the net an add to tank, ur bound to get a dead one or two, as far as junk on there bag messing ur system up unless they are handling the bags with grease infested hands shouldnt have any problems at all, Unless im the only whacko out there im pretty sure alot of ppl float bags. 1 - 2 hour acc for a crustacean, 15-20 mins tops, but hey its jus my opinion

 

[goathead]

I bought 3 emeralds a several months back and they all died. One by one, they would turn up as snail feed. the deaths were spaced out a week apart (seemed like to the day) from one another until all were gone. No param. issues, as I test regularly and correct things as soon as they come up, along with frequent water changes and dosing. Anyway, my point is this.... I bought a single emerald 3 or 4 months ago, just to see if it was going to happen again and I gotta say, he is the happiest little guy I have ever seen. He is continually making his rounds and unlike the first 3 I got, he doesn't keep to the shadows or darkness and isn't shy at all. My guess is that I got a trio of emeralds that possibly had a rough flight into town, or stayed bagged too long during shipping, or something of that nature. Don't think it was my system at all. Just a thought. It isn't always something that we "do" or "don't do" that leads to fatalities...

 

[Lemony Lemons]

right, its doesn't apply as much to you since you bought at lfs. but it applies to some degree. just trying to help you figure out all the possiblties. sucks how frequently in this expensive hobby stuff just dies!

It's a good thing they're cheap! I'm going to try another one in a week - I'll acclimate him for less time as well. Hopefully the 2nd one survives!

 

[Lemony Lemons]

I bought 3 emeralds a several months back and they all died. One by one, they would turn up as snail feed. the deaths were spaced out a week apart (seemed like to the day) from one another until all were gone. No param. issues, as I test regularly and correct things as soon as they come up, along with frequent water changes and dosing. Anyway, my point is this.... I bought a single emerald 3 or 4 months ago, just to see if it was going to happen again and I gotta say, he is the happiest little guy I have ever seen. He is continually making his rounds and unlike the first 3 I got, he doesn't keep to the shadows or darkness and isn't shy at all. My guess is that I got a trio of emeralds that possibly had a rough flight into town, or stayed bagged too long during shipping, or something of that nature. Don't think it was my system at all. Just a thought. It isn't always something that we "do" or "don't do" that leads to fatalities...

I'm going to try another one. I'll get it from a different store, I found one that has a ton of them and they were all very active. The store I got the first one from only had 2 to chose from. I'm going to get one that puts up a fight and seems more lively as well. Thanks!