Something makes my acans die

[AcanLord.com]

Hello,

sorry to hear you are having difficulty with Acans. My initial thought was the peppermint shrimp. In my experience, Acans are usually pretty hardy, and if you have other corals in the tank that are thriving it's likely that the Acans should be doing well also.

Also, when looking at add peppermint shrimp to your tank, it's important to look for a particular species called "Lysmata wurdemanni". Many peppermint shrimp being sold out there aren't actually peppermint shrimp at all, but look very similar and indeed like eating coral occasionally and I've seen this many times in clients tanks. You might look for a way to catch the peppermint shrimps and see if you get any improvement after a few days my sectioning them off somehow

Furthermore, try taking a look at your Acans at night with a flashlight after the lights have been off for a while. 14 years ago when I started my first tank I had a massive Acan garden with huge colonies. I purchased a few really nice Acans from my LFS and after a few weeks my colonies seemed like they were getting eatin from the outside in and I started losing when one after another. After panicking for weeks I looked at my tank in the middle of the night with a flashlight and I saw thousands of Acan eating spiders chomping at them. Long story short. I got rid of the spiders and managed to salvage some of my colonies which recovered quickly thereafter.

Just a couple thoights. If you still don't have any luck with these ideas, please feel free to each out to us and I will spend some time helping you troubleshoot some things.

Best of luck,

Stephen

 

[cwphilli]

Blood shrimp are fine.
Peppermint shrimp are 100% the issue - caught mine in the act, catching him was a PITA but no issues since!

 

[Dburr1014]

Your tank is 3 months old? Maybe you can let it mature some before you dive in to harder corals. Give you a chance to learn how alk/cal/ph/and mag all work together.
Reef2reef is a great resource to learn.

 

[carbene]

are using the peppermint shrimps for aptasia or something? imo, no shrimps are worth acans. i find acans one of the most easiest coral to keep. i keep all of mine on sandbed

 

[Mushroomhead]

Hello,

sorry to hear you are having difficulty with Acans. My initial thought was the peppermint shrimp. In my experience, Acans are usually pretty hardy, and if you have other corals in the tank that are thriving it's likely that the Acans should be doing well also.

Also, when looking at add peppermint shrimp to your tank, it's important to look for a particular species called "Lysmata wurdemanni". Many peppermint shrimp being sold out there aren't actually peppermint shrimp at all, but look very similar and indeed like eating coral occasionally and I've seen this many times in clients tanks. You might look for a way to catch the peppermint shrimps and see if you get any improvement after a few days my sectioning them off somehow

Furthermore, try taking a look at your Acans at night with a flashlight after the lights have been off for a while. 14 years ago when I started my first tank I had a massive Acan garden with huge colonies. I purchased a few really nice Acans from my LFS and after a few weeks my colonies seemed like they were getting eatin from the outside in and I started losing when one after another. After panicking for weeks I looked at my tank in the middle of the night with a flashlight and I saw thousands of Acan eating spiders chomping at them. Long story short. I got rid of the spiders and managed to salvage some of my colonies which recovered quickly thereafter.

Just a couple thoights. If you still don't have any luck with these ideas, please feel free to each out to us and I will spend some time helping you troubleshoot some things.

Best of luck,

Stephen

How did you get rid of the spiders? I had 3 different Acans for 6 months that were growing new heads and suddenly they all lost their flesh in less than 2 weeks.

 

[Kirschy17]

Hello,

sorry to hear you are having difficulty with Acans. My initial thought was the peppermint shrimp. In my experience, Acans are usually pretty hardy, and if you have other corals in the tank that are thriving it's likely that the Acans should be doing well also.

Also, when looking at add peppermint shrimp to your tank, it's important to look for a particular species called "Lysmata wurdemanni". Many peppermint shrimp being sold out there aren't actually peppermint shrimp at all, but look very similar and indeed like eating coral occasionally and I've seen this many times in clients tanks. You might look for a way to catch the peppermint shrimps and see if you get any improvement after a few days my sectioning them off somehow

Furthermore, try taking a look at your Acans at night with a flashlight after the lights have been off for a while. 14 years ago when I started my first tank I had a massive Acan garden with huge colonies. I purchased a few really nice Acans from my LFS and after a few weeks my colonies seemed like they were getting eatin from the outside in and I started losing when one after another. After panicking for weeks I looked at my tank in the middle of the night with a flashlight and I saw thousands of Acan eating spiders chomping at them. Long story short. I got rid of the spiders and managed to salvage some of my colonies which recovered quickly thereafter.

Just a couple thoights. If you still don't have any luck with these ideas, please feel free to each out to us and I will spend some time helping you troubleshoot some things.

Best of luck,

Stephen

Thanks for the great reply!

My shrimp are indeed lysmata wurdemannis. Theres a positive to being from europe where peppermint shrimp is not a common term. We use mostly latin terms so im certain to have the right ones. Ill keep an eye on possible spiders but since i posted first im pretty certain the acan is getting better. It mustve been the coral in the sandbed that made the shrimp super curious. Up in the rocks they dont seem to touch the coral. Many here dont seem to get that i keep my shrimp cause i like them. I chose peppermints because i had some aptasia popping up when i added my lr. But i didnt buy them to solve that but rather did the aptaisia help me dicide on a species. I rly like adding animals that fulfill a role in a reef aswell as being a cool pet.

Since you are a pro at keeping acans is there any advice you would give a rookie reefer? Theres so much i know about this hobby imand still so much i dont. Allways love to hear from advanced reefers.

 

[Kirschy17]

are using the peppermint shrimps for aptasia or something? imo, no shrimps are worth acans. i find acans one of the most easiest coral to keep. i keep all of mine on sandbed

I understand if people dont understand my point of view there but ill try explaining anyways.

Im a fairly new reefer who enjoys not only coral or fish but the whole idea of having a slice of the ocean for myself. Thats why i keep a mixed reef instead of a predetor tank(even tough id love to have a moray eel someday) i keep shrimp cause i find them amazing creatures that help keeping your tank clean. When picking which kind of shrimp i did indeed have a tiny aptasia issue. Thats why i chose peppermints over say fire or cleaners.

Last bit not least i overpayed those shrimp quite a bit. Im from Austria, central europe and i dindt have much of a choice, i payed 20€ each for 3 shrimp.

The 2 acans cost me 30€ each so i just dont toss one of them to keep the other.

 

[BryanD]

Tank only up 3 months. There is your problem. I know there are plenty of stories of instant success, and I know shows like TANKED have really influenced people, just kills me when they set up a tank then throw 20 fish in the same afternoon. I wanna see that tank in a month! But I wouldn't add an acans to a tank less than 1 year old. Let it settle and all the problems be worked out before putting sensitive livestock in it.

 

[RudyB]

hey guys,

My reefs been up for about 3 months now.
Even tough im still fairly new to reefkeeping i have had plenty of moments allready feeling succesfull at it.

I have only softies and lps atm but plan on having a full mixed reef.

For species theres a zoa colony, a little leather, a gsp, a tiny mushroom and for lps theres a frogspawn, a alvopora and my acans.

So to the acans. The one i currently hve are allready the 2nd ones, my first died pretty quickly. The ones i currentlt have lost about half their tissue in the first 12 hours of being in my tank. After 3-4 days only 25% of the corals tissue is left.

Parameters are

Nitrite/nitrate/ammonia
0/0/0 (i know low nitrates might be problematic but my other corals are thriving)

Also very low phosphate

Temp is 78, sal at 1.025, ph is 8.1,

I dripacclimated for about an hour each time, i put the coral upside down in the tank. Placed them low on the substrate to avoid a burn from lighting.

I feed them regularly( which wouldnt even matter since the coral mostly died before possibly needing food.)

Another thing i checked is i the store used led lighting, so do i.

One thing that struck my mind is that my peppermint shrim seemed to be really curious about the coral. I read they can get nasty when picking food off corals or even taking it out of their mouths.

Might this be the reason for their quick dieoff? With that in mind i placed my lone surviving head higher in my tank where the shrimp dont get that often.

After all ive read with my other corals doing really great i have no clue what kills off my acans that quickly.

For stocking in the tank:

2 percula clowns+rbta

1 yellowtail pygmy angel

1 starry blenny

3 peppermint shrimp

2 emerald crabs

1 pistol shrimp

Snails(cerith,turbo,conch,nassarius,trochus)

1 tuxedo urchin


Tl;dr

Acans die off while rest of the tank is thriving. No obvious killer besides peppermint shrimp maybe???

Help please!

By any chance do you use Bio pellets. I found a while ago that if you have too much it will kill off the Acans. That is what happened to me and I lost them all within a week. No other corals where effected. By the way all water test where fine and wihtin perfect perameters. Good Luck.

 

[wmwesty]

hey guys,

My reefs been up for about 3 months now.
Even tough im still fairly new to reefkeeping i have had plenty of moments allready feeling succesfull at it.

I have only softies and lps atm but plan on having a full mixed reef.

For species theres a zoa colony, a little leather, a gsp, a tiny mushroom and for lps theres a frogspawn, a alvopora and my acans.

So to the acans. The one i currently hve are allready the 2nd ones, my first died pretty quickly. The ones i currentlt have lost about half their tissue in the first 12 hours of being in my tank. After 3-4 days only 25% of the corals tissue is left.

Parameters are

Nitrite/nitrate/ammonia
0/0/0 (i know low nitrates might be problematic but my other corals are thriving)

Also very low phosphate

Temp is 78, sal at 1.025, ph is 8.1,

I dripacclimated for about an hour each time, i put the coral upside down in the tank. Placed them low on the substrate to avoid a burn from lighting.

I feed them regularly( which wouldnt even matter since the coral mostly died before possibly needing food.)

Another thing i checked is i the store used led lighting, so do i.

One thing that struck my mind is that my peppermint shrim seemed to be really curious about the coral. I read they can get nasty when picking food off corals or even taking it out of their mouths.

Might this be the reason for their quick dieoff? With that in mind i placed my lone surviving head higher in my tank where the shrimp dont get that often.

After all ive read with my other corals doing really great i have no clue what kills off my acans that quickly.

For stocking in the tank:

2 percula clowns+rbta

1 yellowtail pygmy angel

1 starry blenny

3 peppermint shrimp

2 emerald crabs

1 pistol shrimp

Snails(cerith,turbo,conch,nassarius,trochus)

1 tuxedo urchin


Tl;dr

Acans die off while rest of the tank is thriving. No obvious killer besides peppermint shrimp maybe???

Help please!

I’m not surprised if all you’re readings are zero there’s no food for them, also I feed mine 3 times a week with mystis shrimp

 

[DSC reef]

I'm leaning towards something snacking on your acans. 3 months is plenty of time IMO to add acans if you've kept the parameters stable. I run biopellets (carbon dosing) and I've never had trouble keeping acans. Like other forms of carbon dosing, to little nutrients can be detrimental to LPS. I feed heavy so carbon dosing helps. Just because you don't see something nipping your acans doesn't mean it isn't happening. I'd also try feeding a bit more but go slow. Look into reef nutrition foods like mysis feast and roe.

 

[7hogwarts]

My .02 cents. Live stock is too much too soon. The pic you show has the Acan really close to the Euphyllia. Their sweepers can cause lots of damage in short order. The peppermint shrimp are a possibility, although in my mixed reef I have never had a problem with peppermint shrimp. My acans and other corals grow just fine.
I am also curious as how you are certain the LFS store didn't have the Peppermint shrimp misidentified as well.

 

[Kirschy17]

My .02 cents. Live stock is too much too soon. The pic you show has the Acan really close to the Euphyllia. Their sweepers can cause lots of damage in short order. The peppermint shrimp are a possibility, although in my mixed reef I have never had a problem with peppermint shrimp. My acans and other corals grow just fine.
I am also curious as how you are certain the LFS store didn't have the Peppermint shrimp misidentified as well.

They had camel shrimp, and kükendahli peppermints as well. As i said in europe theres no such term as peppermint shrimp. We buy by species. So does the store. What they got was a load of lysmata wurdemanni and thats what i bought. Id also say i have enough knowledge about those 4 species to tell the difference. I dont know of any other species that looks similar.

 

[rosshamsandwich]

Acans do like the water a little dirtier. My last test was phos - .14 and nitrate - .05-.10

wghat the hell are you talking about...there's nothing dirty about your water....

 

[Kirschy17]

For everyone thats interested, i have a healthy acan coral in my tank with my peppermints for over 3 weeks now. I went through some troubles and ended up switching it between “open water” and putting it in a fry net. That way it could get healthy untill i could leave it in the open. Im pretty certain that way it could acclimate to my aquarium conditions so it can withstand the shrimp.

 

[Oldsalt01]

I'd suspect the Peppermint's. Mine TORE UP four new Acans to the point they never recovered. Bannished from my system FOREVER!

 

[Oldsalt01]

Looking at your pic I can see the mouths of the corals are gone. Exactly what happened to mine when the peppermint's attacked. They start at the center and work their way out if left unchecked. I'm not sure there's anything you can do to help the corals "withstand" a shrimp attack. Once they get a taste for coral, they'll keep coming back for more. Easy pickin's.