found mangled

[vsnsofadrgn]

so i found my 6 line wrasse mangled on sat and now i am missing a shrimp. i also had a clown disappear a while back. i know i have a hitchhiker crab in there and thought maybe it was him. i put a glass with a peice of food in the tank last night to see if i could catch him, but all i got was a hermit, lol. the decay caused my nitrites to be at .25 ( nitrate 40, ammonia 0, saltinity 1.25). its a 55 gal and i changed 20 gallons yesterday. the crab is the only thing i can think of, since all that is in there is (was) 2 pepermint shrimps, 3 hermits, and 1 snail. any ideas on what else might be causing this??????

 

[Hara]

I would think a crab would do more than mangle, it would eat it.

 

[vsnsofadrgn]

well, there was no "meat". it was just some goo (looked blue like his scales) and a skeloton and the shrimp was dining on that. i think the crab got him at night (only see him at night), and the shrimp was finishing it off during the day. i dont know what else it could be......

 

[melosu58]

Continue with PWC and maybe keep up with the trap. You might get lucky.

 

[seaham358]

It took me a week of trapping with the glass to catch a crab in my tank. My hermits and snails got the food most nights... but it did pay off..

 

[vsnsofadrgn]

well there was no food in there last night and no critter either. im goin to keep trying, if im right that little bugger got 2 fish and a shrimp and i dont appreciate it. is the leaving the food in there over night goin to hurt my water perameters even though it does get eaten?

 

[melosu58]

Just keep check with your test kits and some PWC would be good.

 

[vsnsofadrgn]

i just did a water test and now the nitrites are at .50..... i just did a 20 gal water change the day before yesterday.........

edit: i just checked my ro/di water and its the culprit....reading .50, guess its time to change the filters........

ok, so changed the filters and everything is testing normal again (no3 and no2 are 0 in ro/di), im glad i caught it... now i just have to do some water changes. i still think the crab killed my fish and shrimp, since water was tested while doing upgrade to the 55.... making "water" as i type to do a 50% water change......... and im goin crabbin agian tonight, lol.