Hi thincat - thanks for your message about the heat stressing the aquatic life! Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to you - more has happened since; the aiptasia continues to move, shrinking some of the time and then 'spreading out' to full size but I am not too concerned if he is affected by heat!!! I haven't seen the feather duster now for a few days and am very worried he has died in the tube. How will I know? We are going on holiday in a few weeks and I really want to find out what the cause of these problems is before I go. Also, don't want to leave things decomposing while I go away but equally don't want to remove the feather duster if he is still alive. Sorry, I hope that makes sense!!! One of my turbo snails seems to have shrunk slightly (meaning the foot, not the shell of course!!
) and I saw a sexy shrimp on it. Wasn't sure if he was cleaning the snail or feeding on a dying critter, so I picked up the snail and moved him onto a flat rock. He has stayed there ever since
The snails have slowed down of late, even since before the heatwave, and the hermits also appeared to slow down but they seem ok now. It's just the snails, the feather duster and the odd moving behaviour of my aiptasia that I'm dealing with - why is everything going so wrong? I have done a PWC and cleaned off some algae, I am wondering if it is the heat combined with the stress of moving things around during maintenance which has led to these problems. What should I do now? Any further diagnostics required or should I contact the lfs about my feather duster? Thanks so much and sorry this message is so long. Things have been going so well until now
Maybe these lifeforms were already advanced in years when I got them but I feel that would be too much of a coincidence to be honest. I wish I could tell myself that it is the case but I am worried there is something going on that I have missed, maybe another parameter? Ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all still 0, pH difficult to read but seems to have gone up since the last filter/water change. Not sure why as it is meant to be buffered, but I am having trouble reading the test result so this could be an error on my part. I am thinking of checking the pH at my lfs tbh.