REDICULOUS - Need Advice

[0000]

After cycyling my 36 gallon tank,

I first put a yellow tail damsel, then a few days later an adult clown fish. They did good together.

A week later I put a firefish goby, 2 snails and 2 emerald crabs, and a skunk cleaner shrimp. The damsel chases the firefish once in a while, but the firefish hides in the rocks , so It should be fine hopefully.

A few days later I buy a small mandarin goby, as soon as it goes into the tank, the clownfish, sexually assaults it right away!!! WOW i was pissed I wanted to fry the clownfish. It ripped off some of the mandarin's top fins, I thought it would die, but its still doing fine a few days later.

2 days ago, I turn on my aquarium light, and im just looking at the fish to make sure there doing good. 7 seconds later the emerald crab [mod edit] the cleaner shrimp!!! WOW i was even more pissed. The shrimp went through a tunnel, and the crab cut off its head and began eating it. I videotaped atleast.. But still, the small shrimp was like $35 so not to happy about it getting murdered.

then yesterday I added a yellow angel fish. It is doing fine with all the fish.

main questions - I am planning to buy another cleaner shrimp, Should I remove the emerald crabs??? or did the cleaner shrimp get killed because it was too small.??

help....

[cmor1701d]

STOP! YOU ARE MOVING TOO FAST!

You should be adding 1 fish per MONTH not per week. The biological filter needs time to catch up with the increased bioload each new fish places on it. That means the beneficial bacterai in the tank that break down waste need time to expand the colony to adjust to the increased ammonia being produced.

The mandarin goby does not belone in less than a 75 gallon aqaurium that is at least 8 months old wth 1½ pounds of LR per gallon. That is unless you know for sure that it is eating prepared food.

Crabs are oportunistic feeders. If they can grab something they will kill it and eat it. "this opportunistic feeder may turn to corals, invertebrates, or small fish for a food source. However, when well fed, most Emerald Mithrax Crabs are very tolerant of their tankmates and highly compatible in reef environments"

[0000]

will the emerald crabs eat mysis shrimp? or wat do they eat?

[Rickvn]

0000 ..... did you see what cmor1701d wrote....slow down!!! I think you're going way too fast as well.

[Rickvn]

What are you going to feed the Mandarin? Do you know they are really difficult to feed? Many keepers resort to live food to get them to eat and there is still no gurantee that that will work either. They have one of the highest starvation rates of all readily available display fish.

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

the emerald crab is a scavenger, it will eat anything it can get its claws on pretty much. It is reef safe though. What size is yours? the bigger they get the more aggresive they can get. If you get another shrimp there is no garauntee that the crab will not kill it. If you really want shrimp i'd take back the crab and either get a very small one or just have only shrimp

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

you also should have gotten a smaller clown fish...a couple small paired ones would probably be nice. The clownfish will also get more aggressive as it ages, so an adult one would be more on the aggressive side.

That said i think you should also slow down the fish adding..it could result in an algae outbreak...or worse, the tank could crash :O

[Jimbo7]

I would even go so far as to take a couple back to your LFS, otherwise the next month or so is going to be a huge pain. You will have to be doing a lot more PWC's and constantly checking your levels so the ammonia doesn't spike and kill everything. It takes next to no ammonia to start killing things off.

[Kurt_Nelson]

Agree with what others have said, but answering your original question... good and bad things happen in our tanks. You can't expect to put a bunch of critters that are used to being in wide open spaces in a confined space, and not expect to see a little "nature in action". Things will kill things. I wouldn't expect *every* shrimp to be killed by the crab, but what you described doesn't really surprise me either. I wasn't overly happy when a hermit crab drug itself across my bubble coral and damaged it to the point it was dead within a week - buy hey... that's nature.

[Jimbo7]

Nature has also been known to take hermit crabs out an bat them across the lawn, screaming obscenities. :p

[HN1]

Too many animals, too fast. Please read (and accept) Cmor's advice above. All ignoring advice will get you is frustrated with a lighter wallet. Not to mention all the fish and inverts that will be killed because of YOU not being patient enough even after advised correctly.

[0000]

Originally Posted by kms907

you also should have gotten a smaller clown fish...a couple small paired ones would probably be nice. The clownfish will also get more aggressive as it ages, so an adult one would be more on the aggressive side.

That said i think you should also slow down the fish adding..it could result in an algae outbreak...or worse, the tank could crash :O

I got the clownfish for free it is a male that is 2.5 years old.

[0000]

Originally Posted by Rickvn

What are you going to feed the Mandarin? Do you know they are really difficult to feed? Many keepers resort to live food to get them to eat and there is still no gurantee that that will work either. They have one of the highest starvation rates of all readily available display fish.

Did not know that...... sign... fish looked cool so I bought it, should of researched it first argh......

[Jimbo7]

Originally Posted by 0000

Did not know that...... sign... fish looked cool so I bought it, should of researched it first argh......

I hope you remember this. Everything you do in this hobby should be carefully researched and spread out. If you can, take him back or set up a separate system for him, and start reading the hundreds of articles on how to "train" these fish on to frozen or prepared foods. Know that this will take a huge amount of your time and money, and he still could not do it and die. I tried one in my 2 year established 90 gallon and the poor thing still didn't make it. They are an extremely finicky fish. We have a recent article written on it that you should start with.

[Krypt]

I'd save your breath guys. He has ignored everyone's advice in numerous other threads and clearly will continue to do so as he is completely ignoring cmor's comments about the fish. It's sad really, inevitably the tank will crash and all the poor fish will die.

[Kurt_Nelson]

Originally Posted by Jimbo7

Nature has also been known to take hermit crabs out an bat them across the lawn, screaming obscenities. :p

Yup. You must live by me...

[Jimbo7]

Originally Posted by Kurt_Nelson

Yup. You must live by me...

lol she's a cruel mistress...

[milhous3er]

Originally Posted by Krypt

I'd save your breath guys. He has ignored everyone's advice in numerous other threads and clearly will continue to do so as he is completely ignoring cmor's comments about the fish. It's sad really, inevitably the tank will crash and all the poor fish will die.

+1 to you. Couldn't have said it better and you beat me to it. What else...oh yeah we should have seen this coming. Or I figured this would happen.

Its only a matter of time, probably some young feller that doesn't like taking advice. It all looks pretty now doesn't it, but just wait, it'll be gone here shortly....

[nxb161]

tagging, curious if 0000 will do the right thing

[milhous3er]

I mean I don't want to keep dwelling on this guy, but he keeps asking for advice and low and behold, he goes the other direction. Like I told him in one of his (many) threads, you don't come to a forum, especially one called aquariumadvice.com looking for advice, and don't take it when you get good advice.