Please help.......

[parik]

I have had the tank for 2-3 months...I let it cycle with live rock and live sand inside the tank....I bought 10 turbo snails first and then 2 sm tank raised clowns.....1 by 1 my snails started dying and then this morning I found a whole in one of my clowns fins.....my clowns were not eating since the begining. This morning I noticed an infestation in my tank. There are white very small tick or ant like creatures everywhere inside the tank... They are eating the snails and my fish alive......


I have already quarentined the clowns....but I don't know how to get rid of the infestation.....Please help........

 

[Guest]

They are eating the snails and my fish alive......

Well I would slow down and see what they are before you jump to this conclusion. You may be seeing amphipods, and copepods which are totally harmless. Also you may have a mantis shrimp which is killing your snails one by one. If you witnessed these things on the fish they may be carnivorous isopodes. Can you get a picture?

 

[lando]

What is your SG? Should be between 1.023 and 1.025. If it is too high the water can actually "burn" your fish and eat away at the scales and skin. When you do water top-offs to replace evaporated water are you using freshwater or saltwater. The salt does not evaporate so you should only be using freshwater for your top-offs. That is one mistake I made early on. Also, please post all of your water parameters. Amonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, SG, ph, temp. Good luck and I hope you get to the bottom of this...Lando

 

[parik]

the SG is between 1.023 and 1.024. There is no Ammonia or any trites. The Nitrate is at 10 so I don't think the water parameters is the issue. To confirm I did take water samples to the LFS and they confirmed that the water parameter is okay.

Also to answer Six-Line...I don't have any mantis shrimp is the tank. All I have is snails and the clowns.....I can't take the picture since the intruders are too small for the camera...All I can tell is that they are tick like in structure and hang around the snails all the time....I have also seen there burrow in the sand.....

 

[lando]

all water parameters look great. the snails could have simply starved. how many snails did you have to start with? Maybe they cleaned up all they could and ran out of food. As for the clown, could be any number of diseases or a parasite.

 

[steve-s]

1 by 1 my snails started dying

How long have you had the snails and how where the snails acclimated?

and then this morning I found a whole in one of my clowns fins

Fin errosion is generally from fish nipping or water quality issues. Even if your numbers came back good, I would still suggest a few water changes to lower any nutrient. It will help the clown heal faster. Considering there are two clowns it is more than possible the second clown caused the damage. How big are they?

.....my clowns were not eating since the begining.

They have not been eating since out of the QT or since day 1? How long have you had them abnd what are you feeding them.

This morning I noticed an infestation in my tank. There are white very small tick or ant like creatures everywhere inside the tank... They are eating the snails and my fish alive.....I have already quarentined the clowns....but I don't know how to get rid of the infestation......

Unless this is a parasite (which will not affect the snails) it is most likely copepods and if so, they are doing their job in cleaning up wastes. If the fish actually show white spots on them, then they could have a parasite. Copepods will not attack fish unless dead, isopods however will. How long where the clowns QT'd for and did they require treatment?

Cheers
Steve