N00b heading for disaster?

ohio Gosie massi ( good morning in Japanese, though the spelling is suspect)

glad everything is OK

Steve

 

Hope you have the patience to read this long post, sorry...
I have a separate post here about the gorilla crab in my tank that some of you have seen. I have been keeping this livestock in small containment cages inside and on the side of the tank with water flowing in the ones hanging on the outside. I read the horror stories about the damage a gorilla crab can do to a tank. Anywho...last night, I came back from getting some shrimp for bait and an air pump for the satellite containers with the herms and snails in them and I removed the light from the tank in order to set up the containers and air pump when I saw the gorilla crab nestled comfortably in a hole right at the top of the suspected rock. I was thinking man this is over before it has begun! I grabbed some plastic tweezers and a net. Of course the lil sob slid down the hole and got away. Now I know where he lives, so I was dead set on getting him out, so I took the advice that I have read in other posts that was successful for other people in removing these pests. I plucked the rock out and put it in a bucket and used a baster to blast fresh water down the hole, this did not work because it would of course drain out of the porous rock. Against my better judgment, I tried vinegar, this did not work. I then filled the bucket with freshwater and waited, again Osama bin gorilla crab,hiding in Tora bora, did not come out. I then heated some water and squirted that down the hole to no avail. I believe I did more damage to the rock than good and the crab is still in there. I rinsed the rock thoroughly in saltwater before returning it to the tank. I set a jar with a piece raw shrimp next to the rock and went to bed.
The goby was looking pretty sad and depressed and every now and then it leans on its side. I was thinking this guy will die soon as many of you described. The clowns are still pretty hardy but stressed as one of em has a couple small white dots on the outer edge (clear part) of its back fin. I fear that it is ICK Hopefully just stress?
I woke up in the morning to see no crab in the jar and the goby completely gone! I look at the top of the containment box and figure he is floating, but no, he is gone and the lid is still intact! I thought he was a fire fish goby...no no, he is a rare type goby, of the Houdini phylum! I looked everywhere… on the floor… in the tank. Now I think the crab had to have eaten him. Even after the barrage that I threw at the crab, trying to get him out of that rock, he had the audacity to go and kill my goby like some special ops bada** in the night, climbing the rock and jumping over to the little box and reaching up through the slots to maul the goby. All I could see was either a small remnant of the goby or a flake of food on the rim of a hole at the bottom of the containment box. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and was thinking of how to tell this story. I walked back in and there the goby was in the tank, he saw me and quickly went back to his hiding spot. The night before when I was looking at em, feeling sorry for em, I was thinking he was sad and stressed because he saw his friend jump out of the tank at the LFS and probably died from the trauma when the fish store guy was trying to get my goby for me. Nope, all along, he was looking back at me, thinking "how the hell do I get outta here?" So with all that, I think the goby has the gonads to live through any cycle that might happen. At least I am confident he will make it…lol My contingent now is to release all the livestock in to the tank as I may be doing more harm than good to the clowns in the little box and to get a long skewer for the crab. One final note, the vinegar causes plants and coralline to glow hot orange under LED

 

Morning Steve,

Not just suspect, down right wrong, lol But who am I to correct you? just some baka gajin (crazy foreigner)

 

nice story Pavelow 360 - these creatures have us well trained

yea I can say it so it sounds right (play golf at a Japanese owned course in China) but I cant write it down

Steve

 

7k? They were like $12-15 a piece

 

Can you try takin that rock with crab out and putting it in one of your isolation containers with the glass and shrimp idea? I posted on your other thread that I finally got uber out by putting rock in QT, It only took one night in the QT because there was nothing else in there to eat the bait piece of shrimp. Glad to hear everything else is goin okay for you!!

 

Crimson Ghost,

Yes this tank is even older as I purchased it used. Yes, I did get the diatoms, followed by a small out break of green hair algae.

I currently plan on adding a sump to add to the amount of water and to replace this filter.

I do not doubt what you are saying about over filtering but can you elaborate some?

Thanks

 

So far, the crab hasn't eaten anything other than possibly two very tiny snails or snail like creatures that must have came with the rock as I haven't seen those in a while. I currently do not have a separate QT that the rock will fit in. I have been just trying the trap in the tank. It could be living on the amphiopods that are pretty plentiful in my tank right now. If he isn't dead in inside the rock, before long, I may try this when I get a QT set up. Actually, come to think of it, I have some saltwater brewing now that I was going to keep the fish in temperarily. I may just try it in there. I am worried that I may have planted the seeds for a mini cycle with the ole vinegar trick I tried on the rock, so I may just leave the rock be for now and just maybe put food at the hole to keep the crab content, so he doesn't go and kill my other livestock. With all that, I am not sure what I will do but I'll keep you posted. Thanks

 

The initial 3 added appear to be astrea snails and the four added with the fish and hermits are Tiger Sand Conch. The clowns appear to be amphiprion ocellaris from what I found on the internet. What are BL and HC?

 

Blue legged Hermit Crabs

Steve