Maxima problem.....Copepods??

[schigara]

My Gold Teardrop has been acting strange for the past 3 days. It's not opening as far as usual and as can be seen in the picture below, one bit of mantle is squenched up and in this area there a lot of copepods that kinda look like they are eating it. Will copepods do this?

I had to QT all my fish last week due to ick and without the Mandarin in the tank, the copepods have exploded in size and numbers.

He is firmly attached to the glass and has also been extending his foot and leaning over to the left at about a 45 deg angle occasionally.

Ammonia :0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:<5
Ca:430
dkh:9
Magnesium: 1330
SG: 1.025
Temp:79-80.5

[a4twenty]

first take you mandarin out of QT, he won't survive ( will starve to death ) and he won't get ich due to his slime coat.

can you get a close up of the pods eating his mantle? are you sure they are not a pyramid snail??

what fish and inverts do you have??

how are you maintaining Ca & alk??

what and how are you dosing the tank??

[schigara]

I know the mandarin will not get ich like other fish can but will the ick in the display die off if the mandarin is present? The Mandarin does eat prepared foods in QT. He's unusual. Update: I just read where Melev's Mandarin got ich so he won't be going back into display.

The fish are in a 29g QT at 1.009sg for the past 8 days and consist of 2 GS Clowns, Tomini Tang, Midas Blenny, Diamond Goby, BlackCap Basslet and the Mandarin.

Inverts in display are: about 10 astrea snails, 8 zebra turbos, 2 Emerald Green Crabs.

My camera kinda sucks even in Macro Mode so the pic above was as close as I could get.

I have seen pyramid snails before and these are not. They are definitley copepods. I will gladly put the Mandarin back in the display so long as this won't negate the idea of allowing the display to be fallow for 6 weeks to break the life cycle if the ich.

I dose 25ml per day of Brightwell Aquatics Reef Code A(calcium) and 25ml of Reef Code B(buffer).

I put in the part A in the sump and then wait about 10 minutes and put in the part B. 25ml each. This maintains the calcium at about 430-440 and the dkh at about 9-9.3 The 2 part buffer has mag in it so no dosing needed. Mag stays around 1330-1350.

The PH holds steady at 8.1 all day and night. Refugium is on reverse light cycle.

Originally posted by a4twenty
first take you mandarin out of QT, he won't survive ( will starve to death ) and he won't get ich due to his slime coat.

can you get a close up of the pods eating his mantle? are you sure they are not a pyramid snail??

what fish and inverts do you have??

how are you maintaining Ca & alk??

what and how are you dosing the tank??

[a4twenty]

that all sounds good??

what is that on the right side of the shell?

i don't think the pods are the cause, if you can't get a pic you'll need to get a real close look with the light on and then again a few hours after the lights go out.

[schigara]

The thing on the right side of the shell is a small shell.

[ezcompany]

very difficult to tell what that is, looks like a tiny crab.....my bet with the list you've provided would be the emerald crabs. try removing them and see if your clam does any better. they are definitely not reef safe. it may be that your crab has done damage and the pods are taking advantage of the weakened clam.

[schigara]

I don't think I I have read that the emeralds were not reef safe. I will pull them out.

[mbbuna]

Originally posted by schigara
I don't think I I have read that the emeralds were not reef safe. I will pull them out.

all crabs are opportunistic omnivores( besides filter feeders).

can you turn the clam and get a clear photo of both halves of the shell from straight on showing the whole side of the shell?

[schigara]

I got to thinking about this and since all fish are in QT, display is not being fed and algae has all but vanished, I stayed up late tonight and after all the lights had been off for quite a while I looked in at the clam with a flashlight and saw one of the Emerald crabs straddling and picking at this clams mantle. I pulled the crab and put him in the refugium as well as his accomplice, after I finally found him.

Originally posted by mbbuna
all crabs are opportunistic omnivores( besides filter feeders).

can you turn the clam and get a clear photo of both halves of the shell from straight on showing the whole side of the shell?

[ezcompany]

yup, never trust our 10 legged friends.
the only crabs i trust around my clams are the acropora bandit crabs, and porcelain anemone crabs.

[schigara]

Unfortunately I was too late. This afternoon, the clam was totally non responsive and retracted and shriveled in it's shell.

I just never thought about the inverts losing their food source with the fish in QT. I was still dosing DT's phyto but that did no good for the crabs.

[ezcompany]

i doubt it was the lack of algae that made them switch to your clam.