VA_Reefer

I'm seeing a few articles around the net indicating that leather corals are toxic to SPS. Can anyone confirm this with experience? I recently added a Devils Hand and want to make sure I'm not poisoning my few SPS pieces. Thanks, greg

Jan - thanks for the great info. I'll keep an eye out for those. The shell was indeed intact. I still have it. I understand the smaller clams are more difficult to maintain due to the fact they are not big enough to be fully photosynthetic. greg

Thanks for the response Jan. The clam didn't exhibit any of the signs of distress you describe. It was extended, colorful and exhibited no signs of gaping. I did examine the byssal gland prior to purchase and didn't see any obvious signs of abuse, but of course recognize I could be wrong. I purchased the clam from Marine Scene and felt it was in good health when I got it. I didn't notice any decline after acclimation. It had been in my tank about a week. I'm really suspicious of a predator. I have noticed a few dead snails on occasion recently which is perhaps why I'm a little more suspicious. Thanks for all the great advice everyone. greg

Well, I'm no expert but the clam looked to be in excellent health the day before it was eaten. It was a small clam, maybe two inches, but for the most part the mantle was full, extended and very colorful almost always. I could be wrong but I really doubt the clam just died and got eaten as part of normal clean up crew. As for other livestock, we have the 2 clowns, mystery wrasse, and a couple of small gobies. Also a cleaner shrimp, a couple of mithrax crabs, pom-pom crab and your standard assortment of hermits and snails. The thing that concerns me about the bristle worm is that I have the suspicion that it's quite large. I think it's been in the tank for 1.5-2 years. At minimum it's about 8 inches long and I suspect it may actually be over 12 inches long, which is quite large for this size tank. I say maybe because I've never seen the full thing. Just seen it extended out of the rocks, and I have seen it extended 6-8 inches out of the rocks across the sandbed. I wonder if it's possible I've picked up some kind of pest crab? As for the anemone - it's fine - maybe the clowns irritated it. It's relocated to the other side of the tank. Thanks for all the quick replies. greg

So just last night I was remarking to my son how great everything in our tank was looking. We have a 34g Red Sea Max that we have heavily modded to include MH and actinic lighting. After a 6 week break-in period with the new lights everything has really perked up and is doing great. Corals growing and really coloring up. I had added a purple tipped anemone a few weeks ago and just last week added a small maxima clam. Both looked great yesterday. The nem was very colorful and had expanded to become very large. In fact, I was starting to worry that maybe it was too large. The clam was well situated and very happy. Last night I noticed that our clowns had finally taken to the anemone and one was hosting it after the lights went out. This morning I came down and immediately noticed the anemone was gone. It was 6-8 inches in diameter when open so it was obvious that it was missing. As I started looking around I saw that the clam had been completely eaten. Nothing left but empty shell. I finally found the anemone on the backside of the rocks that it had been attached to. It's in a bad spot that's difficult to get to. At least it wasn't dead. I'm wondering two things. What in the heck is in my tank that would have eaten that clam? And could that have caused the anemone to move? The nem and clam weren't side by side, but probably 8 inches apart. I do suspect that I have a large bristle worm. Could that have killed the clam? Thanks, greg

Mandarin didn't make it. Bummer. I knew there were some challenges keeping this fish but I sure didn't think it would be the other fish in the tank. Other fish, including a mystery wrasse and skunk cleaner spend a lot of time in the clowns "area" and they don't attack them at all. Weird. greg

I purchased a Mandarin on Friday. This morning I noticed his fins were ragged and his breathing was labored. After a couple of minutes he swam out into the open and my pair of black Oscilleris clowns attacked him viciously. Given the look of his fins, I assume they must have been battering him on and off for the past 24 hours or so. He looked fine yesterday morning. We have a few other fish and I've never seen the clowns act that way towards anything we've ever introduced to the tank. I moved the Mandarin temporarily to a small Biocube until I can figure out what to do. I thought clowns and Mandarins were pretty easily compatible. Any ideas? greg

If he's a smasher you'll hear him busting shells. It's a loud clicking sound. We have one that is about 2.5 inches long. We suspect he took out about a dozen hermits, 2 mithrax and possibly a cleaner shrimp before we were able to get him out of the tank. The tank is near my home office and I would often hear the loud clicking. It was loud enough that it was annoying at times. We have a pistol shrimp and I always thought it was the pistol making the clicking noise, until one day I happened to see the mantis moving in a hole while examining the tank with a flashlight at night. Apparently he came as a hitchhiker on our LR and lived in our tank for a year before we found him. We tried trapping him but never worked. Found him in an easily removable top rock one day so we took the rock out and poured club soda into the hole. He came scampering out pretty quickly. He now lives in an 8 gallon bio-cube all by his lonesome. We put in a couple of large snails that he doesn't seem to bother. When I make a trip to the LFS I pick up a few cheap hermits and drop them in. He makes pretty short work of them. greg

A 360 to go with the 450??? Wow! Very cool!