Emergency - mantis shrimp in ammonia shock

[jjmin]

Hello,

I had a disaster these couple of days with my peacock mantis + coral tank with a few corals suddenly dying in my tank which ive had for about 5 months. I got some fantastic advice from another thread (likely low nutrients), however I think I have done something wrong as my ammonia level shot up. The fish & coral are fine, however 3 of 4 of my cleaner shrimp have died, the 4th is laying on its side, and my beautiful peacock mantis is not good.

This happened about 24 hours ago. She was curled up twitching and barely moving. I managed to get the ammonia down with a wate change, & some additives all and parameters are normal. It's the next morning and she is moving a lot more but seems stuck on her back and a few of her front legs are curled really stiff outwards, 1 even looks broken and although the can move the others, these seem unable to move.

Last night I heard her punching the back of the tank (evidence in photo attached) which I thought meant she is getting her strength back. But she can't seem to move those front legs, they are fully curled out.

I've turned down the lights a bit & put a towel over half the tank to try give her some dark space. Is it a lost cause? Any suggestions or similar experience? I would be heartbroken to lose her, especially from my careless mistake!

Thank you so much for any help.

 

[Elira_6301]

I would put her in quarantine with oxygen ASAP. Monitor and pray she recovers. If she received any types of burns, you can treat that in the quarantine tank. But first get her in a qt tank with plenty of oxygen.

 

[jjmin]

I would put her in quarantine with oxygen ASAP. Monitor and pray she recovers. If she received any types of burns, you can treat that in the quarantine tank. But first get her in a qt tank with plenty of oxygen.

I've added more air bubblers to the tank and covered it over. I can't see any visible burns. Unfortunately, her movement has really slowed down a lot in the past couple of hours, and she has been on her back for a while, so it is not looking good. Thank you for the advice, I will pray!

 

[Stomatopods17]

Sounds like something else crashed the tank, the ammonia spike is a byproduct of other life dying simultaneously, it doesn't just 'happen out of no where' without some kind of massive die-off or physically stirring something up/adding a heavy load of it directly to the tank.

Aggressively water change, change carbon, check for anything rusting or potentially contaminating the tank. Think of anything new added in.

Especially consider any corals or poisonous fish in the tank, if you recently had a colony of palythoa or leather that was first to go, they're taking the rest of the stock with them without the sufficient carbon or skimming to trap the toxins.