Something makes my acans die

Jimbo662 · Mar 19, 2018

I would start by feeding more and leave them where they are. Moving will just cause more stress on them. I had a small colony that shrunk so much you could see the skeleton through the tissue. When I moved them to the new tank they were back to normal within about a month.

Jimbo662 · Mar 19, 2018

I just noticed you didn't mention anything about alk/cal/mag. Do you test for these? I've seen different acans react differently to these...mostly low / high alk.

Leadfooted · Mar 19, 2018

It's not a question to me, its the shrimp and maybe just one of them, been down this road. Get'em out, wait a week then post back in here. Use the 20oz bottle technique and get'em out now.

Kirschy17 · Mar 19, 2018

Sry forgot. Alk is 9-10 mag was at 380 but i started dosing that a bit. Mag is still above 1500. I think the shrimp seem to be the general consensus. Tossing them is not an option tough. Ill watch them and the acan. Worst case is no acans for me:(

Any other coral that is known to be a shrimp target that i should avoid?

Leadfooted · Mar 19, 2018

Kirschy17 said:
Sry forgot. Alk is 9-10 mag was at 380 but i started dosing that a bit. Mag is still above 1500. I think the shrimp seem to be the general consensus. Tossing them is not an option tough. Ill watch them and the acan. Worst case is no acans for me:(

Any other coral that is known to be a shrimp target that i should avoid?

Of course its an option and it might just be one, If you really want peppermints you can toss the ones you have and get a few new ones but you have a bad seed for sure. One of your shrimp takes a liking to coral flesh and secretions they make when distressed. When the acans are all gone it'll move to Zoa's ,Blastos ,torch and so on..... It's not your water and I would highly suggest not going down that road. Peppermints can be a great addition and can take a few attempts to have a nice grouping of non-coral eaters. Best of luck and yes the angel worries me too but you'd see that a little easier. I also had a Foxface go rogue after a year and took a liking to my zoa's He's gone now

Kirschy17 · Mar 19, 2018

Thanks for all your time! I got the shrimp cause i like them. Also there was a tiny bit of aptasia on my liferock. I treated with aptaisia x and chose the peppermints and had not 1 popping up ever since. I had the shrimp and my zoacolony from the beginning. Ill keep watching them.

Atm i spent the same money on the shrimp as on lost coral. Obv i dont wanna lose anymore but for now ill keep observing.

Oldsalt01 · Mar 19, 2018

I had 2 Peppermint's in my 14g for several months to deal with an aptasia outbreak. They cured the problem and were model citizens. Then I added 2 multi head Acans. They next morning I found them happily feeding on the heads of said Acans. I pulled the shrimp but lost the corals anyway. The angel could be the problem but my vote goes to the shrimp. Your tank may be a little young to be stable enough for those corals too.

Leadfooted · Mar 19, 2018

Kirschy17 said:
Thanks for all your time! I got the shrimp cause i like them. Also there was a tiny bit of aptasia on my liferock. I treated with aptaisia x and chose the peppermints and had not 1 popping up ever since. I had the shrimp and my zoacolony from the beginning. Ill keep watching them.

Atm I spent the same money on the shrimp as on lost coral. Obv i dont wanna lose anymore but for now ill keep observing.

Stay away from Blasto's and all micromussa species. Also, consider moving the little guys to the sump. You could move them back and forth if you wanted. (they're easy to catch).

and avoid Lobo corals, apparently very tasty

Oldsalt01 · Mar 19, 2018

P.S. 1500 magnesium is a high level. I'd certainly take that into account also.

Kirschy17 · Mar 19, 2018

Ill see what i can do to keep both parties happy. As far as i can tell the coral has more peace up in the rockwork. Maybe that will do. Thanks guys!

churro · Mar 20, 2018

What are your calcium, alkalinity and magnesium levels?
Also, I have 6 acans. So e have to be put under a shaded rock for a few days and slowly inched out before they even tolerate just being on the sand bed

Kirschy17 · Mar 20, 2018

i posted them somewhere here allready. Cal is a bit on the low side with 370 but i am currently dosing. alk is stable at 9,5 and mag is a bit too high still at 1500.

ill keep the shading in mind. i don't think the light was the problem though since i moved them way up now and they do better. Shrimp free Zone up there.

gh_reefer · Mar 20, 2018

Take all of the peppermint shrimps out of the tank ASAP that was my problem with my acans when I first got them. Peppermintshrimps and acans do not work together they make a huge snack out of acans. To get them out put a jar in the tank with some food at the bottom and the shrimp will go to the food and then just close up the jar so they dont get out then put them in another tank like I did. Worked great. The one that still has some tissue will get better soon as long as there is no bleaching.

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gh_reefer · Mar 20, 2018

But if you want to keep the shrimps feed more. Put a small chunk of shrimp in there every two days and take the old one out if the have not finished it.

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gh_reefer · Mar 20, 2018

Just like here you can see my peppermint shrimp on my scan the first day I got them.

Oldsalt01 · Mar 20, 2018

gh_reefer said:
Just like here you can see my peppermint shrimp on my scan the first day I got them.

Yep. Looks darned familiar. And infuriating.:mad:

Kirschy17 · Mar 20, 2018

Definitely familiar yes. Ill make sure they are well fed from now.

It seems like they lost intrest for now because i moved the acan up on higher rocks. I can see tissue regrowing allready. Sure will take time to fully recover.

Oldsalt01 · Mar 20, 2018

burtbollinger said:
I'd wager a large amount that if you insist on keeping the peppermints, you wont have acans for long...moving the acan is only delaying the inevitable.

+1.

AcanLord.com · Mar 20, 2018

Hello,

sorry to hear you are having difficulty with Acans. My initial thought was the peppermint shrimp. In my experience, Acans are usually pretty hardy, and if you have other corals in the tank that are thriving it's likely that the Acans should be doing well also.

Also, when looking at add peppermint shrimp to your tank, it's important to look for a particular species called "Lysmata wurdemanni". Many peppermint shrimp being sold out there aren't actually peppermint shrimp at all, but look very similar and indeed like eating coral occasionally and I've seen this many times in clients tanks. You might look for a way to catch the peppermint shrimps and see if you get any improvement after a few days my sectioning them off somehow

Furthermore, try taking a look at your Acans at night with a flashlight after the lights have been off for a while. 14 years ago when I started my first tank I had a massive Acan garden with huge colonies. I purchased a few really nice Acans from my LFS and after a few weeks my colonies seemed like they were getting eatin from the outside in and I started losing when one after another. After panicking for weeks I looked at my tank in the middle of the night with a flashlight and I saw thousands of Acan eating spiders chomping at them. Long story short. I got rid of the spiders and managed to salvage some of my colonies which recovered quickly thereafter.

Just a couple thoights. If you still don't have any luck with these ideas, please feel free to each out to us and I will spend some time helping you troubleshoot some things.

Best of luck,

Stephen