# My first minor disaster



## amps (Feb 24, 2015)

Sorry but I just had to vent a little.

My wife and I set up our very first reef tank in January (10g Marineland Half-Moon) and have slowly been adding small frags and bits of coral over the past few weeks. When the cycle first finished 3 weeks ago, we picked up a few snails and a peppermint shrimp to eat up out algae and a tiny bit of aiptasia that came in with our LR.

Fast forward to today when we finally found a nice little hammer coral from Advanced Aquatics in Milton. The poor thing was in the tank for maybe 30secs when the shrimp decided that it just couldn't abide it's presence and went Karate Kid on the poor coral. The shrimp was tearing at the edges, throwing polyps left right and center and eating up all the delicious white goo inside.

It took me 20 darned minutes to catch the little bugger using a small net and some mysis shrimp but I finally got him. Now he floating in a bag awaiting whatever fate is coming to him. Hopefully the LFS we got him from will be happy to re-home him. It's really too bad because we loved watching the shrimp move around the tank and popping out of his hidey holes whenever we fed our clowns 

My poor chewed up hammer, about half of each head got eaten/tossed in the air like wasted cotton candy:


----------



## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*damn shrimp*

Welcome to the forum.... sucks to enter that way but it happens and makes us stronger 
Get the rice going sushi my friend ...lol


----------



## joel.c (Sep 11, 2012)

What a disaster!

I've learned the hard way, claws and corals don't mix. Same way, thought a crab would leave an anemone alone, nope... I was wrong.

Looks like there's still a good amount of the coral left. It may pull through. Make sure you keep everything stable and hope for the best.

Good Luck,
Joel


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

Shrimp have no reason to pick at a coral UNLESS the flesh is already dying, and smells tasty.

There is a chance he was doing you a favor. Like maggots on an infected wound, or leaches to drain blood from a wounded area...

IMO, that coral probably already had issues.


----------



## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

What J_T said...

If this is the worst thing that happens to you then you're doing alright!

Now just imagine how I felt putting in a $600 frag into my tank with 6 shrimp


----------



## NovaRaven (Aug 23, 2013)

J_T said:


> Shrimp have no reason to pick at a coral UNLESS the flesh is already dying, and smells tasty.
> 
> There is a chance he was doing you a favor. Like maggots on an infected wound, or leaches to drain blood from a wounded area...
> 
> IMO, that coral probably already had issues.


Amen to this quote. The shrimp went into "janitor" mode and decided to clean up after that coral. I hope the rest of that coral makes it!


----------



## amps (Feb 24, 2015)

I guess that's possible. The coral looked healthy as heck though and was doing fine before the rampage began. The little guy completely ignored the rest of the tissue and went straight for the sweet, gooey green bits.

Checked on the hammer this morning and it seems to be doing ok. The damage isn't quite as extensive as I thought but it's certainly looking a bit bare, maybe 1/4-1/3 of the polys are missing now.


----------



## CamH (Jan 5, 2014)

altcharacter said:


> Now just imagine how I felt putting in a $600 frag into my tank with 6 shrimp


What kind of frag costs $600??? Did it make it? You can't leave us hanging like that! Lol


----------



## y4zhuang (Oct 2, 2013)

Yah... shrimps don't normally tear into corals unless there is dead tissue lol. I think alt meant if shrimp eats corals, how he'd feel when he put a 600$ coral in his tank. i'm sure the shrimp left the coral alone lol 

head held high. It should recover


----------



## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

CamH said:


> altcharacter said:
> 
> 
> > Now just imagine how I felt putting in a $600 frag into my tank with 6 shrimp
> ...


This isn't my thread so I won't hijack but its doing good.

Keep us posted on the piece. I'm sure the shrimp was just cleaning the piece


----------



## amps (Feb 24, 2015)

Well the hammer is looking ok, just a little threadbare. It's definetely healthy though and has no signs of parasites or critters, I think the shrimp just had a fit of jealousy.

The guys at Coral Reef Shop in Burlington were happy to take back the shrimp today and give me credit towards a really nice, little encrusting montipora frag. Really great service there if there was any doubt at all.


----------



## silent1mezzo (Jun 24, 2014)

Do you have a full shot of the tank? Would love to see it.


----------



## amps (Feb 24, 2015)

The glass is filthy (planning on cleaning it tomorrow) but here she is. Just picked up a nice green/purple frogspawn from Canada Corals today.


----------



## joel.c (Sep 11, 2012)

Looks really nice, great job


----------



## silent1mezzo (Jun 24, 2014)

Looks way better than mine! Love the hardscape.


----------



## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

looking good, nice tank. I adore trumpet corals.


----------

