Bad news...lost my crocea and bird's nest this week

[JAG107]

The clam and bird's nest SPS have been on the decline for the past 2 weeks and finally kicked the bucket this weekend. :death:
What upsets me the most is that all the $$$ invested in all the "Right products" and lighting and water quality sometimes just doesn't reproduce the correct healthy environment for these animals. ARRGH wants to make you give up entirely doesn't it!
On the bright side, my so-called tough to keep species like the copperbanded butterfly, blue ribbon eel and misc. montipora and acropora frags are THRIVING. (eel in a separate 55gal tank)
Thanks for letting me vent :Cheers:

 

[RyanG]

That sucks about the birdsnest and clam. Lets find the root of the problem. Were they in the same area of the tank? What were their tankmates? Any noxious corals that might have poisoned them?
If Im prying too much just ignore the post.

 

[McCrary]

Dude, that sucks. SPS can be finicky and SPS keepers often have colonies die for no reason, just seems to be part of the game. I have lost SPS for no reason, everything else is doing fine, but one colony just seems to throw in the towel.

 

[Piggy]

I know how you feel. It sucks to spend all that money on a coral just to have it die. Sorry about your lost.

 

[yote]

Hate to hear about the loss.
heres a thought about the clam.The copperband may have ate it.
The reason I say that.I watched 3 different copperbands eat 5 different clams at the LFS I help at.Which got me to thinking that I may have falsly accused a brittle and serpent star of eatting my clams.
As for the SPS,like McCrary said,Thats about par for the course.

 

[JAG107]

Hate to hear about the loss.
heres a thought about the clam.The copperband may have ate it.
The reason I say that.I watched 3 different copperbands eat 5 different clams at the LFS I help at.Which got me to thinking that I may have falsly accused a brittle and serpent star of eatting my clams.

I think it may have suffered more nips from the koran angel than the copperband, although I did see the copperband poke at it a few times. I think it died from other causes though, I noticed it's health was slowly fading over the past 10 or so days-- not reacting to shadows, not closing its shell right away, stuff like that. Maybe, at 5 months, my tank's just not mature enough.

 

[Bifferwine]

Angels are notoriously bad around clams. They are usually worse about nipping at clams than at corals. I would say as long as you have the angel, you should write off ever keeping a clam in there. My best guess is that the angel was the culprit.

But, like others have said about SPS just up and dying, so do clams sometimes. I'd had 4 clams in my tank for about a year, thriving, doing fine, and all of a sudden, one decides to croak for no apparent reason. Clams are finicky animals too that seem to die for no good reason every once in a while.

Sorry for your losses. But unfortunately you'll get used to losing corals and inverts, especially... It happens to us all.

 

[McCrary]

Dude, you have a koran angel in with clams? I hope you feed him well because those things belong in the not reef safe category.

 

[Doc]

koran angelfish tend to love to eat clams. I have had mine for about a year and a half. My guess is he nipped it to death. Big angels get a bad rap for being unsafe around corals. I have had lots of success with them in a mixed reef particularly with soft corals (except xenia) and LPS corals that are not "meaty" such as maze moons, brains, and micedium. I currently have my koran and blue angels in my tank with mushrooms, YSP, GSP, leathers, and silver-tipped xenia. Just my :twocents:

-Doc

 

[JAG107]

Thanks for the advice, all. I figured my koran would be OK with the clam b/c of its small size, about 2 inches or so. Will post a pic for ya

 

[JAG107]

Here's the crocea with the koran off to the side (kinda bad shot of it, it's camera-shy).

 

[Bifferwine]

The size of the angel doesn't matter, they like to eat clams, and they will eat clams no matter how big they are. Korans can be kept with most soft corals, but will tend to also eat most LPS and SPS. It will definitely get worse as they get larger and their appetites get larger too, but small ones will eat what they find tasty also.