R.I.P Rocky

[Rockthis11]

Last night my beloved bimac Rocky died. I was gone the whole day and when i got back (around 10 pm) he hadnt been fed yet. So, i tossed in a hermt crab right in front of him and he didnt eat it. Instead he went to the back of the tank (before he left i noticed that he didnt look good at all). After about 5 min i found him on the back glass near the top of the tank. So, instead, i got a piece of shrimp and offered it to him on his feeding stick. After about a minute he took it reluctantly ( as apposed to playing tug awar with me as he usually did). After he let go and grabbed the shrimp he "floated" to the bottom of the tank where he was just lying on the sand. My mollies and shrimp were picking at him and thats when i knew he was done . However, i think i know what killed him. While he was at the bottom of my tank i did some water tests.
S.G- 1.024
PH- 8.5
Ammonia- 0 mg/l
Nitrite- 0 mg/l
Nitrate- 100 mg/l (yup i think that will do it)

I did a 5 gal. water change every week and i clean my filter every other water change. Maybe they were right about canister filters? i dont know. I think i am just going to opt to put in a sump instead of this filter. Besides this filter change, I have yet to decide where i am going next with my tank.



-live and learn

 

[corw314]

Wow....I am so sorry to hear about Rocky.

Carol

 

[Melissa]

Mike, I'm so sorry. We're all still really impressed with how quickly you learned to maintain your tank. Your presence of mind to check the water parameters after Rocky died attests to this. I look forward to hearing from you when you are ready to try again.

Melissa

 

[Nancy]

Hi Mike,

Sorry to hear about Rocky.
You've come a long way in learning to keep a salt water tank, and I hope you'll build on your experiences in the future.

All the best,
Nancy

 

[Rockthis11]

thanks everyone, i appreciate it.

It sure is a sad day in my house today . But, it was a fun experience keeping such an amazing creature in my room . Keeping a tank has been great for me. It has been time consuming, at times hard, but overall very fun and rewarding. And that is why i think i am going to try new things on this hobby. I have thought about it and have to decided to do some equipment changes and start a reef tank. However, I WILL without a doubt return to feel once again the joy of keeping a cephalopod.



-cephs for life

 

[dbbga]

R.I.P. Jam

Well I had the same thing hapen to Jam I got up at 3am last night to watch him catch fish and he pulled the sponge away fromthe PH to catch a fish and got sucked into the PH I frantically turned everything off and tried to help him but i was to late All his Tenticles were severed and his siphon was pulled away, he died in my hand Im ready to give up, Im so heart broken

 

[Rockthis11]

i feel your pain

 

[corw314]

OMG.... What a horrible experience for you. I've had a few die in my hands and its heartbreaking.

Carol

 

[Nancy]

So sorry for your loss too, Debbie. They're such tiny fragile creatures.

Nancy

 

[Melissa]

Debbie, I'm sorry. Melissa

 

[dbbga]

Thank you,,,,, everyone Think im gonna take a break from octos til i can get my 75gal up to par for SW, then maybe i'll try again :?

 

[Phil]

I'm sorry to hear this too.

Good luck in the future with your pets-to-be. This is only the beginning!

Chin up!

 

[joel_ang]

I'm sorry to hear the sad news RT and Debbie , do not be discouraged by this but try to learn from it, hope that you two will be back to keeping cephs soon

The nitrates could have been caused by the filter, how often do you clean it? How much is 100mg/L in ppm?

 

[Colin]

Hi Mike and Debbie, sorry to hear about your octos.

Mike, it could have been the nitrates but what happens if you lift a rock? Or stir up the gravel? How clean is the tank? Also, what did you use for water changes? RO water? Did you check for copper?

Debbie, accidents do happen… To this day I still don’t know what happened to an O. filosus that I had. My best guess is that it took off an outlet cover and crawled into the cuttle tank and got eaten.

Hope the 2 of you aren’t feeling too bad

Colin

PS the high nitrates mean that the filter was working fine, but it also means that there must have been something feeding the nitrates, EG left over food!

If the nitrates start to get above 50mg/l then water changes are needed!

100mg/l is the same as 100 ppt which is as high as most test kits go… your nitrate could have been 200, 500 1000ppt??????

 

[Rockthis11]

Every once in a while i would swish my hand around in the tank and stir up everything so it wasnt so dirty.

I used RO water every time, but i have never checked for copper. Maybe that was it? Do they sell test kits at LFS.