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 State
of the Tank 12/03
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underhangs and tucked into the rockwork, I probably had a couple hundred that I could not reach. They were mixed in with some zoanthid colonies and between the branches of my Blastomussa. Several months ago, they actually killed my Pocillapora by doing this. Now, literally overnight, I'd say nearly 80% of them were gone... By Monday, that number increased to 90%. And the ones that remained looked pretty bad... ragged and starving. Every once in awhile, I'd even see one being blown around in the water column and swept into the overflow. Yet everything else looked normal and the... parameters
hadn't radically changed. The only
difference is that my alkalinity had
risen to over 13 dKH (from its new
'target' of 12.8) but it had done this
before a time or two without results
like this! I quickly pointed this out
to Ray, my service technician, and
he was completely blown away also.
He'd never seen or heard of an occurrence
like this either.
A day
or two later, I posted of this event
on several of the popular bulletin
boards. I received a disappointing
amount of responses; either because
not many people believed me or (more
likely, I hope) they genuinely had
no response. But of those few that
DID, the guesses ranged from 'whatever
chemical reaction that is causing the
'rtn' could be causing the majano thing
too' to 'the chemical reaction that
is causing the majano thing could be
causing the 'rtn' too'. I also got,
'obviously one of your fish, most likely
your Copperband or Crosshatch is eating
them'. |
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One reefer theorized that, kind
of like the old 'lemmings' story, maybe
when Majanoes get to a point of overpopulation,
something inside them triggers a mass
'suicide' event. But most people simply
said 'count your blessings', and suggested
that I just bottle my tank water and
sell it as 'Mike's Juice' at $19.95
a pop. I did spend nearly four hours
watching my fish the following Sunday and not once did I observe any of them
picking at the few remaining Majanoes.
As
of this writing (June '04)),
I would estimate that 99% of
the pests are gone. I still don't
know what caused the spontaneous
decimation and unless they've
moved behind the rockwork, they
don't seem to be coming back.
Therefore, I ask you:
IF YOU
KNOW OF (OR EVEN IF YOU'VE HEARD
OF) AN EVENT SIMILAR TO THIS,
PLEASE EMAIL ME HERE AT MOYESREEF.COM AND
TELL ME ABOUT IT. IF POSSIBLE,
PLEASE INCLUDE ANY WATER PARAMETERS
YOU CAN RECALL AT THE TIME OF
THE EVENT AND ANY OTHER UNUSUAL
OBSERVENCES. Thanks.
In
getting back to more unfavorable,
yet only slightly less mystifying
events, my struggles with 'rtn'
during this time were nowhere near
finished, though there did seem
to be a brief respite during the
week before Christmas. But if that
week was a truce, then the |
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