Featherduster deaths?

[Sharkie]

Hi,

so we just took a trip to our LFS and picked up some new goodies but I am very heartbroken :(

we bought a feather duster, some new live rock, 3 little damsels (for the new) I got some daisy corals (which is doing amazing!) and some new food for burton...

the duster and live rock went into my sisters small clown fish tank that had 2 baby clowns and bluto in it along with the feather duster. all the levels were okay and stuff the day of so i figured it would be okay to add 2 very tiny pieces of LR (it didnt even weigh half a pound). when we woke up in the morning to turn the lights on EVERYTHING was dead except the feather duster who was/still is in MUCH distress... he was hanging almost all the way out of his casing and so my mom moved him into my tank (uhoh). he seemed to be doing okay the last 2 days but i just woke up to check on him and found omen, gramma willow dead (D:) and the duster lying out on the sand... he spit off some black liquid and i'm not sure what it is... is it dying? the LFS had a new kid who much to our dismay dropped the feather but he seemed to be okay...

i'm not sure what to do. should i just put it out of its misery? or see what happens? hes laying in the sand right now with his feathery part still out but i'm not sure what to do...

 

[Smitty]

I'm sorry to hear about all your critters dying...that's weird that everything died so quickly...but I will tell you that the duster is pretty much a done deal, once they come out their tubes, they die a few days later...might as well take him out so it doesn't foul the water up even more...
Again, sorry about your losses.

 

[yote]

I'd about bet that you got a rock that hadnt cured yet.Check your ammonia and nitrite levels and see where their at.
And Smittys right about the duster,once they leave the tube,its pretty much all over with except for the crying.
Sorry to hear about the losses too.

 

[Navarchus]

+1 yote. I would bet that rock was not cured. If the LFS told you it was, you should go throw a fit and tell them how it killed all your livestock. Best bet with live rock is to start it in its own tank and check the ammonia and nitrite levels until the normalize; then add it to your tank.

There is nothing more frustrating than losing your animals. Don't let it get you down. There is not a person on this board that has a 100% success rate. I'm still sad about my regal angelfish that jumped out of the tank 5 years ago.

Best of luck

 

[BigH55]

Thats really sad to hear about the Regal. How long did you have him?

 

[Navarchus]

Thanks BigH55. It was a very sad affair. I had him for over two years, and then one day he decided to seek greener pastures and jumped out of my tank. (I had no cover because I had mangroves in the main tank). Lesson learned. Egg crate sits on top of my tank from now on. I was so proud of my success with that regal too. He was such a good citizen in my reef.