crvz's hole in the wall

[freetareef]

wow great build thread!!! nice job!!!

 

[crvz]

I caught them all. The fish trap didnt work, or at least I didnt have the patience for it, even after I hook the door tied to a screw stuck in an electromagnet plugged into my aquacontroller hooked up to my phone so that I could drop the door from long distance in an instant... the last two fish just didnt trust the trap. That included the chevron tang and, more troubling, the yellow canary wrasse. So what's the solution? Rip out 90% of the rock and just use a big *** net. It wasnt as bad as I thought it would be, but here's the tank as of right now. I'll re-aquascape after putting the kiddo to bed and then start the hypo salinity in the stock tank.

So what's the rule? 30 days hypo (1.009-1.010) and then 30 days of monitoring the fish for ich in the stock tank before replacing them in the display? And should I do anything else to the display while it's fallow?

 

[miwoodar]

I bet your wife loved how the house smelled with all of that rock out of the tank.

Best of luck with the hypo.

 

[crvz]

She would have, Mike, especially since she's pregnant, but that's the beauty of having the tank in the garage. It didnt stink in the house. It certainly stunk in the wet room, though.

 

[crvz]

Been at 1.009-1.010 in the stock tank for a couple days now... I took my time getting the fish down to that level. Since I still have rock in that tank I'll need to be watching for any ammonia spikes due to possible invert (pods, starfish, etc.) die-off. I have some amquel on hand and bought a new ammonia test kit. So what's the best way to keep an eye on the situation? Business travel! I'll be away from the tank for 4 days next week, but hopefully the wife can keep things in check. I havent seen any trouble thus far, and the fish are very eagerly consuming any food I put in the tank.

 

[crvz]

Stock tank image. You can see the three tangs in this image (chevron, purple, naso), though they didn't exactly pose for the image.

 

[crvz]

Made it back in town and all the fish look good. Today marks day 15 of hypo.

 

[crvz]

Just a couple more days left of hypo. Nothing else really going on. I'm terribly tempted to place another order of fish, but I must resist! I won't really be ready for another 4-5 weeks. I dunno if I can wait that long.

 

[crvz]

Another month... and everything's good with the fish so far. I plan on putting them back in the tank on the 13th, which will be right at the 9 week mark. I also ordered some stuff that will come in that day to repopulate the quarantine system. Maybe I'm overdue for some pictures.

 

[miwoodar]

Pfft, I'm back hanging around RC and you've gone on hiatus...yessir, I'm looking forward to some pics.

 

[CyclistMT]

Yeah, you're starting to act like me. No posts for weeks of months on end. What's up with that? :hmm4:

 

[veloboy]

Pics Please!

 

[crvz]

Pictures are what you want, eh? Well here you go. I had a birthday yesterday, and here's what transpired.

 

[miwoodar]

You don't win friends with salad...you win them with fish!

 

[psteeleb]

and.............

 

[crvz]

And... this is what I added to the quarantine. All appear very healthy, but the smaller whitecheek tang (who eats like a champ, from diver's den) doesnt seem to care for the powder blue tang (who is very thick, but hasnt taken to the few things I've added to the tank). Good luck to me in hopes of getting the to acclimate to captivity and be disease free.

 

[gotfrogs]

The blue tang looks really nice. I am so jealous! I have never received three boxes from Live Aquaria at the same time.

 

[veloboy]

Powder Blue and White Cheek are beautiful fish! Jealous man! Is there going to be an achillies this time around?

 

[crvz]

I dunno about the achilles. I would have gone with one over the whitecheek if not for the price difference. Speaking of which, that whitecheek is a complete a-hole. Even though the powder blue is about 20-30% bigger, the whitecheek (who was from diver's den as mentioned, so likely to be well more acclimated to captivity) was chasing it constantly. Lots of ripped fins and body punches. So, they've been separated. I knew it was a risk, and while I assumed the 300 gallon display would be large enough to temper the likely aggression, the 120 gallon quarantine (with limited liverock) wasn't. My plan is to allow the powder blue to heal and become acclimated to captivity and then go from there. I may try to reintroduce them, but it may not be for a while.

 

[Taqpol]

I have never heard of a Powder Blue being harassed by any fish before! Looks like you have a keeper in the whitecheek, knowing that he is so robust when a lot of his species have poor track records.