Dilema...red bugs and Chaoti pair.

S

slojmn

Premium Member
I have had my Chaoti pair for a little over 6 weeks. They are eating blood worms only and hunting the rest of the time. After initially losing weight, especially the female who came in skinny looking, they both are fattening up with my multiple blood worm feedings per day. I don't think they are going for anything else, though I thought I saw my female take some Rod's food but only once. The male took some arctic pods initially but not since the early weeks. They both seem to be doing well behavior wise, waking up and bedding down on a predictable routine, hunting and pecking, and kicking up sand in the evening to feed.
The dilemma, I noticed a single red bug on my $500 efflo frag. I have not found any other red bugs anywhere else but in time they will get around. The red bug treatment has always been such a positive for my tanks. I swear after a red bug treatment my tanks always look better, the coral colors pop more. It's not like the tanks looked bad before the treatment but it was something I have noticed over the years when treating for red bugs. So anyways I have no problem treating the tank but I am very worried about the live pod/crustacean population and my Chaotis. Since they are not voracious prepared food eaters the live food in the tank is very important. If I dose for red bugs I feel like it will kill their food source. Do you all concur?? Maybe I just live with the red bugs until/and if I can get these two to eat other prepared foods. Any thoughts?
 
Your corals should be able to survive with red bugs for extended periods. They may lose color or polyp extension but if water parameters are good, they'll get by. Get the wrasses on prepared foods and THEN hit the interceptor.

Are the wrasses stressed? They should probably be tasting frozen mysis and/or brine by now.
 
I agree also Alicia. Your acros will be fine with the redbugs, and you know you can take care of them anytime you want. I would wait until your chaoti's start eating other prepared foods, which will eventually happen I would think. My Femininus is now eating NLS baby pellets now.
 
Try pe mysis my chaoti loves it, mine wouldn't eat anything but live mysis off eBay. I decided to stop buying them and starved the whole tank for 2 days on the third day I threw in pe mysis and voila it was all over the pe mysis!!
 
El richie said:
Try pe mysis my chaoti loves it, mine wouldn't eat anything but live mysis off eBay. I decided to stop buying them and starved the whole tank for 2 days on the third day I threw in pe mysis and voila it was all over the pe mysis!!
Click to expand...

Yes, try PE mysis. All leopards hunt copepods, but if you can get yours on PE mysis, they should be fine.
 
I have tried PE Mysis many times over the last 6 weeks...nothing, no interest what so ever. They don't seem stressed at all, normal tank behavior through each day, bedding down at regular times, getting up at regular times. They both have good color and are fattening up a bit, especially the female. Maybe I should try the 2 days without food and then hit the tank with mysis. It is interesting I have seen my fish eat less and less mysis since I feed so many other choices. They all seem to love the Rod's food, except the Chaotis. I'll keep at it and thanks for all of your suggestions and agreement on the course of action.
 
... Ok, PE mysis is great stuff. If your fish will eat it, then AWESOME. But I find that smallish, skittish fish have a difficult time taking it as a first prepared food. Smaller mysis seem to work better as a first step, and once they learn to trust that the stuff floating around in the water isn't scary, then they're more open to tasting the gigantic PE mysis.

Anyway, sounds like you're doing all the right stuff for your fish, just keep at it, offering a variety of foods, and they'll catch on eventually. Congrats on getting them fattened up!
 
treylane said:
... Ok, PE mysis is great stuff. If your fish will eat it, then AWESOME. But I find that smallish, skittish fish have a difficult time taking it as a first prepared food. Smaller mysis seem to work better as a first step, and once they learn to trust that the stuff floating around in the water isn't scary, then they're more open to tasting the gigantic PE mysis.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. Hikari mysis is small, and fish really seem to like it.

I also agree that your corals will be fine with redbugs for the time being...
 
Have you tried feeding them daphnia? I know many use this for freshwater and they are a little on the smaller side, but I have been using this on my saltwater for years and the fish (big and small) really seem to go after it. I use the frozen Hikari and even finicky fish seem to go after it well. I either mix it with Hikari mysis or other frozen foods or just feed it alone.

And I agree with the others...get them eating then treat for the red bugs.

Keith
 
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Thanks all.

argi, I have not tried daphnia, do you suggest trying freeze dried or the frozen variety? I will try the Hikari mysis. I will have to look around for it as my lfs sells a different brand mysis.

treylane, They are kind of skittish eaters, that is a good way to put it. Not really overtly scared but they really tested out the bloodworms over the course of a few days. First they started by testing one, then ignoring hte rest. Then they started taking more but spitting them out, trying them, spitting them out, only eating a few, until finally they suck them down pretty well now. Not on par with my Muelleri butterfly....man you can hear him slurping them up like a vacuum cleaner.

The red bugs will wait....especially since I only found one single little bugger on the efflo. So far I can't find any others and I use a mesoscope so I can get up close and personal with all of my corlas for inspections.
 
I like the frozen mainly because they sink without soaking them like you need to do with the freeze dried ones.
 
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I still highly recommend trying the hikari frozen krill along with that mysis. They are very soft once thawed and they love to grab it spit it out then eat the broken up bits.
 
jason2459 said:
I still highly recommend trying the hikari frozen krill along with that mysis. They are very soft once thawed and they love to grab it spit it out then eat the broken up bits.
Click to expand...

Jason, I will give the krill a try as well. Y'all should see my freezer with the all the different frozen foods I have tried. I am set for a year on frozen food, not to mention 3 types of pellets and 3 types of flake I thought I would try just on the off chance.

One good thing about all the food issues for the Chaoti pair is all of my other fish are super colorful, super healthy, and loving their choices of food every day. Down side...my tank is dirtier than I would like. I am not liking the outbreak of macro algae since I sold my Black Tang a few weeks ago because he outgrew the tank. It has literally sprouted up in the rock work in four or five places and is growing crazy fast with all the nutrients in the tank. I have a Black Tang arriving on Wednesday...he should take care of the macro algae nicely. My SPS are all colored up pretty nice. I am surprised with the high PO4's and nitrates that the SPS are so vibrant and colorful.
 
Hey, some good news. I went to do the last feeding of the evening, cyclopeeze, Nutromar Ova, and some PE Mysis. The female Chaoti was definitely gobbling up the cyclopeeze from the water column. I had wondered the last couple of times if she might be but I couldn't get a good angle to see, the cyclopeeze is so darn small. Tonight I got the right angle and yep, she was cruising and eating a lot of it...and...even more good news, my Muelleri butterfly took PE mysis tonight for sure...three pieces of it. He was only eating the bloodworms and clam bits from time to time. I do believe the Muelleri may be eating any baby aiptasia in the tank but not the eight large ones I have. Since getting him I have had no baby aiptasia sprouting up.

Eating breakthroughs all over the place :D.
 
That's good news. Don't know if I missed it but have you treated with a dewormer like prazipro? Its a good idea to do it especially once they start eating.
 
I have not treated with Prazipro...can you enlighten me as to the best treatment method in the tank. I got this pair from Divers Den and I know they treat on their end...but it can't hurt to do it again.
 
Do a search in this thread for prazi it is brought up several times.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1486086


I dose as directed by the bottle and do 2 treatments one after the other with a water change between them. I get prazipro from Dr. Foster and Smith. It is reef and invert safe from what I can tell.


FYI, I'm not sure what all medications DD uses in their "QT" process but I know it's not a true full QT. They make sure the fish looks healthy and is eating before selling which is a huge plus and why I try and buy all my fish through them but it is not a true complete QT process and they tell the customer that they still need to QT the fish on arrival.
 
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