Four days ago we bought our first fish!! She's a small female Lubbock's fairy wrasse and so far she has been extremely adaptable and forgiving 
She came from a LFS and I picked her out because she was small, active, and seemed to be acting just fine in their tank w/ lots of other wrasses. Plus she's pretty -- her color is much deeper and a more vibrant pink than the photo shows, and the spot on her tail is dark purple. I know she's probably going to transition to male at some point, but I figure this way we know she was young when we got her and we can see the transition happen!
We brought her home from the LFS, put her in a bucket, and drip acclimated her for 30 minutes (probably not necessary since I had salinity matched her QT to the LFS salinity of 1.025). I moved her from the bucket to the QT with my bare hands... wasn't *too* stressful for either of us! Her QT had a powerhead and eheim heater set (or so we thought) to 78.
She didn't move much in the bucket but started swimming around in the QT. We decide to add some PVC pipe to give her a place to hide. No elbows, so we cut a bigger piece of 2" pipe into a 5" piece for her. Wash off the pipe, place it in her tank. Well, now we know why you all recommend elbows!! The pipe started rolling all over, even when we tried to wedge it in the corner. Indie -- now her name after her Indiana Jones moves with the pipe trying to roll over her -- swam around it and seemed a little confused, but not too freaked out. Then we added another small piece of pipe sitting vertically which seemed to hold the tube in place.
Fed her a few hours later -- thawed Hikari mysid -- and she was eating within a minute. We first turned the powerhead off thinking that would help, but then realized it was much more fun to watch her "hunt" the food as it floated by. Until she realized she could hover in front of the intake and wait for the food to come to her!
Check on her a little while later and realize the tank is at 83 degrees. Start to get concerned. Try to recalibrate/reset it. Use 3 thermometers to test water. Start feeling bad about almost cooking Indie. The only time we can get the heater to not turn on the second we plug it in (and once it's on it doesn't seem to turn off even if we wait 5 min) is if we set it below 72. Now I'm okay w/ the 76-80 range, but something seems wrong if the tank is reading 83 and the heater wants to turn on at 73+. Not sure if it's user error or a faulty heater, but we pulled it out and luckily the temp has been staying between 76-80 with no intervention. We do have the big tank heater we could use in a pinch and are going to play with this one some more, but now I'm really freaked out about cooking Indie.
First night adventures -- I wake up in the middle of the night to check the temperature of the tank. Indie doesn't look so good. She's pale and wedged between the pipe and side of the tank. Eyes open. So, naturally, I get concerned, and go and stick my hand in the tank to gently nudge the pipe. It's slimy, Indie wakes up (oops!!), swims right into my hand, we freak each other out a bit, and then settle down. That's right, wrasses make mucus cocoons to sleep in -- which I knew and completely forgot. And apparently they sleep with their eyes open, change colors at night, and don't wake up too easily.
Things settled down after that first night. Today was Day 4, and we're doing tank transfer while in QT, so this morning we moved her to the second tank. That went smoothly and she was happy to eat as soon as she was in the new tank. I'm REALLY glad we picked an "easy", chill, adaptable fish for our first one!
Hopefully I can get some good pics of her in the next few days, but here is a quick one I took on her first day with us.
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mobydog/13982136615" title="indie1 by Laura Hennefield, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2905/13982136615_1f93bcc4f1.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="indie1"></a>
She came from a LFS and I picked her out because she was small, active, and seemed to be acting just fine in their tank w/ lots of other wrasses. Plus she's pretty -- her color is much deeper and a more vibrant pink than the photo shows, and the spot on her tail is dark purple. I know she's probably going to transition to male at some point, but I figure this way we know she was young when we got her and we can see the transition happen!
We brought her home from the LFS, put her in a bucket, and drip acclimated her for 30 minutes (probably not necessary since I had salinity matched her QT to the LFS salinity of 1.025). I moved her from the bucket to the QT with my bare hands... wasn't *too* stressful for either of us! Her QT had a powerhead and eheim heater set (or so we thought) to 78.
She didn't move much in the bucket but started swimming around in the QT. We decide to add some PVC pipe to give her a place to hide. No elbows, so we cut a bigger piece of 2" pipe into a 5" piece for her. Wash off the pipe, place it in her tank. Well, now we know why you all recommend elbows!! The pipe started rolling all over, even when we tried to wedge it in the corner. Indie -- now her name after her Indiana Jones moves with the pipe trying to roll over her -- swam around it and seemed a little confused, but not too freaked out. Then we added another small piece of pipe sitting vertically which seemed to hold the tube in place.
Fed her a few hours later -- thawed Hikari mysid -- and she was eating within a minute. We first turned the powerhead off thinking that would help, but then realized it was much more fun to watch her "hunt" the food as it floated by. Until she realized she could hover in front of the intake and wait for the food to come to her!
Check on her a little while later and realize the tank is at 83 degrees. Start to get concerned. Try to recalibrate/reset it. Use 3 thermometers to test water. Start feeling bad about almost cooking Indie. The only time we can get the heater to not turn on the second we plug it in (and once it's on it doesn't seem to turn off even if we wait 5 min) is if we set it below 72. Now I'm okay w/ the 76-80 range, but something seems wrong if the tank is reading 83 and the heater wants to turn on at 73+. Not sure if it's user error or a faulty heater, but we pulled it out and luckily the temp has been staying between 76-80 with no intervention. We do have the big tank heater we could use in a pinch and are going to play with this one some more, but now I'm really freaked out about cooking Indie.
First night adventures -- I wake up in the middle of the night to check the temperature of the tank. Indie doesn't look so good. She's pale and wedged between the pipe and side of the tank. Eyes open. So, naturally, I get concerned, and go and stick my hand in the tank to gently nudge the pipe. It's slimy, Indie wakes up (oops!!), swims right into my hand, we freak each other out a bit, and then settle down. That's right, wrasses make mucus cocoons to sleep in -- which I knew and completely forgot. And apparently they sleep with their eyes open, change colors at night, and don't wake up too easily.
Things settled down after that first night. Today was Day 4, and we're doing tank transfer while in QT, so this morning we moved her to the second tank. That went smoothly and she was happy to eat as soon as she was in the new tank. I'm REALLY glad we picked an "easy", chill, adaptable fish for our first one!
Hopefully I can get some good pics of her in the next few days, but here is a quick one I took on her first day with us.
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mobydog/13982136615" title="indie1 by Laura Hennefield, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2905/13982136615_1f93bcc4f1.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="indie1"></a>
