First H. Mag Experience

[Snowdawg]

Hi Everyone - I came across a decent looking large H. Mag at the LFS yesterday, and it "followed me home" It's about 12" - 14" in diameter when spread out and almost too big for the 10g tanks I have used to treat BTAs and smaller Giganteas.

I'm just observing at this point and providing the best possible water to see how it does. Doing a 90% change in the morning, 50% change mid day, 90% change at lights out.

New Water Parameters:
78*
10 dkh
8.1 PH
430 ca
1280 mg
1.024 sg
0 no3
0 no2
0 po4
0 Amonia

Lighting:
Coralife 9" 10K / Actinic T5

Filter:
HOB mechanical floss with carbon / gfo media bag.

Powerhead:
Jebao RW4 on wave1 with 2 (out of 10) speed. for a nice gentle back and forth flow.

So far it has not deflated at all, and with the exception of when it first came out of the bag. The mouth is really hard to see since it is folded on itself most of the time. But, when I saw it yesterday, it was a bit "puffy" and just slightly open.

Here are the pics starting with when it came out of the bag, and then this evening. Let me know what ya all think of it's condition so far, and if I'm on the right track with the observation vs. proactive treatment.

Immediately after entering the QT.

24 hours later

 

[OrionN]

cannot see the last 2 pictures. He looks OK first out of the bag. Don't do that much water change unless there is some problem. If no discharge I would just do water change daily. If there is any cloudiness of the water, I would start treatment.

 

[Snowdawg]

Thanks Minh. The water has been very slightly cloudy. Like someone put a drop of milk in the tank. He also releases a few pieces of "rat poop". Maybe two or three total so far. Is that an indication of the infection? Hopefully you can see this picture.

 

[lluv24]

Looks nice;-). I love mags!!!!

 

[Snowdawg]

It did not deflate today at all and continues to look pretty good. T he water did not get cloudy at all during the day. I have the cipro on standby, but hope I can avoid treatment.

What's the general rule on observation time in QT, before moving to DT?

Cheers!
EB

 

[OrionN]

If you have no anemone, specifically not Magnifica in your DT, you can put him in as soon as you think he is OK. They do not carry anything that can be pass to coral or fish that I know off.

 

[Snowdawg]

I only have a couple BTA's in the DT. Can the Mag pass anything or vice versa?

 

[OrionN]

I have never have disease passed from one species to another. However, never say never in Biology, but just unlikely.
Off topic, Like Swine flu does not passed to people often, but when a swine flu mutated and start to infect Human, watch out, human will get a lot sicker because they never been exposed to similar virus before.

 

[Snowdawg]

So far so good. I've slowed down the water changes to 25% in the AM and PM using water from my DT now. If there is no change for the worse, I'll move it over to the DT this weekend.

Photo from this evening...

 

[Snowdawg]

The 'nem continued to look great for the entire week, so it went into the DT last night. It's a perfect fit for the pedestal rock I have, and the clowns dove right in.

Here is a short video clip to give a bit more perspective. It really is a great addition to the harem tank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYxabWvxuO0


Cheers!
EB

 

[D-Nak]

Looks really nice. Congrats!

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

Mag looks like it is happy,congrats.

 

[tthouston]

Wow...it nice. How many clown fishes do you have in the tank? Most people say only 2 per tank but it's not right for your tank..lol

 

[Snowdawg]

I have 19 clowns in the tank. It's called a clownfish harem, and usually requires you to get all the clowns very young and from the same clutch. I got all mine at the same time when they were very small, about 1/2" in size. Here is an excellent thread on the topic.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1259398