Large fish order, need some advice on quarantining all of them.

T

Texastravis

New member
My new 300 gallon is coming soon! Going all SPS with a super reef octopus 5000 ext. During its cycle I will be quarantining some new arrivals. I really want a disease free tank so all arrivals will undergo Hyposalinity. I also want to treat fluke and velvet, whats best stuff for that?

What I will be ordering:

-7 Small yellow tangs
-1 Large Haw Naso tang
-1 Large Achilles tang
-1 Med Blue Hippo tang
-1 Large Blue Hippo tang
-1 Med Sailfin tang
-1 Med Pink Tail Trigger
-2 Med Moorish Idol

Quarantine tanks available:

-2 55 gallon
-2 30 gallon
-1 20 gallon


Any suggestions on who goes where? This is what I was thinking:

-55 gallon: Large Naso, Large Achilles -Tunze 6060 (1600GPH)
-55 gallon: large blue hippo, both moorish idols -Koralia 4 (1200GPH)
-30 gallon: 7 yellow tangs (maxijet or something small)
-30 gallon: Med sailfin, Med blue hippo (maxijet or something small)
-20 gallon: Pink tail trigger (maxijet or something small)

During quarantine will be doing Hyposalinity. I will also hopefully get all of them eating regularly on New life Spectrum pellet food. My regular feeding schedule will be 3 feedings of nls pellets and 1-2 feeding of nori/romain. Although I will try to feed all nls pellets I will occasionally give them some brine and mysis to keep them interested. All tanks will have pcp and pvc in them for hiding.

Any comments would be helpful, I have access to a 90 gallon quarantine aquarium if yall think its absolutely necessary. This may seem like a lot of fish but I was trying to add them in all at once to minimize fighting/territorial problems. Ultimately will be adding some clownfish and maybe an angel or 2 later on along with a purple tang and small sohal.

Thanks!
 
holy crap. lol. good luck.

is it really such a good idea to mix all those fish at once? your not going to introduce them all into that 300 at the same time are you?
 
That's alot of fish even for a 300. I'd def scratch the 2 moorish idols from the list. I wish you nothing but the best of luck.

How long have you had the qt tanks up & running?
 
Quarantine tanks havnt even been set up yet but that shouldnt matter. Hypo salinity requires so many water changes that the water should stay optimum quality.

I will introduce all of them to the 300 most likely over a weeks time. This should minimize fighting/territorial issues.

Too many fish? Tell that to this guy.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1668058&page=6

As for scratching the moorish idols. I have always wanted to try this fish so I dont want to scratch them. I will order two in hopes of at least one of them being healthy. From what I havee read, they are very peaceful and get along great with other fish. The only issue is feeding. Even though they eat they still get thin and die over time. I hope to eliminate this issue by feeding as much as I can.
 
This is not too dense of a fish list. Plenty of people have done way more than that.

By large I mean 7-8"
By Med I mean 4-6"
By small I mean <3"
 
Quarantine tanks havnt even been set up yet but that shouldnt matter. Hypo salinity requires so many water changes that the water should stay optimum quality.
Click to expand...

TERRIBLE idea..........you don't need to do any water changes during hypo if you have well seeded bacteria in your QT tank filters. If you don't have seasoned filters you're going to be doing HUGE water changes every day just to keep up with the ammonia build up..........you'll lose fish. You don't need to be fighting ammonia, potential disease, acclimation all at the same time......it's a disaster in the making. Hypo will only cure ich, it does nothing for velvet, flukes or any othe parasites.

You don't have enough QT tanks for all those fish. There is absolutely no need to add all those fish at once. Your whole plan is ludicrous. I guarantee you'll lose most of those fish if you carry on with your plan.

Develop good seeded filters for those QT tanks..........that will take a good 4-6 weeks. Use some type of filters that you can move to the 300 g when you move the fish if you wish to move them in all at once. Large air driven spong filters would work.

Do about half that population & you'll have a fighting chance........which I still don't advocate. It's much better to have only have one fish per QT tank. You add to the problems with more than one fish. If one tang is sick & the other is clean you have just infected a healthy fish...............makes your odds of failure higher.

You could do maybe 4 yellows & then the second time do three. Take your time & you'll have a much easier time of it.
 
Last edited:
I would put the 7 yellows in the 90 for QT.

Concerns about the MI and achilles aside, I worry about these fish going in so early. I wouldnt worry so much needing to put them all in at once because aggression will be a bit better in a 300. I'm by no means an expert but this is what I would do.

Get power filters with sponges on each QT (seed the sponges in the DT if you can). Put a piece of LR in each QT. Run at normal salinities for at least a week. The rock will handle the ammonia and give the sponge time to start developing bacteria colonies. After a week pull the rock and put it...somewhere, I dunno, a bucket with an airstone. Then you can start dropping salinity. Keep an eye on ammonia and water change as necessary but the sponge is going to help. Keep them in QT for at least a month, if not just to give the DT time to mature some. After at least 4 weeks I'd add the yellow tangs. Wait another two weeks, add the medium fish. Another two weeks, add the large. By the time all thats done you can add the rock you pulled back in to the tank too.

I think you'll have much better success adding the fish, especially the MIs and the achilles to a more established tank.
 
Terrible idea on so many levels. Have you even read the primers on the Achillies or Idols? These fish require special care and are an absolutely terrible idea for a newly set up tank. Listen to the advice of the others that responded.
 
I would cut that list in half and then add them slowly over the course of a year...

That list looks like you are opening a pet store rather than setting up a tank
 
If I remember correctly the reason for the large number of fish is because you are ordering directly from a diver. See if you can post on a local forum and get some other people in on the order, that way you as an individual dont have to order so much, if that makes sense. If you get some other people in on the order they help reach the minimum order so you dont have to, and they will split shipping. That way you could at least split this up in to two orders.
 
LOJ gave you excellent advice. There is no good reason to instantly load up a tank like that. You will lose fish for sure.

At least divide the stocking into two orders, get a group order going to save on shipping. If you divide the order, you will have enough QT space.

Also good advice to have your QTs cycled with good biological filtration. Why the rush?

I know you didn't ask for advice on your list, but here's my $0.02


-7 Small yellow tangs - too many yellow tangs, bad idea - I'd have no more than one if you are going to have other tangs - your tank is not big enough nor lightly stocked enough to support 7 yellow tangs, IMO
-1 Large Haw Naso tang - OK, but I'd get a medium to increase chances of adjusting to captivity
-1 Large Achilles tang - add to a well established tank later, get a smaller size so it adapts successfully to captivity
-1 Med Blue Hippo tang - OK, but be sure tank is well cycled before adding
-1 Large Blue Hippo tang - cut it from the list, just one hippo
-1 Med Sailfin tang - OK
-1 Med Pink Tail Trigger - OK
-2 Med Moorish Idol - wait on these, add when tank is very well established and after you QT one in EACH 55, with QTs cycled first
 
Everyone has given you very good advice and I would truly consider it if you wish to not have a load of dead fish on your hands. Patience is best.

I would suggest removing the moorish idols, achilles tang, large hippo and about 3 yellow tangs from the list at minimum.

Slow is better. Good luck.
 
Too many issues to address them all, so I'll just touch on some:

That is too many fish for a 300 gallon SPS - maybe o.k. for a FOWLR set up.

First, large shipments are not inherently a problem - your local pet store does that multiple times every week. However, their tanks are established, and most use copper.

I would use copper as opposed to hyposalinity. You are almost positive to get Cryptocaryon on the achilles, and copper works better/faster and you don't have to worry as much about concurrent Uronema infections. However, the quarantine tanks aren't set up yet? Then that isn't going to work - you'll be doing 100% water changes every two days on all the tanks to control the ammonia - or buy a gallon of Amquel.

I've never been able to keep two moorish idols in the same tank - skip one or both.

To control flukes - Praziquantel at 2 mg/l, then ten days later a 50% water change, re-dose and then 10 days after that, another 50% water change.


Jay Hemdal
 
I'm with Jay. Skip the hypo (only really good for ich anyways) and use copper (Cupramine) and Prazi. Really need established bio filters.
 
Out of all the tangs, the dominant one will kill all the other tangs. 2 moorish idols in a newly setup tank is not smart and at that they are one of the hardest if not the hardest fish to keep alive in a aquarium.. in reality you will most likely end up with 3 tangs and the pink tail. Then when you add the sohal and purple tang two of the meanest tangs known.. the sohal will most likely terrorize everyone. Maybe if you had a 1000g tank it might work.
 
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