Madagascar Ritteri en route

Smitty750

New member
Ok my tank is 5 years old and I've waited till now to buy a Ritteri. I've done my research, tested and re tested tank parameters but is there anything special I should do upon arrival? Should I automatically QT with cipro before putting it in my DT? It's coming from DD so they QT nems for 3 weeks I believe. I'm running Kessil A360WE lights 2 Jebao RW-20 wave makers on random mode, how should I introduce this nem to the LED light? Lights out for a few hours or low setting them ramp up over several hours? Should I let the pumps run like normal?
Paramaters are:
Salinity 1.025
PH 8.2
Calcium 450
Alk 10
Mag 1350
PO4 .04
Temp 78
 
What is your Nitrate reading? They are very sensitive to the trates.

If it's the only nem in the tank I would temp acclimate and get the salinity matched up then introduce.... In the DT. I think many make a mistake by acclimated over drip for hours. Get it out and into fresh ( non bag) water ASAP.

Treating with cipro is a wait
And see question.

If you have other nems than I would qt to avoid transferring anything to the other nems.

Either way watch for signs of inflate deflate cycle... Give it a few days to watch and if it starts deflating more than once you will need to treat.

Healthy mags don't need to be
Acclimated to light.... Blast him and he should like it and may reach for more... Will want to place high in tank rock tower and high flow area.

Good luck... My favorite animal of the sea... I have a beautiful purple base / pink tips one.

Watch the clowns... They most likely will dive right in which could stress him out. Mine left it alone for a whole 2 days which worked out as it was enough time... Some dive in right away so may have to guard him if they beat him up.
 
A shot of mine...
c950ee876a126454b48e5cb25c70bc09.jpg
 
Thanks a lot for the info and that's a beautiful nem. I hope mines nice, looked good on DD but I've never ordered anything from them so I'm nervous. Nitrates are at 0
 
I am sure it will be packed well... DD doesn't mess around. DD pre-treats with Cipro but that doesn't always prevent infection from setting in during transit. If its the only nem in the tank get him in the DT and watch him for 2-3 days and see if he stays inflated or not.

A healthy mag essentially will never fully deflate... will love high light and high flow. He may deflate once to get fresh water from transit but if he keeps doing it he is sick and will need treated. Most respond well to Cipro and once acclimated they are pretty hardy. Just keep stable tank and don't allow for any heavy swings across the board and keep those Nitrates down!

Good luck. Post pictures when you get him.
 
So tonight I was getting stuff cleaned up in my fish room and noticed that the nitrate test kit I used last night expired in 2013. I retested today with a new salifert test kit and got a reading between 25/50 I hate the guess the color game. I have 30 gallons ready for a water change tonight so my question is, am I screwed with my nitrates at those levels? Does the nem even stand a chance with those levels? In a system with a total volume of 200 gallons will a 30 gallon change put a dent in the nitrate reading? I'm nervous now and upset with myself for not noticing the test kit expired.
 
That is a neat anemone. It looked like it was an orange base one. I had one very similar years ago, but unfortunately it didn't make it. I hope you have better luck! Please post pics.
 
Wow that sucks. Maybe use a smaller tank and use some of that 30 gals. mix it half and half with your tank water. Keep it in the small tank with water changes for a few days. This will give you somemore time to do more waterchanges and figure out your trate prob. Thats a nice nem and it needs a fighting chance. Best of luck.


John
 
So tonight I was getting stuff cleaned up in my fish room and noticed that the nitrate test kit I used last night expired in 2013. I retested today with a new salifert test kit and got a reading between 25/50 I hate the guess the color game. I have 30 gallons ready for a water change tonight so my question is, am I screwed with my nitrates at those levels? Does the nem even stand a chance with those levels? In a system with a total volume of 200 gallons will a 30 gallon change put a dent in the nitrate reading? I'm nervous now and upset with myself for not noticing the test kit expired.

Yeah it should be ok. Just make sure there's way place for it to wander into a powerhead. When there's measurable nitrates they tend to act irritated and wander.
 
Ouch... That is not good. I would use the 30 gallons and do a water change siphon out as much detritus you can... And try to do another big change quickly... You can get it down to under 10 I would think with two big changes and siphon out... That should give it a chance... But coming from shipping into 25 trates will certainly not end well... Gotta get them down
 
Back to one of the original questions ...... of the last five mags I have kept, four ended up needing antibiotic treatment (all three that were shipped did). The one I lost I thought afterwards that if I had treated it immediately I might have been able to save it. No absolute answer, but I'm inclined to say to treat them all right away. Give yours is DD sourced, I'd use septra. Plus that gives you some time to work down your nitrate levels (though I'd consider them less problematic than others here do).
 
Thanks for all the help guys but I now have BIGGER issues!!! One of the center braces on my 125 AGA cracked, not sure when, the wife noticed it this morning she she was feeding the fish. Not sure what to do Im at work till 2 and I feel like I'm going to vomit.
 
Thanks for all the help guys but I now have BIGGER issues!!! One of the center braces on my 125 AGA cracked, not sure when, the wife noticed it this morning she she was feeding the fish. Not sure what to do Im at work till 2 and I feel like I'm going to vomit.


Get a clamp from Lowes, HD, or Sears. And clamp the top. It will hold indefinitely. Although not attractive.

It will give you plenty of time to think about what size to upgrade to.
Just hang in there. I've had a brace crack too on a smaller tank. And the nauseous feeling will pass.

But take a deep breath. It will be probably be just fine until you get it braced this afternoon.
 
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Haha at least I won't have to worry about it bowing and splitting. Instead I'll probably hit my head on the clamp 100 times lol
 
So the nem arrived and it's colorful and inflated but I'm assuming this mouth thing is no good??
 

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Healthy mags don't need to be
Acclimated to light.... Blast him and he should like it and may reach for more... Will want to place high in tank rock tower and high flow area.

Is this true? I have Kessil A360WE should I run the light a full power or lower it?
 
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