tnias
Member
Backstory
I had (1) pajama cardinal in my 30 gallon home tank. Lately I haven't been cleaning it, so the algae growth was all over the place. Sometimes long hair algae is pretty. He disappeared a month ago. I looked and looked for a couple weeks and couldn't find him. Regardless I still put food in the tank every night. But eventually stopped feeding the tank. Because I have my large tank at the office I was planning to convert this to a discus tank (those discus people are more fanatical than reef people, who would have thought) and just have salt water at the office. I knew it would take all day to drain the tank and clean it so I procrastinated for 2-3 weeks. I honestly, can't remember. I was draining the tank over the weekend and about half way down I asked my wife to just look in their and see if the fish was still around, nothing. We drained the tank down to about 1/2" of water and then I moved to the sump to drain it. My wife noticed something moving and their was the fish. I quickly pulled him out and used the sump water to hold him. I jumped in my car and drove to the office. Fortunately, I had my QT tank up and running for the last couple months, checked the salinity and put him in.
Side note - During this 2-3 weeks instead of using my RO/DI water I was dumping untreated tap water to keep the tank water level. Probably a couple of gallons over the time period. No de-chlorination.
Fish Status
He has been in my QT tank for a little over a week. He just sits on the bottom and occasionally flaps his fins and then rests back on the bottom. I have assumed he is weak from lack of food and wanted to give him time to recoup before I put him in the main tank. I am concerned he is not floating mid-level in the QT tank and if I put him in my high flow main tank he is not going to survive. He looks good and will almost hand feed when I squirt some food via the turkey baster but he only swims around if I scare him. If I turn on the powerhead he finds a dead spot to rest. Does he need more time to recoup or did the untreated water permanently damage him and he is just suffering?
Thoughts?
I had (1) pajama cardinal in my 30 gallon home tank. Lately I haven't been cleaning it, so the algae growth was all over the place. Sometimes long hair algae is pretty. He disappeared a month ago. I looked and looked for a couple weeks and couldn't find him. Regardless I still put food in the tank every night. But eventually stopped feeding the tank. Because I have my large tank at the office I was planning to convert this to a discus tank (those discus people are more fanatical than reef people, who would have thought) and just have salt water at the office. I knew it would take all day to drain the tank and clean it so I procrastinated for 2-3 weeks. I honestly, can't remember. I was draining the tank over the weekend and about half way down I asked my wife to just look in their and see if the fish was still around, nothing. We drained the tank down to about 1/2" of water and then I moved to the sump to drain it. My wife noticed something moving and their was the fish. I quickly pulled him out and used the sump water to hold him. I jumped in my car and drove to the office. Fortunately, I had my QT tank up and running for the last couple months, checked the salinity and put him in.
Side note - During this 2-3 weeks instead of using my RO/DI water I was dumping untreated tap water to keep the tank water level. Probably a couple of gallons over the time period. No de-chlorination.
Fish Status
He has been in my QT tank for a little over a week. He just sits on the bottom and occasionally flaps his fins and then rests back on the bottom. I have assumed he is weak from lack of food and wanted to give him time to recoup before I put him in the main tank. I am concerned he is not floating mid-level in the QT tank and if I put him in my high flow main tank he is not going to survive. He looks good and will almost hand feed when I squirt some food via the turkey baster but he only swims around if I scare him. If I turn on the powerhead he finds a dead spot to rest. Does he need more time to recoup or did the untreated water permanently damage him and he is just suffering?
Thoughts?
