Some new fish...

[fender4string]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15406563#post15406563 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Recty

I'm not too sure about the details of this thread, but you'll learn how to cause ammonia spikes, certifiably kill your live rock, lower salinity dangerously close to lethal and add way too many fish way too fast Probably a good idea not to read the thread, imo.

Lol. As for details I just meant more about when you got the fish, how they're doing etc. I just kind of looked at the pictures to catch myself up on your tanks status .

 

[Recty]

Yeah, this thread has kind of turned into the "Playboy" of the FOWLR forums. There are some interesting articles but I'm pretty sure most people just read it for the pictures.

 

[Recty]

My convict tangs are having a little "Lady and the Tramp" moment with a piece of nori.

The flame who got his butt kicked a week ago or so is doing real well. It's obvious his fins got severely nipped, but all the scraggly look has left them and they are growing back in. They dont seem to be getting nipped back off. He still hasnt gotten any smarter though, he picks fights with the biggest flame... pictured below.

 

[Recty]

I also like these pictures of the majestic angel... he sure looks different from a head on viewpoint. See that weird looking mark right in the middle of his forehead? It's like a stress spot, it comes and goes depending if I'm feeding or not or if one of the bigger angels makes him go to the rocks.

But from the side he's a gorgeous little dude.

 

[TriggersAmuck]

Wow! The Angels are multiplying, or else I need to get new glasses! Awesome flame angels (and everything else you have selected/taken care of)! Where are you getting your livestock from? Mainly online, or do you have a good lfs or two up there in Alaska?

I wish I had your knack at introducing angels.....my small majestic and Atlantic Blue are just not going to work out. Tried to reintroduce them, but had to remove him within a few hours.

Scott

 

[Recty]

Yeah, everytime I turned around their is another new angel in the tank

Well actually, I've held back for over a month now, no new fish! I really dont plan on adding anything else although I still really want a group of anthias in there. If the convict tangs continue to get more and more aggressive to each other, I'll probably end up pulling 3 out and putting in maybe 5-6 anthias, although I'm not sure.

As far as a knack for adding angels, it just takes time and experimenting. I've removed fish, added multiples at once, removed one and added others, it's all a game of give and take and you've just got to find the balance all the fish are happy with.

In your situation, try removing the aggressive fish to a sump for 2-3 weeks and letting the calmer fish get used to the tank, then put the aggressive fish back in. Maybe even change the rockwork around, I've redone my rockwork countless number of times and it always makes a big difference with fish that were not happy.

 

[erdikler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15210246#post15210246 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Recty
Yep, that is my stock list minus the raccoon. He never recovered after the copper treatment, just died the other night. I had him back in QT and was trying to get him to eat, but he never ate again after I started treating with copper. I've heard bad things about butterflies and copper but it had to be done. Too bad, I liked him.

Sorry to hear that the raccoon could'nt make it.
As far as I understand, you are not QT your new fish anymore because you assume you will treat your DT again with copper in future anyways. IMO, if you could make this decision earlier, raccoon wouldn't have to die off copper related issues (at least not that early), if you wouldn't have treated your fish to no avail. If I were you, i would definitely qt all new arrivals at least for the memory of raccoon, who has been a casualty of a greater good (which isn't valid anymore)

Sorry, but that's how i think...

 

[danorth]

Great pics as always! Love the lemonpeel mouth.

 

[Recty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15420468#post15420468 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by erdikler
Sorry to hear that the raccoon could'nt make it.
As far as I understand, you are not QT your new fish anymore because you assume you will treat your DT again with copper in future anyways. IMO, if you could make this decision earlier, raccoon wouldn't have to die off copper related issues (at least not that early), if you wouldn't have treated your fish to no avail. If I were you, i would definitely qt all new arrivals at least for the memory of raccoon, who has been a casualty of a greater good (which isn't valid anymore)

Sorry, but that's how i think...

No need to be sorry, it makes sense. In a perfect world, that's exactly what I would have done in the first place, however, things like trying to introduce a harem of flames all at once and a shoal of convict tangs, I pretty much cant QT that many fish together, so they had to go into the display.

Anyway, live and learn, I'm not planning on adding any more large groups of fish again, so I shouldnt ever have to skip quarantine on anything.

 

[Recty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15420788#post15420788 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by danorth
Great pics as always! Love the lemonpeel mouth.

Thanks. It's weird how much the angels mouths stretch out, I remember when I first got my emperor how weird I thought it ate, almost like it was kissing every bit of food first.

 

[Recty]

Well, ich rears it's ugly white head yet again in my tank. I guess that's what I get for taking a risk and introducing a bunch of new fish at once.

I noticed last Sunday or Monday night when I put in Prazipro that the very next day I started seeing ich on the fish. I couldnt actually see it with my eye or I just didnt see it, but when I was looking at pictures it is there. Then the next day I really looked at the fish and sure enough, they were starting to get ich. Nothing bad, just about 5-10 spots on the big fish and the little fish didnt seem to have any.

I let it go because I didnt want to deal with treating when everyone barely showed any signs. I was hoping they would just lose the little bit of ich they had and stop showing signs of it.

Anyway, long story short, I've been watching them through the week and they are just slowly building up more and more ich. The dussu, who has never shown any ich before in the time I've had him, he has about 40-50 spots visible on his body, the emperor has probably 20-30 on his and the other angels look fine, but I'm sure they've got it. None of the dwarfs or convicts show a single dot, but it has to be in their gills.

So, back in the copper goes. I think I made a mistake last time, I dosed the first dose, waited 24 hours then dosed again. I was rereading the bottle tonight and it states to dose and then wait 48 hours, then finish off the dose... so I did it a little quickly.

I dont actually mind treating with copper, it's easy and stuff, but I really hope my emperor doesnt start to get bad HLLE again, I think I'm going to feed VERY sparingly over these 2 weeks as it almost had to be a water quality problem last time with no skimmer running on the tank, even though parameters checked out OK.

Wish me luck! I almost decided just to let them live with it, because they arent even to the scratching point yet and the dwarfs look totally fine, but I figured I might as well kick ich's butt now while it barely has a hold, not wait until the fish are half dead.

 

[Hogfish77]

Wow that sucks. I hate ich more than anything in this hobby! Good luck and hope all your fish will be fine.

 

[erdikler]

that really sucks!!

i wish you all the best with your war against ich, and hopefully you will not get any side effects and other ugly stuff like hlle this time around. if i were you, i would start right away with the treartment before they got weakened and before the parasites could get a strong hold on them. that's what i find logical but i should add that i have no experience on fighting against parasites...

again, best of luck

 

[Recty]

Thanks I'm not really that worried about it, the copper treating went OK last time, it's kind of a pain to monitor the levels all the time but it isnt that big of a deal.

My biggest concern is HLLE again but I'm going to ramp up to full copper treatment over the course of 2-3 days this time instead of in 24 hours, hopefully that helps the fish ease into it and not be as affected.

I'm a little concerned about the dwarf angels as I hear they dont handle copper treatment too well, but 3 of the 4 are really fat and doing well, so even if they stop eating for 2 weeks I think I'll be able to pull through. There is one that is a little skinnier than the others but I think he will make it as well.

 

[danorth]

Good luck man! I hate ich as well......I don't want to play with it again for a long time.

 

[Recty]

Hopefully it all goes OK. I'm mostly worried about the little dwarfs, the big fish should go through it just fine.

 

[Zoom]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15424902#post15424902 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Recty
Hopefully it all goes OK. I'm mostly worried about the little dwarfs, the big fish should go through it just fine.

I lost some flames with copper treatment if you can go with the lower copper # recommended you be ok.
Most of the time the little over dose of copper is what kill them so keep the copper numbers steady at all the times .

 

[fender4string]

Does the live rock affect the copper dose very much? I know it's supposed to absorb it all and was wondering if it was a big pain to keep checking copper levels for fear of low concentrations caused by having LR in the tank that's constantly absorbing it.

Also just out of curiosity what kind of copper are you using?

 

[Recty]

I did have to dose copper a lot when I treated before. I use Cupramine, the 100ml or whatever bottles of it. I went through 4 bottles of the stuff in just over a week and I had to use almost an entire bottle just to get to the initial dose in the tank.

It isnt a real pain to test, I basically check at lunch time when I came home (I just made sure I came home every day at lunch instead of going out to eat) and adjusted the copper and then around 8 or 9 at night I checked again and adjusted.

Since copper just kills the free swimming ich stage which is supposed to be happening at night for the most part, I just really made sure I had my copper levels high enough at the 9:00 checking.

I have 6 bottles on hand now because I plan on treating for the full two weeks instead of just like 8 days like I did last time, so I'll actually probably have to order some more over the next couple days.

I've got cuprisorb I'm going to use this time too, last time I relied on activated carbon to remove the stuff, which worked, but I think it isnt as effective as the cuprisorb and you need a huge amount of carbon to remove it in comparison to the cuprisorb.

 

[Recty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15425884#post15425884 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Zoom
I lost some flames with copper treatment if you can go with the lower copper # recommended you be ok.
Most of the time the little over dose of copper is what kill them so keep the copper numbers steady at all the times .

Yeah, we will see how it goes. I'm going to keep it rock steady at 0.5 which is the recommended dose. If they start looked bad or poisoned at all, I'll drop the dose down and maybe just treat a little longer. I hesitate to go much lower than 0.5 though or else I'm no longer keeping therapeutic levels in the water, in which case I'm just stressing the fish for no reason.