Some new fish...

[Recty]

I thought these were cool, I took some top down pictures of the tank while I was doing my 70g water change.

It's really hard to focus down through the water, at an angle, while balancing on a chair I cant believe I missed the focus on my emperor, this would have been a great shot if it was in better focus. I still really like it, but I wish he was clear.

 

[gman107]

try to catch him during a feeding,then qt and see if your fish supplier will exchange for smaller one if you think its a male on male issue. i read too that sometimes they can revert from male to female but it not guaranteed i would try to find new home maybe a friend of yours would take a beautifull fish.

 

[barbianj]

I bought the muriatic acid at the local hardware store. It was only about $3 for a quart, I think.

It looks to me like your Flame is being picked to death. There are some small bites on his scales, too.

 

[DamnPepShrimp]

Hey Recty, does your emperor still have an orange tail? Have you noticed it not as orange anymore? I've heard in captivity they don't keep it forever and eventually lose the orange. I am considering not getting a CXI emperor now because of that, curious how yours is doing.

 

[Wolverine]

I agree with barbianj. It looks to me like he's getting torn apart by another fish.
It looks like catching him is going to be tricky in that tank. I like the method of putting food in a specimen container and then putting that in the water, and letting the fish swim into it. The main downside is that it takes a while for the fish to get accustomed to it.

 

[danorth]

Damn! Always something with this hobby. Yeah, catching that dude is going to be a trick. You may need another set of hands in there to flush it out and net it. Good luck man!

 

[Recty]

I dont know that another set of hands would help at all I've got about 120 lbs of rock stacked up on the left side of the tank that all the dwarfs call home, I'd have to remove all of that from the tank before I'd be able to even remotely have a hope at catching the flame.

Of course, all my new rock I just put in, the big coral branches and all of that is stacked in such a way that if I remove all the rock from the left side, the branches will all fall over and so I'd have to remove them as well.

Basically, IT AINT GUNNA HAPPEN! I hope he recovers. I did a big water change just for kicks last night, even though I dont feel water quality is an issue at all.

Good idea, Wolverine, I need to get a little fish trap type thing and try to catch him in that. Thankfully, he is still eating like a pig so it shouldnt be too hard to entice him into one.

 

[Recty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15357020#post15357020 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DamnPepShrimp
Hey Recty, does your emperor still have an orange tail? Have you noticed it not as orange anymore? I've heard in captivity they don't keep it forever and eventually lose the orange. I am considering not getting a CXI emperor now because of that, curious how yours is doing.

Yes, still very orange. Look back at the video I posted somewhere in this thread within the last page or so, you can see him swimming around through most of it.

His tail never was a real deep orange like some I've seen that are almost bordering on going to red coloration, it's "just orange" but it has maintained it.

Keep in mind I've only had the fish 4 or 5 months now, if they do lose the orange in their tails, it might take years for that to happen.

I love that top down shot I got of him, it shows how nice and fat and healthy he is He is a great looking fish and the HLLE is rapidly disappearing, which is awesome.

Edit - In my mind, it isnt JUST the orange tail you get when you get a Xmas Island emperor. The blues, the lines... everything just looks better. I've compared mine to a lot of online videos and a lot of pictures, the "normal" emperors just dont compare to a Xmas Island version. Yes, I realize a lot of people dont have the patience to get a good picture or the hardware required to get good coloration, but I have seen some that were taken with better equipment than mine and you can very easily tell a difference between a regular and a Xmas Island emp.

It's a package deal, you get a lot more than just a orange tail.

 

[DamnPepShrimp]

Glad his tail hasn't faded at all. It will be interesting to see, time will tell. When I got mine (for a day) it had a bright yellow tail but the colors were a lot better. I know they are overall better looking than typical emps, but I love the orange tail. If it has a great risk in fading over time, I think I will go for the new caledonia emperor or any with a streamer. NC emps have AMAZING colors!

 

[Recty]

I tossed about the idea of getting a caledonian emperor for the streamer, but in the end I like the round fin look better, I think. I've never actually seen a NC emp in real life, but I've seen plenty of pictures. It looks almost weird to me to see that top streamer.

I probably would have chosen a Red Sea emperor over a Xmas Island emperor, if I could have found a Red Sea specimen available, but I couldnt. Now that I've got the Xmas Island, I'm really glad I went that route.

 

[Western_reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15354831#post15354831 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Recty
Anyone have any ideas what this could be? Something is going on with my little flame. Actually this is one of the ones I thought was a male, there are two smaller in the tank and one about the same size as this guy.

It is odd, it isnt as if he is being attacked and his fins are totally nipped off, instead it is just like the colored area is leaving the fins but the more solid, cartilage part is still there.

Also, he just doesnt look good. Whitish spots around his pectoral fins which is just not normal.

I dont see a spot of ich on anyone in the tank and no other problems I can think of. Every other fish looks to be doing fine in the tank, only this guy is having a hard time.

For reference, here is what one of my healthy little flames looks like. I took these just 5 minutes ago while I was trying to capture a shot of the sick one.

Notice how the fins look great. Maybe a little nip out of the top unpaired fin, but otherwise real good.

Colors are good and clean and solid through the whole body of all my fish but the one flame.

Any advice? Anyone know what is going on?

Salinity is rock solid at 1.025. Ammonia is 0. I didnt check nitrites but I've never had a problem with them. Nitrates are around 40-60. Copper is unmeasurable. pH is ranging from 8.08 at night to 8.15 during the day. Temperature is rock solid now at 77.5, however, we had a heat wave up here the last week and my tank stayed right aruond 80 degrees all week. It never quite hit 80, but it got real close, like 79.8 for 4 days straight and it only cooled down about half a degree at night.

For what it's worth, he is still eating at every meal.

Anyway, hit me up with your ideas please! I'd hate to lose the little guy.

It looks like the one with the nipped fins is starting to show signs of HLLE(sp?).

 

[Recty]

I'm not sure it's HLLE, I think it's just signs of abuse and getting bitten.

BTW, try not to quote a post that is full of pictures It just makes the thread huge and take longer to load.

 

[DamnPepShrimp]

Seems like your flames are definitely getting into it, but that is expected with a harem of them. I bet in the wild they aren't perfect.

 

[Recty]

I'll get some more pictures tonight maybe, I just got a new TV so I've been messing with that the last couple nights instead of my tank

The flame that had some missing tail finnage is doing much much better and still eating very well, I think he is going to make a full recovery.

 

[Recty]

Just some more pictures...

The dussu is growing fast... he is definitely the biggest fish in the tank now. He is easily an inch longer than the emperor, if not 2.

I'm experimenting with a different flash than the built in flash, so I'm not sure what I did but he came out a little dark in this one.

Here is the good ol' emp. You can see the HLLE is definitely receeding, probably in another 2 months it will be gone. I'm amazed how fast it is disappearing.

Two of my flames...

And here they are munching on their favorite food, NLS pellets

 

[Recty]

I'm really liking the lemonpeel angel. I almost didnt buy the thing, it was a rescue from another tank, it had ich when I got it, but I treated him and placed him in the main tank when I added all the flames and convicts and he has done great. He eats well and is just getting fatter if anything, so I'm happy with that.

He is a funny little fish. He sees me moving around with the camera and stops perfectly in a pose, but if I'm not quick, he gets scared and goes darting back into the rocks or just somewhere else so I cant get a picture. Then pretty soon he will be back, strike the perfect pose for half a second then zooming back away from the camera. He is a little weird Kind of spastic compared to the other dwarfs.

 

[Recty]

Just a couple more... once I start I have a hard time stopping!

The blueface is looking a little beat up, I'm not sure what happened, but his one side has some marks. Hopefully they go away, I havent seen anyone picking on him but I dont watch the tank at night so he could be getting pushed around by the emp.

He is the hardest one to get pictures of, he is still very skittish except at feeding time.

 

[danorth]

The lemon is quite the poser indeed! Great shots!

 

[Recty]

Yeah, he really likes to swim run up to the glass and then zip away

 

[Recty]

I started Prazipro treatment tonight. I havent seen anything that makes me think I NEED to treat, but I've added a queen angel and 5 flame angels that most likely had at least a little flukes going, plus the 4 convict tangs which could possibly carry it.

Anyway, I figured since everyone seems real healthy and eating good, this is a good time to treat before the flukes or internal parasites that were possibly introduced get a good hold on everyone.

The water looks a tad cloudy right after treating, you wouldnt be able to tell unless you look at the tank and knew the before and after, but I just can just tell there is a slight cloudiness from the prazi, but in my experience that will go away within an hour or two.