Venustus/Multifasciatus - Marshall sland display

[aquaph8]

I hate when they jump man, my lunate jumps out when I'm trying to put food in. Yesterday he bounced off my chest and hit the floor. I picked him up, threw him back in and he was out and about again in a couple hours. Couple weeks ago he hit the wall and landed behind the tank, took me a whole to find him but he survived amazingly. Glad yours made it man, be careful!

 

[griseum]

Haha.. These fish man... they can be such a PITA sometimes.
I was pretty stressed out to say the least. The first time was like you said, I popped the top open to feed some frozen and it was like he was waiting. He launched out of the water and landed at least 4 feet away.

 

[griseum]

Quick update...
I was a little concerned about light acclimating the Venustus after adding it to the display from the QT. I can safely say as of today, even with the addition of the Kessel LEDs that the Venustus has become fully acclimated to bright lighting. He was spending much of the day in the dark corner or a particularbcave, only coming out to feed with the other fish.
As of the past few days, and yesterday especially, he is out and about all or most of the photoperiod.
That's a relief! I guess that makes it roughly 2 weeks +

 

[aquaph8]

Great news man!

 

[griseum]

Thanks!
I cant deny that the stress and the hiding made the fish lose weight. But since coming out of "hiding" he is steadily putting it back on. I was getting nervous that it was going to be its demise.
Very happy now though!

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that the normal Quarantine protocol used on most fish, Copper and Prazi, will not be my future methods of choice with these fish. After reading the collective experiences on this forum, and those of my own with the two, out of three, species of Paracentropyge, Ive come to the conclusion that the 6 week prophylactic quarantine that I use with other fish, may not be the best route with these two fish.
This is just my opinion, and I definitely advocate the quarantining of any and all new fish before introduction to display.
Close observation is a decisive measure when determining what to do with the individual specimens I obtained.

 

[Fiish]

Congratulations on your fish, is good news; ,I'm a angelfish fan and Paracentropyge gender is one of my favorites and i hope to keep Multibar and Venustus in the coming months.
You are thinking of putting more angelfish in your tank?

 

[aquaph8]

Thanks!
I cant deny that the stress and the hiding made the fish lose weight. But since coming out of "hiding" he is steadily putting it back on. I was getting nervous that it was going to be its demise.
Very happy now though!

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that the normal Quarantine protocol used on most fish, Copper and Prazi, will not be my future methods of choice with these fish. After reading the collective experiences on this forum, and those of my own with the two, out of three, species of Paracentropyge, Ive come to the conclusion that the 6 week prophylactic quarantine that I use with other fish, may not be the best route with these two fish.
This is just my opinion, and I definitely advocate the quarantining of any and all new fish before introduction to display.
Close observation is a decisive measure when determining what to do with the individual specimens I obtained.

Mine is ich free for about a week now in hypo and is getting pretty fat. Im really nervous about adding him to the display though, he eats great without competition but Im scared of how he'll do with 20+ other fish (not too much ever makes it to the bottom food wise). Hypo has been tolerated really well without any lapse in eating IME, maybe a better alternative than harsh copper if you still want to be prophylactic with them. Just a thought :wave:

 

[griseum]

Of course! I was hoping you, and others, might share their experiences with different methods.
I used Prazi for 2 short treatments and then Paraguard. The Venustus tolerated both meds well, and the ParaGuard as a bath and a dip too.
I definitely didn't just drop him in to the display and I definitely don't advise that ever!
Dwarf angels and copper don't mix, in my experience. Cupramine is better. But it's the length of duration in quarantine, and not a more diverse reef which I believe to be the problem.
Including the time in the display for the fish to acclimate to tankmates, feeding and lights, I'm willing to bet that I would have lost the fish had I had him in Quarantine for 4-6 weeks prior too.
And my QT is a cycled and established 125g that stays cycled and with atleast one or two fish all year round.

Glad to hear that hypo is going well!! I bet tank transfer is a good alternative to be Ich-preventative.

 

[griseum]

Congratulations on your fish, is good news; ,I'm a angelfish fan and Paracentropyge gender is one of my favorites and i hope to keep Multibar and Venustus in the coming months.
You are thinking of putting more angelfish in your tank?

Thank you! No, this tank will see no more fish at all. I have a much larger system downstairs however, where I keep many other angels both dwarf and large !

 

[griseum]

Just a quick video of how far hes come! A long way from hiding in the cave 24/7, on the right side of the tank, or under the overflow box on the left side. As well as only grazing on LR and eating pellets that fell to the sand bed.


<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/_9sbHBCHOHw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[aquaph8]

Nice man, looks like he's eating great.

 

[humaguy]

Just a quick video of how far hes come! A long way from hiding in the cave 24/7, on the right side of the tank, or under the overflow box on the left side. As well as only grazing on LR and eating pellets that fell to the sand bed.


<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/_9sbHBCHOHw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Gris,

Outstanding job!

TK

 

[griseum]

Thanks TK and Brett!
I appreciate it a lot. It came down to the wire on this guy, I was contemplating putting on a refugium inline in a flash, after getting a good look at his weight loss initially.
Something Im still contemplating... especially with the two insanely fat and healthy fairy wrasses.

 

[o2manyfish]

Looks Great !!!

Congrats on getting over the hurdle. With my twosome one appears out in the open water of the tank most of the time, and both are out when it's feeding time.

If you have the means to add a refugium online, I think that can only benefit all the fish long term. Having a constant supply of live meaty goods is a huge benefit.

Dave B

 

[Squared]

I like this tank, nice and simple, how big is it?

Are planting to keep it fowlr as well?

 

[griseum]

Dave- That's great to hear ! And thanks! I was originally going with a Zeo-type method, which I have since abandoned. I just might add in a small refugium tank. As it stands, those two fat wrasses pick off almost anything moving in the tank as it is!!! No pods stand a chance! Lol

Squared- It's a 50 breeder. In the acclimation box, with the little gold nugget maroon clown, I already have a couple of deepwater Ricordea yuma. I also haven't had the chance to put together the screen top, so it's still a thick glass one, which reflects/retracts a lot of PAR.
I'm concerned about the two angels and how they will react to Ricordea and SPS. Any experience?

 

[Squared]

Had my venustus in 17.4g mixed reef for 9 months before separating the fish and coral due to GHA. He never touched a thing, and that tank was crammed with LPS, and some softies and SPS. Of course, your angels may be different but that was my experience.

 

[griseum]

So I had Idle Hands and about 50 pounds of Dry Rock laying around. I've been testing small frags of different types of coral to see which fish may go after what.... So far I haven't noticed any nibbling !!!
After this video of the "new", yet in progress, rock work I also had the time to make the net top. TBH, I feel like I was getting more light with the glass top then I am with the net top. But thats just visually, perhaps the PAR is stronger with the net.
Any Ideas about that? Thanks..

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2JbdXo0NXcY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[o2manyfish]

Rock looks good.

As for your coral 'samples'. I would think if you only have a couple of pieces of coral your chance of picking is very high.

My experience is with a tank full of every type of coral except Acans.

About 3 months ago I added an Acan Deshayesiana (sp?) I have caught my gold flake nipping at it a couple of times but no damage.

So the only coral types missing from my system was Acan Lords. So I picked up 3 nice (not ultra) pieces of each about 10 heads and put them in the area where I know the multibars would find them. It's been about 8 weeks and I don't see any damage to any of the Lord Howes.

I have lots of corals for them to pick at (120+ pieces) so they can do lots of picking without damaging or me noticing. But I haven't caught or noticed any of them causing trouble. And that's with 3 mutlibar and 2 Venustus.

Dave B