Diary of my Saltwater setup

[leanne]

Thanks you two. It's hard, when you are trying your best and "succeeding", to hear people critiscising what you are doing. Do they forget that they were inexperienced once? It would be nice if they shared their experiences (like we are doing) instead of just slating us. Never mind though - maybe they're inexperienced in communication techniques...

Lesson number 1:

It gets people backs up less if you say "If you do that this might happen" rather than "You have done that all wrong and are doomed to failure".

I enjoy my tanks (goldfish, tropical and marine) and I get much pleasure from watching them thrive. So far I have not done anything that has endangered my fish (apart from getting an ich infested fish but I now have a q tank) and they seem quite happy. They are so relaxing to watch and I love hand feeding them to see how they have accepted me compared to when I first got them. After all the horror stories I have had about psychadelics I think I have done quite well to get her to hand feed...

 

[hyrookin]

hey leanne, I just wanted to add that you are doing a great job,
and that everyone has had problems when first starting,and the only
way to truly succeed in this hobby is to have those problems happen to
you, find a solution, and learn from it. keep up the good work!

 

[leanne]

Thanks guys! It makes me feel so much better to have a bit of encouragement.

Unfortunately Cubix the box fish has ich again (other still ok). I'm thinking he didn't have long enough in the treatment tank. I have my little quarantin tank now so he is in there and I'm going to keep him in for a week after the dots (the white ones of course) have gone.

On a good note. My clown has become rather attached to my mushroom and was sleeping in it's "tentacles" last night. Went up to take a photo and he came straght to the front of the tank thinking it was feeding time. Little b*****r.

 

[leanne]

I don't know if anyone else does anything like this... But i have put a red and yellow ping pong ball in my tank. My clown has gone mad for it and knocks it all over the place!

 

[spanair]

I don't know if anyone else does anything like this... But i have put a red and yellow ping pong ball in my tank. My clown has gone mad for it and knocks it all over the place!

Are you serious L ??? that's hilarious

 

[leanne]

Well I didn't quite expect an answer like that... Yes I am serious ) and hercules loves it.

 

[spanair]

That is SOOO CUTE!!! I must see pics

 

[leanne]

Well I have done a very bad thing I think people will say. I have bought an anemone. My clown was really ***** (annoying) my leather mushroom off by trying to host it. It would get nice and bushy and then Hercules would upset it. Bad fish! I went to my LFS and asked if there was anything I could get that wouldn't mind being annoyed. He said as far as anemones were concerned he wouldn't recommend most but there was one he had that he has had with standard marine white and blue lights before. It's brilliant. It's white with little pink tips and kind of looks like lots of little blown up condoms... I'm making a big assumption here but I recon he has been able to keep it in a fish only tank because it doesn't have much chlorophyl with it being mainly white.

My LFS guy was very nice and chucked in the 2kg piece of live rock for £10 that it was anchored to as it kept going into a crevice every time he went near it. Bargain! Anyway Hercules loves it and the anemone doesn't seem unhappy either. It's not changed colour at all and it's still all "blown up condom" looking...

 

[spanair]

Well I have done a very bad thing I think people will say. I have bought an anemone. My clown was really ***** (annoying) my leather mushroom off by trying to host it. It would get nice and bushy and then Hercules would upset it. Bad fish! I went to my LFS and asked if there was anything I could get that wouldn't mind being annoyed. He said as far as anemones were concerned he wouldn't recommend most but there was one he had that he has had with standard marine white and blue lights before. It's brilliant. It's white with little pink tips and kind of looks like lots of little blown up condoms... I'm making a big assumption here but I recon he has been able to keep it in a fish only tank because it doesn't have much chlorophyl with it being mainly white.

My LFS guy was very nice and chucked in the 2kg piece of live rock for £10 that it was anchored to as it kept going into a crevice every time he went near it. Bargain! Anyway Hercules loves it and the anemone doesn't seem unhappy either. It's not changed colour at all and it's still all "blown up condom" looking...

lol with the blown up condom , how do you know anyways ?? .

Very nice Leanne, I want to see some pics of the new anenome please, i've been wanting one for a while but I think it's the best thing to put in my tank which will be inhibiting (?) quite a few corals and I dont want the anenome to kill them .

Can't have it all I guess .

Anways Leanne, all is looking very good

 

[leanne]

I have bad news - I have had my first fatality (bar the murder at the start). I have had my mandarin in a treatment tank (1 gal and I have kept everything - A/N/N - below 0 ) due to a bit of Ich. Anyway it has beem gone now for a few days so I decided to put him back in the tank. I held a cube of brine shrimp in and he came up for a nibble and I netted him - no probs. I transferred him to a jug (of treatment-tank water) and put my hand over the top as I was walking across my living room. The little b*gger jumped right out of the jug and landed with a rather loud splat on the laminate floor - ouch. I got him up as quickly as possible and put him back in the TT - there was no way I was risking putting him in the main tank if he was stressed and going to release poisons. Anyway he was fine all evening and was still with us in the morning but come 5:30 when I got home from work he was no longer with us. I was gutted! All my carefulness about water quality and making sure he was ating properly and the damn thing commits suicide! So I am now down to 4 fish...

On a funny note though - I have a little area of my tank that has about 8-10 empty shells for my hermit crabs to grow into. It's hilarious watching them keep changing shells - they're like kids in a sweetshop! They must change about every 2-3 hours! Anyway George - the bigger one - decided he was going to go for the BIG shell. He got in it no probs but because it was upside down didn't stand a chance of moving it! After 10 minutes or so he gave up and got back in his original shell...

 

[bgraber]

Wow! Calm down there people! I didnt really say you did anything wrong. Just that the mandarin wouldn't make it. The "Experts" don't recommend anything smaller than a 55.. Most recommend at least 75 LBS of Live Rock!! And a diet of brine will not sustain them. My other comments were more of questions with some advice(Chemipure?!) Jeeze.
B.T.W, I didn't realize Mandarins could get ICH.. They have oily skin.. Are you sure on the diagnosis?
And I am by far no "expert". I just try to take my care of animals as responsibly as possible.

 

[spanair]

I'm sorry to hear what happened to you mandarin leanne . It's a real shame though as he was such a charecter.

On the other note, quiete funny that with the hermits and the shells. I shall get some for mines, I only have about 2 shells lying abouts and thats from the hermits killing my snails im sure .

Anyways I hope you are alright

 

[leanne]

My mandarin got Ich from my box fish (who also isnt supposed to be able to get ich - go figure). I know it's Ich because I have seen (and treated) it before in my freshwater tank - besides it disappeared with the copper based medication.

On a sad note... My box fish has died! My heater failed in my treatment tank and he didn't make it. I guess small tanks are bad for that...

I'm not having much luck at the moment.

My tank is now less stocked but still looks fantastic in my completely biased opinion.

 

[spanair]

well that's not good to hear again

Bah!

 

[Navarre]

Sorry to hear about the losses Leanne.
Out of interest, was removing the mandarin and boxfish to a TT your first course of action? I would have personally kept the fish in the same tank as the others to see if it could get over the illnness. There are many tried and tested "reef safe" methods of dealing with Itch. Lowering the salinity, UV filters, garlic, freshwater dips (i only recomend this as a last resort though).


IMO copper based treatments are very effective in a TT but copper is also poisonous to fish (in very large quantities) but removing a fish from its natural envirnment might add to the stress.
Im very suprised that the mandarin got ITCH due to the structure of their skin. Nevertheless, i guess it can happen in rare cases.


Lets hope that there wont be another outbreak in the days to come. Itch usually has a gestation period of about 9 - 10 days (less if the temperature is higher) If your fish remain Itch free after this period then its liekly to settle down again.
Remember, Itch is something that lives natureally within the tank at all times, fish only usually get this when they are stressed. Iwould advise that you try and see what may have caused your fish to become stressed to start with and try to rectify this. Of course, this is the hardest part of the job as its not always easy to discover what the fish might be unhappy about.

Good luck anyway.

Navarre