Rabbut's Marine Jurnal

[Crazy fishes]

Not really, most of the eggcrate is holes anyway. Give that a go. Junior hacksaw or fretsaws work well at cutting a clean edge.

Give it a go nothing to lose !!

Regards

 

[ben1987]

all the tanks i have seen with eggcrate lids are fine, no shadows

 

[rabbut]

Ok, just have to find some... thanks guys

 

[ben1987]

ebay mate. Koi filter grid. But the square one rather than diamond though as its a git to cut

 

[rabbut]

OK, well things in the reef have gone from bad to worse recently....

White Spot or Marine Ich has infested the fish and has presumably claimed one life. This kicked me hard enough in the back-side to take some more drastic action towards treating them, via advice from Colin_T. I was using freshwater baths for it, and though it "seamed" to work for the female clown, it did nothing for the Neon Goby. The Goby also became rather difficult to catch, as he grew wise to the net... At this point, the Royal Gramma was clean however.

Yesterday evening, I noticed that the Gramma had been infected also. I set-up a bucket with fresh salt RO a heater and an airline in, and left it thus overnight to warm up. I caught the Female Skunk Clown directly after lights on and transfered her in. There were no signs of the Neon Goby or Royal Gramma all morning, so at 10am, I decided to strip the tank to try and find them. The Royal Gramma was hiding in it's usual hole in the live rock and came out quietly... After taking all rock out, and searching every damed hole in it, I could not find the Neon Goby. He is now officialy AWOL, assumed dead

For the next week, I'll be following Colin_T's advice, and transfering the fish to a newly set-up bucket daily, discarding the water in the old one and sterilising the bucket and net for the next day... This should sort the White Spot issue

As I had all the rock out, I figured it was time for a re-scape, and I am pleased with the result and new look There are more pearches for positioning corals now, and I'll soon be able to afford to add a few more... Here are a couple of new Full Tank Shots;

The mistery frag is also AWOL, but I'm fairly shure now that it was a frogspawn, as it was developing a sckelaton....

The Bubble coral has perked up from later in the week. It's fully out now, where as before it only came out in the morning. It's getting less light and more flow, and seems to prefur it's new spot. Reading arround, apparently these guys don't like ultra-intence lighting, so mebe that was the issue befre, being just 10" under a 150W Metal Halide... Ski recomending I start suppliment dosing before getting my test kits delivered will likely have helped the situation also

The Organ Pipe was fully out this morning, but has closed-up with all the commotion. It's starting to come out again now, 3 hour later, but that'll probibly be it for today

The Green Star Polyps are looking better now they've finished to latest round of sulking also, again prefuring the reduced light and increased flow of it's new spot

I reserved a Maze Brain coral at work on Saturday, so that'll be going at the top center, where there is low flow and bright light, apparently this type's favorite conditions this may have to wait for a few weeks, as I'm temperarily short of funds. I can just afford the running costs of the tank, but not much else ATM )

A turquoise mushroom is down near the bottom now...

The Button Polyps are looking better, again in lower light zones...

A Red-leg hermit crab, clinging onto the rock for dear life, near the Tunze Nanostream pump, and another under the Green Star Polyps...

Orange sponge rock is now at the front, low flow and reasonable light. Let's see if it gets covered in Diatom algea in it's new spot, like it did the last one...

A Hitch-hiker that I found today on the Live Rock. Presumably a clam or muscle of some form... Can anyone give an ID here please?

Today's little tank strip has also allowed me to audit my current CUC stock...

3 Redleg Hermits
2 Common Hermits
2 Turbo Snails
1 Peppermint Shrimp.

That means the following are AWOL like the Neon Goby;

2 Redleg Hermits
2 Peppermint Shrimp...

Ben, thanks for the tip on Egg Crate. I will look for some eventually. An up-grade to a 3ft marine is in the planning stage, assuming I can get this one to run without problems from the end of the white-spot treatment till Easter, when I'll start saving for it...

Thanks for reading
Rabbut

 

[ben1987]

Gutted about all the problems. Could you not keep this tank as QT for the 3'er?

 

[rabbut]

I could, but it's finding the space to set it up Ben, that will be the issue. I have space in the garrage, but it gets below freezing out there in this wether, so could only realistically run a QT set-up out there in late spring, summer and early Autum... Good idea, and a great preventative, but I'd struggle to do it practically ATM

 

[rabbut]

The Royal Gramma has died in treatment Doing well so far The spots are gone now though, so mebe it wasn't White Spot?

 

[SkiFletch]

White spot comes and goes like that as the parasites fall off. Often times at deat the fish appears pale as all the cysts burst, removing the white but making the fish just look like it's dully colored with remaining damaged scar tissue

 

[rabbut]

Well, I've a clean slate to start thinking about new fish now, they've all gone over

I've been told to wait 1 month by my supervisor, and 6-8weeks by my ex-supervisor before adding fish. Another of my collegues recons I'd be safe after a few days though... What do you guys think. Personally, I think 6-8 weeks sounds a bit overkill, but I probibly won't be able to afford replacements for that long anyway...

Those Starfish are munching the Organ Pipe BTW, so does anyone want some starfish? If so, drop me a PM, and you can have as many as I find for the cost of postage after the tanks cleared of White Spot... They have left my softies and bubble alone thus far, but can't offer any guarrentees, for obvious reasons... They are currently being re-located to the skimmer bucket as and when discovered...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[kj23502]

The Real Deal: Treating Fishes in Isolation, Allowing the Main System to "Go Fallow"

There are no "reef-safe" and effective treatments for crypt. NONE. Curing infested fishes involves separating them from non-fish livestock and treating them in that other system (or alternatively moving the non-fish livestock). Infested systems can be made "crypt-free" or better "crypt-virulence-reduced" by having them kept free of fish hosts for several (4 or more) weeks without fishes. If practical, elevating temperatures and possibly lowering specific gravity (to the tolerance of other non-fish livestock) can be employed to "speed up" the loss of virulence of the parasites. In practical terms we are generally talking the low to mid 80's F. and 1.017-1.018... with these values adjusted over days time. Care must be exercised in not possibly transmitting disease organisms from the quarantine system... on nets, containers, hands... anything wet, and drying, otherwise sterilizing quarantine tanks and gear between uses.

http/www.wetwebmedia.com/ichartmar.htm

 

[ben1987]

Sorry to hear of your troubles rabbut, i have heard of people running their tanks fallow for upto 3 months. Most i have read about have done 6 weeks though. I dont know much about it, i am sure someone wh does will be able to tell you more

 

[SkiFletch]

Been there Rabbut, so I'll try and offer some advice with a personal story.

Bout a year and a half ago I had way more fish than I do now and purchased a male/female pair of Vanuatu fairy wrasses. Didn't bother to QT them as I'd never had problems before, whoops. They developed Ich about 2 weeks after they were added to my tank. It quickly spread to most of my other fish. Ended up loosing the Vanuatu wrasses, my 8 line flasher wrasse, labouti fairy wrasse, leopard wrasse and one of my clownfish pair. Upon infection I QT'ed the entire stock (man did that STINK trying to catch them all). Managed to save one clown, my two gobies, solorensis wrasse, mystery wrasse, and my pseudochromis. So basically lost half my fish but saved half with QT and treating with hyposalinity.

Once the survivors were ich-free I slowly brought the salinity back up in the QT tank over the course of many weeks. After much reading and consulting with some of the "old salites" in my local reef club who had been there before I determined that I would leave the main display tank fallow of fish for 8 weeks. It ended up being 9 before I put the fish back in. Mercifully the Ich did not return but I still remember that pain of loosing those fish and being able to do nothing

I now QT ALL new fish for a minimum of 3 weeks and haven't had any trouble using that method. The only fish I do not QT are those that come from a local reefkeeper whom I trust and can vouch for their health.

Good luck and hope that helps

 

[rabbut]

It helps a little. I know to lay off fish for many weeks now I'll stick to looking at corals, more specifically hard corals. I do have a bit of a thing for LPS's ATM... Hopefully work will be getting a Marine delivery this week...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[rabbut]

Well, I've got some new coral to keep my interest in the tank up while it's empty of fish... Some of the stats are way off still, but the Organ Pipe and Bubble Corals had been out and happy for a few days in the run-up to the purchase and Alk was back on the chart...

Anyhow, stats ATM

Ammonia 0ppm
NitrIte 0ppm
NitrAte 0ppm
pH 8.2
SG 1.027
Alk 11.4dKH, buffered back to 12dKH, as the other two are still high...
Ca >500ppm
Mg >1500ppm

The latter two stats can't be too bad, or I'd expect all the coral to be suffering. The Alk readings have been a bit all over the place since comming back on the chart, so I'm not giving them that much weight for the moment...

Anyhow, the new Brain Coral;

The Organ Pipe that has not only picked-up but grown;

The Star Polyps are looking better, though the camera always makes them look washed-out...;

Bubble Coral. Looking a tad worse for wear, but the two "ends" have been inflating properly for a few days, and the polyps in the center are missing where it looks a bit "thin". Still, it's not in a strop;

Zoo Polyp;

Couple of Mushrooms. One's appeared again from nowhere, the other was a "freebie";

Couple of FTS

Enjoy
Rabbut

EDIT: Bust the photo links via Photobucket...