eschaton
Fishaholic
Well, my bad luck these past few weeks with my formerly easy as pie first reef tank continues.
A few weeks ago I looked everywhere for tank-bred yellow clown gobies and found them...I thought. Picked up a pair for mating. After a few days I noticed how thin they were, and how non-aggressive they were eating compared with the other two fish (Neon Goby & Blackline Fangblenny).
Since they were so skinny, I ended up overfeeding the tank a few times while I was trying out different foods to see what the clown gobies might eat - to seemingly no effect, except it managed to get my cycle out of whack a little (Ammonia went up to 0.25-ish, but it didn't seem to hurt the inverts). The smaller one just vanished one day, though the bigger one, albeit skinny as a rail, is hanging on.
And then I noticed today while my other two fish still have their appetites, they both have some white specks on their fins. Looks like marine ich to me. Thinking back, I noticed one of the Yellow Clown Gobies did have a small white bump on its fin when I first got him, but I remember the Neon Goby nipping it off and thought that was the end of the issue.
I'm now thinking that because the Clown Gobies aren't eating and introduced Ich into the tank, they probably were wild caught after all and falsely advertised. Either that or they're from the worst breeder ever.
Anyway, I'm going to set up a Quarantine tank tomorrow or Friday and treat with Hyposalinity for six weeks. The only thing I have a big question about is - how the hell do you cycle a marine quarantine tank? There isn't any filter media to move over really, plus I've read you don't want to put live rock into the tank. It's got me scratching my head.
Any tips much appreciated.
A few weeks ago I looked everywhere for tank-bred yellow clown gobies and found them...I thought. Picked up a pair for mating. After a few days I noticed how thin they were, and how non-aggressive they were eating compared with the other two fish (Neon Goby & Blackline Fangblenny).
Since they were so skinny, I ended up overfeeding the tank a few times while I was trying out different foods to see what the clown gobies might eat - to seemingly no effect, except it managed to get my cycle out of whack a little (Ammonia went up to 0.25-ish, but it didn't seem to hurt the inverts). The smaller one just vanished one day, though the bigger one, albeit skinny as a rail, is hanging on.
And then I noticed today while my other two fish still have their appetites, they both have some white specks on their fins. Looks like marine ich to me. Thinking back, I noticed one of the Yellow Clown Gobies did have a small white bump on its fin when I first got him, but I remember the Neon Goby nipping it off and thought that was the end of the issue.
I'm now thinking that because the Clown Gobies aren't eating and introduced Ich into the tank, they probably were wild caught after all and falsely advertised. Either that or they're from the worst breeder ever.
Anyway, I'm going to set up a Quarantine tank tomorrow or Friday and treat with Hyposalinity for six weeks. The only thing I have a big question about is - how the hell do you cycle a marine quarantine tank? There isn't any filter media to move over really, plus I've read you don't want to put live rock into the tank. It's got me scratching my head.
Any tips much appreciated.
