New Fish in QT

[Phyl]

I just got my new fish in from LA. To say that they are GORGEOUS is almost an understatement! OMG! I got 4 Lyretail Anthias (M/3F) and an exquisite wrasse. They are all in my 30g QT with 10g overflow/sump. Picture on LA's site just don't do them justice.

They get along wonderfully. The wrasse acts just like one of the gang. They are already eating mysis and cyclopeze. When I put the food into the tank they went NUTS! They became extremely active and swam every inch of the tank eating the cyclopeze (Liquid Life) and chasing the frozen mysis like crazy. So far so good.

I don't think I took a single good picture but if I can find one that's half way decent I'll post it up! They're beautiful! I'm so psyched.

 

[Phyl]

Out of focus but beautiful none the less...

 

[Fluff]

They are gorgeous Phyllis. Congrats on your new additions.

 

[Phyl]

Thanks. I was really worried about whether or not they'd eat (and even bought some live white shrimp when I bought them, JIC) but they're doing just fine. They ate well again this morning. The LiquidLife in the water just makes them go crazy.

What is the particle size of frozen cyclopeze? The only cyclopeze I have is either flake or the Liquid Life. Since they like the cyclopeze so much I was thinking about getting a block of that as well. I'll probably try some Formula 1 or Prime Reef tonight and see if I have any takers. *crosses fingers* I hope to have them on my main reef foods by the time they join the main.

 

[MYTY1705]

Gorgeous fish. Congrats on the new friends. Seething with Jealousy on the anthais. Are they hard to keep? Any special requirements??? Cause I love the color of them.

 

[Phyl]

The primary challenge, from what I've read, is that they are hard to get to eating prepared foods. I've heard lots of people have great success feeding cyclopeze. And so far mine have been eating just fine. They also like to eat 2-3 times a day, so if that doesn't fit your lifestyle they're not a good fit. Some of the really pretty ones come from deeper waters and therefore keep their color best under moderate to low lighting. When I was considering the Anthias Steve-S gave me a good link to which species were best suited for captivity.

They do best in harem's. One male (more than one will fight to the death, from what I've read but I saw 2M & 3F in a LFS tank. Not sure what's up there) and a few to lots of females. My plan was to get 1M, 3 Lyretail F and one Bimaculatus F but the bi was backordered and now they're not on the offering list at LA so I'm guesssing it won't be happening.

 

[zacdl]

Wow u keep that tank clean...

 

[Phyl]

That's just my QT setup. That's not their "home". My main has sand and rock and coral abounding! This is actually QT2. There wasn't going to be enough room in my 15g QT for the Harem and Steve-S recommended that I keep my PT at running levels for a week before moving him to my main so I ended up needing my QT longer for that fish than I was planning. So I'm using a 30g I acquired to house the Anthias during their QT period.

 

[zacdl]

BTW what is the point of a QT?
To make sure there arent any diseases or anything right?

But wont it already be in the water when yo ustick them in there anyway? You cant get it out can you?

 

[Phyl]

They're in QT so that they can be watched carefully. They're being watched for eating and waste removal patterns, health, behavior, etc. Should a disease present itself while they're in my QT tank I am able to treat just these fish rather than all of the fish in my main (once a fish in your main has ich it is there until you treat the tank and all of the fish). Once the new fish are treated (like my Purple Tang) then they are able to be moved into the main without passing on some horrible disease or parasite to the rest of my tank. Should one not be eating it will be easier to spot in QT than in my main. If one of them is weak from travel/transit/stress they have time to get stronger before being added to my main where things are pretty fast paced. Getting a fish out of my main would be some pretty tricky business and I'd rather not have to if it is preventable. When I took the fish from their bags and put it into my QT I didn't take any of their water. I netted the fish from their acclimation buckets and plunked them into my main. I'll do the same when I move them from QT into my main after doing tons of water changes over the next 4w.

QT is a good practice if you don't want to lose precious livestock. I have too much invested in my main to add anything to it that I haven't properly QT'd.

 

[zacdl]

But doesnt ich occur when you change fish from tank to tank? wouldnt it get ich AGAIn when you transfer to the main tank or do you keep them the exact same water params and everythign?

 

[MYTY1705]

ICH is a parasite not a problem from bad water parameters. If the fish do not show signs of ich in the qt for a few weeks more than likely it is not a carrier. If ich does get in the main tank you would have to leave it fallow for 6-8 weeks to allow the parasites time to die befor you add you fish back in.

 

[Phyl]

Ich is a parasite that is either there or it isn't. Fish are more susceptible to the parasite when they are stressed out or weak (moving, water parameters not right, etc). Because of this the stress of getting an animal to your house makes it susceptible. Ich is a cyclic parasite and there are stages where the animal is presenting (visible white spots) and stages where the animal is not presenting. Because they may not be presenting when you bring them home, you put them into your system and a couple of days later (as was the case with my PT) you see the first spots appear. The fish was affected before but moving exacerbated the problem and made the fish more easily attacked. My PT was at hypo (1.009) in QT for 5 weeks. 4 weeks since the last known spot, 1 more week to bring the SG back up to normal and 1 week of watching and waiting prior to release in the main (8 weeks total).

Presuming there is no ich in my main moving my now perfectly healthy PT into my main would not result in him becoming infested again. I suppose that there's always the chance that some other fish in my main was a carrier but never presented and that all of my perfectly healthy fish in my main are able to fight it off and that when I put my PT in from this next move he'll become susceptible, but at this point I've done everything that I can to prevent ich from getting into my main.

My 2 (now 3) tanks are kept at the same SG, same pH (to the best of my ability) and same ro/di + salt mix. The water in the three tanks should be largely similar. I will acclimate the PT when I move him anyway, just probably not for very long.

 

[Fluff]

Phyl,
I use two types of cyclops. The freeze dried and frozen. It is tiny tiny. But, my fish still find it. It's good stuff.

http://cyclop-eeze.com/product_info.php

 

[Phyl]

Thanks Fluff. I have some flake cyclopeze but I'll have hubby pick up some of the frozen cyclopeze when he picks up the Liquid Life tonight.