I'm gonna scream :0

[quarryshark]

I am in the 7th week of a 8 week fallow period. The fish are supposed to go back in the pool this weekend.
Also back in July we came home from vacation to find one of our Clownfish missing. Now that this is set up, here is my problem.
I decided to clean my built in overflows tonight and inspect the plumbing, basically do a little house work before they all go back in the weekend. I take off the cover, shine my light in and lo and behold I see a Orange, white and black streak!!! The missing clownfish somehow had gotton in there. I never thought to look before, the holes are way too small, he must have jumped.
Now don't get me wrong, I am glad to see him, but I have 2 problems.
First off, he obviously need to go into treatment for ich. I have a ten gallon that I am treating a new lawnmower blenny in with hypo. The other 2 qt tanks are done with treatment and ready to go. He needs to go in with the blenny, but I am dropping the spg (it is down to.012).
Can I just slowly acclimate him to this? Or do I need to bring up the spg before placing him.
Also, I cannot put my fish back in, how much longer should I leave them out? This sucks, I am tired of running buckets and my fish are very bored. I was thinking 4 weeks (already been 7). What do you think?

 

[HoopsGuru]

Can I just slowly acclimate him to this? Or do I need to bring up the spg before placing him.

Fish can do a drop in specific gravity pretty easily...I woud acclimate it in reverse as though you just brought it home from the petstore.

Also, I cannot put my fish back in, how much longer should I leave them out? This sucks, I am tired of running buckets and my fish are very bored. I was thinking 4 weeks (already been 7). What do you think?

Go 5 and feel secure. After dealing with crap for 7, the extra week here will be just a slightly inconvenient piece of insurance.

 

[Nitrate]

How fortunate for the clownfish and how unfortunate for you!!!

Go ahead and scream, I don’t think anyone would blame you.

 

[revhtree]

Dang Qshark, you havebeen having a time with the whole ich issue. That is amazing about your clownfish though. Poor little bugger.

I would go 4 more and dump them. Sorry to hear.

 

[quarryshark]

Its weird. The distance between the glass and the top of the overflow is less than 1". That is a tight squeeze. After thinking about it, I did check the overflows when we found him missing, don't know how I could have not seen him.
Don't get me wrong, I was glad to see him ( I think he was more glad to see me 8O ). Gonna acclimate him to the hypo tank tonight, keeping fingers crossed it won't hurt him. Really don't have a choice, no where else to put him.
After this is over, I may have the longest qt period on record. 12 weeks!!!

 

[Atari]

That's both awesome and really sucky at the same time, lol.

I don't think you need to worry about him though.. he sounds invincible

 

[quarryshark]

Ya, hes a tough little guy.

 

[Atari]

I feel kinda guilty now for suspecting your tank-sitter back at the time :?

 

[quarryshark]

I never really did. Thank goodness. Would have been eating crow now. 8O

 

[TygGer]

Wow... how long was he in there and how did he survive that long? I'd consider him special.

 

[quarryshark]

Well, we got home on July 14th. So sometime between June 29th and July 14th. Almost 2 months. I feel guilty, I guess I didn't look in there hard enough (big overflow, 30" deep and lots of plumbing). Poor little guy.
He got enough food through the overflow. Its a good thing I continued to feed the inverts during the "supposed" fallow time.
I'm a little worried if the other 3 clowns will accept him when the time comes. He's been away for a while.
Yup, he is my special fish now.

 

[Atari]

Is this one smaller than the others? If so he might be able to just slip into the bottom of the hierarchy without too much fuss.

 

[quarryshark]

It used to be the female, but I believe the other (was the second largest) has taken that role.
Have to see what happens.

 

[Atari]

Well you definitely have enough space incase there's trouble.. good luck!

 

[quarryshark]

Thanks.

 

[quarryshark]

Got him!!
Poor little guy. It was like being in solitary for 2 months (not like I would know) 8) .
Was hard to catch in a 30" deep overflow, had to use a small net with a makeshift long handle. A lot of plumbing.
I'm giving him a slow drip acclimation to the hypo right now.
My fallow time officially begins. :|