Good luck and please keep us posted.u guys have convinced me to put my fish ina co-workers tank ill do tha before i get to wrk tonight i hope he stays alive
Good luck and please keep us posted.u guys have convinced me to put my fish ina co-workers tank ill do tha before i get to wrk tonight i hope he stays alive
QT is always an option. You can do PWCs to keep the parameters in check.
Either way the situation is not a good one. Darned if you do and darned if you don't. I'm with Roka. In either case the tank needs constant monitoring which it does not seem to be getting. About the volume, you are right to a certain degree with an established tank but i watched my 120 go from OK to off the charts overnight (Ammonia & Nitrites) when cycling (which we are not sure of if the tank is in this case and assuming isn't). I made the mistake of using fish to cycle my 44 gal cichlid and was at one point doing 50 % PWC's twice a day which was a bear to do (2 weeks of this). At that time I wasn't aware of fishless cycling, now I am and will never do it again. As far as the salinity reading if he i using a hydrometer it may be much lower than what he posted, I have a brand new one from IO and had my water at 1.023 SG according to my Hydrometer. Before I put anything in the tank I took a sample to my LFS where he informed me that my SG was 1.016, then I went to three others to verify this discrepancy and the other SG's ranged from 1.016 to 1.019. If this is the case with TNTfish his reading could be as low as 1.012 due to errors in the device. I'm in the process of ordering a refractometer because of this. In order for me to keep an SG of 1.023 my hydro need to read 1.028 to .030.Couldn't disagree more.
a) the main tank has a much greater water volume to be able to 'keep the parameters in check'. More volume = more dillution , less chance of a bad water change, tank continues to cycle (though not under the best of circumstance).
b) There is no QT setup, no movable filter established so why move the fish to somewhere where the pollution will increase much faster and need much more oversight than the main.
c) The main is already, to some extent, bacteria established since the blenny and damsel were in there before (an assumption from the info provided). So now we need to move the clown, damsel, blenny and star to an uncycled, never before setup minimum water volume qt? IMO a death sentence.
I agree QT is always an option but not the best ASAP option if it's not planned for ahead.
Me neither, The tank as of his post was running for 1 week as of 7/24/09 so i don't know where the month figure comes in. Just because the other fish appear to be OK doesn't mean anything due to the different tolerances of different species. I know he doesn't have a QT tank but how about getting one setup. In any case there a multiple ways to solve the same problem, we are just trying to help him out.I really don't have an interest in dragging this out so I'll end on this.
All based on what has been posted here:
IF the tank is cycling then it's cycling from the livestock and no other ammonia source. With readings at 0 the only possible ammonia source could be the livestock so your example of huge ammonia readings needing huge water changes is not particularly relevant. Furthermore, if you're equating that experience to this then just imagine how fast the QT will become fouled if your 'large' tank required pwc's of that level.
If the other fish were in this display for a month then the only partial place there are bacteria is the main. Again, how are you suggesting someone who doesn't have a QT set one up and have it cycled and ready to go in short order? As i said before, re-hosting is the optimal.
In some respects I see a lot of advice on this site that seems to be from a check list with little regard for applying the specific details the OP presents. Every white spot on a fish isn't ich,
BTW: IMO your ph is too high and your salinity too low. Both of which are probably contributing to some stress as well. MO: .023-.026 SG and PH 7.8-8.0
Anyway, I wish the OP good luck in many respects.
No need to be soooooo upset. Check out his posting on 07/24/09 and you tell me.http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f11/not-reef-ready-118889.htmlill get the info i did aclimate tank has been cycling for a good month have a lil blue damsel a choclate chip starfish nd a blenny
I hear ya, we're all trying our best to help without knowing all of the facts, at this point we're going mostly on assumptions. I just hope he can get the fish and the tank healthy any way he can.can't speak for the honesty here or on any other board around. As I said before my opinion was based on what was posted in this thread.
Well said TC.I agree with ROKA as to the QT. It is a great possiblity that your fish has "Ammonia burned gills" due to his gasping for air as you stated. A QT is a better option at this point because you can take a clean new batch of SW or some from the tank and monitor water parameters and do PWC as needed to keep them in check. It is allot cheaper to do a smaller PWC in a 10g QT then in a larger DT. Also if medications are needed they will not contaminate the main tank. We all have opinions and they are all with good intentions, but remember they are Opinions. Everyone should step back and see that all we want to do is help correct this situation so that we all can learn from this.