I'll add that I think I've done everything right this time to support these fish. If they don't make it, I won't try again.

I got a good feeling Brad. As long as it's eating good it will do just fine. I am pretty interested in the pair though, interesting on how that's gonna pan out.

Me too
I think they're keepers

The other guy here that got two had them eating everything in 2 days, fed multiple times per day. They lasted a week. He says he has strong flow and doesn't drop it at night, but woke up to 2 dead fish one morning.
Based on that, I'm going to wait a while before I relax a bit :)

As for a pair, I'd maybe hold off and see what mine do. Most (all?) reports in the MI thread at RC say it won't work long term. Hate to see you lose a stable one by adding a second.

I think you both should forget the idea of a pair as it's apparently not succesful long-term
I'll be by to pickup your un-wanted 'other' Brad :lol:

OK, maybe not. And I don't know if I could ever house one in my 75g anyway. I'm sure it's on the 'OMG, your tank is too small' list :lol:

I'm still cheering for you Brad. I wanna see you succeed with your 2 dudes long-term, no matter what Denny or his poll says :eat this Mr Negative: :mrgreen:

Didn't the poll mostly think they'll be fine? :)

The problem I have is the pair gets along fine now, but if they fight, which one to part with, and to where? I'd hate to re-home it and see it die a week later

Name them and then keep the one with the name you like the most.

or

Flip a coin.

or

Stick it out and see what happens? Just have someone ready to take one if needed. Hoping for the best.

Hmm, not impressed with the poll results
67-33 they will make it
Looks like you're above the failing level of most College students though, so I'd say you're good to go ( bad reference, had nothing else to offer)

Keep them both. If things go sideways, you could always make a trip to J&L and drop one off at my place. I'm sure Donna would love one in our 75g :lol:

Again, died overnight. Both at the same time. DO level is always at its lowest at night when lights out after several hours. As I said before, strong flow does not equal high DO. This has been measured before in Eric's paper and also I had strong flow at the surface of my tank which didn't really increase DO. Obviously, I don't know the setup and am just speculating, but the only way to know for sure what the DO levels are from 2am-6am is with a DO monitor/meter which almost no one uses. The sudden death overnight of both animals is a clue. Why always at night? If diet was an issue, the fish would waste away slowly. We've all seen what it looks like when a fish dies from malnutrition.

DO levels fluctuate wildly from day to day, night to night. But the lowest levels are always at night after lights out for several hours and the levels each night are different. I've had my levels go from 125% saturation during the day to something like 35% at night even with skimmer on. Some nights I get 40%. This was 10 years ago. Nowadays, I think I'm getting closer to 80% at night since I have no algae and deploy a UV sterilizer. There are countless things that affect DO but very few aquarists know what their lowest DO levels are at night. In most cases it doesn't matter because many big systems have enough DO for almost all of the fishes out there. Most marine fishes don't need a lot of DO. I think clownfishes only need 18% DO. I read that just a while ago.