Calgary Stores, Stocking Questions, and preparing my tank for Mandarins

[daplatapus]

Originally Posted by mikeclarke

Hi there,



I would one day like to get mandarins and I would like to make sure they don't survive.

Du'oh! Hope thats a typo

^^^ I was about to say the same.

[NanoCat]

I assume that your outbreak was many weeks ago so that the new fish don't just get sick when you put them into your tank.

I would suggest if you ever purchase a Dragonet that you try to teach it to eat prepared foods like brine and mysis enriched with vitamins. I purchased a Dragonet locally at Oceans and placed it in a breeder net within my tank for 3-4 weeks during which time. I used a feeding tube twice a day or more to offer at first brine shrimp and then slowly mysis. Once the Dragonet was eating regularly I let him into the dt and the proceeded to feed him with the same tube everyday.

He now has learned to take even more of the frozen food I feed to the display and hunts the tube when it goes into the tank. I do leave a large pile of food in front of him because they are slow eaters and other fish and crabs may try to steal it from him.

You can also make a feeding den for the Dragonet to help with this. I don't have much trouble with this as I only have one clown fish, tail spot blenny, and some hermits that will steal from him.

When I purchased him his sides were caved in a little and he was starving but now he has fattened up a lot and bulges at the sides more. I is definitely a good idea to have a fuge with pods as some will make it into the display and you can shake some out into the display as well when you do maintenance but if you can train you Dragonet to eat prepared food it would go a long way. It is not a guarantee that every Dragonet will take to training and an Ora Dragonet would probably be best but it is possible.

not sure if you have read this article:
http://coralmagazine.coverleaf.com/coral/20111112#pg51

and also here is a link for a few ways to train Dragonets:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...&#entry3360190

[mikeclarke]

Originally Posted by daplatapus

Du'oh! Hope thats a typo

Whoops. Yeah, I would like it if they survived.

My ich has been gone for a few days and now it will be two weeks when I get new fish into the qt tank. I couldn't catch the sick ich fish so they stayed in my display tank.

Where is a good place to get more marine fish and what would you all suggest getting? When they are in the qt what would you treat them with and how long would you leave them in there before transferring them to the display. I will transfer display tank water to the qt tank (40% weekly) while they are in qt.

[Leah]

The ick is still in your tank.

[NanoCat]

I believe you need to wait 8-10 weeks without sick fish in the tank before the ick would be considered gone. So I would wait longer.

[Leah]

The ick will not go away without leaving the system fishless. The ones you still have in the DT will still have it and it will probably return.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by NanoCat

I believe you need to wait 8-10 weeks without sick fish in the tank before the ick would be considered gone. So I would wait longer.

That time frame assumes no fish at all, sick or otherwise. Adding new fish, even after quarantine, will likely result in one or more getting ich, starting the whole process over again. If you're going to quarantine, get the existing fish out, add them all to QT, treat for ich, and after waiting 10 weeks, add them back. Or don't waste time QT'ing the new fish and hope for the best. Which, IMO, is a bad plan.

[Steve...]

I also got a question about ich... I have a 55 gal that had problems with ich and right now I have 2 fish in the tank with no signs of ich. Im planning to transfer these 2 fish into my new 220 gal tank later. Should I still treat the fish for ich before i throw them into the 220 DT even if they look healthy and fine? I will be stripping the tank down and using it as a QT.

[sphelps]

You still have to treat them to be certain they don't have ich and transfer it into the new tank, ASAIK some fish can transfer it without showing signs. In such cases I take a lighter quarantine approach. Any fish that appears healthy and doesn't show signs of ich but came from a potential source of ich I hold them at hypo-salinity for 8 days in a tank that always has hypo conditions. After 8 days they move from that tank to another tank with matched water conditions but completely separate with 100% uncontaminated water. In that tank they are slowly brought back up to normal salinity and closely monitored for another week or so. In theory ich can't make it through this treatment based on it's life cycle and how it's effected from hypo. Just make sure it's ich you're actually concerned about and not something else.