“Cleaning” Acclimation/Isolation Boxes

[mjreefs]

Hi,

So, in my QT setup I have an isolation box which houses a potter’s angelfish. He doesn’t get to eat much and tends to leave some food behind (especially the bigger chunks). Some questions:
1. Will the isolation box result in an environment whose water quality will differ from that of the host aquqarium? I’m looking specifically at ammonia. I’m concerned about this since I don’t want to place it near the wavemaker or else all the food placed in there would simply blast out into the host aquarium leaving none for the potter’s to possibly forage.

2. How do you clean it without inducing much stress to the fish? By cleaning, I mean, removing detritus. I sense that the Potter’s cannot get established and eat much is due to the fact that there’s a big fat hand with a siphon cleaning up the isolation box’s floor once in a while.

Many thanks to those that will answer. (Hope I posted in the right section)

 

[ngoodermuth]

How long do you plan on keeping the potter's in the isolation box? For the entire QT period?

An isolation/acclimation box is usually only intended to separate fish temporarily, maybe a couple weeks at the longest. I don't usually use mine for more than a few days, to get old fish used to a new addition. In any case, there should be enough water movement between the box and the tank that I wouldn't be concerned about ammonia or water quality in there. But, if you need to keep the fish in your QT separated for an extended amount of time he may be happier with an egg-crate divider or something similar instead so he has a bit more room to swim around. Those boxes aren't usually very big.

 

[mjreefs]

How long do you plan on keeping the potter's in the isolation box? For the entire QT period?

An isolation/acclimation box is usually only intended to separate fish temporarily, maybe a couple weeks at the longest. I don't usually use mine for more than a few days, to get old fish used to a new addition. In any case, there should be enough water movement between the box and the tank that I wouldn't be concerned about ammonia or water quality in there. But, if you need to keep the fish in your QT separated for an extended amount of time he may be happier with an egg-crate divider or something similar instead so he has a bit more room to swim around. Those boxes aren't usually very big.

Well, the only time I'd release it from the isobox is when he starts to eat the food I offer, not necessarily compete, but as long as he eats pellets and starts to chomp down some whole mysis, I'd be happy to release it from the isobox. At the current time, he only eats on "crushed" mysis. Doesn't get interested in pellets.

I also have a divider made out of eggcrate, but the problem is, he might be able to go through the holes, making the division pointless.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Are you using any medications at this time? I don’t usually isolate a fish to get it eating... my “hard to feed” acquisitions usually get a few pieces of sacrificial live rock from my sump to pick at until they begin to eat prepared foods. He might be less likely to eat due to the stress of being in the confined box, especially if there are no hiding spots available there.

I have a Potter’s, it literally took over a month if not longer to start eating prepared foods with any gusto. It didn’t really eat much through QT at all... once he was ready I put him in the DT and he began eating after some time there. Now it eats everything in sight.

Some of my favorite foods for picky eaters are nutramar ova, fish roe, baby brine shrimp, and live black worms.

Also, many of the angels I’ve QT’d have taken to flake foods before mysis or pellets.

Hope that’s helpful, good luck with him!

 

[mjreefs]

Are you using any medications at this time? I don’t usually isolate a fish to get it eating... my “hard to feed” acquisitions usually get a few pieces of sacrificial live rock from my sump to pick at until they begin to eat prepared foods. He might be less likely to eat due to the stress of being in the confined box, especially if there are no hiding spots available there.

I have a Potter’s, it literally took over a month if not longer to start eating prepared foods with any gusto. It didn’t really eat much through QT at all... once he was ready I put him in the DT and he began eating after some time there. Now it eats everything in sight.

Some of my favorite foods for picky eaters are nutramar ova, fish roe, baby brine shrimp, and live black worms.

Also, many of the angels I’ve QT’d have taken to flake foods before mysis or pellets.

Hope that’s helpful, good luck with him!

Yes, I'm currently treating the tank with Cupramine using HotRocks' method. I guess I'd better release the angel with the others since there is no aggression in sight, hopefully, that should make it much more settled, since he's munching on bits of mysis anyway.

 

[ngoodermuth]

After you’ve finished treating with copper, if you plan to keep him a few weeks longer for observation, you could probably throw a few pieces of live rock in there for him to graze on if he’s still not really eating by then. The copper could be suppressing his appetite as well, so you might find after that’s done his interest in foods will perk up quite a bit, too.

Cool fish, usually once they start eating they are little pigs. Good luck!