Biota success rate.

[Tanggy]

I have done it both ways but my QT tank for them is actually a full on smaller display... aged live rock and all that. So it is a chill place for them to hang out. The main reason I put them in the observation tank is these fish often come in TINY!!! They sometimes need a bit of TLC and time to grow before meeting the bigger established tank mates. My mulitbar and especially needed somewhere to eat undisturbed and to make sure it was getting enough as it's mouth is tiny and it has kind of needed special tiny foods to pick at.

That was my plan also. Had them in a 20 gallon observation tank seeded with plenty of live rocks. I would probably try it again when the multibar are available. How long did you have the multibar in your QT tank before you transfer them into your main tank?

 

[Slocke]

Still waiting to hear from Biota about DAA, but I am determined to try again. Plan for next time is to test for copper, dose prime in the bags, float for 30 minutes then direct transfer to QT. My QT is observation only, no medication.

Also, Medium tangs only. Small is just to small.

Do you think biota would accept a request to have the fish fed well prior to shipping? I know most shippers fast them prior to avoid fouling the bags.

I don't know why you are complicating this. Just follow their acclimation guide. Do not open the bag until you are ready to add them to their tank. As said multiple times before as soon as the bag is open the ammonia in the bag becomes toxic. On top of that by not following the acclimation procedure you are invalidating their DOA/DAA policy and they have every right to not give you your money back!

Here it is again:

Do not drip acclimate Biota fish shipped directly from our Biota facility *

1. Open box and inspect animals for immediate health.

2. Turn off lights on aquarium.

3. Float bags in aquarium for 10-15 minutes making sure to avoid clogging overflows or filtration.

4. Open bags and using a net introduce your new aquatic life to your tank. Be sure to avoid high flow areas and for smaller specimens make sure they are not predated on before they find the rockwork.

5. Leave lighting off for at least an additional 20-30 minutes, preferably overnight.

Straying away from this guide may invalidate our DOA/DAA policy. Other acclimation methods could be harmful for our live animals.

 

[Tamberav]

That was my plan also. Had them in a 20 gallon observation tank seeded with plenty of live rocks. I would probably try it again when the multibar are available. How long did you have the multibar in your QT tank before you transfer them into your main tank?

It’s still in there since MACNA. It’s a 25g of space. Probably be in there a long time tbh. I am debating giving it a 60g. Biota said these fish are still fairly difficult so I am hesitant to put it in the display with crazy wrasses.

It will probably just get its own display till it is much larger. Maybe put some biota mandarins in with it and some dither fish to try and keep stress minimum.

It is feeding the exact pellets biota feeds very well but it is hesitant about other food so I doubt it can compete in my display.

It’s my dream fish hence all the extra work and TLC. If it has to have its own species tank for a long time/forever then I can accept that.

 

[Tamberav]

I don't know why you are complicating this. Just follow their acclimation guide. Do not open the bag until you are ready to add them to their tank. As said multiple times before as soon as the bag is open the ammonia in the bag becomes toxic. On top of that by not following the acclimation procedure you are invalidating their DOA/DAA policy and they have every right to not give you your money back!

Here it is again:

Do not drip acclimate Biota fish shipped directly from our Biota facility *

1. Open box and inspect animals for immediate health.

2. Turn off lights on aquarium.

3. Float bags in aquarium for 10-15 minutes making sure to avoid clogging overflows or filtration.

4. Open bags and using a net introduce your new aquatic life to your tank. Be sure to avoid high flow areas and for smaller specimens make sure they are not predated on before they find the rockwork.

5. Leave lighting off for at least an additional 20-30 minutes, preferably overnight.

Straying away from this guide may invalidate our DOA/DAA policy. Other acclimation methods could be harmful for our live animals.

Yes, do not open bags until you are ready to immediately add the fish is best practice.

Do not trust prime to detoxify ammonia. This has been contested as false information.

 

[Ls7corvete]

Yes, do not open bags until you are ready to immediately add the fish is best practice.

Do not trust prime to detoxify ammonia. This has been contested as false information.

Disappointing, do you have a source for that? Would love to read it. Just put Reef Beef on my spotify so I can hear their acclimation procedure.

 

[LgTas]

Disappointing, do you have a source for that? Would love to read it. Just put Reef Beef on my spotify so I can hear their acclimation procedure.

If memory serves, it was a Taricha or ScottB thread where their own test data was overwhelmingly convincing that prime did not work.

Im not sure why you're still exploring other acclimation approaches. You are buying Biota fish therefore follow ONLY Biota's protocol.

I have never done anything other than 15 mins, open bag then immediately transfer into display (yes i dont QT, shock horror) and ive lost one fish across three display tanks in the last 4 years and that was due to poor condition from the LFS.

Great that youre purchasing captive bred. Im in Aus with almost no captive bred options... very envious!

 

[Ls7corvete]

If memory serves, it was a Taricha or ScottB thread where their own test data was overwhelmingly convincing that prime did not work.

Im not sure why you're still exploring other acclimation approaches. You are buying Biota fish therefore follow ONLY Biota's protocol.

I have never done anything other than 15 mins, open bag then immediately transfer into display (yes i dont QT, shock horror) and ive lost one fish across three display tanks in the last 4 years and that was due to poor condition from the LFS.

Yes I will skip the prime and acclimate per biota. I would still like to research this more.

 

[Tamberav]

Yes I will skip the prime and acclimate per biota. I would still like to research this more.

Here you go… also the contents of Vibrant were also under scrutiny so much they were removed as a sponsor I believe. So basically we can’t really believe much around here I guess that’s why we call many things snake oil.

Does Prime actually "Detoxify" free ammonia, NH3?

This started when @Dan_P was looking at measuring NH3 with seneye and was curious about performance near zero NH3. I suggested trying Prime to artificially zero out the NH3 sensor, and the results were weird... so I checked with my seachem kit. Prime by Seachem is commonly used to treat tap...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Ls7corvete]

Here you go… also the contents of Vibrant were also under scrutiny so much they were removed as a sponsor I believe. So basically we can’t really believe much around here I guess that’s why we call many things snake oil.

Does Prime actually "Detoxify" free ammonia, NH3?

This started when @Dan_P was looking at measuring NH3 with seneye and was curious about performance near zero NH3. I suggested trying Prime to artificially zero out the NH3 sensor, and the results were weird... so I checked with my seachem kit. Prime by Seachem is commonly used to treat tap...

www.reef2reef.com

I read that soon, thank you. I am under the impression that ammonia detoxifying agents are pretty widely used and have proven efficacy. Even biota uses something in shipping bags. I use prime; no personal experience regarding the rest.

Though at this point, I am upset enough about the experience; I'll just drive and get any other fish myself.

 

[xCry0x]

My first yellow tang was DOA, got a replacement, that one was great.

Got super fat in two weeks grazing my rocks.. then got itself sucked into a power head during the night somehow -.-

I got a baby tomini tang from my LFS since I didn't want to shell out the money on the yellow tang again.

Now I have a baby tomini that refuses to eat anything besides flake food and occasionally will nip film algae off the glass.

I miss the yellow tang.

Also got anemone guards on the powerheads now.

I also got a mandarin from them but tbh I don't know why I bothered. As soon as it got into my tank it has just gone crazy eating pods.

 

[Zionas]

Would love more experiences with Angels, both dwarf and large from them. CB, Lemonpeel, Gold Flake, Majestic, maybe Regal.
Multi-Bar is known to be hard, I know, guess even the CB ones are luck of the draw?

 

[Ls7corvete]

Would love more experiences with Angels, both dwarf and large from them. CB, Lemonpeel, Gold Flake, Majestic, maybe Regal.
Multi-Bar is known to be hard, I know, guess even the CB ones are luck of the draw?

Tried a purple masked as a replacement for the gold flake. He arrived in a empty/leaking bag. Survived two weeks.

My coral beauty is the only angel that has survived.

 

[areefer01]

For those that have success with biota fish do you guys observe or quarantine them in a separate tank or do they go directly into the display tank?

Direct from Biota here and I've done both ways. It really depends on the fish size. For example:

Pink square anthias - direct to display
Gold Line Rabbitfish - refugium due to size
Matted Filefish - refugium due to size
Starry & Links Goby - direct to display but I had all flow turned off so they could get to bottom
Fork Tail Blenny - refugium due to size
Sapphire Damsels - display
Radial filefish - refugium due to size

That is more or less it. My refugium can be taken offline and run independent should I need to do something quick. There is a healthy pod population in there along with a few corals and rocks so plenty for them to do while growing in size. I have two pretty aggressive eating fish (pyramid and zoster butterflies) so the refugium gives the smaller fish time to do their thing without a risk of no food due to their slow ways.

 

[Tanggy]

Just got this purple mask a few days ago. It's in an acclimation box in my DT. From day one it's eating really well. Came in bigger than my multibar. It's about 2 inches. Hopefully this one will make it.

 

[Biota_Marine]

At MACNA this year they had one of they Yurples go missing why shipping UPS. Fish showed up a day late with no side effects. Every day it turns more beautiful.

This was supposed to be a secret lol UPS misplaced 16 of 20 boxes for MACNA but we have a great rep who was able to track most of them down and we picked up every box but the one the Yurple was in after UPS's main hub closed and got them acclimated to the systems. My team in Florida packed some backups inlcuding an additional Yurple that got there at 5 AM right before the show so we ended up with 2 yurples at the show which were clearly the stars.

Thank y'all for the kind words and questions, we do try our best to improve our packaging all the time so feedback helps out a ton. Many of y'all seem to be having great success with our animals I do highly suggest our acclimation guide found here: https://shop.thebiotagroup.com/pages/acclimation-guide

Also typically with most species we try to put all the information on their product pages but we're always open to answering additional questions here, through email, or on our website chat.