I’m starting my first saltwater setup and having a blast! My tank is a 20 gallon high and it’s been running for 2 weeks. I started with fully cured live rock that never dried out. Current residents that I have added are 2 trochus snails and 5 cerith snails. I also have some Gracilara hayi in there.
My first fish should be arriving at my LFS sometime in the next couple of weeks at which point I’ll have it in quarantine for 4-6 weeks. I have that tank set up too with a piece of live rock from my tank to seed the filter sponge. I’ll remove the rock before the fish goes in there.
At this point, I’m starting to panic and think that maybe I should put a cheap frag of coral in my display tank just to make sure that everything beyond what I can test for with my kit is in good working order before I add a fish. I’d definitely rather lose a coral than a fish. Is this a terrible idea?
As for the fish, I can either pick it up at the store when it arrives or I can let the store keep it for a week or so. If the store keeps it then I imagine I could reserve a fish but I probably couldn’t look at the five of my species that they’re getting in and pick out which individual I want and have them keep track of that. The fish would be coming from a reputable company (ORA or Biota). I know that there is a chance it might die from travel stress and if I pick it up immediately then I’ve paid and I have no fish. On the other hand, if I left it at the store it would have to travel, acclimate, and then acclimate again to my tank over a pretty short period of time, which seems stressful for the fish. What would you do?
My first fish should be arriving at my LFS sometime in the next couple of weeks at which point I’ll have it in quarantine for 4-6 weeks. I have that tank set up too with a piece of live rock from my tank to seed the filter sponge. I’ll remove the rock before the fish goes in there.
At this point, I’m starting to panic and think that maybe I should put a cheap frag of coral in my display tank just to make sure that everything beyond what I can test for with my kit is in good working order before I add a fish. I’d definitely rather lose a coral than a fish. Is this a terrible idea?
As for the fish, I can either pick it up at the store when it arrives or I can let the store keep it for a week or so. If the store keeps it then I imagine I could reserve a fish but I probably couldn’t look at the five of my species that they’re getting in and pick out which individual I want and have them keep track of that. The fish would be coming from a reputable company (ORA or Biota). I know that there is a chance it might die from travel stress and if I pick it up immediately then I’ve paid and I have no fish. On the other hand, if I left it at the store it would have to travel, acclimate, and then acclimate again to my tank over a pretty short period of time, which seems stressful for the fish. What would you do?
