jcolliii's IM25 Lagoon journey - MASTERTRONIC up and running!

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Hope your little guy pulls through. Sounds like you're doing all you can.

Gorgeous corals!

 

[jcolliii]

Hope your little guy pulls through. Sounds like you're doing all you can.

Gorgeous corals!

Thanks - appreciated. We put so much time and effort into trying to provide the best husbandry that we can - you get attached to the little guys.

Grumpy's condition seems to be a bit improved. Most of the early afternoon he was just laying on the bottom of the little breeding enclosure. Late this afternoon, he seemed to be responding to me coming over to check on him by swimming up off the bottom and gliding around a bit. Just now, he is slightly more actively swimming, bit with frequent bottom rests. He did have a very positive feeding response when I put some flake food in to his little enclosure. He did his typical 'bombing the surface' four or five times. I am not sure he actually ate anything, but that is a huge improvement - very positive. I am cautiously optimistic. If he makes it through the night, I think he will be just fine. Fingers crossed.

EDIT: I also noticed that one of the splits in the front part of his dorsal fin has healed significantly since this morning, so his body is still in repair mode. That is huge.

 

[PR_nano]

Sounds like it's well into recovery. I notice you have the IM UV, do you run it all the time?

 

[jcolliii]

Sounds like it's well into recovery. I notice you have the IM UV, do you run it all the time?

I do not. I just pulled it out of the left chamber about a week ago. I run it when I see things that look like brown snotty dinos. It was on for 3 weeks the first time and 2 or 3 the second time. Really does help with dinos.

 

[jcolliii]

Grumpy does seem to be doing better. Just managed to capture Orcha the dottyback. Someone is coming to collect him for their 75 gallon mixed reef tomorrow, so he's going to a new home.

 

[jcolliii]

Well, little Grumpy seems to be doing quite well this morning - he's definitely swimming more, is more active, and looks quite a bit better - even with Orcha as his next door neighbor in the breeder enclosure - LOL. Caught the dottyback last night without too much trouble and he'll be going to his new home this afternoon around 5pm. Going to let grumpy out in a few hours and see how he does - hopefully he has no long term damage. Good little fish, firefish. Pretty much model citizens, IMO.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

We put so much time and effort into trying to provide the best husbandry that we can - you get attached to the little guys.

Couldn't say it better!

 

[revhtree]

Well, little Grumpy seems to be doing quite well this morning - he's definitely swimming more, is more active, and looks quite a bit better - even with Orcha as his next door neighbor in the breeder enclosure - LOL. Caught the dottyback last night without too much trouble and he'll be going to his new home this afternoon around 5pm. Going to let grumpy out in a few hours and see how he does - hopefully he has no long term damage. Good little fish, firefish. Pretty much model citizens, IMO.

So happy to read that Grumpy is recovering!

 

[jcolliii]

Thanks everyone. Grumpy is back in his reef, swimming around fairly well. He seems a bit stiff, and his tail still needs to grow back, but he had another positive feeding response and definitely ate a few flakes. May feed the tank some mysis later as well. Orcha is in his bag waiting for his new keeper to get here in 5 minutes. Sad to not be able to keep the commitment I made to that fish, but he'll be swimming around a nice 4 foot tank this evening. I wish him well.

 

[jcolliii]

7-29-2020 Update.

Grumpy continues to do well. His back end still seems to be a bit lethargic - I hope that he did not get partially paralyzed by his ordeal with the pump. He swims mostly with his pectorals, very little with his tail. Will continue to keep an eye on him. Turned off the wave makers completely last night to help him convalesce, will probably do the same tonight.

Just got a text from Orcha's new keeper, and he's settled in nicely and is simming around with the herd in the new 75g. tank with his new tank mates. Glad it all worked out.

New Corals!

Got two lots of corals in this morning. One from LA Reefs, and the other from Aqua SD. The *KILLER* Trachy and the 'Lemon Heads' cristata came from an ebay sale from LA Reefs. Never bought from them before, and not sure if they have a brick and mortar store, but never went to LA to see if they had a store when I lived in Riverside - I absolutely HATED going in to LA. I didn't mind driving around LA once I got there - it's pretty much just like the rest of southern California - pretty much one giant strip mall connected by divided highways with traffic lights at the end of every single block. So driving around in LA isn't that much different from driving around downtown Riverside, or Palm Springs. But *getting to* LA is awful, and getting out can be worse (depending on the time of day). So never got to the reef stores in LA. Around LA, yes - there are lots of great reef stores around LA - folks in the south land are completely spoiled in terms of reef shops and aquarium stores in general. One of my favorites in the Riverside area was the Mystic Reef. Great little shop.

Anyhow, the corals from LA Reefs were very well packaged. The Trachy was in a giant double sealed bag with lots of water and barely any air, and both bags were heat sealed. It looks *spectacular*. The cristata was in a smaller back that had the same treatment. It worried me a bit when I opened the box because there were small tentacle ends floating around - maybe 10 or 20 of them. Looks like the edge of one of the heads got beat up and a couple of the septae on one side got crushed. It has not opened yet, but it looks just fine so far and is beginning to reinflate.

The corals from AquaSD were packaged really nicely as always. Barely any air in the packages, and each frag placed inside of a piece of thick flexible poly to help protect them from jostling together in the box. And, like usual, they threw in a frag. This time it looks like a piece of some sort of purple chalice. Just a fantastic place to buy corals from, consistently well boxed, consistently great prices, and consistently great service. If you've never bought corals online and are waffling because you're not sure if they'll make it - this is a great place to try for the first time. Great place to buy corals from! This time, I got a chalice, a flowerpot frag, another maze, a nice yellow zoa frag (anyone know if scrambled eggs are a zoa or a paly?), and a fantastically orange echinata. Everything appears to be settling in nicely.

Anyhow, turned on the lights just to get an idea of color.

 

[jcolliii]

Better snaps from about an hour ago. Things settling in nicely. Only thing not open yet is the scrambled eggs.

 

[jcolliii]

Well Grumpy continues to swim around and eat, but I have had to turn my powerheads off at night. I think there is some permanent damage. His back end seems to be less responsive, he still swims with his pectorals almost exclusively, and he more or less goes where the current takes him. He runs into things - and now he has some round splotches on his sides - I think he's partially paralyzed and that he runs into corals and gets stung sometimes. His balance just doesn't seem right either - he seems to tilt to his right sometimes. Poor guy.

 

[jcolliii]

Well crap, Grumpy is back in hospital. He has a bunch of small, round, pale spots on his back half. I think due to the injuries sustained during his powerhead episode that he can't swim as well (partial paralysis?) and because of that he's been getting stung by either the Paly grandis or the torch maybe. Going to keep him in isolation for awhile this time until his entire tail has grown back and hopefully a bit more ability to move his back end returns.

 

[TheWB]

Sorry to hear Grumpy is having a setback. Probably better to put him out of harms way while he heals. Do you have something he can use for shelter in the box? Might make him more comfortable.

 

[jcolliii]

Grumpy continues to look pretty good, but I don't want to take any chances. So I went out to petco today and bought a little 2 gallon covered LED cube for a small hospital tank. Little 7.5w heater and a small internal power filter. Now, I just need some tacky epoxy reef ornament to go in there! Picked up a broad spectrum antibiotic that handles internal and external maladies. I have a pajama cardinal that has cloudy eyes as well - so they are both going in there as soon as the water comes up to temperature. Came with a remote control to change the LED color as well. Disco for Grumpy! Powerhead is just in there to help mix up the salt and antibiotics.

I think I have finally decided on my last fish as well. With the dottyback gone, I need a flash of color in there. I've been waffling on a few. I loved my flame angel that I used to have in a large reef, and it was a model citizen, but I don't really want to shot craps to see if I can maybe get another one that is reef safe. There are always wrasses, but I hear some of those can be quite aggressive as well and don't want to go through that again. I suppose there are basslets, but the really colorful ones are pretty big bucks as well. I was looking at angels from the genus Genicanthus, but they get pretty big for a 25 lagoon - and are usually sold fairly largeish as well. Was thinking briefly about a very small tang (because I had been thinking of upgrading this tank to something bigger when the whole rock structure grows out down the road). Don't call the tang fuzz on me!

But then I started reading about the starki damsel. It is colorful, has a deep body that looks quite angelfish-like, doesn't bother corals, and is documented to be fairly docile when kept singly by a bunch of different folks. Max size is around 3" as well - so colorful, reef-safe dwarf angel-looking fish without having to worry about the crapshoot a dwarf angel would bring. Now I just have to find one. DD just sold one for around 50 bucks last night, which is weird because Live Aquaria sells them for $90. If anyone sees a Stark's damsel for sale for not stupid money, please let me know!

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Nice setup! Glad to hear Grumpy is continuing to improve!

Funny, I've been considering the same damsel and for all the same reasons you listed.

 

[jcolliii]

Well, Grumpy took a turn for the worse yesterday. He began not swimming at all, but just resting on the bottom, his respiration rate got much more rapid, and he started having very blotchy skin. He lost his ability to retain orientation around 5pm yesterday. He didn't make it. Sucks losing fish.

My LFS had more purple firefish in stock last time I was in, and they also had a small fairy wrasse. Might go look and see what they have later today.

 

[TheWB]

Well, Grumpy took a turn for the worse yesterday. He began not swimming at all, but just resting on the bottom, his respiration rate got much more rapid, and he started having very blotchy skin. He lost his ability to retain orientation around 5pm yesterday. He didn't make it. Sucks losing fish.

My LFS had more purple firefish in stock last time I was in, and they also had a small fairy wrasse. Might go look and see what they have later today.

Sorry to hear that, it always sucks to lose a fish. I hope you find something you like at the lfs. I have a fairy wrasse and it’s been a great fish for me. Really beautiful colors.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Well, Grumpy took a turn for the worse yesterday. He began not swimming at all, but just resting on the bottom, his respiration rate got much more rapid, and he started having very blotchy skin. He lost his ability to retain orientation around 5pm yesterday. He didn't make it. Sucks losing fish.

My LFS had more purple firefish in stock last time I was in, and they also had a small fairy wrasse. Might go look and see what they have later today.

Sorry to hear about Grumpy. Sure sounds like you did your best to help him. It's all we can do.

 

[jcolliii]

Well thanks for the comments. It does suck - but I think mostly only other aquarists understand a sense of loss for a fish.

Anyhow, my two LFS look like they are both cleaned out for the forseable future, so I am taking a chance and doing a fish order online through Bluezoo. Never ordered fish online before, so am a bit nervous, but I ordered a yellow finned flasher...

... and a Stark's damsel, along with a few more snails.

I paid too much for the damsel, and it must have been their last one in stock, but the yellowfin flasher was on sale and I got free shipping, so that made it a little less painful. For anyone interested, I have it on pretty good authority that there will be a starki going up on Diver's Den tomorrow at 5pm central.

Fish should be arriving Friday morning. Have watched videos of both of these species and they both appear to be quite active swimmers - should fit in well with my blenny and couple of cardinals.

EDIT: I was thinking seriously about a Madagascar Corazon's damsel - someone (I forget who now...) has them in stock for $40 each. Really beautiful fish and unusual color. But they are in the genus Pomacentrus - and those fish are scary.