Maggie's 13.5 Reef

Mhamilton0911 · Jun 4, 2023

rmorris_14 said:
I would need a ladder to do maintenance on that tank

Better than on the floor now. It's on a night stand now so it's low low. I think the dresser was 40". Basically I need it of reach from my 3yo.

Mhamilton0911 · Jun 6, 2023

Currently sanding down the ugly dresser. Big job for such a small dresser. It's only 24" wide, 17" deep, 40" tall. So a smaller dresser for sure, but over the years a few layers of paint, and although I'm painting it again, I prefer to sand most of it off to prevent any reactions or funky ness showing though. I think I'm going to keep the original hardware too. It wasn't special really, but they're all there and brass I think, so either I'll strip them and paint or if they come really clean I'll keep and just clear them. Will decide on that later.

So I noticed new heads growing on the Duncan, so they must not be too irritated at the clowns constant love. Oh and lots of Coraline everywhere! Really surprised since this tank is so new, and with an urchin.

Mhamilton0911 · Jun 17, 2023

Got a tube anenome. It's neat.

Also, it's usually the urchin that carries things, but today it's the conch doing the carrying.

Mhamilton0911 · Jul 5, 2023

I painted my dresser yesterday, turned out good. I'm going to add a clear coat on the top for water proofing, but leaving the matte finish everywhere else. Now polishing the drawer hardware, I think they are brass, but had been painted at the same time with the ugly brown paint. Just using my Dremel tool with a wire bristle tip.

Hoping to get it finished today so I can move the tank and get that darn lid off and the noopsyche light on.

rmorris_14 · Jul 6, 2023

Mhamilton0911 said:
I painted my dresser yesterday, turned out good. I'm going to add a clear coat on the top for water proofing, but leaving the matte finish everywhere else. Now polishing the drawer hardware, I think they are brass, but had been painted at the same time with the ugly brown paint. Just using my Dremel tool with a wire bristle tip.

Hoping to get it finished today so I can move the tank and get that darn lid off and the noopsyche light on.

nice work!

Mhamilton0911 · Jul 6, 2023

Whew. It's almost there. So close.

My plan is to drain a little to slide the end table away, it has felt pads under the legs so the table should slide. Then position the dresser, check for level, then drain more, lift, refill. Tired just thinking about it.

Mhamilton0911 · Jul 6, 2023

Who dis?

F i s h y · Jul 6, 2023

Mhamilton0911 said:
Who dis?

One of my absolute favorite fish...

F i s h y · Jul 6, 2023

Fridmanni pseudochromis

fishguy242 · Jul 6, 2023

F i s h y said:
Fridmanni pseudochromis

ya' got close to the whole alphabet in that one...

Mhamilton0911 · Jul 9, 2023

Pretty heartbroken, the orchid didn't make it. So acclimation went fine, let out around lights off, found a spot to hide. No fish payed any attention. Come morning, I couldn't find him, but finally spotted a couple hours later, totally beat up. Netted him out and acclimated for the frag 15cube, no other fish in there. Let him out and within an hour bristle worms had found him and were eating already and the poor fish was still breathing. I picked off the worms and caught him in the net. Let him hang out in the net (a large one). About an hour later he was gone.

My first experience like this, I'm not sure where I went wrong.

In the Evo, 2 clowns, one 1" neon goby (the cleaner type) and a ywg and shrimp pair.

Maybe the orchid tried to hide in the shrimp burrow? I didn't notice any more clicks than on a normal night. I didn't see any extra activity from the clowns and I doubt the neon goby was the offender.

I have been observing this single fish for about 2 months at the shop. In the same tank each time, with a quarter sized blue tang also, who was clean. The tang was also there about 3 weeks in the tank with the orchid. So I'm thinking if disease was a factor, I'm sure the tang would have shown signs. I took that as a good sign for the orchid to be clean.

I'm pretty bummed out. It was a very pretty fish and didn't deserve the way it died. Im trying to understand so I can make sure something like that doesn't happen again.

danieyella · Jul 9, 2023

Ugh I'm sorry, beat up in what way? I had one that scraped itself up really badly on rock (I'm assuming) but continued to hide so I never caught it to pull &/or treat in time. Or was it chewed fins etc?

Mhamilton0911 · Jul 9, 2023

Every fin was nipped, bruises, scales missing. This was taken during acclimation to the 15g.

Looking at it again makes my heart heavy.

Goaway · Jul 9, 2023

Mhamilton0911 said:
Every fin was nipped, bruises, scales missing. This was taken during acclimation to the 15g.

Looking at it again makes my heart heavy.

I have 1 too many questions.

But, to help you understand more about what happened. Let's go through the list.

1. how was the condition of the fish when it arrived?
2. How was the SG in the bag of the fish?
3. How did the fish behave when released from the bag? Did he jolt to a rock for safety? Or slowly swim for cover?

my honest opinion, he was on his way out before you got him. If he had no damage when you got him, he was dying and inverts were nipping at a weak fish.

Mhamilton0911 · Jul 9, 2023

1. I took a pic of him in the bag, its a few posts above. Looked solid colored, perfect fins.

2. Salinity was 1.024 and I keep my tank at 1.026 so not much of a change. I drip acclimated for about 40 minutes.

3. Fish when released swam quickly to a small group of rubble rocks that have pulsing xenia on it so a decent hiding spot that didn't sting.

I did feed the tank during the acclimation so all fish should have had full bellies, I was hoping that would make them less likely to bully.

I do have a tube anenome in there, but I'm thinking that if it were to sting the fish, it would have ate it?

Goaway · Jul 9, 2023

Mhamilton0911 said:
3. Fish when released swam quickly to a small group of rubble rocks that have pulsing xenia on it so a decent hiding spot that didn't sting.

The darting can cause injury to a lot of fish. One method used to prevent that is releasing the fish in a darkened period. I personally never used it. So I don't know how effective it is.

Sadly, it can be pretty difficult to sat what went wrong. It's a big guessing game.

Mhamilton0911 · Jul 9, 2023

Goaway said:
The darting can cause injury to a lot of fish. One method used to prevent that is releasing the fish in a darkened period. I personally never used it. So I don't know how effective it is.

Sadly, it can be pretty difficult to sat what went wrong. It's a big guessing game.

Yeah, guessing game for sure. But since I have almost zero experience with loss, I thought I'd ask just to see if I'm overlooking something or I did someone wrong I wasn't aware of.

Losing livestock is especially tough, coral is too, but it doesn't have eyes to look into, so the fish loss hits harder for me. I tried little buddy, I'm sorry.

fishguy242 · Jul 9, 2023

Sorry ,my guess was pistol shrimp got em' enough to knock it out ,as other cuc picked thru the night...

danieyella · Jul 9, 2023

Goaway said:
The darting can cause injury to a lot of fish. One method used to prevent that is releasing the fish in a darkened period. I personally never used it. So I don't know how effective it is.

Sadly, it can be pretty difficult to sat what went wrong. It's a big guessing game.

I released this batch in the evening while lights were on the decline, and it definitely made a huge, noticable difference.

Mhamilton0911 · Jul 9, 2023

Yeah lights were off on this release too, I didn't think he darted to injury. Honestly i'm thinking more and suspect the shrimp in something. They have a pretty large opening and I bet looked too inviting for the dottyback.