Quarantine 40-50 fish from existing 500 gallon reef

[Jeffdstafford]

Thanks.. And that at least makes me feel better that I didn't kill him over a stupid mistake with the transfer

 

[melypr1985]

Thanks.. And that at least makes me feel better that I didn't kill him over a stupid mistake with the transfer

You certainly didn't! You have done a commendable job here.

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Much appreciated Meredith!

My Sailfin is eating great, but my Kole tang and the Foxface are still very shy and hiding in the rocks, so I'm going to do a decent feeding tonight and see if I can get them out to eat with some garlic in the mysis, and some nori sheets. I guess it had to be stress with the Naso, because the Kole and Foxface have always been out in the open swimmers; I guess the change from being in a cramped dark container to a wide open landscape with no close neighbors now is pretty frightening for them...hoping the lights off period and some food will do the trick this evening!

 

[Brew12]

Much appreciated Meredith!

My Sailfin is eating great, but my Kole tang and the Foxface are still very shy and hiding in the rocks, so I'm going to do a decent feeding tonight and see if I can get them out to eat with some garlic in the mysis, and some nori sheets. I guess it had to be stress with the Naso, because the Kole and Foxface have always been out in the open swimmers; I guess the change from being in a cramped dark container to a wide open landscape with no close neighbors now is pretty frightening for them...hoping the lights off period and some food will do the trick this evening!

I agree with your assessment. Ornamental fish have yet to develop a working prototype of shark detection sonar. Because of this, they tend to look at other fish to see if they are threatened. If all of the other fish are hiding (because they aren't in view in the tank) fish will feel like there is a nearby threat. This is the entire concept behind dithering fish. These fish feel safe in a school so they swim out in the open and use different tactics to stay safe. When non schooling fish see a school of fish acting normal they feel it is safe to come out. Very few lightly stocked tanks will have actively swimming fish. They are almost always all hiding or at least very skittish.

Well.. at least that is my story and I am going to stick with it. It is also why I think I need to add more fish to my DT. I need to set up my QT soon......

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Hey it sounds good to me, and an excellent selling point to the wife when it comes time to buy more fish...I have to buy more to keep them healthy!!

 

[Brew12]

Hey it sounds good to me, and an excellent selling point to the wife when it comes time to buy more fish...I have to buy more to keep them healthy!!

I thought about getting some of these since they are known to be immune to both Ich and Velvet so no QT required. I'm just not sure they are reef safe.
Fish

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Haha, Brew I think you're on to something there; I bet those little guys would also be quite resistant to stress..may need to look into them!

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Update: all 3 fish in the DT are out swimming and eating!!! The foxface and sailfish ate a good amount of mysis, the kole tang wasn't interested in the shrimp, but he did come out and start munching on some nori, so we are making progress...what a relief!!

 

[Humblefish]

Update: all 3 fish in the DT are out swimming and eating!!! The foxface and sailfish ate a good amount of mysis, the kole tang wasn't interested in the shrimp, but he did come out and start munching on some nori, so we are making progress...what a relief!!

I know you paid a heavy price, but moving forward I think future fish lives will be saved from your experience. Both yours and others.

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Thank you Humble, I know I've learned more in the past 3 months on how to properly care for these awesome creatures than I have in over a decade of "cross your fingers and hope for the best" reef keeping.

I've been utterly blown away by the kindness of strangers willing to sacrifice their precious free time to follow along on this insane undertaking with me, and have provided all the support and information I needed to be successful in this process; there's no way I could have done this alone and had anywhere close to the success I've come away with. So, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who's helped guide me through this thing, I can never thank you all enough!!!

And I truly hope that this insanely long thread can provide a general road map for future people new to quarantine, and allow them to replicate my successes and avoid my mistakes to come out victorious on the other side.

 

[sricorals]

You certainly inspired me to quarantine my few fish. After reading your posts, I figured if you can breakdown a such large DT with that many fish, i should have no problem with 55g system. I am sure, I am not the only one was inspired by you. Thank you and sorry for your losses.

 

[Jeffdstafford]

That's awesome to hear, thanks for the kind words! And hopefully you've had success if you've already started the process.

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Need the keen eye of the Reef Squad here. I'm 99% sure that my Kole tang has flukes on him, but I've never dealt with flukes/never knew about them until recently, and never noticed anything like I'm seeing on it now.

He's really hard to get a good pic of so the pics are bad, but there are 2 white/clear-ish perfectly round spots on his lower chest area, with a dark white center. The larger of the two spots is just smaller than a pencil eraser... Are these flukes?

If so, how on earth did they either survive 2 rounds of PraziPro, that I just slightly overdosed from what the bottle directed, or survive 3 months of fallow??? If these are flukes, this is a real kick in the pants after what's gone on the past 3 months.

 

[Humblefish]

Are they slowly crawling over him? Below are two photos of flukes, for comparison purposes:

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Hmm, I don't think so, they've stayed put but I only saw it a couple hours ago. And those in the picture are very flat worm-ish looking, this is perfectly circular, so it's hard to say. It almost looks like a scale coming off, but too circular to be a scale

 

[Humblefish]

Hmm, I don't think so, they've stayed put but I only saw it a couple hours ago. And those in the picture are very flat worm-ish looking, this is perfectly circular, so it's hard to say. It almost looks like a scale coming off, but too circular to be a scale

I would just watch it for now. Did you add any new corals/inverts during the fallow period?

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Nope, absolutely nothing went into the tank, and made sure not to cross contaminate between systems as well with equipment. I'll keep an eye on it to see what happens.. The roller coaster continues..

 

[tj w]

How's the kole tang looking This morning Jeff?

 

[Jeffdstafford]

No change this morning, swimming fine and doesn't seem bothered by it.. The mystery continues

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Ok, so the latest on the Kole tang; I'm thinking that, thankfully, this is some sort of scale or tissue lesion. I was finally able to get a better look at it, and I don't see any raised area, so it looks like a weird injury..not sure what it could be from, but I no longer think it's an external parasite. So, I think this is good news, that he just has a mild case of fish leprosy? I'll keep everyone posted.