OP
OP
jenreefer
Well-Known Member
Hey noobs, time for a bit of a bedtime story. Bear with me, this is long winded.
Last Friday, I was meeting a friend for lunch. I got to the restaurant as he was calling to tell me that he was running very late. I decided to take a quick trip over to a known LFS that was close by. Something to fill the time. In case I have not mentioned this before, DO NOT do this. Nothing good can come of it. I walked in, chatted with the guys and went to the saltwater section. First tank, I saw a pretty little nicely colored wrasse. Now, in case you do not know, I have been saving room in the tank for a wrasse. I continued along the wall of tanks, just to come upon a beauty. A 2 inch leopard wrasse, most likely meleagris even though they had her listed as bipartitus. Don't worry, I had to look those up too. I ask if she was eating prepared foods, and they fed her for me. She ate like a champ. I inspected her closely and saw no lesions on her. At this point I knew I was sunk.
Rules of wrasse keeping: 1. inspect specimen before purchase to insure no injuries to face or body and no evidence of parasites 2. watch specimen eat at LFS to insure they are eating prepared foods. 3. Minimize transport time to minimize stress to the very fragile species who do not ship well. 4. Have a QT tank with sand and a piece of rock ready to go for them because they do not do well in a bare bottom QT due to the need to bury themselves in the sand to sleep and hide when scared. (not all wrasses do this, so know your species)
So I went through my checklist: 1. done 2. done 3. can come back and get her after lunch 4. QT up and going, but no sand in it. So I can add sand when I get home, no problem.
So I allowed my impulses to conquer the day. I purchased Agnes on the spot(yes, I already named her). I ate lunch at breakneck speed and took my new find home. My priorities had been derailed. Lunch with a friend became a nuisance instead of a leisurely enjoyment. That will teach him to be running late.
I raced home to add sand to QT and get her in there as fast as possible, knowing that transport is one of the hardest parts of successfully keeping wrasse. As I was acclimating her to QT water, Agnes (as if on cue) laid over on her side and died. I ran through all the possible reasons for this and decided to just get her into quarantine right away. I cupped her limp body in my hand and dropped her into the QT tank. Her limp body drifted to the bottom and lay there. Knowing that just minutes earlier she had been swimming around her bag I decided to give it some time to see what would happen. I know, dead body + time equals fouled tank. I wrapped the tank in a towel and turned off the light. A mini funeral of sorts. I was truly devastated. I thought I had done everything right. My brain was clicking through all the possible causes of the misfortune.
At around 10 pm, I decided to go and view QT. I had long since quit telling myself that she might just come around and be ok. I had accepted that leaving her in the tank overnight was silly and she needed to be disposed of. I lifted the towel on the side where I knew her body was lying. It was not there. A brief glimmer of hope, until I remembered that dead bodies can be moved by the current. I unwrapped the tank and looked around. No body. I looked up and around the return nozzle, no body. I looked in each corner, no body. Ok, so maybe she was not dead. Maybe she was just playing dead. Maybe she was hiding in the sand. I was so excited. I quickly covered the tank back up and went to bed.
Next morning, I jumped out of bed and raced to the kitchen to see if she was out (or if the body was visible and had not been spotted the night before) I flipped on the blue light so as not to spook her if by chance she was out. There she was, swimming around looking like nothing had happened. My little drama queen had somehow managed to procure her release from her plastic prison and into a glass prison by playing dead. Well played Agnes.
Moral of the story: not sure there is one. Impulse buy plus delicate little fish equals drama at the QT. Fast forward to Monday and she is eating multiple types of frozen foods and seems quite relaxed in her 10 gallon QT. Do not let anyone convince you that certain types of fish just cannot be quarantined for a myriad of reasons. Do not fall for the "just get them in the DT as fast as possible" so they do not die trick. Even if the one playing the trick is Agnes.
Now I can work at getting her to eat a variety of foods while observing for illness. I will also deworm her before she goes into the DT.
Jen
Last Friday, I was meeting a friend for lunch. I got to the restaurant as he was calling to tell me that he was running very late. I decided to take a quick trip over to a known LFS that was close by. Something to fill the time. In case I have not mentioned this before, DO NOT do this. Nothing good can come of it. I walked in, chatted with the guys and went to the saltwater section. First tank, I saw a pretty little nicely colored wrasse. Now, in case you do not know, I have been saving room in the tank for a wrasse. I continued along the wall of tanks, just to come upon a beauty. A 2 inch leopard wrasse, most likely meleagris even though they had her listed as bipartitus. Don't worry, I had to look those up too. I ask if she was eating prepared foods, and they fed her for me. She ate like a champ. I inspected her closely and saw no lesions on her. At this point I knew I was sunk.
Rules of wrasse keeping: 1. inspect specimen before purchase to insure no injuries to face or body and no evidence of parasites 2. watch specimen eat at LFS to insure they are eating prepared foods. 3. Minimize transport time to minimize stress to the very fragile species who do not ship well. 4. Have a QT tank with sand and a piece of rock ready to go for them because they do not do well in a bare bottom QT due to the need to bury themselves in the sand to sleep and hide when scared. (not all wrasses do this, so know your species)
So I went through my checklist: 1. done 2. done 3. can come back and get her after lunch 4. QT up and going, but no sand in it. So I can add sand when I get home, no problem.
So I allowed my impulses to conquer the day. I purchased Agnes on the spot(yes, I already named her). I ate lunch at breakneck speed and took my new find home. My priorities had been derailed. Lunch with a friend became a nuisance instead of a leisurely enjoyment. That will teach him to be running late.
I raced home to add sand to QT and get her in there as fast as possible, knowing that transport is one of the hardest parts of successfully keeping wrasse. As I was acclimating her to QT water, Agnes (as if on cue) laid over on her side and died. I ran through all the possible reasons for this and decided to just get her into quarantine right away. I cupped her limp body in my hand and dropped her into the QT tank. Her limp body drifted to the bottom and lay there. Knowing that just minutes earlier she had been swimming around her bag I decided to give it some time to see what would happen. I know, dead body + time equals fouled tank. I wrapped the tank in a towel and turned off the light. A mini funeral of sorts. I was truly devastated. I thought I had done everything right. My brain was clicking through all the possible causes of the misfortune.
At around 10 pm, I decided to go and view QT. I had long since quit telling myself that she might just come around and be ok. I had accepted that leaving her in the tank overnight was silly and she needed to be disposed of. I lifted the towel on the side where I knew her body was lying. It was not there. A brief glimmer of hope, until I remembered that dead bodies can be moved by the current. I unwrapped the tank and looked around. No body. I looked up and around the return nozzle, no body. I looked in each corner, no body. Ok, so maybe she was not dead. Maybe she was just playing dead. Maybe she was hiding in the sand. I was so excited. I quickly covered the tank back up and went to bed.
Next morning, I jumped out of bed and raced to the kitchen to see if she was out (or if the body was visible and had not been spotted the night before) I flipped on the blue light so as not to spook her if by chance she was out. There she was, swimming around looking like nothing had happened. My little drama queen had somehow managed to procure her release from her plastic prison and into a glass prison by playing dead. Well played Agnes.
Moral of the story: not sure there is one. Impulse buy plus delicate little fish equals drama at the QT. Fast forward to Monday and she is eating multiple types of frozen foods and seems quite relaxed in her 10 gallon QT. Do not let anyone convince you that certain types of fish just cannot be quarantined for a myriad of reasons. Do not fall for the "just get them in the DT as fast as possible" so they do not die trick. Even if the one playing the trick is Agnes.
Now I can work at getting her to eat a variety of foods while observing for illness. I will also deworm her before she goes into the DT.
Jen
