Reef Safe With Caution

[pcon]

Those saturation divers are something else. The thought of being stuck in a tube at pressure for a month at a time terrifies me. Would love for ROV dexterity to get to the point of being able to do everything a diver can.

 

[Admann]

Maybe the surgical and ROV folks could get together?

Those saturation divers are something else. The thought of being stuck in a tube at pressure for a month at a time terrifies me. Would love for ROV dexterity to get to the point of being able to do everything a diver can.

Maybe the surgical robot designers and ROV folks should get their heads together.

 

[pcon]

Back from the holiday travel always nice to return to growth, thanks to my awesome tank sitters.

Lost one head of the minti green hammer, it was on its last legs when I got it and had not made much improvement before I left.

The blue polyp red montipora grew into both its neighbors, so I moved the duncan colony that was to its left back and further away. I was considering fragging but it would need to cut off so much I didn't have a good place to put the frags. Hopefully the duncan likes its new spot and the monti can continue to grow,

Got this new dendro while in California

 

[pcon]

Butterflyfish Update: 1 full month in quarantine, 2 to 4 weeks more to go.


The Aculeatus seems to have put on weight since before I left on my trip, so it seems it must be eating prepared foods, I cant believe that the QT tank would have a pod population sufficient to support a butterfly fish. Finally feeling ready to do a more intensive prophylactic protocol, before putting them in the display.

 

[Wrangy]

So glad to hear they're doing so well!! :D They're both looking fantastic! :D

 

[pcon]

Thanks @Wrangy! Round 2 of prazi treatment today on the butterflies. One of my local stores got a golden angel that is super tempting. Not sure it would get along with the venusta. Got some time to play with the DSLR and macro lense some more yesterday.

 

[Wrangy]

Love the macro's man! Golden's are a really shy fish so if your venustus is defensive of it's hiding spots then you might run into some trouble but I've never had venustus so I wouldn't know haha but I'm hoping to get one!

 

[pcon]

Love the macro's man! Golden's are a really shy fish so if your venustus is defensive of it's hiding spots then you might run into some trouble but I've never had venustus so I wouldn't know haha but I'm hoping to get one!

Thanks! The lense does all the work. Yeah the venusta is very protective of his sleeping spot, killed a high fin goby who tried to share it, a few weeks ago. So perhaps not a great idea. I should hold out for a second venusta. Just always tempting.

 

[pcon]

Some More Macro Photos:

 

[pcon]

Full tank shot update:

Expecting to add the butterflies on friday.

 

[Wrangy]

I can't wait to see them in the tank!! :D Looking really nice man!!

 

[pcon]

I can't wait to see them in the tank!! :D Looking really nice man!!

thanks man! I’m excited to get them in. The tank feels pretty empty. Thanks again for the advice on conditioning the Prognathodes, it’s quickly become one of my favorite genus of fish.

 

[Wrangy]

thanks man! I’m excited to get them in. The tank feels pretty empty. Thanks again for the advice on conditioning the Prognathodes, it’s quickly become one of my favorite genus of fish.

Butterflies are so underrated! (I understand why haha but still) They have just wonderful personalities! :D I'm just happy they're doing well :D

 

[pcon]

Butterflies are so underrated! (I understand why haha but still) They have just wonderful personalities! :D I'm just happy they're doing well :D

They totally do, such interactive and intelligent seeming fish. I may even like them more than angelfish, don't tell my venusta. Too bad for their coral eating proclivities I would love many of the other groups, but don't want a tank without corals.

 

[pcon]

Taking inspiration from @Dr. Dendrostein 's post here I decided to try feeding my corals a mix of several coral foods and Raw Egg. Planning on continuing to feed this concoction for a few weeks maybe a month and seeing how the corals especially the NPS respond.

The two Dendros seemed to eat the food quickly and many of the corals had good polyp extension and feeding responses, Perhaps better than just coral foods alone. I mixed a bunch of powdered and pelet coral foods, with one freshly cracked egg, white and yoke. Split out about half the concoction out and added a cube of SFB Angel and Butterfly Mix, before target feeding the dendros the mixture. Took a brief video after the target feeding, hands were full while target feeding. Surprising how much it clouded the tank but the corals seemed to like it, going to continue to feed for at least a week and try to document it a little better.

 

[pcon]

So, after 24 hours in the fridge, the egg+coral food concoction was a bit congealed. So I decided to whisk the egg before mixing in the coral food for the second egg. The first day of feeding the egg has sent the skimmer nuts both times. We will see if it does so again tonight.

last photos of the butterflies in QT:

To help their transition to the display I added some new rock on the back right to try to make some sleeping spaces for the butterflies.

Before:

The rock added:

After:

Going to be adding the butterflies late this evening after lights out or around when they go out. Will update as they get transferred.

 

[mattzang]

so what'd you medicate with? i tried the really aggressive prophylactic qt approach and that was rough times.. wrasses especially. think i'm gonna do longer term observation/feed medicated foods/maybe some prazi rounds and hydrogen peroxide baths

 

[pcon]

I ended up just using Prazi. I was considering Furan 2 + Kanaplex for gram negative and positive antibiotics but didnt get to it I share the QT system with a close local friend, and we sorta disagree about prophylactics, I thought we were going to include antibiotics but apparently we didn't. Doing it yourself is always preferable, but this way I can go visit family over the holidays and I don't have enough room to prevent aerosol transmission in the fish room and th girlfriend vehemently objects to tanks out of the fish room. We don't have access to a reliable source of Chloroquine phosphate and I hate to copper without signs of illness.

 

[pcon]

Drip acclimating and doing a quick water change, not ideal but I figure less stressful than right after the fish are in the tank.

 

[pcon]

Whelp they both lept out of the small container I used to transfer at the same time, I had to scoop them off the carpet before putting them into the tank. A rough beginning hopefully not a sign of things to come. They are both in the display and settling in, now. Lights were in the final few minutes of the day, and I fed the tank just as I was dropping them in, to distract the other fish. Neither seemed to eat immediately but that is probably too much to hope for. The Aculeatus seems to be poking around the rocks somewhat normally, and the burgess seemed a little more frantic, alternating between hiding and darting around the tank.

Lights are off now, been a bit while I drafted this post they seem to be settling in. The Aculeatus, is exploring the tank, came right up to the glass to check me out when I went back over after getting all the pictures transfered to my computer and placed above. The Burgess is hiding below the orange chalice like in the picture above, but hasnt been darting about so I am optimistic they will be more settled in by the time I get up tomorrow.