Selcon or no?

t5Nitro · Apr 15, 2020

Do you all feel something like selcon is necessary or to just keep feeding high quality food. I've got a few fish that seem to be scratching. Nothing visible yet.

LiveWire · Apr 15, 2020

I used Selcon when I started reefing but have not used it in a long time. I feed a virity of high quality foods and feel its unnecessary myself. I would rather spend that money on other reef related items.

watdachuck · Apr 15, 2020

What types of fish do you keep? Some species will definitely benefit with the addition of Selcon to their diet like many Angels and Tangs. Many others I feel it would not be necessary and there are alternatives. IMO it is the best defense against HLLE.

t5Nitro · Apr 15, 2020

I have a yellow and purple tang and 2 clowns. The yellow and female clown I've noticed started to scratch occasionally. Very intermittently do I find them have an itch. No visible sign of ich yet. They went through a tank move 5 hours away about a month back so I can imagine that was their stressor. Appetite is good.

Billldg · Apr 15, 2020

I can't really say yah or nay, I just started using it in NOV, but I will say that the 2 Diamond Tail Flasher wrasses in QT seem to love it. When you use copper or prazi, their appetite will diminish, but in this case they really didn't care, they just kept eating as if nothing had changed. I also soak my frozen food for my DT and they love it also. Selcon has a great name for a reason, that's good enough for me when it comes to my fish. :)

LDog74 · Apr 15, 2020

IMO it does bring out the color in fish. I have a Gem Tang & PBT. Both have had their colors enhanced with the use of it.

CindyKz · Apr 15, 2020

LDog74 said:
IMO it does bring out the color in fish. I have a Gem Tang & PBT. Both have had their colors enhanced with the use of it.

I can't even remember why I started using it, but I noticed brighter colors on some of my fish (noticeably on my exquisite wrasse) shortly after I started.

I have noticed that if I put more than a couple of drops in the food certain fish won't eat.

xxkenny90xx · Apr 15, 2020

I've used it for a long time but plan to stop using it once I run out of my current bottle due to advice from @PaulB

Adamantium · Apr 15, 2020

xxkenny90xx said:
I've used it for a long time but plan to stop using it once I run out of my current bottle due to advice from @PaulB

What was the advice?

Mastiffsrule · Apr 15, 2020

Good evening,

This is a somewhat gray area. Billdog said it perfect, it has a good name and it is working for him. What Kenny is mentioning is Paulb is a great advocate for diet and has proven over a 1000 years that it works. :) .

My 1cent (I cant afford 2). I have used Selcon for 5-6 years and more recently added in Zoecon to the routine. I also believe, like Paul that a diet is a major factor in heath just as in people.I feed a quality diet of frozen, freshly frozen clams, and black worms along with the vitamins.

I did want to mention to keep an eye on the scratching behavior. Your tank and tang are still fairly new. Vitamins are not a cure, they will help with color and overall heath (that is my opinion-I only play a dr on tv) but something may or may not be developing. The sooner it is caught the better. I was not sure if you QT or not. Just wanted to mention it

Mastiffsrule · Apr 15, 2020

Adamantium said:
What was the advice?

this may be one he is referring to, if not I liked this article

Clams, The Best Food for a Reef

Feed clams as food in the reef aquarium.

www.reef2reef.com

WVNed · Apr 15, 2020

I use it every day.

Adamantium · Apr 15, 2020

Mastiffsrule said:
this may be one he is referring to, if not I liked this article

Clams, The Best Food for a Reef

Feed clams as food in the reef aquarium.

www.reef2reef.com

I don’t see anything about Selcon in there?

35ppt · Apr 15, 2020

It's the same as vitamins for you, if you're lacking it will help. If not, it wont. It's relativity cheap and a good insurance policy for feeding nutritious food to your fish. It is essential when breeding Banggai cardinals. Before I started enriching the BBS I would loose a couple of each fry. Two and a half years of using it and haven't lost a single one.

t5Nitro · Apr 15, 2020

Mastiffsrule said:
Good evening,

This is a somewhat gray area. Billdog said it perfect, it has a good name and it is working for him. What Kenny is mentioning is Paulb is a great advocate for diet and has proven over a 1000 years that it works. :) .

My 1cent (I cant afford 2). I have used Selcon for 5-6 years and more recently added in Zoecon to the routine. I also believe, like Paul that a diet is a major factor in heath just as in people.I feed a quality diet of frozen, freshly frozen clams, and black worms along with the vitamins.

I did want to mention to keep an eye on the scratching behavior. Your tank and tang are still fairly new. Vitamins are not a cure, they will help with color and overall heath (that is my opinion-I only play a dr on tv) but something may or may not be developing. The sooner it is caught the better. I was not sure if you QT or not. Just wanted to mention it

Hey there, I did not QT the fish. All of these fish came from a stable reef tank that had been set up for many years with no active disease. Everything in this tank is from that established tank with the exception that I started with my own dry rock and cycled fishless. I've got NLS pellets and LRS reef frenzy. The seaweed that I'm feeding these 2 tangs comes in the bulk pack at Costco which seemed to be acceptable from some forum searches; they come precut into rectangular slices. I feed 2 of those daily, small amount of pellets mid-day, and LRS reef frenzy in the PM.

Mastiffsrule · Apr 15, 2020

t5Nitro said:
Hey there, I did not QT the fish. All of these fish came from a stable reef tank that had been set up for many years with no active disease. Everything in this tank is from that established tank with the exception that I started with my own dry rock and cycled fishless. I've got NLS pellets and LRS reef frenzy. The seaweed that I'm feeding these 2 tangs comes in the bulk pack at Costco which seemed to be acceptable from some forum searches; they come precut into rectangular slices. I feed 2 of those daily.

Sounds good. That diet sounds really good as is. It would not hurt to soak the Nori and the nls with the selcon. Hopefully you just have itchy fish :)

t5Nitro · Apr 15, 2020

So I noticed white stringy poop from the female clown today. Yellow tang mostly wants to hang out in the bottom corner of the tank and also did not touch LRS reef frenzy tonight, including a piece that landed right on the top of his nose :D. Out of curiosity, searched this forum for the white stringy poop that I saw on the other fish and looks like internal parasite.

I've found a couple of things I could try. NLS Hex Shield medicated pellets, prazipro, API general cure all. Should I pick one of these or a combination of something here? Again I don't have a QT tank cycled and set up. I have LPS mostly in the tank now, hammers and trumpets.

Mastiffsrule · Apr 15, 2020

Let’s see if @Big G or @Billldg may be around for a thought on that

Billldg · Apr 15, 2020

I will have to defer this to @Big G or @HotRocks, I only know what will work in a QT tank, that would be frozen food soaked in GC. Not sure if it would be safe for a DT.

HotRocks · Apr 15, 2020

Do you have sea chem focus?

Prazi or GC would be fine to use as long as you use a binder like focus in order to keep the meds attached to the food. Only feed enough that it all gets eaten. Also you can run carbon if you are concerned about meds leaching into water column. I have done it with the presence of coral and never had any issues.