The Wrasse Lover's Thread!

[Tanggy]

My newest addition to the QT. Trifecta is done. Hopefully they will make it through copper and GC...I am going to take it nice and slow...

 

[BigJohnny]

Conditioned just means they are somewhat acclimated to captive life. i.e. eating prepared foods, exhibiting somewhat normal behavior. What DD does is very helpful but it's not an adequate quarantine. as bhyuett said, they should still be quarantined.

I mix fish from DD and LA all the time in QT

How do you deal with them arriving in vastly different salinities?

 

[OrionN]

How do you deal with them arriving in vastly different salinities?

Get a bucket and adjust the salinity in that bucket to be the same as shipping water. Get the fish in this bucket with all new water with air stone. Now you can slowly get the salinity up to what ever your QT system is.

 

[BigJohnny]

Get a bucket and adjust the salinity in that bucket to be the same as shipping water. Get the fish in this bucket with all new water with air stone. Now you can slowly get the salinity up to what ever your QT system is.

I personally always set my qt to incoming fish salinity and raise it up (if necessary) over time. I am not a fan of quick drip acclimation but that method makes sense to avoid ammonia issues.

Where did you get your China btw, live aquaria?

 

[OrionN]

I got both of my China Wrasse from Local Petco.
My QT is a reef that I cannot just adjust the salinity. I just have a 5 gal bucket with about 3 gal of water and match it to shipping water.

 

[BigJohnny]

I got both of my China Wrasse from Local Petco.
My QT is a reef that I cannot just adjust the salinity. I just have a 5 gal bucket with about 3 gal of water and match it to shipping water.

How long do you acclimate and how do you keep the water in the bucket warm?

Do you drain the bucket partially during acclimation? I'd imagine you couldn't get all the way up without doing that at least once. 50% 1.019 (example of fish shipment)+ 50% 1.025 (example of qt or reef) doesnt equal 1.025 obviously.

 

[UABsleeper]

Get a bucket and adjust the salinity in that bucket to be the same as shipping water. Get the fish in this bucket with all new water with air stone. Now you can slowly get the salinity up to what ever your QT system is.

Good points I would advise against using an air stone though for a couple reasons.. mainly because the fish come in a closed back so the fishes water with have a good bit of waste and co2 all of which make the water more acidic adding an air stone will rapidly removing the excess co2 that has built up causing a very rapid change in ph which would further stress the fish.. if the fish looks pretty stressed I will typically add some seachem prime to the water to detoxify any ammonia that has built up though

 

[BigJohnny]

Good points I would advise against using an air stone though for a couple reasons.. mainly because the fish come in a closed back so the fishes water with have a good bit of waste and co2 all of which make the water more acidic adding an air stone will rapidly removing the excess co2 that has built up causing a very rapid change in ph which would further stress the fish.. if the fish looks pretty stressed I will typically add some seachem prime to the water to detoxify any ammonia that has built up though

He said make fresh water not use what the fish came in.

 

[UABsleeper]

How long do you acclimate and how do you keep the water in the bucket warm?

Do you drain the bucket partially during acclimation? I'd imagine you couldn't get all the way up without doing that at least once. 50% 1.019 (example of fish shipment)+ 50% 1.025 (example of qt or reef) doesnt equal 1.025 obviously.

I typically acclimate over a couple hours just a slow drop here is my setup waiting for my flame fairy to get here in the morning I set my buckets I’m going to acclimate fish in fresh heated saltwater so I don’t ha e to worry about temp swings during the acclimation and use the mixed saltwater to offset what is drained from the tank!

​

 

[BigJohnny]

I

I typically acclimate over a couple hours just a slow drop here is my setup waiting for my flame fairy to get here in the morning I set my buckets I’m going to acclimate fish in fresh heated saltwater so I don’t ha e to worry about temp swings during the acclimation and use the mixed saltwater to offset what is drained from the tank!

​

Thanks but I was asking orionN specifically but this also applies to you now after hearing your method. For orionN, he puts 3 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket, so filling the rest of that bucket with tank water would not fully acclimate the fish to the tanks salinity. Unless you are more than quadrupling the water. It'd still be off by more than .0015 if you were going from say 1.019 to 1.025. Imo less than a .001 swing at once is best. For example in the past when I've done tank transfer method I would raise the salinity by .001 for every transfer.

 

[saltyhog]

How do you deal with them arriving in vastly different salinities?

You certainly can do what OrionN does and that's probably best practice. For a long time I have set my QT to just a bit above the LA salinity....say 1.018 and transferred the LA fish immediately and very rapidly acclimated the DD fish.

I have found fish are much more tolerant of salinity drops than most people think. I started doing this after a dive in Cozumel where the reef was near a freshwater stream. The dive was after a big rain and when we swam in to that area the mixing water was like looking at a prism. Several people got sick at their stomachs and had to thumb the dive. The fish swam around merrily and even the gorgonians were open with full polyp extension. Never had any issues doing it as above since.

Before that I would set two small 10 gallon QT's to each origin's salinity and adjust them towards each other over 3 days (first 3 days of TTM) and on the first transfer have them in the same salinity.

 

[UABsleeper]

He said make fresh water not use what the fish came in.

Oh sorry misread that post so this is not what I do I put the fish in a bucket in the water they cam in and slowly drippacclimate until salinity is the same as tank water once bucket gets about 50 % full I pour out and let continue this process until salinity is equal.. I do have fresh saltwater mixed up but that is just to offset the water displaced during acclimation

I would not reccomend putting fish in fresh saltwater I think that would one greatly increase stress by effectively causing the fish to acclimate twice not to mention the rapid change in ph from the water the fish was shipped in and fresh saltwater.. of your worried about toxins in the bag(very stressed fish out some sea chem prime in the water with the fish

 

[BigJohnny]

You certainly do what OrionN does and that's probably best practice. I have always set my QT to just a bit above the LA salinity....say 1.018 and transferred the LA fish immediately and very rapidly acclimate the DD fish.

I have found fish are much more tolerant of salinity drops than most people think. I started doing this after a dive in Cozumel where the reef was near a freshwater stream. The dive was after a big rain and when we swam in to that area the mixing water was like looking at a prism. Several people got sick at their stomachs and had to thumb the dive. The fish swam around merrily and even the gorgonians were open with full polyp extension. Never had any issues doing it as above since.

Before that I would set two small 10 gallon QT's to each origin's salinity and adjust them towards each other over 3 days (first 3 days of TTM) and on the first transfer have them in the same salinity.

Cool thanks, definitely makes sense to drop the DD fish instead of raising the LA.

 

[UABsleeper]

IThanks but I was asking orionN specifically but this also applies to you now after hearing your method. For orionN, he puts 3 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket, so filling the rest of that bucket with tank water would not fully acclimate the fish to the tanks salinity. Unless you are more than quadrupling the water. It'd still be off by more than .0015 if you were going from say 1.019 to 1.025. Imo more than a .001 swing at once is best. For example in the past when I've done tank transfer method I would raise the salinity by .001 for every transfer.

Sorry this is an open forum I read your question and was just trying to help take my advice or not just trying to help..

The fish typically does not come in more than a liter of water I slowly drip acclimate.. (usually at a rate that doubles the water volume the fish was shipped in on about 30 min) once water volume has doubled.. pour out half and continue drip and repeat until salinity is the same or very close.. of the fish is tolerating the acclimation great and dosent look stressed I speed up the drip some

 

[BigJohnny]

Oh sorry misread that post so this is not what I do I put the fish in a bucket in the water they cam in and slowly drippacclimate until salinity is the same as tank water once bucket gets about 50 % full I pour out and let continue this process until salinity is equal.. I do have fresh saltwater mixed up but that is just to offset the water displaced during acclimation

I would not reccomend putting fish in fresh saltwater I think that would one greatly increase stress by effectively causing the fish to acclimate twice not to mention the rapid change in ph from the water the fish was shipped in and fresh saltwater.. of your worried about toxins in the bag(very stressed fish out some sea chem prime in the water with the fish

Fair warning adding prime could kill the fish if there happens to be copper in the water, but otherwise makes sense. Neither method is perfect and in general that's why I avoid drip acclimation entirely. Unfortunately that prevents me from being able to mix fish in qt from different salinities but I try to avoid qting fish from different sources simultaneously anyway. Good luck with your fish !

 

[UABsleeper]

Fair warning adding prime could kill the fish if there happens to be copper in the water, but otherwise makes sense. Neither method is perfect and in general that's why I avoid drip acclimation entirely. Unfortunately that prevents me from being able to mix fish in qt from different salinities but I try to avoid qting fish from different sources simultaneously anyway. Good luck with your fish !

Didn’t realize prime and copper can be fatal for the fish.. I’ve never used copper! Thanks that’s good to know though

 

[BigJohnny]

Sorry this is an open forum I read your question and was just trying to help take my advice or not just trying to help..

The fish typically does not come in more than a liter of water I slowly drip acclimate.. (usually at a rate that doubles the water volume the fish was shipped in on about 30 min) once water volume has doubled.. pour out half and continue drip and repeat until salinity is the same or very close.. of the fish is tolerating the acclimation great and dosent look stressed I speed up the drip some

Haha chill brother I know it's an open forum I just said I was asking him a specific question I didn't say you couldn't post lol. Also you quoted my same post twice answering it in very different tones like two different people lol. It was the same post

 

[BigJohnny]

Didn’t realize prime and copper can be fatal for the fish.. I’ve never used copper! Thanks that’s good to know though

Nothing to do with you using copper I meant if the vendor water had copper in it, which does happen.

 

[UABsleeper]

Nothing to do with you using copper I meant if the vendor water had copper in it, which does happen.

Got ya.. makes sense.. and wasn’t trying to come off abrasive

 

[Mark Gray]

I have Ich eliminated from my tank, not maintain. After Harvey quite a few of my coral died and a few larger fishes died in my office tank Ich did not break out, or other disease, in the remaining fish.
I had disaster in the past where the kalk pump stuck on and OD my tank on Kalk. The fish were stressed anemone stressed (they really don’t like pH spike) but NO ICH outbreak or any other disease out break. Another time when the timer for light in my office tank stuck on. It took me a while to detect the problem because I am not there at night. The fishes were stressed the anemone bleached but NO ICH either. I also stop using all the mechanical timer for my equipment. Threw them all away. Only electronic timer if need now.

I have keep fish for 30 years. I do what works for me. I don’t consider Ich or Lymphocystis a problem. I have no problem introducing fish with either of these condition into my DT since it will resolve on its own without any more work on my part.

I agree I also have no problems with ichat but it's has first sure been in my tank but it will pass as long as you can keep them eatting