Austialian Tusk

[kevindo123]

I want to buy one that is 3 to 4 inches and watch it grow in my 126G tank. Right now I only have a small blue hippo and percula clown. Both of these fish are shy and they both hang out at the same corner of the new tank.

1. Will the Turkish make them to swim more around the tank?

2. Any advice how to quartine a new Turkfish and what to feed it?

3. What is a good place to buy healthy Australian Turk fish?

 

[TheWhiteFord]

1. No the tuskfish will not make them swim around more
2. Qt him in whatever qt tank you have for 2 weeks
3. Liveaquaria is a great place to get them

 

[kevindo123]

What is the best food it likes? Does it eat LRS?

 

[JadeM]

here in Australia the tusks are really bold and beautiful I nearly got one myself from my LFS feed a variety of frozen flake and fresh, try to keep their natural diet such as meaty foods like prawns squid, fish mussels and so on tho when feeding them shelled foods try strapping them to a rock on the bottom of the tank and letting them try to eat them like leave the shell of a mussel on but just cracked open so they have to use their natural instincts its also really cool to watch also high quality flake and pellet foods make a good variety to their diet and frozen brine and Mysis I tend to buy a mix of seafood from the seafood shops fresh and blend it roughly in a old blender of course or chop it and feed that to my snowflake moray swallowtail hawk and lightning wrasse (pink face wrasse on live aquaria) good luck but remember to feed a variety of fresh frozen flake and pellet and try the highest quality

 

[kevindo123]

Thanks!

 

[JadeM]

no problems! hope everything goes well Kevindo123 and have a great time when you get your Aussie tusk I use new life spectrim as my pellets and is really high quality, and have a range to match your fish and situation like health colour immune system and so on good luck

 

[BradB]

My tusk kills clownfish.

YMMV

 

[tj w]

It took about 8 days for my tusk to get acclimated and start eating. I finally got him eating table shrimp first and then moved to krill,silversides,mysis,brine,squid, and clams on a half shell. He's always out and active. My favorite in the tank

 

[mattcoug]

I got a really nice one from LA regular fish a few years back. It is a tough fish, I never had any problems with him. Just make sure to not get the indonesian one.

It is one of the most peaceful fish I ever had. The only time I ever saw him pay attention to any other fish was when I had an indonesian tusk in the same tank, and when I added a triple tail wrasse. Beside that, he is either out and about, o laying on a rock watching the passerbys.

 

[Dtackett]

haven't found a fish yet that wont eat LRS

 

[tj w]

haven't found a fish yet that wont eat LRS

Mine wouldnt touch LRS, all my other fish love it though.

 

[kevindo123]

I just got him today. After acclimating him, I put a small chunk of LRS and he actually ate it and immediately went into hiding. It seems to be a very shy fish and he has been hiding all day behind the rock. I'll try to feed him some more LRS tomorrow morning.

 

[mattcoug]

Usually they will try to steal a big chunk of food and hide it so he can enjoy it later at his own leisure.

 

[tj w]

They are shy upon introduction. U may try leaving the lights dim for a day or two and then slowly ramp up. Once he gets comfortable he'll be out and about

 

[kevindo123]

Just put in a bigger piece of LRS, the guy came out from hiding and took a big bite and took the rest into hiding again.

 

[knukles55]

give it time this fish will be all over the place in a couple days. an old customer used to get live ghost shrimp for his im not sure if thats healthy though...... fresh water shrimp.

 

[kevindo123]

This is day two and in a 20G QT tank with no lights on top of the tank, just the room lights are dimmed on/off. I just did a 20% water change in the QT as Nitrite was close to 0.25ppm. Ammonia is 0.

Anything I should look out for while he is in QT. Is 2 weeks in QT minimum for these guys?

I really want him to go into my display tank (126G) where there will be more room for him to swim.

 

[mattcoug]

This fish sounds healthy. But they are super smart fish, so let him calm down. Once he trusts no one is coming to get him he will come out.

 

[kevindo123]

give it time this fish will be all over the place in a couple days. an old customer used to get live ghost shrimp for his im not sure if thats healthy though...... fresh water shrimp.

My LFS has fresh water ghost shrimp. I try to buy some to see how it goes.

 

[TheWhiteFord]

Just look for any signs of disease (ick, velvet, and flukes) and look for sings of internal parasites (impacted belly, stringy white poop). If he makes it two weeks without showing ANY sings you should be fine to put him in[emoji3]