Salt Addiction
Active Member
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- Apr 18, 2020
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- What state or country do you live in
- North Carolina
So both of our 125 builds have been confirmed to have at least one in it, with the downstairs one being the biggest of these little bast-pests I have ever seen, taking out a medium Mimic Tang when first spotted and probably responsible for an ocellaris disappearing before we knew it was in there. Upstairs tank has a smaller one thats been seen for a total of about ten minutes though not 100% on the id given I did not observe the black eyes on it and it detached from my foxface pretty fast. Upstairs though has lost a Powder Brown and a large Ocellaris as well. Wanted to run my plan for dealing with these jerks past you all and see what you thought.
Step One) Move all fish from downstairs to upstairs tank. - While this will not cure the problem upstairs, it will get the fish out of the way from the big guy we haven't been able to run down due to the rock work. The CUC will remain in the tank.
Step Two) Use this time to replace the downstairs 125 with a reef ready tank - My question is this, if I move all the rock out of that and redo with dry rock and such can I use the sand in there now? It is the sugar sand so I don't think the isopods burrow into it? I know we wont be able to save all the CUC if we toss the sand so I was going to keep it if possible.
Step Three) Once cycled, move all fish to downstairs tank - At this point the downstairs tank should be cycled and pretty much sterile as I will move the existing LR to upstairs or my sons 40 gallon mantis tank during Step Two, The Mantis tank does not have fish, and the upstairs tank will now be devoid of fish life. The question here is will my corals be ok? I assume they will be but I have never run a tank with corals yet no fish.
Step Four) Re-Aquascape Upstairs Tank - Purely for aesthetics, but figured I can make the rock look neater with some coralcrete while I am finding ways to entertain myself with a fishless tank. This will also get rid of my fear of my rocks not being on the glass bottom and having been stacked. Corals will be dipped during this time and moved downstairs until I am finished.
Step Five) Wait...And Wait some more - Was not sure how long was too long? I would like to put the corals back right when I am done aqua-scaping but figured fish would be...6 months? Will the coral be alright during that time If I supplement with the usual, or can these isopods feed on coral / anemones if they get desperate? From my reading I believe them to feed solely on fish blood?
Step Six) Pathfinder Fish - More of a joke in the title here, but I figured I would intro a single large brightly colored fish at this time and give it a few weeks to see if anything remains. If something goes for him, go back to step Five again but for 8 - 10 months. If hes fine after a few weeks with no signs of anything then intro the rest of the fish.
So there is our plan to deal with these guys, thoughts? I would move all fish to the QT tank, but in a 40 gallon breeder our two tanks would be a murder fest (tangs), luckily though they should be good in a single 125 given both bio loads are rather light compared to total water volume currently.
Final Thoughts / Prevention - So this last part is more an idea I had for an 'emergency' tank we could have on standby in the event this happens again somehow. I am thinking of making a 55 gallon with Marine-Pure blocks as caves like a sort of 'fishy condominium' setup to provide hiding spaces given it would be like a cave grid, but also a huge amount of bio capability. If I did this and kept the tank treated with copper sulfate would that bond to the Marine-Pure so I could not use them in a reef later if I wanted?
Step One) Move all fish from downstairs to upstairs tank. - While this will not cure the problem upstairs, it will get the fish out of the way from the big guy we haven't been able to run down due to the rock work. The CUC will remain in the tank.
Step Two) Use this time to replace the downstairs 125 with a reef ready tank - My question is this, if I move all the rock out of that and redo with dry rock and such can I use the sand in there now? It is the sugar sand so I don't think the isopods burrow into it? I know we wont be able to save all the CUC if we toss the sand so I was going to keep it if possible.
Step Three) Once cycled, move all fish to downstairs tank - At this point the downstairs tank should be cycled and pretty much sterile as I will move the existing LR to upstairs or my sons 40 gallon mantis tank during Step Two, The Mantis tank does not have fish, and the upstairs tank will now be devoid of fish life. The question here is will my corals be ok? I assume they will be but I have never run a tank with corals yet no fish.
Step Four) Re-Aquascape Upstairs Tank - Purely for aesthetics, but figured I can make the rock look neater with some coralcrete while I am finding ways to entertain myself with a fishless tank. This will also get rid of my fear of my rocks not being on the glass bottom and having been stacked. Corals will be dipped during this time and moved downstairs until I am finished.
Step Five) Wait...And Wait some more - Was not sure how long was too long? I would like to put the corals back right when I am done aqua-scaping but figured fish would be...6 months? Will the coral be alright during that time If I supplement with the usual, or can these isopods feed on coral / anemones if they get desperate? From my reading I believe them to feed solely on fish blood?
Step Six) Pathfinder Fish - More of a joke in the title here, but I figured I would intro a single large brightly colored fish at this time and give it a few weeks to see if anything remains. If something goes for him, go back to step Five again but for 8 - 10 months. If hes fine after a few weeks with no signs of anything then intro the rest of the fish.
So there is our plan to deal with these guys, thoughts? I would move all fish to the QT tank, but in a 40 gallon breeder our two tanks would be a murder fest (tangs), luckily though they should be good in a single 125 given both bio loads are rather light compared to total water volume currently.
Final Thoughts / Prevention - So this last part is more an idea I had for an 'emergency' tank we could have on standby in the event this happens again somehow. I am thinking of making a 55 gallon with Marine-Pure blocks as caves like a sort of 'fishy condominium' setup to provide hiding spaces given it would be like a cave grid, but also a huge amount of bio capability. If I did this and kept the tank treated with copper sulfate would that bond to the Marine-Pure so I could not use them in a reef later if I wanted?
