Update!
so far three out of our four fish have made it through their quarantine and into the display! The foxface had no issues throughout the process, where as the two clowns struggled with internal parasites for quite some time. I treated them with prazipro for their initial two weeks in qt, then started feeding them GenCure with Focus for their remaining time in qt. They went through 30 days of copper power at 2.5 and then another two weeks of prazipro. Finally, they stopped pooping white strings and have been doing great since! I still have my Midas Blenny in QT.
The blennys tank started getting a ton of small worms all over the glass, so small you can’t see any defining features other than a segment in their middle. I couldn’t find any info on this parasite but it didn’t seem to bother the blenny.the blenny was treated with prazipro for two weeks and given medicated food for about a month as well as going through 30 days of copper power. Still, nothing would kill these small worms. I did multiple large water changes and scraped the glass to get them out but couldn’t eradicate them completely. just recently i did a tank transfer with a fresh water dip in between to prep the fish for the display. Once I see that the worms aren’t spreading in this new clean tank it can go into the display.
In addition to getting some fish in the tank, we decided to get some small coral frags to add some biological diversity and to itch that coral scratch
the corals we got were three acans, four zoas, a uma, and a purple stylo birdsnest. Before adding them to the tank, we did a multi step dip including ReVive, clean tank water, Bayer, clean water, and peroxide along with a scrubbing, removal of visible pests, and the removal of some of the frag plugs. I know, I know, doing a full quarantine on the fish but not the corals... I’ll be running a UV sterilizer and practicing ich management rather than eradication.
Additionally, we added two jars of copepods and are dosing live phytoplankton.
The lights are on what will be their normal schedule... I’m only slightly scared of what might happen... but they are set for equal parts blue and white( my preference) running at 30% 15k. We are managing nutrients using water changes and regular dosing of MB7, as well as adding the other organisms for biological diversity.
This past weekend I got a melon size ball of chaeto from a shop who said it was super clean, came from the Reef Builders tanks. It is currently sitting through its own qt just in case. I did a fresh water dip on it and a bayer dip. About 7 large pods came off it but that’s all! Now it will stay in a bucket with a heater and light for 16 days before being added to the sump.
So far things are going smoothly, but we all know how fast things can change... so we’ll see. While I know there are safer routs to success than turning on the lights early and what not, part of the appeal of this hobby for me is giving things a shot and seeing what might happen. We try and think about each decision and how it can affect the rest of the system, but at the end of the day there is so much that can’t be foreseen and patients is truly a virtue (that I struggle with)
update: I wrote this on Monday and forgot to post. When I got home Monday, I noticed the Midas blenny breathing heavily with its mouth open. It wouldn’t eat, which is the first time it’s ever not accepted food. I did a 50% water change and added API quick start. The ammonia badge hadn’t changed from yellow and I didn’t get a reading on it before doing the water change. Unfortunately, Tuesday after work the blenny had died. I’m terribly frustrated that this fish had made it through all its treatments over the course of months doing really well and in its last few days before being moved to the display it didn’t make it.
