Lyretail Anthias from Live Aquaria today

[Salt1972]

We received 5 female + 1 male lyretail anthias and a royal gramma from @LiveAquaria today. Unfortunately, the male was DOA, but the females and gramma are larger than anticipated, healthy, and already eating in quarantine. LA credited my card immediately.

We're going to follow the quarantine regimen recommended by @Humblefish.

• Adjusted Q salinity to shipping water - 1.019 (lower than anticipated)
• 3 days eating and acclimating
• Freshwater Dip - 5min
• If no flukes, go to copper. If flukes or stringy poo, start Prazipro (2 treatments 7 days each) followed by 50% water change & carbon for 24+ hours.
• Slowly raise Copper Power to 1.75ppm for 14-30 days
• Adjust salinity with makeup water to match display (1.026)
• Transfer to Display

1 QUESTION-- I did 1/2 capful of Prime in the q tank. Do we need carbon and/or water change before Prazi or Copper as a result?

Wish us luck. This is our first time with quarantine. Thanks for the direction and support.

M

 

[Awesome Dennis]

Don't mix prime and copper.

 

[Salt1972]

Don't mix prime and copper.

I'd heard this before. So- how do we remove Prime?

 

[WWIII]

Good luck! Hopefully the lyretails are tougher than the other anthias I've recieved from LA over the past few months. I saved 4 out of 15. Most died within the first couple days from apparent bacterial infections and/or brooklynella. It sucks, but sounds like you are very well prepared to give them the best shot possible!

I'm pretty sure the prime is only "active" for 48 hrs. Should be safe to add copper then. Let us know how it goes!

 

[Salt1972]

Day 2 (~30 hours) - The SeaChem Ammonia alert badge is showing light green (alert). Do I do a water change or add Prime?

 

[WWIII]

Waterchange should take of it if you still plan to use copper. I'm always a fan of waterchange vs prime personally. I use both, but the waterchange allows to remove uneaten food and keeps the water clear!

 

[Salt1972]

Waterchange should take of it if you still plan to use copper. I'm always a fan of waterchange vs prime personally. I use both, but the waterchange allows to remove uneaten food and keeps the water clear!

Thanks WW. Will this be a daily thing during Q? 5g of 20 enough?

 

[WWIII]

How big is the tank? Depends on that and how much you're feeding. For me I always am feeding a bunch to try and get them to eat in qt, but using a 20 gallon tank I don't find my ammonia rising daily with 6 or 7 anthias. Should be able to go 3 days or so no problem, maybe more depending on tank size and food?

You didn't add any water from the bags did you?

I always feel like those badges look a touch green, but your picture definitely looks green. Just have to keep an eye on it after this initial waterchange. I don't think prime has any effect on the badge, so you may be ok in actuality. If you got the water though, can only help to do a small change!

 

[Captain Quint]

I have to admit. The more I read on LA lately the more I'm inclined to steer away from then. It is sad that the company I had the most faith in seems to be declining. It hurts and I am really bummed to read of the loses that seem to be climbing.

Salt1972 you obviously know husbandry and do a great job. Thank you for this thread and sorry about your DOA.

 

[solitude127]

What kind of biological media do you have in the QT tank?

 

[WWIII]

Do you have a sponge or anything in the tank for bacteria? If you plan to do the full 30 days copper and what not it might be a good idea to get some biospira and a sponge. Otherwise it will be more work

 

[Salt1972]

I have to admit. The more I read on LA lately the more I'm inclined to steer away from then. It is sad that the company I had the most faith in seems to be declining. It hurts and I am really bummed to read of the loses that seem to be climbing.

Salt1972 you obviously know husbandry and do a great job. Thank you for this thread and sorry about your DOA.

I don't think Live Aquaria did anything wrong in this case. The DOA specimen was well packed and appeared "fat & happy"... other than being dead I suppose. The packing was top notch, etc. I think it was just bad luck / stressed fish. I hate the loss, but they did refund the $ immediately. Given the size and health of the other fish, I'd order from them again. This was our 3rd order from them and all has been good. Knock on wood, but, so far, I've found their quality and pricing to be competitive.

 

[Salt1972]

Do you have a sponge or anything in the tank for bacteria? If you plan to do the full 30 days copper and what not it might be a good idea to get some biospira and a sponge. Otherwise it will be more work

What kind of biological media do you have in the QT tank?

I have a small 5 x 5 x 1" sponge that was in the drip tray of our display tank for 10 months (rinsed weekly). I also added a 6-8lb piece of live rock that has been in our display tank(s) for 4+ years. The water was heated and circulating in the quarantine since September 1.

I read that the Sea Chem badge takes 4 hours to adjust downward. The idea of ammonia has me checking a few times per hour... The good news is that all 5 anthias and the gramma are out and about. They ate reasonably well today. Not as aggressive as our green chromis and clowns, but they all ate frozen mysis.

Looking at fresh water dip tomorrow night or Friday. Can they call go in the freshwater specimen container (7 x 3 x 6) at the same time?

 

[Captain Quint]

I don't think Live Aquaria did anything wrong in this case. The DOA specimen was well packed and appeared "fat & happy"... other than being dead I suppose. The packing was top notch, etc. I think it was just bad luck / stressed fish. I hate the loss, but they did refund the $ immediately. Given the size and health of the other fish, I'd order from them again. This was our 3rd order from them and all has been good. Knock on wood, but, so far, I've found their quality and pricing to be competitive.

I'm sorry when I said the above it was not based on your order. In fact, I should not have even written it in your thread and I probably should have created a thread about it. I apologize and I'm glad your experience was good. I have used LA & DD for many years and never had any issues.

It just seems to me that many have been dissatisfied with sick livestock coming in the past several months.

 

[Salt1972]

Fed this morning and everyone seemed to eat. The Sea Chem badge still indicated green.
Came home this evening and the Royal Gramma was dead on the bottom. The Sea Chem badge looked greenish blue... I've got 10g of water mixing / heating. Surely a 50% water change will bring the ammonia down. I'm assuming that and general shipping stress are what got to it.

 

[happyhourhero]

I would get some sort of bio filter going ASAP. That ammonia is no good. Aqua clear hang on filters are cheap and great because you can load it with 1-2 sponge inserts and then use bio spira or dr Tim’s to help get the bio filter going.

I personally wouldn’t have jumped into medicating that quickly, especially on your first go with QT.

Also 100% of the lyretails I have gotten from LA didn’t make it. FWIW.

 

[WWIII]

You could take the badge out to let it gas off the ammonia and make sure it turns back to the yellow color. Then put it back in and see how it looks. It's pretty green judging from the pics alone. May want to get some bacteria just to help it along. (Dr tims, bio spira, etc.)

Also agree with a hob for water movement and the sponge! The anthias seem to like water movement, so the hob accomplishes multiple things. If you're planning on full copper qt gotta make sure they are cozy!

 

[davocean]

I got some lyretails from LA a few weeks ago, and mine also came much larger than I expected or wanted, in fact all of mine were transitioning to male, so make sure to check for dorsal spikes coming in if you have not already.

 

[Salt1972]

I would get some sort of bio filter going ASAP. That ammonia is no good. Aqua clear hang on filters are cheap and great because you can load it with 1-2 sponge inserts and then use bio spira or dr Tim’s to help get the bio filter going.

I personally wouldn’t have jumped into medicating that quickly, especially on your first go with QT.

Also 100% of the lyretails I have gotten from LA didn’t make it. FWIW.

Also agree with a hob for water movement and the sponge! The anthias seem to like water movement, so the hob accomplishes multiple things. If you're planning on full copper qt gotta make sure they are cozy!

In addition to a Sicce powerhead, we have the Wal-Mart equivalent of the Aquaclear HOB with a 5 x 5 x 1 sponge that was in our display tank for 10 months. In addition, there is a 5-6lb piece of live rock (also from the display). We changed 60-70% of the water last night. The badge is more green again. I am going to get an Ammonia test kit tomorrow to see if the badge is reading false positive.

With regard to medicating... we aren't yet. They are on Day 3 of the plan and we have just been letting them acclimate and start eating. Selcon has worked magic to get them to eat frozen mysis more aggressively.

We did the 5m freshwater dip tonight. Temp matched RO/DI with an air stone. It's very safe to say that I am no longer their favorite reef keeper. They HATED that for sure. All are back in Q and, after a 30m hiding phase, they're out and about. There did NOT appear to be any flukes.

2 Things:
1. We will confirm ammonia with testing tomorrow
2. Since we did not see any sign of flukes, should we still treat with Prazi or go straight to Copper?

 

[Salt1972]

I got some lyretails from LA a few weeks ago, and mine also came much larger than I expected or wanted, in fact all of mine were transitioning to male, so make sure to check for dorsal spikes coming in if you have not already.

Interesting. One of the females does have the spike that seems to be pink/red. I was wondering if she was turning to a male. In my case, since our male was DOA, that would be a good thing.