My first online fish order(I didn't order)

Dburr1014 · Jun 28, 2022

Reefvision said:
Midas blenny is my favorite- until it was taken out by ?? Not sure but healthy for months and then one morning battered and barely alive. I would worry about royal grammas teaming up on it. My Midas was very active and eating anything. Best luck with yours!

Thanks, I know for sure I'm going to need more hide outs. Got that already in the works.

Janet Belanger · Jun 28, 2022

Cool story and yay for rehoming the fishies!

This happened to me once, the vendor shipped someone elses order to me that had a pyramid butterfly fish, vs the sensibly sized fish I ordered. I posted on a couple of forums/facebook to rehome it, and it was adopted within minutes gratefully.

The woman on the phone when I called to report the error, said they received several calls that day of mismatched orders and someone apparently received a shark egg!

Yikes! I wouldn't want to be responsible for finding someone to rehome one of those because of their care requirements and it most certainly would not have survived more than a few days in my care/aquarium.

code4 · Jul 3, 2022

Tamberav said:
Nice score.

I am betting someone was expecting a royal gramma and midas blenny and received two goldfish

Janet Belanger said:
Cool story and yay for rehoming the fishies!

This happened to me once, the vendor shipped someone elses order to me that had a pyramid butterfly fish, vs the sensibly sized fish I ordered. I posted on a couple of forums/facebook to rehome it, and it was adopted within minutes gratefully.

The woman on the phone when I called to report the error, said they received several calls that day of mismatched orders and someone apparently received a shark egg! Yikes! I wouldn't want to be responsible for finding someone to rehome one of those because of their care requirements and it most certainly would not have survived more than a few days in my care/aquarium.

It is really sad when this happened. Several years ago my order from Divers Den was short a pyramid butterfly. I have often wondered whatever happened to the little guy. I hope it went to a good home.
Shelley

Dburr1014 · Jul 3, 2022

code4 said:
It is really sad when this happened. Several years ago my order from Divers Den was short a pyramid butterfly. I have often wondered whatever happened to the little guy. I hope it went to a good home.
Shelley

Makes me wonder how often it does happen. How many don't survive.
Tomorrow will be one week in copper. Fish are out and swimming. Midas is a nice golf color with blue streaks. I feel I was lucky to have saved them.

code4 · Jul 3, 2022

Dburr1014 said:
Makes me wonder how often it does happen. How many don't survive.
Tomorrow will be one week in copper. Fish are out and swimming. Midas is a nice golf color with blue streaks. I feel I was lucky to have saved them.

Very glad to hear. I had a 40 gallon breeder completely cycled ready for the Pyramid. I was sick when it didn’t arrive. But was told it had shipped.

nosduj · Jul 3, 2022

Congrats on the new fish! Love my Midas blenny, that’s some great looking out

Dburr1014 · Jul 4, 2022

code4 said:
Very glad to hear. I had a 40 gallon breeder completely cycled ready for the Pyramid. I was sick when it didn’t arrive. But was told it had shipped.

I was completly NOT ready.
I had old water in my QT that I had been meaning to drain. My last qt was a few months ago with mollies. I started up the hob, changed out the foam after the floating stuff cleared out. Dropped the fish in. I used rodi and tank water and my microwave to get heat and get the sg right before they went in. This is how not ready I was. I had prime and stability laying around thankfully. My local petco was out of copper so all meds I ordered online.
I've been doing small wc every couple days so the water would be fresh.
Fish are pretty tough to be in a box for 24 hours and dropped in a stagnant box of water and survive. Now they look great and can't wait until they hit the display. Then there will be new challenges as I have a RG and a LM blenny already in there. I may try and put them in the sump to start for a week or two. This is the latest I've read on acclimation. The fish will smell the other fish. Fingers crossed.

code4 · Jul 4, 2022

Won’t help now. But I keep filter media in my sump. In an emergency I plop it into a HOB and almost instantly cycle a quarantine tank.

blazn · Jul 11, 2022

Please follow up with a post on if adding a 2nd RG to your DT worked out well. I've got a RG & Midas Blenny, and always intend to, as they're two of my favs. Being the RG is a Basslet, I've been under the impression that two of the same kind (Basslet) won't get along. I hope yours have no issues, but definitely be prepared in case you do.

Dburr1014 · Jul 11, 2022

blazn said:
Please follow up with a post on if adding a 2nd RG to your DT worked out well. I've got a RG & Midas Blenny, and always intend to, as they're two of my favs. Being the RG is a Basslet, I've been under the impression that two of the same kind (Basslet) won't get along. I hope yours have no issues, but definitely be prepared in case you do.

I definatly will. I've been reading it may work in a larger tank, mine is a 75 gallon.
The new rg is much smaller and younger. I am making some dens/caves to add to the tank when he goes in. I am still a month out before qt is finished.

Dburr1014 · Jul 18, 2022

Ah crap.
Didn't see the Midas this morning. Thought maybe hiding but still had a bad feeling.
Last night I setup my auto feeder to get ready for my mini vacation.
Welp, he found the hole. Must have jump through it last night. Found him after work about 4 feet from where the hole is.
I was really looking forward to him joining the display.

blazn · Jul 18, 2022

Dburr1014 said:
Ah crap.
Didn't see the Midas this morning. Thought maybe hiding but still had a bad feeling.
Last night I setup my auto feeder to get ready for my mini vacation.
Welp, he found the hole. Must have jump through it last night. Found him after work about 4 feet from where the hole is.
I was really looking forward to him joining the display.

Oh no! Amazing how those jumpers can find small opportunities to escape. Midas Blennies are such good additions to a DT, I hope you get another one!

Dburr1014 · Jul 18, 2022

blazn said:
Oh no! Amazing how those jumpers can find small opportunities to escape. Midas Blennies are such good additions to a DT, I hope you get another one!

Idk, really bummed. 3 weeks in qt, we were at the home stretch.
The Royal Gramma is still doing okay but being a picky eater. I think it's the copper.

blazn · Jul 18, 2022

Getting so close to adding him to your DT certainly would "bum" anyone out. Try not to get discouraged and get yourself another one when you're ready to restart the QT process. They're definitely worth it! I would expect that it is the copper that is reducing your RG's appetite.

Dburr1014 · Jul 19, 2022

blazn said:
Getting so close to adding him to your DT certainly would "bum" anyone out. Try not to get discouraged and get yourself another one when you're ready to restart the QT process. They're definitely worth it! I would expect that it is the copper that is reducing your RG's appetite.

Yes, I think it's the copper.
Has a really bad day yesterday. Power surge and my Apex disconnected and after 2 hours last night I gave up. This morning I got it back but lost all my programming.
That power surge messed up my QT pump also. Took me another hour to get that limping along.
So, with all this, I Broke qt protocol. Did a massive water change on the qt and added prazi. I can't go for a long weekend and feel comfortable the qt will keep running now.

blazn · Jul 19, 2022

That really sux when things like that happen right before you're leaving for vacation! I sure hope you're able to get everything stable enough before you leave and hopefully you're able to enjoy your mini-vaca at least semi stress free!

Dburr1014 · Aug 8, 2022

blazn said:
Please follow up with a post on if adding a 2nd RG to your DT worked out well. I've got a RG & Midas Blenny, and always intend to, as they're two of my favs. Being the RG is a Basslet, I've been under the impression that two of the same kind (Basslet) won't get along. I hope yours have no issues, but definitely be prepared in case you do.

So, I had to break quarantine for the royal gramma. Had lots going on in my life the past couple weeks.
So what I did was put him in my acclimation box in the display on Monday night. On Thursday, I had to set him free. I dimmed the lights and fed the tank. I watched him for a few hours to see how he got along with the other fish, especially with the 8 year old Gramma. At first, he just hid in the rock work. Then he found the cave that I made for him. I felt a little better about that. After about 4 hours the lights came back on but it was close to sunset anyway. A few minutes into that, the older gramma started his ritual of cruising the tank before settling in. He saw the younger Gramma. So they checked each other out, butted heads a couple times. I think it was more that the older was curious. And that's it, not much happened. The next day I went to Montreal for the weekend. All weekend no worried if I was going to come home to a single gramma again.
I did see him last night when I got home, that felt good. That was very tired and went to bed. Today I had to go to work and when I got home I went right to the tank to see what's going on. Low and behold the two grandmas are swimming together! I can't believe my eyes. This goes against everything I've read about adding another Gramma. I fed the tank and took a shot of them swimming together and eating. Excuse the Dirty Glass but it's been a few days since I've cleaned it. And here they are!

blazn · Aug 9, 2022

Dburr1014 said:
So, I had to break quarantine for the royal gramma. Had lots going on in my life the past couple weeks.
So what I did was put him in my acclimation box in the display on Monday night. On Thursday, I had to set him free. I dimmed the lights and fed the tank. I watched him for a few hours to see how he got along with the other fish, especially with the 8 year old Gramma. At first, he just hid in the rock work. Then he found the cave that I made for him. I felt a little better about that. After about 4 hours the lights came back on but it was close to sunset anyway. A few minutes into that, the older gramma started his ritual of cruising the tank before settling in. He saw the younger Gramma. So they checked each other out, butted heads a couple times. I think it was more that the older was curious. And that's it, not much happened. The next day I went to Montreal for the weekend. All weekend no worried if I was going to come home to a single gramma again.
I did see him last night when I got home, that felt good. That was very tired and went to bed. Today I had to go to work and when I got home I went right to the tank to see what's going on. Low and behold the two grandmas are swimming together! I can't believe my eyes. This goes against everything I've read about adding another Gramma. I fed the tank and took a shot of them swimming together and eating. Excuse the Dirty Glass but it's been a few days since I've cleaned it. And here they are!

That is awesome!! I certainly can understand your anxiety having to release the new RG into your DT and not being there to witness the interaction. RG's have always been a fav of mine and I'd love to have more than one, but I'd still expect your outcome may not be typical. I've had my current RG about 5-6 years, so possibly having an older specimen may increase the odds that they get along. Thank you for posting your detailed update (including photo!) & congratulations on the result!!