QT and clown trigger

[Campy10]

I have always wanted a clown trigger and found a small one at a LFS. A while back I purchased a 30 gallon tank for QT. My display is 180 gallon. I setup the QT by filling with my display tank water and adjust salinity to match the water with the trigger. In the QT I have a pump to recirculate water and the pump for the overflow. There are a couple of sponges in the overflow. I plan to observe the trigger for 4-6 weeks. Is there anything else I should do? Any media or carbon I should add to the QT?

 

[lion king]

Did you cycle the qt, water from an established means nothing, all that's in that water is nitrates. If that tank wasn't cycled, test for ammonia and be prepared to do a water change and even using seachem prime to nullify any ammonia and nitrite. One fish in a qt doesn't need any carbon or media, but the tank does need a biological filter. I don't want to assume, but this is the number one mistake people make.

 

[Campy10]

Should I put live rock from my sump in the QT?

 

[408Dartfish]

What I do for my qt is let my HOB filter sponge soak in my sump for awhile to get some bacteria built up. I wouldn’t add LR from my DT to QT unless you are just observing in QT. Dustin.

 

[Campy10]

Should I put live rock from my sump in the QT?

 

[lion king]

Should I put live rock from my sump in the QT?

Yes, I actually keep a live rock structure in my qt for hiding spots and biological. Unless you have have to treat with antibiotics it will never interfer with prazi pro or copper, you just ahve to test and adjust your copper dose. If you do have to use prime, do not use copper, it makes a deadly combo. Build a nice cave with live rock and good flow.

 

[HB AL]

Should I put live rock from my sump in the QT?

Yes, it will help with the biological filter.

 

[Campy10]

I added some live rock to the aquarium but I noticed some spots on the Clown trigger fin. He is eating well and acting normal but I did not notice these spots on the its fin yesterday. What is it and how should it treat it? This is the best picture I could get for now. He keeps swimming away.

 

[HB AL]

Doesn’t look like ich or velvet, keep an eye on it, hard to tell from pic maybe just a little damage to the fin. Just keep him well fed and keep the water ammonia free, and observe, might go away on its own.

 

[Campy10]

Thanks. Ammonia is still at 0.

 

[lion king]

I added some live rock to the aquarium but I noticed some spots on the Clown trigger fin. He is eating well and acting normal but I did not notice these spots on the its fin yesterday. What is it and how should it treat it? This is the best picture I could get for now. He keeps swimming away.

Keep a close eye, it's hard to tell from a that pic. a couple of spots on that fin could be lymph which would not be life threatening. Velvet is rampant though and would need quick and immediate attention, although it would likely show up more on the body, as would ick be like sprinkles of white granules.

 

[Campy10]

My clown trigger died today. This is pretty frustrating. He seemed fine yesterday other than the spots on his fun. He was eating well and swimming around. Ammonia was at zero with salifert test kit. I thought I took all precautions to make this successfull. I just can’t seem to keep fish alive from the LFS. Most of the fish in my DT have come from established tanks. Is there anything I should check from my QT?

 

[HB AL]

Assuming the water was good, and being that he died so quick and was eating well, my educated guess would be velvet for it to die so quick. The juvenile clowns can be a little less hardy. I added one 5 days ago around 3.5 inches, no quarantine but I buy from a good lfs. What do your fish die from that you buy at the lfs, is it the same lfs everytime and are they always in the quarantine tank when they die?

 

[Chad_P]

I’ve had tough luck with the baby clown triggers as well. Lost one to velvet and tried another a few months later. He was Eating and active and then came home later to him dead. No other fish sick.

This time around went with one around 3.5” hoping he does well. I’ve found it’s hard with a lot of fishes if they are too young. Baby blue hippos for example don’t seem to do well but maybe that’s just me. I buy them in the 4-5” range and a totally different story.

 

[Campy10]

Before this clown trigger is bought a blue hippo tank about two months ago. I am not sure what it died from. I attributed it to just not being healthy but now wondering what I'm doing wrong. I have since bought a blue hippo from a local reefer and it is doing great. I currently have the blue hippo, 2 clownfish, sailfin tang, naso tang and lawnmower blenny in my 180 and don't want to take anymore risks introducing new fish in the tank as they are all doing great. The DT is a 180 gallons.

I just don't know what to do next. I hate to subject another fish to a compromised QT but what are my alternatives. I filled my QT with water from my DT. I dosed the water with DI fresh water to match the salinity in the bag the clown trigger came in. I let the clown trigger acclimate to temperature. I checked ammonia. I added LR from my DT to the QT. What else is there? The LFS said they had the clown trigger for 1.5 weeks.

 

[HB AL]

Since you have a large tank buy one bigger say from 3 to 5 inches, see how long they’ve had it and visually make sure it looks perfect, if you put you finger above the tank he’s in and he comes up to eat it buy it. When you get home float him and just throw him in the dt, bypass the quarantine tank.

 

[Darryl]

Since you have a large tank buy one bigger say from 3 to 5 inches, see how long they’ve had it and visually make sure it looks perfect, if you put you finger above the tank he’s in and he comes up to eat it buy it. When you get home float him and just throw him in the dt, bypass the quarantine tank.

what he said!

 

[Campy10]

What about the risk of infecting my other livestock with whatever is in the LFS water?

 

[HB AL]

Don’t pour the lfs water ever into your tank. It could have copper in it. What I do after floating for 30 minutes is put my tank water in a bowl, drain the water out of the bag and slide the fish into the bowl with my tank water then grab the fish and plop it into the dt.

 

[lion king]

My clown trigger died today. This is pretty frustrating. He seemed fine yesterday other than the spots on his fun. He was eating well and swimming around. Ammonia was at zero with salifert test kit. I thought I took all precautions to make this successfull. I just can’t seem to keep fish alive from the LFS. Most of the fish in my DT have come from established tanks. Is there anything I should check from my QT?

Did you check the sg in the bag from the lfs and match the sg in qt. A very overlooked and common reason for unexplained deaths is transferring from a lower sg to a higher sg. I've found it to be unwise to quickly acclimate to an sg more than .002 higher. Many lfs are now running super low sg and a cocktail of meds, so good luck.