How is the new livestock Tony?

[Bob I]

Did everything arrive at its destination in good health. I know my conch is hard at work. Alan's conch was hard at work in my refugium before alan picked it up today. :D :D :D

[Josh23]

thanks again guys for letting me become part of the order last night.
My snails and conch are busy at work (my tank needes it)
How is your Tang progressing Tony
Josh

[Delphinus]

Well, my tang is very nervous but is getting bolder. Ate vigorously when I fed some food. Hasn't discovered the nori in the tank yet. Very pretty fish.

He is, quite unfortunately, quite covered head to fin in ick. :( I do hope this clears quickly. I might be setting up a hospital tank. :x

I hope it's just shipping stress. :?

I seem to remember my yellow tang had ick too the first week. My current yellow tang (who is not my first), came from Deb's exquisite care and did not have ick whatsoever. It's been a while since I've had ick in my tanks (4 years). It cleared on its own that time, which is good, but also not so good because it means I honestly haven't a clue what to do now. Get some garlic extract, soak food in selcon or some such vitamin, and ... ? I guess I'll move my cleaners into this tank too, hopefully that could only help.

Anyone spot any cheap cleaner shrimp anywhere in town? Maybe I should pick up another pair.

[AJ_77]

Tony, the LSOH had some cleaners on the weekend, small and medium (he says large). I think they were 20 and 30 dollars. Yowch! :? Best of luck with your new fish - and the remedies.

(My FC is also doing OK, but took a couple of shots from another long-nosed tankmate.)

Aj . :D

[Canadian Man]

My conch is doing good too but the first time the conch put out one of it's eyes the Scooter Blennie came shooting out from the top of the rocks and tried to eat his eye. Quite funny.
They dont bother eachother now.

[Delphinus]

First day with the new camera (well, new to me ... it's a hand-me-down, it's power supply was kaput but I was able to find the short and fix it, now I have a digital camera! Yay! Old, but hey can't beat the price. I wish it could do macros though. I have to sit back like 3 feet to take a picture of the tank!)

Anyways, here's a picture. What do you guys think. I just adore this fish. I want to do the right thing. Is the right thing to do to let it settle for a day or two? Or should I panic and set up a hospital tank?

BTW, please tell me this is ick and not lateral line. What the ---- do I do, if it's the latter?

http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/temp/sailfin20021118.jpg

[EmilyB]

Lateral line is often thought to be the result of poor water quality, poor nutrition, or even stray voltage over a period of time for the fish. It can leave scars.

Doubtful for a new one, I would hope you got a healthy specimen.

I'd leave him now.

Edit. oh.

You will make him happy Tony. :wink:

[Canadian Man]

Leave it be Tony!
Spend your time working on your calcium reactor!

My scopas has had ick a few times in the earlier days when it was stressed. I just left him and made sure he had too much food to eat and now he's better.

Time is what he needs.

[Delphinus]

Thanks ...

PS. Alan thanks for the tip re. LSOH... From what I'm told $20 is a pretty decent price for a cleaner. For now I'll move my two out of my 50g (since they need to come out of there anyways if they want to stay in water beyond this week ;) ) and maybe pick up two more for the other tank once it's filled up again.

[Aquattro]

Tony, nice fish. When I got my white cheek tang, it too was covered in ich. I said to heck with logic or common sense, and fed garlic oil on nori. The tang is now a happy healthy member of my tank. Would it have cleared on it's own? Who knows. But if I didn't feed garlic for a day, the ich came back. Feed and it went away again. After about 3 weeks of this, ich was gone permanently; now it just eats normal tang food with the rest of the population :-)

[Delphinus]

I have a stupid question. Where do I get garlic oil? Is that the same as garlic extract? I don't even know where to find a health food store to get some. Does Superstore carry it???

Yes ... yes I am helpless.... :oops:

[Aquattro]

Tony, I crushed fresh garlic cloves. I then smeared it on wax paper and rubbed the nori in it until well covered

[StirCrazy]

buy garlic and squish the oil out of it.. it is a bit of work but cheeper

Steve

[EmilyB]

You can cut a clove in half and rub it on a sheet of nori. Use the other half of the clove to make a piece of garlic toast :D

[TANGOMAN]

A nice aquisition Tony ! I had a Desjardin(Sp?) Tang that came with the used 90g I bought a few years ago. It died mysteriously a few months ago. It had severe lateral line erosion. Twenty fish in the tank, simple diet of flakes from original owner. Neither being a contributing factor though I'd say... :roll: I was fortunate to see an awesome recovery though with a proper "herbivore" diet and a seriously reduced bio-load on the tank. Some "scarring" was permanant though.
Not an advocate of quarantine ? I agree to let "him" settle and see if the ich clears but it's good to have a hospital ready to use if things take a turn for the worse.
Yes, Cleaner Shrimp have gotten ridiculously expensive !

[Bob I]

I was just at Big Al's. They had one small Cleaner Shrimp. I think it was $14.95. Give them a call. I picked up a Centropyge heraldi. For $25.00 I can afford to give it a try. At the other stores they are usually 50 bucks. Can't afford to try at that price. They also have some real nice Open Brains for 55 bucks & up. Auriga Butterflies I think were $15.00. Unfortunately not at all well. Also a couple of Pacific Sailfin Tangs, I believe were $34.95. :D :D

[Delphinus]

Heh, well if $20 is decent then $15 is really decent! Might swing by there tonight.

[TANGOMAN]

Auriga Butterflys on sale for $14.95 and not doing well...? Surprise, surprise. A Big Als tradition it seems. I ran into an ex-employee from there who I shouldn't name and he said that that it was a common practice to have blow-out prices on deteriorating livestock, so beware !

[Bob I]

I ran into an ex-employee from there who I shouldn't name and he said that that it was a common practice to have blow-out prices on deteriorating livestock, so beware !

True enough, however, a person who has a quarantine tank running could pick one up inexpensively, and maybe save it. The Heraldi I picked up had been there for three weeks, and was doing fine. So at half the price of the other stores, I might be alright. :D

I think I will take that back. If one buys that fish at $15.00, one plays right into the hands of the two pukes who own that store. At $15.00 they still make 100% profit, and they will just continue their shoddy practices. Maybe if they continue to lose all the fish they will quit.

[spikehs]

Tony,

I bought some garlic extract (koylic brand or something like that) from one the health store in south center thats close to shoppers.

[Delphinus]

Update: fish still has spots. Is only very politely picking at the nori at best (unlike my yellow tang who devours a sheet in a matter of hours).

Going to look for some spirulina, and I guess figure out how to mash enough oil out of garlic cloves to add to the fish food.

:?

[Bob I]

Have you considered a fresh water dip? I realise that is stressful, but can be very effective.

[Doug]

Hi Tony;
I cant tell in the pic what it is. Red Sea sailfins do get lateral line pretty easy. Of course a good diet fixes that problem. Also the one I had years ago, developed HLL from a dusty carbon. No, ifs, ands or buts, it was the carbon that caused it. Thats why I only use a premium carbon like Black Diamond now.

If ick, try garlic as suggested. If its not far along, then that may help. I just use a liquid filled garlic pill. Cut them open, {stinky}, and mix with spirolina flakes. I also rub it all over a nori sheet.

There are a couple commercial products. Kent Marine makes one called Super Garlic or something and Ocean Nutrition, the makers of Formula I and 2, make a new food called something like, Soft & Moist Marine pellets. They are supposed to have garlic in them and fish seem to gobble them up.

[Delphinus]

I'm going to order some OSI spirulina. The spirulina flakes that I do have, I'm not sure I have 100% confidence in them as they are just some generic brand with the label of one our Calgary LFS's on it. "Wai's Aquarium Flakes with Spirulina." Nobody that I know of (locally that is) carries OSI so I'm going to have to MO. The flakes that I have, the fish hate them. They won't touch it, and if they accidentally swallow a piece, they just spit it out.

The tang is starting to show more interest in nori. I guess the method that I feed nori, might be new to this fish so maybe that is why she (I have decided that my wife is right and she is a "she" and not a "he") is so polite when nibbling at the nori. I feed nori rolled up over a piece of PVC hung on some fishing line, as per that method shown in the DIY forum a few months ago. In my other tank, housing a yellow tang, Half-Pint-O-Tang (named by EmilyB :) ), he is an absolute pit bull when it comes to nori, grabs huge chunks, shakes his head back and forth to rip of large chunks, and then gobble-gobble-gulp. (He basically eats like me, but let's not go there.... :roll: ) Last night, I saw her nibbling at the nori, so that makes me feel a little better. She also goes after the food I've put in the tank so far (with the exception of not approving of the spirulina ... I am going to have to chuck that one I think).

Like all my other fish, she doesn't like to be looked at. If she detects anyone in the room, she hides in the back of the rockwork. Methinks I've put too many hidey holes in the back, because I never see my fish they're all hiding in the back. You have to sit really really still to glimpse any of my fish... (Sheesh, I shower and stuff, should I switch to a different soap maybe ???????)

The really odd thing is, she has decided that my female banggai (who thinks she is an anemone fish) is going to be her buddy, so when she's not hiding from me or anyone else trying to look at her, she's in-like-flint with the banggai (right in the BTA). This morning when I went to check on her I found her sleeping in the BTA. Ok, I was really surprised when the banggai did this (but have since learned it's not abnormal at all if there is no urchin present), but I'm REALLY surprised to see this behaviour in a tang. ??? :? ???

She has unfortunately given herself a scratch on her left side, presumably from rubbing up against rocks. But other than that she doesn't look too, too bad, perhaps showing a few signs of improvement (need to check after work, since the lights weren't on when I left for work today)..

I've made a few mistakes recently, I let my water get too salty (I didn't take out enough water when I took off my reactor to work on it), so, hopefully, I've cleaned up my act a little and maybe now things can start to improve a little, mehopes. It amazes me that after 5 years I can still make stupid newbie mistakes. I've never claimed that I truly know what it is I'm doing though, and I've been doing too much (obviously) lately, I've really let a few things slide, things like testing and diligence and common sense. Don't really want to elaborate on what other stupid things I've done (there is no shortage), but suffice it to say I do benefit from time-to-time from a swift kick in the rear-end. Time to clean up my act a little...