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Old 11-28-2015, 10:27 PM
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Default Christmas came early! Masked Swallowtails

My beautiful wife bought me these beautiful fish today at NAFB. We had been eyeballing the pair at dragon for a while but they ended up getting sick. We ended up finding this nicer, bigger pair today for a far better price. Still very pricey fish but ones that will hopefully become the centerpiece of our tank for years to come.

Acclimating them was unlike acclimating any other fish I can remember. They were almost jumping out of the 5 gallon bucket despite it just having a few inches of water in it. Even picking them up to place in my QT was difficult. They are strong healthy fish. Not sure if I will focus on getting them eating or start TTM first. Either way I hope they make it to my display just after Christmas.







[IMG]https://andrewastro.smugmug.com/Other/180-gallon-reef-build/i-Zw2LdR3/0/X2/IMG_1762-X2.jpg/IMG]

The male is already cruising the tank. The female is currently hiding but she was the more active of the 2 at the store.

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Old 11-28-2015, 10:44 PM
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Nice score. Masked swallowtail, especially the male, is impressive. Good luck during the QT process.
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Old 11-28-2015, 11:26 PM
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Old 12-14-2015, 11:05 AM
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They're both still eating great, Mysis and pellets. Picking a bit at nori as well. Completed tank transfer and I'm currently treating them with prazipro. They are still fat and show no signs of any illness. The female is out most of the time. The male still hides but does cruise the tank both for food and when I'm not right on top staring them down or shinning a flashlight on them looking for any potential signs of illness.

Once the first treatment is done I will treat them one more time for 7 days. After that any suggestions on anything further? I am very tempted to add them to my tank around Christmas day. Since they are so large I am finding I have to dose prime to keep ammonia at bay (well only once so far). They are currently in a 80g with about 40 gallons of water in it. When I do the second dose of prazi I plan on doing a 50% water change and adding 40-45 gallons of water as well as adjusting the dosage for water volume obviously. I have been using water directly from my display tank for them so they are already acclimated to water conditions. I have also brought their water temp up from 73 to 77 to be in line with display tank.

It would also be nice but not essential to get them out of QT for boxing day. I do have several other tanks and don't really plan on loading up on fish but you never know what you're going to find..







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Old 12-14-2015, 01:28 PM
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Looking great! Fwiw, I only do one round of Prazi unless there are symptoms after the first treatment.
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Old 12-14-2015, 04:29 PM
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I will definitely prazi twice. It doesn't effect them at all. Their eating was not slowed. Nor was going from 73-77f. Initially I had them just under room lights but I have been turning on a spare par38 bulb to get them used to the brighter reef lights.

Part of the reason I took these pics was to get good overhead shots of their eyes. I thought the female might have had something on one eye but open closer inspection I see nothing. This of course could have been flukes but they aren't showing symptoms.

Seems like standard paranoid procedure would be to monitor them for 30 additional days after the second prazi treatment but if I'm not going to treat them further I think they would be better served going into the big tank getting fed more and I can enjoy them from the couch vs lying on the floor and worrying about ammonia.
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Old 12-14-2015, 04:37 PM
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Gorgeous fish!

Yeah if you're having troubles with ammonia I'd be more inclined to get them out of there as well. QT is a nerve wracking process not just for the various disease treatments but the basics in maintaining the tank itself. One round of prazi has always worked for me (only had to use it on 2 occasions though).
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Old 12-24-2015, 10:59 AM
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We decided to put them in last night just before lights out. It was either that or treat with prazi for a 3rd time, but their moods had really changed the last week or so, instead of mostly hiding in the pipe swimming they were mostly swimming rarely hiding.

My Achilles does not like them! No surprise, but a bit of a surprise how much he beat up the female. She's smaller than him and without a spike it's not like she can fight back. The male smartly hid right away where as the female just stayed in the corner and took it. The interesting thing is when it got really bad the male came out and bit the Achilles and took a small chunk out of one of his fins! The only other large fish I have is a Naso who showed no reaction to the new guys.

Hopefully everything is calm today. Fins heal real fast. Since the angels were healthy and fat they could take the beating and since they are disease free they shouldn't stress out the boss too much even if he has some new competition. The Male is slightly larger then the Achilles but so is the Naso and that doesn't stop him from picking on him. With 4 larger sized fish we are done with big fish in our 180, but are planning on upgrading hopefully next next year. Any more large guys will probably have to be added at once as the Achilles grows he's only going to get meaner. Once things calm down I will take some pics of them in the display. They truly are show fish.
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