JLynn's Softy Reef

[JLynn]

I CAUGHT FLYNN SWIMMING OUTSIDE OF THIS CAVE! TWICE! Like, all the way outside of it, on the other side of one of the rocks that makes it, picking at diatoms!!!!

 

But apparently he has decided this cave will be his permanent home; I now regularly see him excavating sand that does not meet his approval to outside of his little burrow. I bought a barnacle skeleton JUST FOR YOU, little fishy! I bought it for you, and now you're gonna go live under a normal, boring rock?! Ugh. You live to frustrate me, don't you. And like just an hour ago, I deliberately placed a couple pellets right in front of him, and he did the same thing to them!

 

Clearly, Flynn is aptly named, the cheeky little bugger.

[JLynn]

Well you know that zoa polyp that was acting up? It still has this area where it's kind of choked up, right below the head of the polyp, but now it's ballooned up at the base of the polyp, below that line. It's kind of looking like it's gonna implode. I'm starting to wonder if maybe I should just go ahead, cut my losses, and find some way to get the zoas out.

 

In other news, Flynn is still too scared to stay out of his burrows when he knows I'm watching, but when I'm not watching he will go pick at and perch on rocks. I'm reassured to know that, even if he still won't eat what I'm feeding, he is getting something to eat, in the form of diatoms.

[JLynn]

Alright-y, well I've just bitten the bullet and ordered Moana, the Orange Striped Prawn Goby, Maui, the Randall's Pistol Shrimp, and Jasmine, the ORA Orchid Dottyback off of LADD. I upgraded to Saturday delivery (I have a test on Tuesday so I couldn't guarantee that I'd be there to sign for them then), so I should have pictures to post by Saturday evening!

 

Meanwhile, I'm gonna try real hard not cry about the fact that I just spent $160 in one go.

[JLynn]

I gave the zoas up as a lost cause. The other corals were acting weirdly, refusing to extend their polyps, and I kept seeing the zoas kind of flap in the current, despite the fact that they are very firmly glued down to a rock. When I took out the zoas, they just kind of scraped off - I didn't even have to cut the superglue. So I'm thinking they may have been in the process of dying, and possibly releasing chemicals into the water that were hurting the other corals. I replace my Chemipure Blue last night, so hopefully if that's what's going on those chemicals will be absorbed out of the water in short order.

[vlangel]

I CAUGHT FLYNN SWIMMING OUTSIDE OF THIS CAVE! TWICE! Like, all the way outside of it, on the other side of one of the rocks that makes it, picking at diatoms!!!!

 

But apparently he has decided this cave will be his permanent home; I now regularly see him excavating sand that does not meet his approval to outside of his little burrow. I bought a barnacle skeleton JUST FOR YOU, little fishy! I bought it for you, and now you're gonna go live under a normal, boring rock?! Ugh. You live to frustrate me, don't you. And like just an hour ago, I deliberately placed a couple pellets right in front of him, and he did the same thing to them!

 

Clearly, Flynn is aptly named, the cheeky little bugger.

This made me laugh heartily. They never do what we have planned for them.

[JLynn]

Jasmine is bullying Moana. Moana has some tears in her fins that may or may not have been there yesterday (I can't quite remember).

 

Jasmine has gone after Flynn a little bit too, but Flynn fended her off and she has stopped.

 

Now I know that bullying when new fished are introduced is normal and usually subsides in a little while, but I'm wondering how I can tell if this is something more serious. I mean, Orchid Dottybacks are supposed to be pretty peaceful fish, unlike their other dottyback cousins. So like, when should I start to get worried?

 

I'm trying to catch Jasmine to put her in an acclimation box and make her chill for a week to let Moana get established, but not having a ton of luck with that. Dottybacks are fast!

[JLynn]

So the Jasmine/Moana conflict is no longer an issue, because Moana has not been seen since the incidents on day 2. I'm hoping she hasn't died of stress or something and is just hiding, but even LRS Reef Frenzy could not get her out, and maybe I'm being melodramatic, but I fear the worst.

 

Another bad thing: since Moana and Maui forgot about each other over the course of their trip to me, Maui is doing quite a bit of snapping. I can deal with it, but I wish I didn't have to. I'm frustrated that I went to the trouble of ordering a bonded pair online from Diver's Den, and now that they're here, they are no longer bonded, so what was even the point?

 

Oh well. Now, while Moana may not have eaten Reef Frenzy, my shrooms and Sebastian loved it, and I saw Jasmine take at least two bites of it! This is the first prepared food she has eaten since I got her, so I'm very happy with that. I'll keep feeding it and hopefully over time get her eating other frozen foods and eventually the New Life Spectrum pellets. Another critter that loved the Reef Frenzy? My nassarius snail. He about lunged for it, as much as snails are capable of doing so! And he moved so fast to get over to where the food was. It was really quite astonishing. I never knew a snail could demonstrate such enthusiasm until now!

[RIP Sebastian]

So the Jasmine/Moana conflict is no longer an issue, because Moana has not been seen since the incidents on day 2. I'm hoping she hasn't died of stress or something and is just hiding, but even LRS Reef Frenzy could not get her out, and maybe I'm being melodramatic, but I fear the worst.

 

Another bad thing: since Moana and Maui forgot about each other over the course of their trip to me, Maui is doing quite a bit of snapping. I can deal with it, but I wish I didn't have to. I'm frustrated that I went to the trouble of ordering a bonded pair online from Diver's Den, and now that they're here, they are no longer bonded, so what was even the point?

 

Oh well. Now, while Moana may not have eaten Reef Frenzy, my shrooms and Sebastian loved it, and I saw Jasmine take at least two bites of it! This is the first prepared food she has eaten since I got her, so I'm very happy with that. I'll keep feeding it and hopefully over time get her eating other frozen foods and eventually the New Life Spectrum pellets. Another critter that loved the Reef Frenzy? My nassarius snail. He about lunged for it, as much as snails are capable of doing so! And he moved so fast to get over to where the food was. It was really quite astonishing. I never knew a snail could demonstrate such enthusiasm until now!

 

They are still bonded. Clowns are just nippy fish. There will always be aggression.

[JLynn]

 

They are still bonded. Clowns are just nippy fish. There will always be aggression.

It's not a clownfish, though. It's an orchid dottyback. I won't be getting my clownfish till sometime this summer.

 

I hope you're right about them still being bonded, but if they are, why is Moana not at the entrance to one of Maui's tunnels? She doesn't even stay near the rock he chose, when she is out, and he's acting like an unbonded pistol shrimp.

[RIP Sebastian]

It's not a clownfish, though. It's an orchid dottyback. I won't be getting my clownfish till sometime this summer.

 

I hope you're right about them still being bonded, but if they are, why is Moana not at the entrance to one of Maui's tunnels? She doesn't even stay near the rock he chose, when she is out, and he's acting like an unbonded pistol shrimp.

 

Oooohhhh. Woops. Sorry.

[JLynn]

No big deal! Thanks for trying to reassure me. The introduction of more or equally aggressive clownfish, I'm hoping, will make Jasmine chill out. And if they host in the toadstool like I want them too, they won't be roaming around and bullying anyone, just maybe nipping at tankmates that get too close to the toadstool.

 

That's the plan, at least. We'll see how it works out.

[JLynn]

So like this whole other shrimp just... just appeared in my tank this morning. He is reddish clear? Looks kind of beat up, like parts of his antennae and legs are missing. A fair bit bigger than Sebastian, though. I just. I'm baffled. How did this big shrimp sneak in on my live rock, and why have I never seen in the whole month and half I've had this tank?

 

Not sure I'm happy about it, either...

Edit: Oh. Nevermind. Looks like Sebastian molted. And in the current it looked like his empty ex-exoskeleton was alive. Whew.

[JLynn]

Moana has reappeared, just when I gave up on my hope of ever seeing her again! Poor thing, though. Her signal fin is downright ragged now. Jasmine went after her a couple times yesterday, but not in a steady barrage the way she did that first day. So I have hope that the bullying will settle down soon and neither of them will have to be re-homed. Then if the bullying stops Moana's poor bedraggled fin should eventually heal, and maybe she and Maui will even reunite.

[JLynn]

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. February has been absolutely hellish. This month, I had one or more tests EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. It was absolutely horrible.

 

Unfortunately, my news is all bad. My fish turned out to have all gotten (what I think is) ich. I'm not sure which fish infected the others - Flynn was my first, and he showed no signs of illness at all until maybe 5 days ago, when he began to scratch himself frequently against the rocks, and sometimes breathed very heavily and erratically. That makes me doubt that it was him. But Moana and Jasmine came from Diver's Den, and I know that they quarantine all their fish carefully, so surely it couldn't have been them? 

 

Regardless, Jasmine was the first to show signs of illness, and the first to die. I noticed her scales looking kind of... fuzzy? I don't know how to describe it. First around the head, then around the tail, and finally, a day before her death, all over. I also saw what may be dots - they were really hard to make out against her scales with the blue LEDs glinting off her, especially because she swam so fast all the time, but I think I saw some dots. 

 

Then came poor Flynn. His only symptoms were the breathing and the scratching (mainly the scratching). The day before yesterday, when he died... It was the saddest thing. Right before he finally died he was frantically swimming around the top of the aquarium in circles, trying to jump out. I'm probably anthropomorphizing too much, but it looked to me like he was trying to commit suicide, like maybe he was in so much pain he just wanted to end it.

 

Lastly, Moana died last evening. I was honestly astonished that she lasted so long, considering the stress the bullying had put her under, and how thin she had gotten while hiding from Jasmine. Anyways, her only symptom was some dots I saw on her face and on her pectoral fins. The dots on her face were quite large, but the ones on her fins were very small. (Any help with diagnosing what exactly the illness was would be greatly appreciated - I'm trying to figure out how long I need to leave the tank fallow before it is safe to restock with fish!)

 

And the worst part of it all was that I couldn't do anything to help them. I caught the signs on Jasmine in plenty of time to get everyone out and treat them, except that Spring Break is next week. And I'll have to get one of my friends to take care of the tank while I'm away. None of my friends have any experience with aquariums, much less with treating fish diseases. There's no one I could trust or expect to keep those treatments up in my absence. Copper could be easily overdosed, and the tank transfer method requires matching salinity and temperature, which if you get wrong can also kill your fish, especially if they're already sick. And if I started the treatment before Spring Break, and then just put them back in the tank over the break, what good would that do? They'd just get re-infected once I put them in there again, and get sub-par care while I was away, and have their immune systems compromised by the stress of all of it. So I just had to watch, and wait, and hope that they would make it past Spring Break, so I could fix this. But of course, none of them made it.

 

So now I'll be leaving my tank fallow for the rest of the semester to get rid of the disease and make it safe for my future fish. And while I couldn't afford to quarantine them the first time, I can now, so I'll definitely be doing that. I plan to do the tank transfer method, combined praziquantel, as prophylactic treatment in quarantine. I'll keep the fish in QT for a month total, unless during that month I see signs of illness. 

 

There is one upside to all of this: now I know that I need to introduce Rapunzel and Moana II first, Flynn II next, Jasmine II third, and Simba and Nala last. The first time, I hadn't predicted how much more aggressive Jasmine would be than the other fish, because Orchid Dottybacks are described as being relatively peaceful fish. This time around, I can hopefully spare Moana II from some of the bullying that Moana I suffered from by getting her established in the tank well before I introduce Jasmine II.

[Weetabix7]

Very sorry to hear about all the stress. 

For future reference, I wanted to tell you about something that healed my fish in tank without removing them for quarantine, and I'm relatively certain they had ich at the time. 

(I'm not a fish disease expert, I'm better w/coral diseases, but they had white dots and were clearly languishing. One also developed pop-eye.)

I fed them with frozen food that I had soaked in this vitamin & garlic infused liquid substance. 

It made a noticeable difference, the symptoms went away within a few days. 

I don't remember exactly what this stuff was or the name brand (I'll work on remembering), but it was made for reef aquariums and I think I may have gotten it from Premium Aquatics. 

[Weetabix7]

This is a different brand than what I used, but is the same essential thing: https://premiumaquatics.com/products/sicce-hypergarlic-vitamin-6oz-spray-bottle.html

 

Or this: https://premiumaquatics.com/products/brightwell-aquatics-garlic-power-concentrated-supple-1.html

[JLynn]

Thanks, Weetabix7. I'll keep that in mind. 

[JLynn]

Well, it's been a while since I posted, and happily, it's all good news this time. 

 

1. Sebastian recently molted again (I'm always happy to see him grow).

2. My newest corals have grown noticeably from the time that I got them, a couple months ago. Here's some comparison pics:

^A pic from about the time I got them.

^And a recent photo of them. The devil's hand leather is still weirdly skinny, but I'm happy to note that it's about doubled in size since I got it.

 

...aaaaand the big one:

3. I got 5 gorgeous Rock Flower Anemones from VIP Reefs this morning!!!

Under "photo mode" lighting:

     

Under normal lighting:

     

(For obvious reasons, I'm now regretting not springing for the 10-pack instead.)

 

I'll be asking my LFS to order a porcelain anemone crab for me. Hopefully they can get that in before this weekend, and I'll have Hercules the crab to show y'all by Monday. 

[JLynn]

The LFS actually did have one lone porcelain anemone crab left in stock when I got there; I'm acclimating him right now, and I'll try to take a picture of him for you later.

[vlangel]

Sorry that I had not checked on your thread for a while.  I am really sorry that February was such a horrendous month for your tank. :-( I am glad that its been good news since.

[Weetabix7]

Such exciting updates!!!

Looking forward to seeing the Crab in the Nems. 

[JLynn]

To my pleasant surprise, Hercules adapted really quickly to his new home. He settled in on the first nem I placed him on, and after about 30 min was comfortable enough to feed on the cube of frozen BBS I put in the tank to tempt him! I was worried that he would hide for a while, so that was a relief. The anemone was very bothered by his presence at first (no surprise there; he's about as big as it is) and closed up almost completely, but after about a half hour it seemed to realize there was no threat, and it's now fully open again. Like I said: it's been a very smooth transition, all around.

 

Now we move on to the part y'all really care about :

    

(If you refer to the RFA photos above, his nem is the one with the red stripes and lavender tentacles. It's moved itself over to the other side of the smaller green striped nem.)

[Weetabix7]

That's awesome!!!

[JLynn]

I've probably moved too fast on this (I mean just a little while ago I added 5 nems, 2 snails, and 1 crab), but I just ordered 3 gorgonians from KP Aquatics: a yellow sea whip, a purple sea rod, and a purple plume.

 

Anyways, once those arrive on Tuesday, my coral collection will be nearly complete. The only missing corals will be a Grube's Gorgonian (Pinnigorgia flava) and a neon green nephthea (I don't plan on getting these till the summer).

[Weetabix7]

2 hours ago, JLynn said:

I've probably moved too fast on this (I mean just a little while ago I added 5 nems, 2 snails, and 1 crab), but I just ordered 3 gorgonians from KP Aquatics: a yellow sea whip, a purple sea rod, and a purple plume.

 

Anyways, once those arrive on Tuesday, my coral collection will be nearly complete. The only missing corals will be a Grube's Gorgonian (Pinnigorgia flava) and a neon green nephthea (I don't plan on getting these till the summer).

 

That's funny, I've been eyeballing those on their site!! 

 

I'll be looking forward to seeing them in the tank.