JLynn's Softy Reef

[JLynn]

(Please excuse the boring narration on the video; I made it for my non-hobbyist family.)

 

I made that video at about noon, and things have gone quite well since then. The Simba & Nala are cruising around the tank, being generally adorable. Jasmine did that a whole lot at first too, but seems to have chilled out a little (of all the fish, she was definitely the least enthused about leaving her safe dark bag of water). Rapunzel is astonishingly confident. I even spotted her perching in the center of the tank, not the slightest bit concerned about all the bigger fish swimming around her. I'd expected her to be more stressed out like Flynn was when I first got him, being that they are similar sorts of fish (the rock-perching kind of fish that stays really close to the reef at all times). Flynn had trouble adjusting to it at first, but he's doing much better now - no stress coloration, and he periodically leaves his shell for a little swim around.

 

On the behavior front, things are pretty good too. There was a little altercation between Jasmine II and Flynn II at first where she got all up in his face and he nipped at her and chased her away from his shell (this was when he was still super stressed out). She didn't do it again, and now they are just fine swimming side-by-side. There's also a little bit of aggression between the clownfish - nothing problematic, just duking it out for the top spot, I think. I'm currently predicting that the one with more stripes will end up being the female, but we'll see how things pan out. Waiting for that might get a bit frustrating for me, because I can't name them until one of them turns female, but I also love how cute and little they are. They're like, maybe the size of a quarter right now, and it's mind-bogglingly adorable .

 

The only bit of bad news is on the food front, and it's not that bad. I tried feeding them this afternoon and only Flynn ate anything (he ate quite a bit, though). The clownfish did occasionally pick at it, and were definitely intrigued, but the few times one of them actually grabbed a bite they immediately spit it back out. I think I saw Jasmine take one little bite, but if so, that's all she ever did. Rapunzel showed no interest whatsoever. So that was disappointing. I might try the LRS out next. 

[Lula_Mae]

15 hours ago, JLynn said:

(Please excuse the boring narration on the video; I made it for my non-hobbyist family.)

 

I made that video at about noon, and things have gone quite well since then. The Simba & Nala are cruising around the tank, being generally adorable. Jasmine did that a whole lot at first too, but seems to have chilled out a little (of all the fish, she was definitely the least enthused about leaving her safe dark bag of water). Rapunzel is astonishingly confident. I even spotted her perching in the center of the tank, not the slightest bit concerned about all the bigger fish swimming around her. I'd expected her to be more stressed out like Flynn was when I first got him, being that they are similar sorts of fish (the rock-perching kind of fish that stays really close to the reef at all times). Flynn had trouble adjusting to it at first, but he's doing much better now - no stress coloration, and he periodically leaves his shell for a little swim around.

 

On the behavior front, things are pretty good too. There was a little altercation between Jasmine II and Flynn II at first where she got all up in his face and he nipped at her and chased her away from his shell (this was when he was still super stressed out). She didn't do it again, and now they are just fine swimming side-by-side. There's also a little bit of aggression between the clownfish - nothing problematic, just duking it out for the top spot, I think. I'm currently predicting that the one with more stripes will end up being the female, but we'll see how things pan out. Waiting for that might get a bit frustrating for me, because I can't name them until one of them turns female, but I also love how cute and little they are. They're like, maybe the size of a quarter right now, and it's mind-bogglingly adorable .

 

The only bit of bad news is on the food front, and it's not that bad. I tried feeding them this afternoon and only Flynn ate anything (he ate quite a bit, though). The clownfish did occasionally pick at it, and were definitely intrigued, but the few times one of them actually grabbed a bite they immediately spit it back out. I think I saw Jasmine take one little bite, but if so, that's all she ever did. Rapunzel showed no interest whatsoever. So that was disappointing. I might try the LRS out next. 

Fish are so cute, and I love the names!

[JLynn]

1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said:

Fish are so cute, and I love the names!

Thanks! 

[gena]

Awww...you have a great selection of fish.  Little YCG like Miss Rapunzel are sooooo hard to get eating.  Most of the time they waste away .  If you can find one locally that is large, you will have a much great chance of getting it to eat.  I hope you have much success with her though.  Try smaller foods for her like cyclopeeze or nutrimar ova or tiny flakes of fish food.  Once they start eating, they pretty much will eat anything. 

[JLynn]

1 hour ago, gena said:

Awww...you have a great selection of fish.  Little YCG like Miss Rapunzel are sooooo hard to get eating.  Most of the time they waste away .  If you can find one locally that is large, you will have a much great chance of getting it to eat.  I hope you have much success with her though.  Try smaller foods for her like cyclopeeze or nutrimar ova or tiny flakes of fish food.  Once they start eating, they pretty much will eat anything. 

They are?! I had no idea. Well I'll start looking for that, then, I suppose. Do you think trying live brine shrimp would help? 

[gena]

29 minutes ago, JLynn said:

They are?! I had no idea. Well I'll start looking for that, then, I suppose. Do you think trying live brine shrimp would help? 

Sadly yes. Definitely try the live brine.  Maybe the movement will stimulate her.  I had one a few months ago that wouldn't eat for me.  I tried absolutely everything.  Live brine, cyclopeeze, nutrimar ova, flake, pellets.  She just refused.  It's quite common with that fish.  I just wanted to warn you so you don't blame yourself if you lose her.  Let's just wish for a best case scenario.  Keeping my fingers crossed for you!!!!

[JLynn]

2 hours ago, gena said:

Sadly yes. Definitely try the live brine.  Maybe the movement will stimulate her.  I had one a few months ago that wouldn't eat for me.  I tried absolutely everything.  Live brine, cyclopeeze, nutrimar ova, flake, pellets.  She just refused.  It's quite common with that fish.  I just wanted to warn you so you don't blame yourself if you lose her.  Let's just wish for a best case scenario.  Keeping my fingers crossed for you!!!!

Thanks for that! Once you said that, I made sure to get a good close look at her belly, and like wow. It's pretty damn caved in. But don't despair! I've just tried LRS Nano, and everyone ate some of it! I saw Rapunzel spit out one bite that she took, but I also know for sure that she took at least two bites that she didn't spit out. I wouldn't say that my fish went crazy for it, but they all actively hunted down the bits of it floating around the tank. Even little miss Rapunzel. It seems that LRS is a hit, so I'll keep feeding that (probably little bits, a couple times a day) until Rapunzel is fattened up a bit before embarking on prophylactic treatments (my plan is to do Prazipro followed up by Coppersafe).  

[gena]

3 minutes ago, JLynn said:

Thanks for that! Once you said that, I made sure to get a good close look at her belly, and like wow. It's pretty damn caved in. But don't despair! I've just tried LRS Nano, and everyone ate some of it! I saw Rapunzel spit out one bite that she took, but I also know for sure that she took at least two bites that she didn't spit out. I wouldn't say that my fish went crazy for it, but they all actively hunted down the bits of it floating around the tank. Even little miss Rapunzel. It seems that LRS is a hit, so I'll keep feeding that (probably little bits, a couple times a day) until Rapunzel is fattened up a bit before embarking on prophylactic treatments (my plan is to do Prazipro followed up by Coppersafe).  

That's awesome!  Mine would eat and spit out but sounds like yours is much better off than mine was .

[JLynn]

Day 2 of QT:

Rapunzel is definitely comfortable, even with nowhere to hide. She's got a lot of courage hiding in her tiny body, I guess, just like her namesake. I've seen her perching all over the tank, even vertically, on the walls!

 

Like I said before, everyone ate the LRS with some gusto, so that's my food of choice for the tank. At least for now. I might try some different kinds of pellets on them too. 

 

The one bad sign is that the squabbling has increased slightly. Flynn will mouth at Jasmine, who sometimes chases and occasionally mouths at the clownfish. Fortunately, Rapunzel is being left completely out of all of this. I would hate for her to get bullied and lose her appetite and die of starvation as a result.  Anyways, while I don't like that the squabbling has increased, however little, it definitely isn't anything I'm worried about yet. If it gets bad enough to worry me, I'll just buy a tank dividing screen or use an acclimation box to isolate the biggest offender. 

 

News from the reef:

First of all, I have some new corals. I told y'all about the goniopora, orange ricordea, and duncan, but while I was picking them up, the vendor I bought the duncan from offered me a deal I couldn't resist: $10 for any frag from that particular tank. The tank had the duncans and some other corals, but most of it was acan frags, and I found a lovely little orangey red one with blue and purple details to take home. Also, this afternoon I stopped by my new favorite LFS and grabbed a green nephthea from them. It's from Biota Aquaculture, just like the one I had right before the heater failure. 

 

Secondly, another thing I never told y'all about. Right before the heater malfunction, I ordered the Red Sea Reef Foundations test kit set (cal, alk, & mag) and their 3 part dosing system. Then that happened and my lone stony coral died, so I never got around to using it. But since I now have 3 stony corals, one clam, and a handful of snails and crustaceans using up those nutrients, I used it for the first time tonight. I'm really glad that I did, because it turns out my levels are really low. Alkalinity is 6.2 dKH; calcium is 380 ppm; magnesium is 1440 ppm. Needless to say, I did my first dosage right away. Based on the maximum dosage they say it is safe to use in a single day, it'll take at least a couple days to get my levels back up to where they ought to be. Then after that I can start working on figuring out what my regular dosing schedule will be. 

[Lula_Mae]

6 hours ago, JLynn said:

Day 2 of QT:

Rapunzel is definitely comfortable, even with nowhere to hide. She's got a lot of courage hiding in her tiny body, I guess, just like her namesake. I've seen her perching all over the tank, even vertically, on the walls!

 

Like I said before, everyone ate the LRS with some gusto, so that's my food of choice for the tank. At least for now. I might try some different kinds of pellets on them too. 

 

The one bad sign is that the squabbling has increased slightly. Flynn will mouth at Jasmine, who sometimes chases and occasionally mouths at the clownfish. Fortunately, Rapunzel is being left completely out of all of this. I would hate for her to get bullied and lose her appetite and die of starvation as a result.  Anyways, while I don't like that the squabbling has increased, however little, it definitely isn't anything I'm worried about yet. If it gets bad enough to worry me, I'll just buy a tank dividing screen or use an acclimation box to isolate the biggest offender. 

 

News from the reef:

First of all, I have some new corals. I told y'all about the goniopora, orange ricordea, and duncan, but while I was picking them up, the vendor I bought the duncan from offered me a deal I couldn't resist: $10 for any frag from that particular tank. The tank had the duncans and some other corals, but most of it was acan frags, and I found a lovely little orangey red one with blue and purple details to take home. Also, this afternoon I stopped by my new favorite LFS and grabbed a green nephthea from them. It's from Biota Aquaculture, just like the one I had right before the heater failure. 

 

Secondly, another thing I never told y'all about. Right before the heater malfunction, I ordered the Red Sea Reef Foundations test kit set (cal, alk, & mag) and their 3 part dosing system. Then that happened and my lone stony coral died, so I never got around to using it. But since I now have 3 stony corals, one clam, and a handful of snails and crustaceans using up those nutrients, I used it for the first time tonight. I'm really glad that I did, because it turns out my levels are really low. Alkalinity is 6.2 dKH; calcium is 380 ppm; magnesium is 1440 ppm. Needless to say, I did my first dosage right away. Based on the maximum dosage they say it is safe to use in a single day, it'll take at least a couple days to get my levels back up to where they ought to be. Then after that I can start working on figuring out what my regular dosing schedule will be. 

Be careful not to raise alk and calcium too fast, the swings can cause problems.

[JLynn]

12 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Be careful not to raise alk and calcium too fast, the swings can cause problems.

The Red Sea instruction manual says not to raise calcium more than 20 ppm in a day and not to raise alk more than 1.4 dKH in a day. Does that sound right to you? That's the instruction I followed when dosing yesterday.

[Lula_Mae]

3 hours ago, JLynn said:

The Red Sea instruction manual says not to raise calcium more than 20 ppm in a day and not to raise alk more than 1.4 dKH in a day. Does that sound right to you? That's the instruction I followed when dosing yesterday.

Er, I'm not sure as I've never tested for it. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can chime in!  I just know you don't want to go fast as it will cause issues, and sometimes you can raise it and it'll drop right back down and that can create parameter swings too.

[fishfreak0114]

Personally I wouldn't raise it a whole 1.4dkh per day.  Recent experiences taught me the damage alk swings can do, and as they say, nothing good happens fast in this hobby.  My alk was at 5.1 at one point and things were still doing alright so I don't there's a huge rush to get it up to where you want it to be.  Slow and steady....

[JLynn]

1 hour ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Personally I wouldn't raise it a whole 1.4dkh per day.  Recent experiences taught me the damage alk swings can do, and as they say, nothing good happens fast in this hobby.  My alk was at 5.1 at one point and things were still doing alright so I don't there's a huge rush to get it up to where you want it to be.  Slow and steady....

I guess I'll have to be more conservative about it going forward, then. 

 

Thanks for your advice!

[JLynn]

Okay, well I just saw white, stringy poop drifting down in the water column, and according to Reef2Reef's sticky on fish diseases, that means intestinal worms or internal parasites. I'm not quite sure which fish said poop came from, but I think it was Jasmine. At any rate, the treatment depends on which specific kind of parasite they have, which obviously I can't tell just from poop. One treatment is praziquantel, which I was already planning on using, and another is metronidazole. I guess I'll start up with praziquantel as planned, and keep an eye on their poop after that. If I still see any stringy white poop after using prazipro, I'll try out the metronidazole.

[Lula_Mae]

8 hours ago, JLynn said:

Okay, well I just saw white, stringy poop drifting down in the water column, and according to Reef2Reef's sticky on fish diseases, that means intestinal worms or internal parasites. I'm not quite sure which fish said poop came from, but I think it was Jasmine. At any rate, the treatment depends on which specific kind of parasite they have, which obviously I can't tell just from poop. One treatment is praziquantel, which I was already planning on using, and another is metronidazole. I guess I'll start up with praziquantel as planned, and keep an eye on their poop after that. If I still see any stringy white poop after using prazipro, I'll try out the metronidazole.

[gena]

Which LRS are you feeding.  I didn't try that one when I was trying to get mine to eat!  I know a LFS carries it too in my city.

[JLynn]

2 hours ago, gena said:

Which LRS are you feeding.  I didn't try that one when I was trying to get mine to eat!  I know a LFS carries it too in my city.

Just the nano version of the Reef Frenzy.

 

The only difference is it has smaller chunks so the normal reef frenzy would do just as well.

[gena]

2 minutes ago, JLynn said:

Just the nano version of the Reef Frenzy.

 

The only difference is it has smaller chunks so the normal reef frenzy would do just as well.

Cool!  I always figured the bites would be too big.  I'll check out the nano version.  Thanks!

[JLynn]

Today's been a busy day for reefkeeping. I started the Prazipro treatment, I did a water change on the QT (I'll do one on the DT tomorrow), I added more cal & alk to the tank, and I finally glued all my corals in place. My fingertips were completely coated with crusty super glue by the end of it! Does that happen to anyone else, or am I just particularly inept at gluing my corals to rocks?

[Lula_Mae]

1 minute ago, JLynn said:

Today's been a busy day for reefkeeping. I started the Prazipro treatment, I did a water change on the QT (I'll do one on the DT tomorrow), I added more cal & alk to the tank, and I finally glued all my corals in place. My fingertips were completely coated with crusty super glue by the end of it! Does that happen to anyone else, or am I just particularly inept at gluing my corals to rocks?

If I ever glued mine, I would probably suffer the same malady, but alas, I suffer from "can't-make-up-my-mind-itis" so my frags chill on the tank bottom for eons.

[fishfreak0114]

I always end up with glue all over my hands!  It's so hard to get off!

[JLynn]

Yeah! I know! It took me a good half an hour to pick it all off, bit by painful bit. 

 

Well, all but a couple of the gorgonians have recovered from their ordeal, so I think I can call it a success. I'll take a picture for y'all once I've done my water change and cleaned up the glass.

 

Now I just need to find the right toadstool coral... 

[JLynn]

You guys.

 

I came home tonight to just about the cutest thing I have ever seen.

 

 

 

Y'all. Flynn does not share his shell with anyone. This is nothing short of monumental. And then add in the fact that they were huddled up side by side just before I took this pic? I guess they must be besties, now! Flynn & Rapunzel, BFFs forever! 

 

And of course, Jasmine had to photobomb:

 

[Lula_Mae]

21 minutes ago, JLynn said:

You guys.

 

I came home tonight to just about the cutest thing I have ever seen.

 

 

 

Y'all. Flynn does not share his shell with anyone. This is nothing short of monumental. And then add in the fact that they were huddled up side by side just before I took this pic? I guess they must be besties, now! Flynn & Rapunzel, BFFs forever! 

 

And of course, Jasmine had to photobomb:

 

That is SOOOOO cute!!!