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Snow's 20G Lazarus Pit - One Last Tribute.


Snow_Phoenix

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Snow_Phoenix

I had to do a tank transfer after my 10G broke and dumped water all over my bedroom floor. I purchased a new tank, so I thought I might as well start a proper thread for it.

 

Tank specs:

 

20" x 15" x 15" = 20G 

 

Equipment:

 

Boyu mini skimmer (1000L/Hr)

Dophin HOB Filter (1000L/Hr)

Wavemaker (4000L/Hr)

In-Tank Refugium (~2G)

SOBO Marine Light (9W)*

SOBO Marine Light (3W) for refugium 

 

*Replaced by my older AquaLED marine light (20W) 

 

Fish:

 

Scissortail Dartfish

YCG

Grammistes Blenny

 

 

Inverts:

 

Daum's Reef Lobser (2")

4x dwarf brown legged hermits

1x blue legged hermit

x1 Tuxedo urchin

1x Nassarius snail

1x Turbo snail

1x Halloween Hermit

1x Saron Shrimp

1x Feather Duster Worm

 

Corals & Nems:

 

Purple Hammer

Green Yuma

Green Rhodactis Mushroom

Greenish-Purple Rhodactis*

Blue Hairy Mushroom

Purple Mushroom

Duncan

Orange Long Polyp Toadstool Leather

Green Weeping Willow Toadstool Leather

Green Finger Leather

Neon Green GSP

Green Mini Maxi Carpet Nem*

 

*Bleached but recovering - both of these were pulled from my mantis shrimp's tank

 

Macroalgae:

 

Caulerpa peltata

Chaeto

Galaxaura

 

First Day of 20G (30/5/2018)

 

-All LR is the same, LS alone is brand new

 

B01.jpg.6eef2515ad20ce15b9357462981d9fb5.jpg

 

FTS on 12/6/2018

 

B12.jpg.9980ba684f3c9afd5005f70408985e8c.jpg

 

My Long-Term Plans:

 

Get a dwarf brittle starfish

Get a Porcelain Anemone Crab or White Spotted Shrimp to pair up with the Mini Maxi Nem

Add more Softies and Shrooms

*Might add 1 or 2 more LPS frags

*Might create a Zoa garden

*Definitely will create Mushroom Garden

 

 

 

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Snow_Phoenix

Explanation here:

 

Towards the end of May, my 10G bedroom tank sported a crack along the entire vertical line of the left side panel of the glass. The tank collapsed within seconds, and with the help of my parents, we managed to salvage *almost everyone and everything inside the tank. The 10G was strictly a FOWLR tank and more of a go-between tank where I kept certain livestock before shifting them into other nanos. The only animal that couldn't be found during the chaos was my Candycane Pistol Shrimp, which was most likely hidden in the sandbed (and probably accidently thrown into the bin by my father).

 

I kept all my livestock including two extremely large pieces of LR in two separate pails for almost 3 days. I lost my Randall's goby during the downtime and several small inverts.

 

I purchased a new tank (which was originally a display tank) at my LFS on 30/5/2018. The manager (and also my friend) kept his store open until 10pm so that I could get the tank I needed. This DT was 20G and originally had sump-style plumbing leading into a sump (which was detached upon my arrival at the store). The LFS removed all the plumbing, cleaned the tank and patched up the hole with a small piece of thick glass (siliconed neatly). The manager gave me the option of covering the left side of the tank with a black sheet (something akin to lacquer) since the result of the ex-plumbing was visible (and hideous). I agreed, and brought home the tank you've seen above.

 

I waited overnight for the silicon to harden, cleaned the tank one last time and then managed to insert one of my older acrylic in-tank fuge boxes into the system. With a lot of effort, I managed to hammer 2/3rds of one of the LR pieces and placed the rubble/smaller LR pieces in my fuge box. My base LR had my mini maxi attached to it, and was too thick to fit into the tank. I managed to chip the back edges a little but couldn't do much otherwise.

 

Everyone who survived the pail made it through the transfer except for my porcelain nem crab, which was probably almost 2-years-old. I attributed the death to old age, since the crab was a good 3".

 

My Hi-Fin made it as well, but I haven't seen him for nearly a week. Without the pistol, I have no idea where he gets his food from, so I consider his absence a loss.

 

I did some shopping yesterday, brought home a pair of zebra darts and a yellow tilefish. Also brought home a Saron Shrimp, 2x Nassarius Snails, 4 small coral frags and some macro. Swapped out my LEDs for a better one - my older lights, which are more suited for reefing. Also transferred my corals from my mantis's tank into this tank because the temp. in this one is more stable and the levels are better. I'll try to upload more pics as I go.

 

 

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Snow_Phoenix

Woke up this morning and my blue legs was busy nomming on one of my Nass snails. Those snails have always been a hit-or-miss with me. Oh, well. Real estate prices have gone up around here, and Nass snail shells are highly coveted. So lucky hermit, unlucky snail. 🙄

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Snow_Phoenix

Quick peek 10 mins ago:

 

1. Blue legs hadn't eaten the snail! He'd ripped out a small slice of flesh though, but the snail is overall well and back to hiding in the sandbed.

 

 

 

2. And here's the face of complete regret after an attempted climbing exercise into my fugebox. 

 

 

 

3. Spotted my Saron - suspected male due to the extra long *claws he has.

 

 

 

I also came across a 7" long Saron spp. which was a vivid green at the LFS. I've owned Sarons before, and I never knew they were capable of reaching that size. The big guy looked like he was better off left in the wild though. 

 

4. Here are 2 of my 3 leathers. The orange toadstool finally showed some good PE today. But the green toadstool had swollen PEs - not sure why. The third leather is still closed. All other corals are open and well.

 

 

 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Quick peek 10 mins ago:

 

1. Blue legs hadn't eaten the snail! He'd ripped out a small slice of flesh though, but the snail is overall well and back to hiding in the sandbed.

 

B13.jpg.6456bfc476b84e76f7667c706ec0c2a0.jpg

 

2. And here's the face of complete regret after an attempted climbing exercise into my fugebox. 

 

B14.jpg.7613ab938fc74bd29bcb0a8cb8a61658.jpg

 

3. Spotted my Saron - suspected male due to the extra long *claws he has.

 

B15.jpg.fe6abbf4d82b87f0c0a2f6f65aa3e3a0.jpg

 

I also came across a 7" long Saron spp. which was a vivid green at the LFS. I've owned Sarons before, and I never knew they were capable of reaching that size. The big guy looked like he was better off left in the wild though. 

 

4. Here are 2 of my 3 leathers. The orange toadstool finally showed some good PE today. But the green toadstool had swollen PEs - not sure why. The third leather is still closed. All other corals are open and well.

 

B16.jpg.8a2f6df3cbe290c6f1c03403ab413867.jpg

 

B17.jpg.40c7d65b33d078d7cc6b07fe1d26e18d.jpg

 

 

I guess it could have been much much worse. Everything seems to be looking good considering. 🙂

 

That lobster is so cute!

 

 It must be weird for all the critters..... everything is the same but different. 

 

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Snow_Phoenix
12 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

I guess it could have been much much worse. Everything seems to be looking good considering. 🙂

 

That lobster is so cute!

 

 It must be weird for all the critters..... everything is the same but different. 

 

Yes, it could have been worse. Trying to pick up after the losses - thank goodness the previous tank wasn't overflowing with coral. That'd been an even bigger disaster.

 

The lobster is still trying to *figure out the tank lol. I saw him taking refuge in my fuge box just now - I don't know how he gets in and out of there, but he always liked dark spaces. 

 

My scape is a bit of a mess. It was supposed to be two separate islands - I added a third piece to create an arch of sorts but the piece itself has holes and mini arches in it. I thought of taking it out to break it, but I saw my tilefish zooming between the arches. He seemed quite happy to do that a few times, so I left it as it is. Right now, I'm adding very small frags one/three at a time. I pulled all the corals from Morph's tank and shifted them here. Morph's tank has an outbreak of GHA and despite adding a cooling fan, the water temp spiked up to 31'C, which is way too hot for corals.

 

My ambient room temp is much lower, so the temp in this tank stays between 25'C to 28'C daily. 

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Snow_Phoenix

1. Well, I was wrong (again). The hermits did end up eating the snail after all, and blue legs now has a pretty new shell. 

 

 

 

2. I think the trauma of seeing his buddy being devoured was too much, so my second Nass snail actually climbed into my fuge box and is happily taking refuge on one of the rocks. Aiyiyi. 

 

 

 

3. Also, I *think I might have lost a dartfish. The reason I'm unsure is because I haven't seen it for over 24 hours and there's no body any where within the tank or outside of it. I do have a very efficient CUC, but it's a bit baffling because I saw the fish early last morning when the lights was still out, and when I checked back on the tank an hour later, it had vanished. The other dartfish is still in the tank, however, and feeding/swimming actively.

 

Dartfish aside, my tilefish developed a small scrape on one side of his body. My guess is he tried weaving between the rock arches/holes again and accidently scraped himself while swimming. The area is red and sore (can't be seen in pic) and I'm a bit worried because he's been quite subdued ever since the injury. He's still eating like normal though, but now prefers hanging out in the space under my skimmer.

 

 

 

Sometimes, I feel it's so difficult to keep fish happy and healthy. I aim for long-term results, but that isn't always possible. Just hoping my tilefish would make a full recovery though. I know how fast things can spiral downhill in marine tanks, fish-wise.

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6 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

1. Well, I was wrong (again). The hermits did end up eating the snail after all, and blue legs now has a pretty new shell. 

 

B18.jpg.2057753610fed24e62b673c6c7828307.jpg

 

2. I think the trauma of seeing his budding being devoured was too much, so my second Nass snail actually climbed into my fuge box and is happily taking refuge on one of the rocks. Aiyiyi. 

 

B20.jpg.ccf218dc3c039633abd77fd1acfc8631.jpg

 

3. Also, I *think I might have lost a dartfish. The reason I'm unsure is because I haven't seen it for over 24 hours and there's no body any where within the tank or outside of it. I do have a very efficient CUC, but it's a bit baffling because I saw the fish early last morning when the lights was still out, and when I checked back on the tank an hour later, it had vanished. The other dartfish is still in the tank, however, and feeding/swimming actively.

 

Dartfish aside, my tilefish developed a small scrape on one side of his body. My guess is he tried weaving between the rock arches/holes again and accidently scraped himself while swimming. The area is red and sore (can't be seen in pic) and I'm a bit worried because he's been quite subdued ever since the injury. He's still eating like normal though, but now prefers hanging out in the space under my skimmer.

 

B19.jpg.6da942f0c1dff1fa5ec01bdc364edfdd.jpg

 

Sometimes, I feel it's so difficult to keep fish happy and healthy. I aim for long-term results, but that isn't always possible. Just hoping my tilefish would make a full recovery though. I know how fast things can spiral downhill in marine tanks, fish-wise.

 

Hes sooo cute..... I hope he’s ok. 

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Snow_Phoenix
22 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

Hes sooo cute..... I hope he’s ok. 

Me too. I just checked on him. Still chillin' underneath the skimmer. Will he recover without meds though? I read that tilefish are quite susceptible to meds - they tend to die during QT rather than recover. That's why I haven't pulled him out of my display yet - so worried over losing him. Right now I'm just trying to keep everyone as well-fed as possible without overfeeding and bumping up the nitrates too much. My salinity is a bit low (1.023) in this tank, so I'll need to increase it over the next few days to 1.025. 

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Snow_Phoenix

My Tilefish's scrape has gotten worse. I can see a huge patch of mottled flesh underneath, and there was a small pool of blood just below his stomach. He's still eating and swimming, just not with as much gusto as before. He's mostly hovering at one spot, and his breathing is a bit labored. Should I pull him out of my display somehow? What do I treat him with?

 

I haven't had a fish injure itself this badly before. Here's several pics of the wound:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the affected area is swollen, distorted and reddish-white. His coloration has become paler - which is quite wrong (tilefish are very vivid in color). I'm going to do my best to save him somehow. Still debating QTing him because a lot of sources online quote that this species doesn't do well under meds/QT. I was lucky enough as it is to get a fish that was eating from the store, and one that was small in size. I'm tempted to contact my LFS for guidance, but they're closed for several days due to Hari Raya. Even though I do have the personal contact of my manager/friend, I'm don't want to disturb him during his religious festival. 

 

Anyone in here ever dealt with something like this?

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38 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

My Tilefish's scrape has gotten worse. I can see a huge patch of mottled flesh underneath, and there was a small pool of blood just below his stomach. He's still eating and swimming, just not with as much gusto as before. He's mostly hovering at one spot, and his breathing is a bit labored. Should I pull him out of my display somehow? What do I treat him with?

 

I haven't had a fish injure itself this badly before. Here's several pics of the wound:

 

B21.jpg.506f1fddd8112a12f3a8bf7e47df5384.jpg

 

B22.jpg.e4dc2018ea655c8dea1819108380904e.jpg

 

B23.jpg.7566fef139eb72a801df3717e9ff3445.jpg

 

As you can see, the affected area is swollen, distorted and reddish-white. His coloration has become paler - which is quite wrong (tilefish are very vivid in color). I'm going to do my best to save him somehow. Still debating QTing him because a lot of sources online quote that this species doesn't do well under meds/QT. I was lucky enough as it is to get a fish that was eating from the store, and one that was small in size. I'm tempted to contact my LFS for guidance, but they're closed for several days due to Hari Raya. Even though I do have the personal contact of my manager/friend, I'm don't want to disturb him during his religious festival. 

 

Anyone in here ever dealt with something like this?

I do not have any experience with meds. Poor guy....That wound looks nasty. 

 

Sending him good vibes for a full recovery. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Snow_Phoenix
1 hour ago, WV Reefer said:

I do not have any experience with meds. Poor guy....That wound looks nasty. 

 

Sending him good vibes for a full recovery. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks Christy. I don't have experience in treating fish wounds either. I have some meds on hand, but I don't know if they'll help. I'm trying my best not to pull him from my display and stress him out further. 

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Snow_Phoenix

I think I misjudged this. I think it wasn't just a scrape but the beginning of a nasty fungal/bacterial infection. My dartfish just developed a similar-looking sore on his head, just above one eye. I'll try to pull both fish out of the display and treat them in isolation. Doesn't seem there is much that I can do. (And this is why I really should have QTed all of them when I brought them back home). 

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Sorry to hear about your fishies 😞

 

I would just uproot all rocks and do anything to get them out asap. If they are still eating they still have a chance.  Furan 2 + kanaplex should help. Be sure to get an ammonia badge and keep the hospital water aerated.

 

good luck

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On 6/16/2018 at 9:56 AM, Squared said:

Sorry to hear about your fishies 😞

 

I would just uproot all rocks and do anything to get them out asap. If they are still eating they still have a chance.  Furan 2 + kanaplex should help. Be sure to get an ammonia badge and keep the hospital water aerated.

 

good luck

I managed to isolate both fish. Since they were still *asleep and the lights were dim, it was easier to nab them out of the display. The dartfish was taking refuge in a hole/arch in my 3rd LR piece, so all I had to do was tilt the LR and he came sliding right out. The tilefish was caught by hand - he actually put up a fight. I don't have Furan 2 or Kanaplex, but I have Methylene Blue and Maracyn-2. Maracyn is quite strong so I will only use it once I do a short course with the Methylene Blue. I also have concentrated Magnesium Sulphate salt for salt baths. Not sure how well it will work with SW fish though.

 

Here's my tilefish - that patch of red is now a huge square right in the middle of his body:

 

 

 

The small spot of *fungus on my dartfish appears to have vanished overnight. But I'm still QTing him and treating him at a go. Hopefully they'll both be alright - especially my tilefish. I love his personality and he was such a wonderful addition to the tank.

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39 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I managed to isolate both fish. Since they were still *asleep and the lights were dim, it was easier to nab them out of the display. The dartfish was taking refuge in a hole/arch in my 3rd LR piece, so all I had to do was tilt the LR and he came sliding right out. The tilefish was caught by hand - he actually put up a fight. I don't have Furan 2 or Kanaplex, but I have Methylene Blue and Maracyn-2. Maracyn is quite strong so I will only use it once I do a short course with the Methylene Blue. I also have concentrated Magnesium Sulphate salt for salt baths. Not sure how well it will work with SW fish though.

 

Here's my tilefish - that patch of red is now a huge square right in the middle of his body:

 

B24.jpg.4fa6e3e52f463c78d7fb203968dd7f15.jpg

 

The small spot of *fungus on my dartfish appears to have vanished overnight. But I'm still QTing him and treating him at a go. Hopefully they'll both be alright - especially my tilefish. I love his personality and he was such a wonderful addition to the tank.

Good luck to you and the fish! 

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Just wanted to update and say I lost my tilefish during QT treatment with methylene blue. He was too far gone when I put him in isolation. The sore was really bad (I checked his body) and I could actually see the raw flesh and tiny purple vessels underneath. The *fungus I saw was actually layers of skin being sloughed off. I checked my dartfish and his *fungus has mysteriously vanished. I think that was dirt attached to his slime coat under the eye, but I'm unsure. Either way, I gave my dartfish a methylene dip and there's no change in behavior - he's still normal and actively feeding.

 

I'm still not sure what just happened - are there flesh-eating organisms in SW? Never encountered it, and if yes, I need to keep doing WCs in my display to hopefully kill whatever that's swimming around in it. No new fish to be added anytime soon - might add corals down the road, but I need to find a way to fix this first - fast. 

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18 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Just wanted to update and say I lost my tilefish during QT treatment with methylene blue. He was too far gone when I put him in isolation. The sore was really bad (I checked his body) and I could actually see the raw flesh and tiny purple vessels underneath. The *fungus I saw was actually layers of skin being sloughed off. I checked my dartfish and his *fungus has mysteriously vanished. I think that was dirt attached to his slime coat under the eye, but I'm unsure. Either way, I gave my dartfish a methylene dip and there's no change in behavior - he's still normal and actively feeding.

 

I'm still not sure what just happened - are there flesh-eating organisms in SW? Never encountered it, and if yes, I need to keep doing WCs in my display to hopefully kill whatever that's swimming around in it. No new fish to be added anytime soon - might add corals down the road, but I need to find a way to fix this first - fast. 

😞 so sorry about the tilefish. 

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Snow_Phoenix
4 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

😞 so sorry about the tilefish. 

I really loved him. In the short time I had him, he brought so much life to my tank. So much personality in one fish - more than I expected. 

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3 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I really loved him. In the short time I had him, he brought so much life to my tank. So much personality in one fish - more than I expected. 

 That happened fast!  Wonder what it was?

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Snow_Phoenix
8 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 That happened fast!  Wonder what it was?

I have no idea, which worries me. It doesn't look like a parasite and I'm googling all the resources online and there's nothing like it. 😞

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Snow_Phoenix

A little interesting fact about Saron shrimps - they change colors at night like a chameleon. Mine turned bright green one night:

 

 

 

And then he was dark red the next night!

 

 

 

In the mornings, he reassumes his usual mottled brown/white coloration. A very interesting shrimp. I've owned Sarons before, and they've never touched any of my corals so far. As long as they're well-fed, they're decent citizens in a reef tank.

 

Very interesting shrimp. Mine is a male and unlike the Sarons I've owned before, he's not very cryptic. I think in the absence of bold fish, most of my inverts tend to linger *out in the display more often.

 

Also, I've re-added my dartfish to the display. Very brief QT but he's happier when I put him back, and for a slender fish, he eats a lot and loves diced raw shrimp. Still no plans on adding a new fish. But honestly, if I come across another small tilefish, I'll probably take it, QT it first, then release it into the display. I originally wanted to get a pair of Percs or Occys for this tank (in the far future), but that might stress out my dartfish and clowns have a very heavy bioload. So I'm looking into possibly stocking the tank with more passive nano-sized fish like YCG, TSB, GBG, neon goby etc. around 3 months from now.

 

Can a zebra dartfish survive on its own in a tank long-term, or must I pair it up again? Several sources have quoted that these fish need to be in pairs or trios to thrive. Not sure how true that is though. 

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