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Snow's 60G Secret Predatory Sanctum 🐲🐉 - Shutting Down


Snow_Phoenix

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Snow_Phoenix

Just waiting for the next peroxide bath followed by TTM. Aquilla the clown is in good form, but Rocky the blenny is still unhealthily thin. 😔

 

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I cannot rush the QT process unfortunately, lest I jeopardize the health of all the other fish in my tank. It's a hard call, but I just need 6 more days before I can release both these fish into the 60G.

 

Hold on, Rocky. 💦

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Snow_Phoenix

Peroxide bath went well:

 

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But it did stress out my clown a little. She was quite woozy afterwards, and I recall her acting the same way after her 1st peroxide bath around a week ago.

 

I'm unsure if her sensitivity is attributed to her *only, or her species as a whole because there is minimal data about pink skunk clowns + peroxide compatibility online. 🤔

 

I'll check on her later. Her appetite usually perks up the following day. 👍

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Snow_Phoenix

Lily under blues:

 

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Lily under mid-blues, high whites:

 

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Lady:

 

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Hawke:

 

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Sad to say, but I woke up this morning to a skeletal cynarina with most of the flesh peeled off. 😔

 

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When I first picked up this piece, it was *mildly unhealthy with a pinched, skeletal corner. New flesh never regrew over that dead area, and although the coral appeared okay for the first few weeks, it never spread out wide as compared to how I saw it at the store. It *was puffy, but not fully puffy. 😕

 

My tank's conditions made it worse, I fear. And the decaying mangrove must have spiked up nutrients to the point that it affected this piece this badly. 

 

None of my fish touched this coral. I've been observing it since day one, and my copperband is very skittish around corals (and even aiptasia! 🤦‍♀️) and avoids them like the plague. 

 

Even my foxface, molly crew and lions go nowhere near my zoas, softies, and cynarina(s). So I'm quite sure this is purely a parameter issue which accelerated the degeneration of an already unhealthy coral. 

 

I had another cynarina booked at the store when I purchased my clown and blenny. I don't intend to bring it home until I can WC both the sump & DT of this tank, and help the tank stabilize further with future, albeit smaller, weekly/biweekly WCs. 👍

 

Luckily I didn't pick up a frogspawn colony I had been eyeing on either. I find this a bit of a train wreck, but I'll keep trying to pull this tank around. I'm avoiding rip cleans because this will be detrimental to the already-shaky health of *this setup, and I'll lose both the maturity and microfauna biodiversity I've fought very hard to preserve over the years. 

 

I'll tackle the algae the old-fashioned way - manual pruning (wherever I can), more CUC & more WCs. Personally, I'd rather have a tank with regular algae than a super clean one infested with dinos - that's quite possibly one of the worst case scenarios in this hobby, and every reefer's personal nightmare. :scarry:

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That Yuma is really coming along. 
 

Is the blenny eating? Guessing he was thin at the LFS? I feel like it takes awhile to get so thin. Internal parasites are such a pain. 

 

All done with peroxide baths for the clown at least? I think I remember it being just two baths. Glad she is doing ok. 
 

 

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Snow_Phoenix
59 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

That Yuma is really coming along. 
 

Is the blenny eating? Guessing he was thin at the LFS? I feel like it takes awhile to get so thin. Internal parasites are such a pain. 

 

All done with peroxide baths for the clown at least? I think I remember it being just two baths. Glad she is doing ok. 
 

 

Yeah, it was thin at the store and barely eating there. Still hasn't touched anything - including seaweed pellets - today either. 😕

 

Yep, 2 peroxide baths done, but there's another Prazi dosing to be done tomorrow, followed by another TTM the day after. At least the clown is eating and back to normal. 

 

Just waiting for the whole hybrid-TTM to be over and done with. I think the blenny will fare better in the DT because it's full of algae and has so many spots he can graze on. It'll take time to fatten him up though! 

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Snow_Phoenix

Coloring up quite nicely: 🥰

 

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Lily on the rocks:

 

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Hawke scraped his head while trying to catch shrimp & mollies few days ago (not yesterday). He looked like he was healing up fine at first, but today evening it looks like he has a large white bump on the site of the injury:

 

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He's still very active and vibrant. Eating, swimming and behaving normally. But I am a bit concerned because the bump is large. I'm worried some sort of infection has started to set in, hence the bump. 😕

 

Anyone have any ideas on how to treat this? Or do I leave the fish to recover on his own? 🤔

 

I'm already preparing to do a sump clean-out and large WC next week. Just slowly preparing the media one by one, then will set aside the proper equipment for the task. 

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Snow_Phoenix

New fuge light is quite bright. Not bad for an inexpensive light. 😊👍

 

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I'm honestly not sure how my mangroves will keep growing up because the height of the cabinet will limit their reach. Just keeping an eye on all of them for now. 🌱

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Snow_Phoenix
5 hours ago, seabass said:

Watch the roots as they get bigger.  They can be strong enough to break a tank.

Noted with thanks. I plant mine in mineral water bottles packed with sand so that I can move the plants easily when they outgrow the sump. 👍

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Snow_Phoenix

Dropped some mollies into the tank this morning:

 

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Also dosed Prazi in the QT. I fed the clown some pellets prior to dosing. The blenny still refuses to eat anything. 😕

 

Hawk's bump must have ruptured somehow overnight. He now has a visible hole on one side of his head and I'm concerned this might be the start of HLLE. 😕

 

I did manage to toss out the skeleton of the cynarina this morning though. I'll be measuring & cutting out filter mat pieces later. Will most probably rinse & dry out a bag of activated carbon overnight in the side porch. 

 

The tidepool crab tank still exists, but I'm down to 2 crabs. My main issue with these guys has been feeding them. Most of them molted successfully in the sand, but I had trouble with sustaining them on solid food. 

 

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The survivors have grown larger though, and chosen larger empty shells as their new home. 🦀

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Fingers crossed that your blenny makes it through. You are so close to the end of the hybrid TTM! I'm currently at day 9 and need to prep for tomorrow's peroxide and transfer. Unfortunately I missed the first prazi treatment, though, so I might need to extend it another transfer or two. It's a ton of work...but worth it if it keeps the existing fish healthy.

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Snow_Phoenix
1 hour ago, chipz said:

Fingers crossed that your blenny makes it through. You are so close to the end of the hybrid TTM! I'm currently at day 9 and need to prep for tomorrow's peroxide and transfer. Unfortunately I missed the first prazi treatment, though, so I might need to extend it another transfer or two. It's a ton of work...but worth it if it keeps the existing fish healthy.

He has weakened a fair bit. Just 3 more days and it'll be done. Hoping for the best outcome. 

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Snow_Phoenix

TTM up in a few hours. The blenny made it through the night. Now he has to make it through until Thursday morning (it's Monday morning atm) before I can move him into the 60G. 👍

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Snow_Phoenix

One of the mollies grazing on the rocks. 😊👍

 

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Puffed up. 💦

 

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Need to start mixing up some new SW for the next QT bin. Will update on the status of the blenny & clown later. 👍

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Snow_Phoenix

These were taken while they were in the acclimation bucket prior to the TTM:

 

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They were okay once I moved them to the new bin. The blenny was quite alert, but the clown sought refuge in the PVC pipe as usual. Just less than 72 hours and I can move them to the DT. 

 

Hope these two make it. 😕

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With the clownfish eating, I'm fairly optimistic about its chances.  It would be drawn to a LTA.  But those anemones get big, so I'm not sure if that would be a viable option.

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Snow_Phoenix
2 minutes ago, seabass said:

With the clownfish eating, I'm fairly optimistic about its chances.  It would be drawn to a LTA.  But those anemones get big, so I'm not sure if that would be a viable option.

I almost bought a green LTA at the store when I got her. Because she was already hosting one and very, very happy with it. 

 

But I knew my tank wasn't clean enough to host one properly - and the size did worry me. They get 1'ft across...? :eek:

 

Have to say though, if I have a single LTA in the tank, I won't need to focus on getting any LPS because it'll 'fill' up the tank anyway.

 

I vaguely considered it, but am still unsure about it. I need to focus on WCing the tank and getting it a bit cleaner, if possible. 

 

Also, nems walk. Even if I put one on the sandbed, or against the back of the tank, it'll probably crawl all over the rocks and worst case scenario, end up in the wavemaker. 😕

 

Another better option would be to purchase a large LPS which looks similar to a LTA - something with very long PE like an elegance, frogspawn, octospawn etc. I spotted a beautiful frogspawn at the store the other day - might wind up getting a colony in the far future. Of course, no guarantees the clown will ever host it, but at least it won't move all over the place. 

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Snow_Phoenix

The blenny is in really bad shape in QT, and lying on his side. I don't expect him to survive the night - or by the very most, tomorrow night either. :sad:

I'm quite heartbroken at how thin & weak he's become, and sometimes the reality of purchasing wild-caught animals in this hobby truly sucker punches you hard in the gut. 

 

My only consolation is that the clown seems okay for now, although she is keeping to herself in the pipe for the night.

 

I also lost several FW fish today evening, so all in all, definitely not a very good day. 

 

The 60G needs a scrape - film algae has begun to settle on the glass again. It's not too bad though. Nothing that simple maintenance with an algae scraper can't take care of. 

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I think LTA like to bury their foot in a deep? ish? sand bed and I think they can eat small fish?

 

They are beautiful though. 

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Snow_Phoenix
9 hours ago, Tamberav said:

I think LTA like to bury their foot in a deep? ish? sand bed and I think they can eat small fish?

 

They are beautiful though. 

Will have to read up more on it, but I think you might be right. I do agree that they're pretty. My store had some green, tan and purple ones - the purple nems looked really nice, but are more expensive than the other colors. 

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Do they have BTAs there? They get largish too actually but safer with other fish. I think a LTA taking up most of the tank mag pose a risk to your other fish tbh. 
 

I think the flowey coral is probably the best idea. I have seen clowns use Xenia or anthellia even for hosts. Maybe a wild clown would too since it’s the only option. 

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