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

[Tamberav]

I put two mandarins through peroxide dips without problems. They look a little funny since the slime coat collects bubbles on the outside but they did fine. 

 

The one fish I lost IN the bath that looked healthy before was a lubbocks wrasse. All my Leopards and Halichoeres did fine though. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

15 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

I put two mandarins through peroxide dips without problems. They look a little funny since the slime coat collects bubbles on the outside but they did fine. 

 

The one fish I lost IN the bath that looked healthy before was a lubbocks wrasse. All my Leopards and Halichoeres did fine though. 

Ah, I have a lubbocks. He's a butthead, but I love him. Can we pull the fish out of the dip at any time if they get too stressed out during the 30 mins?

[Tamberav]

You can but then the velvet may not be fully treated? The peroxide is for the velvet. 

 

I am not positive it was the peroxide that killed my lubbocks. I had to walk away and came back and he was spinning. He MAY have freaked out and slammed his head/spine or something. Fairy's are jumpy. He was just the only fish I ever lost IN the dip. I had a long-fin fairy who did fine in it. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Today I decided to begin the first day of hybrid TTM for all of my remaining fish. 

 

Prior to transfering the fish into a new QT devoid of meds, I did set up a 6% peroxide bath for them in a small 6.048L plastic tank (no glass bowls available, so I had to make do with what I have). 

 

 

According to my calculations, the amount of peroxide required for this amount of SW to reach a concentration of 150ppm peroxide was roughly 15.12 ml. Due to the limitations of my syringe, I only dosed 15.1 ml into the water:

 

 

I also measured the volume of SW in the new QT bin I was setting up - which is quite small at roughly ~4.5G:

 

 

There was a fair bit of salt residue at the bottom, but I did manage to mix most of it up. 

 

While waiting for the peroxide bath to settle (1 hour needed, prior to dipping fish), I left the fish alone in their present QT bin:

 

 

And got to work at sorting out all the equipment, which was a bit messy because I had to limit/prevent cross-contamination of anything between dips and transfers. So I needed doubles of everything, and in the case of the airline tubing and airstones, triples of everything:

 

 

I also boiled batches of water to quickly dip the nets when I used them to transfer the fish from their current QT bin to the peroxide bath, then later to the new QT bin. The 30 min. downtime during which the fish were in the bath had to be monitored closely (used an alarm clock and set it on one of the chairs in the room) and I had to quickly drain & clean the older QT bin, roll the new QT bin into place and wash all the necessary equipment in between. 

 

Mixing up the SW, setting up and cleaning the equipment and triple-checking everything took more time than I anticipated. It was quite hectic, and I had to work fast - which was a bit challenging since I can't move too fast on my feet atm. 😕

 

Also, the reason I dipped the fish prior to adding them to a new QT is to knock off as many parasites as possible from them - to hopefully help them survive the upcoming 2+ weeks of treatment. 

 

However, if I did my reading correctly, you're only supposed to give peroxide baths once every six days, so I will have to adjust my TTM schedule accordingly to accomodate this. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

The peroxide dip actually went quite well. My wrasses were initially quite active during the first ~10 minutes of the dip, but eventually they settled down. 

 

 

 

 

 

My foxface was quite mottled, but that was expected. Most of the fish were breathing hard towards the tail-end of the 30 min. dip, but I noticed my dragonet seemed unaffected and was pretty chill~ 😊

 

Eventually I transferred all of them back into the new QT bin (which had 3 new PVC pipes, and was aerated by 2 airstones + 1 HOB with floss only) and they were okay. 

 

The wrasses are being dramatic as usual by sleeping on their sides, but their breathing is even. I'll try feeding them tomorrow, and *hopefully the fish will start eating again. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just texted my LFS to order more salt. 25kg of Fritz in vaccuum-sealed packs of 1kg each should tentatively arrive this Wednesday (it's already Monday the 1st of Nov here). 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I ghost-fed a few pellets to my DT today. The nass. snails ate them up though. 😅

 

Also checked up on the QT bin:

 

 

The drama kings were playing dead (as usual). 😅

 

 

 

 

 

^This is probably one of those ultra-rare moments when I can actually take a clear pic of Bullet, my Christmas wrasse. His colors have changed so much - I didn't even know he had a hint of blue in his scales. 

 

All of the fish tentatively look alright. I think the peroxide bath did help, although it is still too early to tell. There is still *unfortunately some salt residue in the corners of the QT. It still remains undissolved despite thorough mixing (I honestly thought it was all gone at first), and is a pain to siphon out without spooking the fish, so I left it. ☹

 

I'll come up with a more solid, modified treatment plan later - preferably some time tomorrow. Right now, my goal is to get the fish to start eating again. I won't be feeding any frozen food during the QT period, but I'll make an exception for frozen copepods. I'll be mostly feeding small quantities of pellets soaked with garlic. 👍

[Tamberav]

My old salt will not fully dissolve sometimes but it doesn’t seem harmful to the fish. It is probably just precipitation… not actual salt.  
 

Keep a very close eye on ammonia as that QT is small for so many decent sized fish. 

[debbeach13]

You must be exhausted. Hang in there. We are all hoping for good results from all your hard work.

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, Tamberav said:

My old salt will not fully dissolve sometimes but it doesn’t seem harmful to the fish. It is probably just precipitation… not actual salt.  
 

Keep a very close eye on ammonia as that QT is small for so many decent sized fish. 

Will do. I wanted to initially dose Prime, but since I'll be dosing Prazi on Day #3, I was worried there will be an interaction between the two.

 

I did check ammonia levels though. So far it remains zero. But I'll monitor it again tomorrow. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

You must be exhausted. Hang in there. We are all hoping for good results from all your hard work.

Yep, I'm drop dead tired. I was thinking of having another full day of rest tomorrow, but I need to WC my nanoreef. So perhaps I'll do that, but in stages, throughout the day. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Few quick updates. The DT is doing alright so far, although the rocks still remain fuzzy with algae:

 

 

The critters are doing well. Some asterinas survived the peroxide purge, so it's good to see them around the tank:

 

 

New Tux is doing okay too:

 

 

Most of the life on the rocks have been retained, including the sponges:

 

 

I'm mostly glad that the bristleworm population is kept under control. 

 

This might be an odd question - but is it safe to add CUC inverts like snails or even hermits during the fallow period? 

 

I was thinking of picking up some snails in the middle of next month, because some of the algae film is stubborn, despite the lack of lights. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

All fish in the QT are still alive. But they're quite skittish, which is to be expected. 

 

 

 

I fed them some garlic soaked pellets today, but only my zebra dartfish took a few tentative bites. The rest seemed uninterested in the food. 😕

 

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll be dosing Prazi. Then the day after, before the 72 hour time limit is up, I'll quickly TTM the fish again. No dips or peroxide baths - not yet. 👀

[seabass]

48 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

is it safe to add CUC inverts like snails or even hermits during the fallow period?

Yep, no problem.

[Tamberav]

Fallow period is best time to add them in case they bring something in with them. Then they go through follow anyways. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

55 minutes ago, seabass said:

Yep, no problem.

 

11 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

Fallow period is best time to add them in case they bring something in with them. Then they go through follow anyways. 

Noted on both accounts - thank you, both! 🙂
 

I'll pick up some snails on my birthday next month then. And maybe, *if I'm feeling brave enough that day, another urchin and a hermit. 

[Humblefish]

@Snow_Phoenix I’ve been offline for the past few days, but am following and applaud your efforts. 👍

[Critteraholic]

HOLY - CRAP!!!!!  Life got busy here and I come back and you're going through hell. OMG.  So so sorry all of this happened.  Can't believe you're able to function. Just devastating. I'm rooting for you and your fishy friends.

 

It scares me to death that velvet just showed up, you know?  How in the hell did it get in your tank??? ( A rhetorical question.) If this could happen to you, the rest of us are in trouble.

 

Wishing you all the best.

[Snow_Phoenix]

46 minutes ago, Humblefish said:

@Snow_Phoenix I’ve been offline for the past few days, but am following and applaud your efforts. 👍

Thank you, Humblefish. My only regret is not moving fast enough to get everyone out of the DT. The only reason I hesitated was because the last time I removed rocks from my DT to net all the fish to try and QT them (for Ich), I lost several of them because the nanofish had lodged themselves into various rock crevices and gotten stuck. Including my TSB. 😔

 

So by *trying to *save fish, I ended up *killing a few. 😔

 

I was afraid the same thing would happen again. 

 

Perhaps I could have saved my dragonets, perhaps not. My velvet strain kills too quickly. 

 

I'm glad I still managed to save 7 fish (for now). Hopefully they'll pull through the QT period. 😕

 

32 minutes ago, Critteraholic said:

HOLY - CRAP!!!!!  Life got busy here and I come back and you're going through hell. OMG.  So so sorry all of this happened.  Can't believe you're able to function. Just devastating. I'm rooting for you and your fishy friends.

 

It scares me to death that velvet just showed up, you know?  How in the hell did it get in your tank??? ( A rhetorical question.) If this could happen to you, the rest of us are in trouble.

 

Wishing you all the best.

I have no idea, so I'm trying to think back on everything I did recently. I'm usually quite meticulous when it comes to using one equipment in one tank, then the other, because I try to prevent cross contamination. I'll always wash or pour boiling water over any equipment that I'm about to use for the next tank, and dry it under the hot sun. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

Mr. Prickles tried to mount one of turban snails and got yeeted. 😅

 

Watched him painstakingly flip himself back up from the sandbed:

 

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVzAyaxJGjF/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

Also, me logging into NR this morning. 👀

 

😅

[Snow_Phoenix]

Here's the modified TTM schedule that I came up with. I had to make adjustments to the days and timings, since I started off with a peroxide bath on the first day itself for the fish, and the next bath needs to be at least 6 days apart according to Humblefish's website:

 

 

I also added an extra step - I'll be transferring the fish using TTM *5 times (not 4), just to be safe. The extra transfer will be stressful for the fish, and would mean extra work for me, but I just want to make sure that the parasite(s) are completely eradicated before I re-introduce the fish in the tank after the fallow period is over. 

 

Once the last TTM step is complete, the fish will only have to endure weekly WCs until they can go back into the DT. 

 

My greatest concern right now is the lack of appetite among the fish. No one seems hungry - not even my foxface, which used to be a voracious eater. 😕

 

I've just ordered a tiny brine shrimp hatchery online, so hopefully it'll arrive soon and I can quickly hatch some BBS - live food usually has a way of catching a fish's attention. 

 

I'll keep this thread updated on the progress (or decline) of any of the fish in the QT, or the inverts in my DT. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Today is Day 3 of treatment and I have dosed 1.7ml of Prazi into the QT. (1.696ml, rounded up to 1.7ml for easier dosing)

 

 

 

 

PraziGold is quite strong. And I'm a bit worried dosing at full strength on account of the sensitivity of my dragonet & wrasses, but I decided to go through with it. 😕

 

This bottle has been with me for a while though, so I have ordered new prazi (in powder form) online. It should arrive in few days.

 

I was initially planning on getting albendazole, but it was sold out rather quickly. 😕

 

I also purchased Kanamycin & Oxytetracycline. 👍

 

Next time, I'll try to grab potassium permanganate (precautionary measure for my discus), nitrofurazone & formalin. 👍

 

Chances are, I won't be needing any of these meds anytime soon, but it's best to have them - especially for my FW tanks, too. 👍

 

The kanamycin however, is definitely necessary. I'm unsure if I should pick up Seachem Focus in the future as well - it's quite expensive. But I'll definitely need to pick up a new bottle of Prime. 🤔

[seabass]

3 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I've just ordered a tiny brine shrimp hatchery online, so hopefully it'll arrive soon and I can quickly hatch some BBS - live food usually has a way of catching a fish's attention.

They might even eat decapsulated brine shrimp eggs.  But if not, decapsulated brine shrimp eggs hatch faster (like overnight) in a hatchery (and leave no shells, so harvesting becomes easier).

 

Here is how I decapsulate the brine shrimp eggs:

• I put about 40ml of tap water in a glass.  The amount of water isn't that important.
• Then I stir some brine shrimp eggs into the water, and let them sit for an hour.
• After the hour, I add about 20ml of chlorine bleach.  Again, the amount of bleach isn't that important; but I shoot for about 50% of the amount of water I used.  I don't really measure any of this (eyeballing it is fine).
• Stir the eggs occasionally, until the eggs turn orange.  This takes roughly 5 minutes.  The time isn't as important as the color.
• Then I drain the eggs using a 53 micron plankton screen.  I rinse them with tap water, then pour some water with a little Seachem Prime over them, and then rinse them with tap water again.  Basically I'm just trying to get rid of the chlorine.
• At this point, you could flip over the sieve and run a glass of saltwater (made for the hatchery) through the sieve to release the decapsulated eggs into another container.
• Then you can pour the eggs (and water) into the hatchery (or even some into the tank to see if the fish will eat them).

[Snow_Phoenix]

7 minutes ago, seabass said:

They might even eat decapsulated brine shrimp eggs.  But if not, decapsulated brine shrimp eggs hatch faster (like overnight) in a hatchery (and leave no shells, so harvesting becomes easier).

 

Here is how I decapsulate the brine shrimp eggs:

• I put about 40ml of tap water in a glass.  The amount of water isn't that important.
• Then I stir some brine shrimp eggs into the water, and let them sit for an hour.
• After the hour, I add about 20ml of chlorine bleach.  Again, the amount of bleach isn't that important; but I shoot for about 50% of the amount of water I used.  I don't really measure any of this (eyeballing it is fine).
• Stir the eggs occasionally, until the eggs turn orange.  This takes roughly 5 minutes.  The time isn't as important as the color.
• Then I drain the eggs using a 53 micron plankton screen.  I rinse them with tap water, then pour some water with a little Seachem Prime over them, and then rinse them with tap water again.  Basically I'm just trying to get rid of the chlorine.
• At this point, you could flip over the sieve and run a glass of saltwater (made for the hatchery) through the sieve to release the decapsulated eggs into another container.
• Then you can pour the eggs (and water) into the hatchery (or even some into the tank to see if the fish will eat them).

Thank you so much for this! Quick question - by chlorine bleach - do you mean actual bleach? Like the caustic kind used to clean floors? Isn't bleach harmful? 🤔

 

(Have lost corals & fish to bleach fumes/spray, that's why I'm double checking)

 

A little bit confused over this one. 😕

[seabass]

Yep, household bleach (5% sodium hypochlorite).  That's what dissolves the shells.

 

https://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/about-us/frequently-asked-questions/what-decapsulated-brine-shrimp-eggs/