emergency!

[murcos]

i was told to post my thread here, that maybe someone named "six" can help me?

 

Well, here's my trouble What the heck!>? I bought a d. heniochus yesterday. Fine and healthy in the store. I put him in my QT, which I checked the levels of beforehand and I thought they were all normal. He was swimming around, eating, seemed fine. I was gone all day today, and when I came home around 6pm tonight, he was dead. Now, I don't know how long he was dead for, but I checked my levels again. My ammonia was at .50 and my nitrite at .25. I don't know if that was becasue he was dead in there all day and that made them rise, or if they were like that before and I didn't notice. (I don't think they were...) Would this been enough to kill him if so? I don't know what to do?

 

On a side note. I bought a piece of live rock also and put it in my tank yesterday (fully cured etc). When I got it there was a small reef crab that was stuck inside not wanting to come out. I told him I would just buy both. But today, 24 hours later, he is still in the same spot. Could he be stuck? Is it worth pulling the rock out (potentially disturbing the leather coral that is sitting on top) to see if he is ok?

[lgreen]

Maybe a disease ultimatley, must mostly just an uninformed buy.

 

The problem is that you should never by Heniochus butterflies unless you really know what you are doing. They are pretty dang difficult to keep alive. Most don't make it for more than a week.

 

Additionally, because they are a butterfly, they ideally should be in a least a 125g tank.

 

Your LFS obviously didn't know or didn't warn you, but I would not recommend buying a Heniochus again.

 

If you want a butterfly, consider getting a bigger tank first, and then try like a copperband, yellow long nose, or look in Marine Fishes by Scott Michael for some other good butterfly recommendations.

[murcos]

my QT is 10g, not my main.

[lgreen]

i dont know what to tell you.

 

Make sure and research before you buy. If you had, you would have probably noticed that this is not the hardiest of the butterflys.

 

The fact that you put it in a 10g QT tank (which is pretty dang small for that fish) may have stressed it out too.

[lgreen]

Fish buying tips from my Newbie Help Thread:

 

9. Buying fish:

 

1) First thing! Make a plan when you are going to set up a tank of what you want to keep. Design your tank around your inhabitants, not add inhabitants to your "what you think is cool, or right" tank.

2) Don't buy anything unless:

-you know what it is

-you know how big it gets

-what food requirements it has

-how it gets along with other fish you have or want

3) don’t make impulsive buys, you will pay later. Most good fish stores will glady hold something for you, and help you look it up in one of their many fish books.

4) RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH

5) Try to buy fish local, fish don't do shipping well, they are often fine, but if you can find fish local, it will be less stressful on them not having to sit in a bag for 24 hours.

6) Should I acclimate and how long? If your temp, and salinity are the same as the tank where you got the fish, it is not really necessary to acclimate the fish. To be safe though, it is never a bad idea to acclimate for about 5-10 minutes. Floating the bag only acclimates fish to the temp. Not the salinity or pH. If your conditions are diff than the tank where you got it, you should acclimate for 5-10 minutes using the drip method (do a search if you don’t know what that is). KEEP IN MIND! Corals, inverts, and more sensitive fish may need to be acclimated longer. Especially shrimp and starfish!! Try a search or ask for help.

7) Don't buy sick fish, even if you feel sorry for it.

8 ) Learn how to tell a healthy fish from a sick fish.

9) if you go to a good lfs, ask for recommendations, as they will often tell you which fish are the healthiest.

10) If you put a tang or any of the fish in my first list above in your nano---be prepared to get your butt kicked on here.

11) Use a dictionary or biology book to look up "Carnivore", "Herbivore" and "Omnivore", feed your new fish accordingly.

[Six]

Heniocus aren't a terrible b'fly, in my opinion. I mean, they are hard to keep, i agree, but of the butterflies, they are one of the easier species. Considering most are impossible due to strict diet of coral polyps, you can see that "easy" in the butterfly world is equivilant to say wild caught freshwater altumn angels, or a rare species of centropyge on a reef.

 

I would never recommend and b'flys, but that's just me.

 

Anywho, it's hard to say why the fish died. I doubt it was the size of QT unless the fish was with other fish or ignored as far as water changes go. it doesnt sound like the fish was alive long enough for that to happen.

 

I guess maybe i should ask, whats your definition of "fine and healthy"? Was it eating frozen? or at all? was it fat and moving normally?

 

It's going to be hard to tell you what the best way to keep them alive is, not many people have done it for more than a few months. These fish can live years, maybe more.

 

Give us some more info and we'll go from there.

 

GL

 

Six

[lgreen]

basidiomycota

[Six]

^Fungai fans rule.