The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

My clowns spawned again and I almost missed it as I can barely see into my tank. I haven't had time to do a major clean for a while. The hard to clean stuff is starting to build up. I can look forward to the four hour hard job of getting it clean.

my clowns just spawned yesterday, much to the delight of my cleaner shrimp and coral beauty

[shilala]

Originally Posted by darb85

my clowns just spawned yesterday, much to the delight of my cleaner shrimp and coral beauty

MMMMmmmm.

Mine protected their eggs viciously until they hatched, then they completely lost interest. Everything else in the tank would eat the fry. If you can figure out when they will hatch you can go to the tank just after dark and shine a light in a top corner and scoop the fry out. The have to be fed live microscopic stuff for a while. If they get in the overflow and make it to the refugium then they have a very slim chance of surviving in my system, in the main tank they have zero chance.

Just upgraded to a 125 its about half full of water right now waiting on plumbng to fill her up.

My Maxima clam just died. Maybe of old age. Maybe the Xenia growing on it toxified it. It was about 7 years old and made it through a few tank crashes. Everything else is fine. ???

Originally Posted by darb85

Just upgraded to a 125 its about half full of water right now waiting on plumbng to fill her up.

took the shots with too fast ISO so lots of noise, but Ill have more soon!

[shilala]

I finally got a pic of the new 90 gallon tank. I'm uploading a video, too.
Here she is...

[shilala]

Here's a video of the new tank.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by shilala

I finally got a pic of the new 90 gallon tank. I'm uploading a video, too.
Here she is...

Sweet!
That is nice Scott.

Good luck with that Rock Beauty.
I call them "dispose-a-fish".
The are so, so tough to have them adapt to captivity.
I see them all the time in the wild when I have gone diving but heck if I have ever had one more than 6 months.

I love the Sailfin tang. Mine has a personality. It pays attention to what is going on outside the tank.
I can't even see inside my tank right now. I think I'll go clean it...

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Blueface

Sweet!
That is nice Scott.

Good luck with that Rock Beauty.
I call them "dispose-a-fish".
The are so, so tough to have them adapt to captivity.
I see them all the time in the wild when I have gone diving but heck if I have ever had one more than 6 months.

Which one is the rock beauty, Carlos?
I've been killing fish for years, it really doesn't phase me anymore.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by shilala

Which one is the rock beauty, Carlos?
I've been killing fish for years, it really doesn't phase me anymore.

The yellow and black Angel.

[Wolfgang]

Just set up my little 24 gallon again. Its looking good so far.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Blueface

The yellow and black Angel.

It's an old girl, she was in the kid's tank for a couple years. She has ich bad. I have to start medicating the tank in the next couple days. I'm not looking forward to it. Everyone else is doing better, but she isn't. Good eater, though. I may just keep waiting it out. If I could catch her, I'd just dip her and set her loose.

[shilala]

It's nice to see our fishtank thread revived. I sure hope some other brothers join in.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by shilala

It's an old girl, she was in the kid's tank for a couple years. She has ich bad. I have to start medicating the tank in the next couple days. I'm not looking forward to it. Everyone else is doing better, but she isn't. Good eater, though. I may just keep waiting it out. If I could catch her, I'd just dip her and set her loose.

Wow!
That is a record for a Rock Beauty.
They are very finicky sponge eaters that just gradually starve in captivity as they never really take to the foods we give them.

Scott, diseases and parasites was my thing.
As far as the ick, on a reef, that goes hand in hand. Taking that fish out and dipping it will help relieve it of the cysts on his body but the moment he is back in the tank, all the larvea free swimming from when they bust up in the sand and go looking for a host will end up on him again. Each cyst that drops off him (the little salt you see on him) will eventually release about a 1,000 larvea looking for a new host and the cycle starts all over again. The ones that find a host eventually develop into the ones you see on his body. The ones that don't find a host right away, die quite quickly.
Given only live rock in there from what I recall seeing in the photo, I would lower salinity and raise the temperature.
Lower your salinity to around .012. Sounds crazy but trust me, won't hurt the fish at all. Long term studies have revealed they can be fine two years later at that level. That helps the cysts not reproduce as much and combined with the higher temperature, causes their life cycle to speed up considerably. I have done this salinity level with many fish and tanks worth thousands of dollars a fish and have lost none to it.
Crank the temperature to 82 and if still an issue a few days post lowering salinity and raising the temp, increase a couple of notches to 84. Make sure they have plenty of oxygen which will be the concern as at higher temps, it is much less available to them.

[Blueface]

BTW,
Some fish can fight it well and in time, it all goes away.
Some fish need lots of manual help.

When you see the cysts on them, that is because their tolerance to fight is down or gone. When their slime coats are fine, no ich will affect them as the larvea will not be able to penetrate the coat to feed and grow into a new cysts. That is why some fish just don't seem to get it or if they do, it eventually goes away after only minimal amounts.
When their immunity is down, the slime coat does not produce as much and hence the parasites can multiply.
Their slime coats also serve another function most don't know. It helps filter salt, along with their organs (kidney). Salt water fish filter the salt via their organs and slime coat.
When they are stressed and infested, they stress yet more and produce yet less slime coat. Eventually, the gills get attacked very badly and they suffocate.

So......now go back to the salinity. You lower it, it helps them have to filter it less. Their bodies don't need to stress more by not only trying to filter all that salt via organs only and at the same time, you eliminate the cause (the parasites blow up in fresh water).

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Blueface

Wow!
That is a record for a Rock Beauty.
They are very finicky sponge eaters that just gradually starve in captivity as they never really take to the foods we give them.

Scott, diseases and parasites was my thing.
As far as the ick, on a reef, that goes hand in hand. Taking that fish out and dipping it will help relieve it of the cysts on his body but the moment he is back in the tank, all the larvea free swimming from when they bust up in the sand and go looking for a host will end up on him again. Each cyst that drops off him (the little salt you see on him) will eventually release about a 1,000 larvea looking for a new host and the cycle starts all over again. The ones that find a host eventually develop into the ones you see on his body. The ones that don't find a host right away, die quite quickly.
Given only live rock in there from what I recall seeing in the photo, I would lower salinity and raise the temperature.
Lower your salinity to around .012. Sounds crazy but trust me, won't hurt the fish at all. Long term studies have revealed they can be fine two years later at that level. That helps the cysts not reproduce as much and combined with the higher temperature, causes their life cycle to speed up considerably. I have done this salinity level with many fish and tanks worth thousands of dollars a fish and have lost none to it.
Crank the temperature to 82 and if still an issue a few days post lowering salinity and raising the temp, increase a couple of notches to 84. Make sure they have plenty of oxygen which will be the concern as at higher temps, it is much less available to them.

Thank you, my friend. Consider it done.
She is an awesome eater. Loves brown algae and pellets. She's a big fat pig. I just fed her as I was typing, and she's eating everything she can get her lips on.
I was watching her today and she's not even itching. Usually they go nuts when they get ich.
I don't think it's going to be hard to manage. My salinity is already very low for the little coral I do have. I have lots of sponges growing, too, she just can't get to them. I hid them on purpose till they can grow out from the cracks in the rock.