Hi from FishFan and FishFancier after 5 years away

[GSP32]

I just noticed the Loki pic, he looked great

[FishFan]

Especially, the burrfish species. They often have to be dewormed with different meds, several times.

Recommendation? Food soaked in Metronadizole (Spelling?)?

Update:
Burrfish sleeping all day, was up most of the night, slow rhythmic gilling,(3 seconds each at rest). Damsel cleanup crew very active and healthy. Absolutely no indications of stress by any tank occupant.

We removed the black background from the tank as the new guy spent a lot of time trying to swim into it. Our theory is that he was looking for a darker place to sleep during the day. Interestingly he chose the rock closest to to his color to "sleep" next to. He has a cave but seem to prefer this spot.


He came out to eat about 2/3 of 3 krill chewing each spitting out bits until what was left was just right (somehow). Netted out what the cleanup crew couldn't finish.

Tank parameters:
PH 8 - low, s/b 8.2-8.4 possibly low due to prior ammonia rise. low PH reduces ammonia toxicity so no action
Ammonia - Not zero, but close to zero, clearly less than .25ppm
Nitrite: .25ppm (first time tested on setup running about 2 weeks now)
Nitrate: 5ppm. (Need to test mixed saltwater to compare)

Other notes
Protein skimmer (CoralLife Superskimmer 125) bubbles too wet to skim
Water smell - no bad odor
Last Water Change - Yesterday 20%, Ammonia was solid .25ppm
Next water change today 20%. Mixed, waiting for it to warm up, tap is 40 degrees
Water changes should raise the PH over the next few days.

Note to self: remember to turn off the sump and the skimmer to prevent skimmer flow from rising too high. Need an overflow bottle to keep skimmer from overflowing collected waste into the sump. Fortunately, the skimmer isn't producing yet. With ColalLife skimmer in sump, bubble levels rise and fall with the sump water level, a major drawback for this manufacture's skimmers.

-R

[FishFan]

I just noticed the Loki pic, he looked great

Thanks. These guys have a very cool coloring of red and yellow, grow astonishingly fast, and ours was as mean as,we'll ... I'd say snake, but Anne's snakes were actually pretty we'll behaved.

Nocturnal, but he was always willing to come out for food. Normally he wouldn't fan out his tail for a pic. It took quite a few shots to get him in with his tail fanned open in full display.some of our puffers seemed to like being pet, but I was always afraid Loki might taste the fingers first.
-R

[Pufferpunk]

Please be very cautious feeding krill to her. Can often cause lockjaw.

[FishFan]

Please be very cautious feeding krill to her. Can often cause lockjaw.

Krill was tried after frozen clams were rejected.

What causes lock jaw?
Clams, a food we've found puffers have a hard time resisting, can carry parasites.
what do you suggest?

Ha! lights are out and sun is down, so the new guy ( no name yet) is foraging. We need trash bags, shrimp, and fresh clam from the store.
BBL

Edit: Anne googled krill and lock jaw and found a discussion about freeze dried krill and lock jaw. But another article say the cause is iodine, this is a 2008 discussion you probably know about. What is the latest on this?

We usually feed a variety of fresh seafoods, but also earth worms at times. Frozen krill sometimes too, but have never fed much freeze dried. With this fish we started with what Live Aquaria listed for puffers. Orbicularus can be hard to get eating, and I think this is a problem for Burrfish in general, at least so I hear.
-R

[Pufferpunk]

Yes, the reason hasn't changed.

[FishFan]

Day 3 Update:
New puffer, no-name, swimming against glass in a way we interpret as saying something is wrong and he wants to travel, a sort of "I must leave this tidal pool" response. Possible response to ammonia gill irritation. We have seen fish swimming against glass for hours on end as an indicator of ammonia in the past so will test again.

Ammonia (morning): between .25 ppm and .5 ppm
Nitrite: .25 ppm

Due to Slightly elevated ammonia, added 1/2 dose Kent Pro Ammonia Detox to see if the fish settles down. Result supports ammonia irritation theory, fish settled down within a few minutes after adding ammonia treatment. Slept most of the day, gilling at 1 each 3 seconds.

Ammonia (night): Not quite zero, but close.
Nitrite: .25 ppm

Conclusion: bio filter is working, but added fish load has caused a sight ammonia bounce causing puffer to respond by trying to swim to better water. Still feeding lightly, the 2 fresh scallop pieces fed today were taken eagerly. An interesting note is that this fish takes a net entering the water as a que that food is coming giving eager attention and following the net. I noticed this when cleaning up un eaten bits. He was probably fed with net containing food in the past.

Another new behavior is an increase in the attention he gives to the small Damsels in the tank. He watches them like a cat when they get close. They get recklessly close to his mouth and I wouldn't be surprised to find one missing sometime.
-R

Will continue 20%/day water changes until ammonia remains at zero without need for addition of detox.

[FishFan]

Where's Waldo? (Waldette ~Anne)

[GSP32]

May I ask why you decided to put the fish in before the cycle was over?

[Pufferpunk]

He sure is good at camouflage!
Can you add Bio-Spira?

[FishFan]

May I ask why you decided to put the fish in before the cycle was over?

The tank was cycled over a few weeks prior to the puffer introduction using an accelerated approach and is responding as expected with the first large fish introduction. The fish coming in larger and sooner than expected is probably a contribution. A small ammonia rise is likely even in tanks cycled 3 months without filter bacteria seeding. Cycling was accelerated using:
1. 50 lb fully cured live rock from a mature system.
2. A live sand base
3. Addition of 1.5 cups crushed coral substrate from a fully mature tank in the wet-dry flow path
4. Addition of Bio-Spira with the new fish (our experience has been that these seeding bacteria solutions do not provide the instant cycling they claim, but don't hurt anything)

I'm logging our introduction of this fish on this thread to document the process for our records, to describe our practices for monitoring new fish introductions at any time, and to describe what we believe to be appropriate responses to rising levels at that time.

At this time, we are not concerned that the conditions being maintained are harming the fish. Ammonia below .25 ppm and nitrite below a few ppm should not be a concern in the short term unless there were signs of distress like rapid gilling, hanging out at the intake, etc. indicating previously damaged gills.

-R

[FishFan]

He sure is good at camouflage!
Can you add Bio-Spira?

We used Bio-Spira when adding the fish, but another dose couldn't hurt. Good idea we were not considering.

Morning readings show the classic drop in ammonia followed by rising nitrite.
ph is 8.0 which is still a bit lower than optimum, but low reduces ammonia and nitrite toxicity, so leaving as-is.
Ammonia this morning was solidly at 0 ppm, no green tint whatsoever in API test.
Nitrite is nearly .5 ppm, up from .25 ppm since yesterday, 33% water change today to reduce (even though this low level should not be harmful to salt water fish). A larger water change could bounce pH.
Nitrate has risen to just under 10ppm the last few days, so bio filter is converting both ammonia and nitrite, it just needs to catch up with the increased load.

I think the adjustment period is nearly complete.
-R

[FishFan]

Hmm, added Bio-Spira and Nitrite dropped to zero in 24 hours. Maybe that stuff works...maybe. Ammonia=0. for two days, Nitrite=0, Nitrate rising slowly. Salinity 1.022. Feeding heavier now too. The pH is still lowish at 8.0. Trying Omega Sea Premium Reef Salt vs. Instant Ocean to see if greater alkalinity and calcium will raise the pH with water changes.
-R
Oh yea, and the pesky micro bubbles in the tank from the CoralLife protein skimmer disappeared overnight last night. Why does this take 1-3 weeks, I wonder. Anyone know the mechanism?

Starting setup of another tank.

[FishFan]

Especially, the burrfish species. They often have to be dewormed with different meds, several times.

Do you have a regimen you can recommend? I don't recall what we did in the past other than Metronadozole-soaked shrimp meat.

[Pufferpunk]

I would alternate Metro-Prazi, 2 different weeks, treating a minimum of 3 days each--covers different parasites. Treat again in 3 months.