The Puffer Forum

i'd put a load more river shrimp in, turn the lights off and then watch the tank. you'll soon see if he's hunting them down. He'll start moving around then go into a still hover position, then bang, strike.. i've also noticed they often do a large practice 'yawn' before hunting..

by the way, river shrimp breed in brackish water, so are very tolerant of SW, living for many weeks.. i used them as CUC and food for my lions. Gut loading them with algae wafers before adding them to the tank maximising their goodness for the lions..

other than that just keep persevering...

Lions are a pain, I really don't think they make good marine pets..

thanks for the help. i have seen that 'yawn' before and was rather surprsied by it.

some of the 'leopard pattern' skin around one of the dorsal fins (venous ones) is no longer present. so basically just the spike is showing.

i am starting to worry that the lionfish may be sick but not sure.

i will dump more ghost shrimp into the tank and hopefully the following morning there will be a lot less/

that doesn't sound at all right... somethings going on then. Get your water tested at LFS.. see if your own kits are wrong..

any other signs of anything on him or the others? What size tanks he in? What's he in with?

he's in a 50g tank. only other inhabitant is a false perc that (happily) stays way..

oooh.. when you saw him 'yawn' did his mouth look big enough to take the clown? Not a good idea, even dwarf fuzzies can eat suprisingly large prey.

Not something i'd like top be risking at all.

Did you check your params at LFS?

the yawn was large enough to maybe swallow the dorsal fin of the false perc. My false perc is about 80% the size of the dwarf lionfish so I am not worried.

parameters were checked and the amonia is a little high (between 0-.25). everything is else is fine (nitrate is about 20).

I did a water change yesterday. Do you advise doing one today too?

okay there is something definitley wrong. it looks like there is a pocket of water below one of the dorsal fins. here are some pictures. what do i do now?? pimpafix/melafix? please help!

oh wow that's fin rot if I ever did see it.

Get some melafix/pimafix in there (for marine of course) ASAP...

argh #$^#&^!**...at least I have an idea of what may be wrong.

do you suggest moving the lionfish to a separte tank for the pimafix treatment? OR can I treat the WHOLE tank? (60+ lbs LR, 1 false perc).

I SHOULD remove the carbon from my filters, correct??

Thanks!

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You didn't QT him before dumping him in there did you???

*gives you the evil eye*

he was quarantined at the LFS for 3 weeks before i purchased him. he was quarantined there but not in my separate quarantine tank.

on a side note, the outside of the tank is dirty from droplets of saltwater dripping down during the WC yesterday. the 'only' issue is that dorsal fin.

still remove to the separate quarnatine tank, remove carbon, treat alone? should i remove LR from the quarantine? i had it in there with some sand to keep the tank active

Bad idea. Doesn't matter. You still bring what they have THERE to your tank at home. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS QT your fish at home especially marine fish because you just have so much extra *stuff* in there that keeps the balance going.

Since he wasn't in a seperate QT tank he was on the central filtration at the store, and proceeded to pick up whatever nasties that were circulating.

So yeah...Whoopsiedoodle. you know better for next time

this LFS has separate filtration systems for each tank. i verified it myself but you are right that he lived with two volitans which may have done something. i cant imagine buying 30 decent protein skimmers as a cheaper long term solution to a central system but its not my store.

is my plan of action correct? (quaratine, no LR, no carbon)?

should i treat the whole tank with pimafix and melafix ? or just remove the lionfish to a separate hospital tank? i dont think pima/mela will hurt the live rock but i honestly do not know.

also should i remove the carbon from the filters?

I have no knowledge about Marine aquaria just that it takes live rock and live sand and all sorts of bits and bobs that you don't really wanna muck with therefore QT is even more important for livestock going into the display tank.

That's my knowledge of Marine aquaria...that and Lionfish + Clown + Damsel + Blenny + GSP dosn't end well