Dan H Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 Full tank shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emu1sive Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 Lookin good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 23, 2015 Author Share Posted May 23, 2015 Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 Well, tonight proved to be quite interesting. We found another stinking isopod! But, we also managed to catch the little blood sucker! So, after examining him for a bit, I wanted to see if the laser would be an effective tool against them if we see more. OHHHH YES! The laser killed it instantly! So very, very happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Kill it with fire... I mean... kill it with lasers!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 27, 2015 Author Share Posted May 27, 2015 Indeed! I am on the lookout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Strange update from yesterday... Meg and I were doing some weekly maintenance (WC, cleaning, Skimmer cleaning, etc...). As we were cleaning the acrylic, we saw a puff of sand. When it settled, sitting right in the middle was our other green banded goby! Holy cow, he's still alive?! We had not seen him for over a month. This caused a dilemma... We caught the goby and put him in QT with the other fish. The problem is we were trying to have the DT have no fish for 60+ days to make sure there were no parasites in there. That means we were not going to put the fish in the DT until July. Now the problem is since the goby was in there, it's entirely possible that he was harboring some parasite (ich?). This means we would essentially need to "reset the clock" on when we could put the fish into the DT. Which would push us out to August. *SIGH* Meg's gut reaction was along the lines of "no way we're waiting". I think her patience is running thin. I want to be cautious, but honestly that's pushing the limits of my patience too! I'm keeping a close eye on the goby to see if there are any signs that he had any diseases/parasites. There is 1 somewhat white dot on his face near his gills, but I can't tell what it is yet - he isn't exactly the easiest fish to get a good look at. What would you do? Wait? Stick to the original plan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Original plan. Ich is the one disease I would want versus any of the other stuff out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Original plan was put them in DT in July... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 I'd wait for as long as needed to get rid of those isopods and that's about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Would you wait until August is the question I guess... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Gotcha... The isopods actually don't scare me too much. At least they are very obvious when attached to the fish, and fairly easy to remove from the fish... Granted it could be a complete PITA to try and catch any of the fish in a timely fashion to remove the isopod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 I will say that I had turned off my skimmer and UV for a couple days just to see what happens and my water got really cloudy from all the bacteria being produced with biopellets and my emperor looked like he was getting ich on his fins. Turned them both back on and the water cleared in a day and he's looking pretty good again. I do like my experiments... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 I would reset the clock, but I'm very cautious. What's a few weeks in the big scheme? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 No, I wouldn't wait until August but I'm not fish master so... take my advice with a grain of salt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 I suspect the emperor doesn't like your experiments... This hobby definitely appeals to the scientist in us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Test subjects don't usually have much of a choice in the matter... *cue maniacal laughter* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 31, 2015 Author Share Posted May 31, 2015 Well, today was FUN! Got a lot of cool stuff from AquaSD, met a lot of you at the pickup, enjoyed schmoozing with y'all, and visited Ty's place. So, after discussing the goby-gate situation, we decided that it was time to put the fish in the DT. They have already been in QT for the prescribed amount of time, so we decided we weren't going to reset the clock on how long to wait. The primary reason is that we concluded that there is pretty much no way we will keep all possible maladies from the tank. It's inevitable that at some point we'll mess up and get someone else's water in our tank or something stupid like that. So, that being said, there was no reason to wait any longer. Pics just because... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 31, 2015 Author Share Posted May 31, 2015 Unbelievable! So the fish have only been in the tank for maybe 5 hours, and then we saw an isopod on one of the gobies! We actually caught the goby which was not fun. Then we were going to try to remove the isopod with tweezers but the goby was not cooperating. So Meg picked up the goby in her hand and was going to try to remove it while holding the goby but as soon as it was out of water, the isopod bailed. It started crawling on Meg's hand so I tried to get it with a paper towel. I must have missed because the isopod feel into the container with the goby! Meg quickly grabbed the tweezers and caught the isopod and smashed it. Crazy! So the goby looks to be OK, but now we have to deal with the isopod problem. I'm going to try to make an isopod trap, but I've read that 6 line wrasses can potentially eat them. Anyone have a 6 line they want to get rid of? A big hungry one perhaps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 31, 2015 Author Share Posted May 31, 2015 Gaaah! The other goby had one on it! This is seriously discouraging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 Sorry guys! It seems like you're dealing with an infestation now. There's got to be some way of wiping these guys out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 I'm sure you read the reefkeeping article on isopods by now. I was thinking this in my head before I found the article... maybe they should get a large bait fish that's easy to catch and use it to remove the isopods. Well lo' and behold, that's exactly what the article described as an option to try. I'd hate to be that fish though and I'd honestly feel really guilty for doing that but I don't see many effective alternatives to quickly remove your tank of isopods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted May 31, 2015 Author Share Posted May 31, 2015 Yeah, I read that same article. I've been contemplating the same thing... I did end up building an isopod trap late last night, and put that in there. It doesn't seem to have anything in it yet, but who knows if that's good or bad. Speaking of possibly good, possibly bad... None of the fish have any isopods on them this morning. They all look healthy (no isopods attached, no fin damage) and appear to be enjoying the new space. I'm not sure that means the isopods are gone, or just that they haven't found a host yet. What's crazy as heck to me is how that goby was in the tank all by his lonesome for a month, and he clearly never had any isopod attack - all of his fins were in perfect shape, but we plunk in all the fish and bam! Both gobies get isopods within a few hours. NUTS! I suppose the gobies are pretty good "bait" fish except that they like hiding in the rockwork too much. Although we did manage to catch both of them last night so that's encouraging. What would be a good "bait" fish? The article suggested a big fat yellow tang. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 Something cheap and huge... and kind of swims slow. Only thing I can think of is a giant frogfish or lionfish! Did you use the stinky shrimp method to bait the trap? Thought about interceptor? It'll nuke your amphipod and copepod population though... as well as your cleanup crew. Actually, I ran across one article that observed molts from cleanup crew being used as a food source so you might even want to remove you CUC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 So a few thoughts on the situation... We think they're must be only a few left in the tank. We've only seen 1 more after the first night. It was attached to one of the Helfrichi's of course. When we tried to catch the fish, obviously be wasn't having that and bolted lightning fast. That actually dislodged the isopod! So we know there is at least 1 left. The other interesting thing is that so far all of these have been much smaller isopods. They don't seem to have as much tenacity as the big ones thankfully. We have been putting in the stinky water trap, but it hasn't caught anything yet, although the hermit crabs seem interested in it. I think at this point we are just going to watch the fish very closely and try to handle it day by day. I'm trying to get a 6 line as there are reports that they might eat them. Might as well try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.