Staaan

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So I got my little 6gallon nano up and running.

Recently bought some 5 frags..

Red Mushroom
Hairy Mushroom
Green Elegance
Mixed Color Zoanthid
Green Candy Cane

So far everything seems to be going good..

However.. I'm trying to decide what to do with my 24g Nano when I break it down and start back up. (Wanted to swap out the sand, and change the water bc I used tap water and had diatom blooming,
*it was set up as a FOWLR... with some horrible misinformation)

This misinformation goes as follows.. lol

LFS told me that housing a SMALL porcupine puffer and SMALL cowfish, along with a Spotted Mandarin, would be absolutely fine.

Of course I did my research, and basically the cowfish and puffer needed atleast 100gallons.. most likely each.

But the guy at the LFS said it would be fine, and for me not to beleive all the research I had done, simply because the puffer/cowfish would not outgrow the tank. And constantly reassured me... so I took his "guidance".

Surprizingly.. I managed to keep the Puffer alive for 1 month.. I did my best to not overfeed, so I wouldn't pollute the tank and spike the ammonia..

And I gotta say.. most puffers I've kept (Green Spotted and Figure 8) show when they're stressed.. via pigmentation or spending most of the day with a curled up tail in a little ball.

And this porc seemed happy every single day..however the Cowfish is a grazer and did pick on the Porc quite a bit.

And then one day I come home.. and I see ich spots on the Porc.

I immediatley tossed in my airstone, and cranked the heat up (slowly) to 89 degrees, to fight off the ich. As well as water changes every other day.

Within 4 days, the porc sadly died.

I was quite pissed.. I felt like going to the LFS and yelling at the guy, but I guess its more my fault, and I should have just went with my instincts even though I wanted the Cowfish and especially the Porc. soo bad..

I still have the Mandarin.. and the Cowfish. Both absolutely healthy (it has been 3 weeks since the ich)

The cowfish seems to be thriving even more since the porc. isn't in the tank.

Now I love Puffers, and Boxfish (they're pretty closely related)...
but.. obviously none are reef safe.. :-(

I'd like to sell off the cowfish
Because I feel that he should be in a larger tank.

That being said.. I think really the only Puffer I could really house in my 24g is the Fiji Blue Spotted Puffer..or any sharpnosed puffer for that matter.

What to do.. what to do.

Any thoughts, comments, advice?


Thanks!

-Stanley
 
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KathyC

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Two quick points, Marine Ich does not respond to heating the water to quicken the life cycle of ich (as it does in FW ich, which is a totally different parasite).

What heating the water to 89 degrees will do is restrict the amount of usable oxygen for the fish, even with an airstone added. As ich kills by suffocating the fish, reducing the amount of usable oxygen is an especially poor idea.

IMO -No Mandarin should be in a 24g tank, nor do they often get ich due to their heavy slime coat. If it eats a single item (like blackworms or such) that is not a a balanced diet and it's lifespan will be shortened, perhaps severely :(

I'm sorry for your loss.
 

Staaan

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I didn't break down the tank just yet. Lol

Just planning ahead... lol.

I guess what I really wanted were suggestions on what combo of fish would do well with a Blue Spotted Puffer? Or if any one knows of any other puffer which can do well in a 24g.
 

E.intheC

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Honestly, the 24 gallon won't be large enough for the blue spotted puffer on its own, and you'll more than likely run into aggression problems if you try to add other fish. The elegance "frag" in your smaller tank is also cause for concern, IMO.
 

E.intheC

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most elegance die anyways, I said "most", dosn't matter on the size of the tank, they don't really last.

this is somewhat true, although there is some evidence that suggests Aussie Elegance corals last much longer and are generally healthy.. Still not a good idea to put the elegance in a 6 gallon tank.
 

bizarrecorals

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+1 , you'll get a much better success rate with Aussie elegance, instead of leaving it on a boat for 8-10 hours a day in indonesia and let the corals sufficate or overheat, Austrilian divers go back to shore more frequent on a hourly base, it causes much less stress on the coral that way.
 

Staaan

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Well.. I bought my elegance from GC reef.

Didn't think to ask about where it was from.

Got a nice green color though.. haha.

So far it seems to be doing fine.. tetacles extend out during the day time, and when I put on the moon light LEDs.. they retract..

The frag is sitting alone with no coral within a 3-4 inch radius.

I can always throw it in my 24g one I get it cycled again.

Thanks for the info.

-Stan
 

marrone

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+1 , you'll get a much better success rate with Aussie elegance, instead of leaving it on a boat for 8-10 hours a day in indonesia and let the corals sufficate or overheat, Austrilian divers go back to shore more frequent on a hourly base, it causes much less stress on the coral that way.


This isn't the reason that Elegance corals were dying. It wasn't a short term thing, people would have them for a year or more, most actually grew very large, and then all of a sudden they would start to shrink and die. Whether it was from a bacteria thing or something else it most likely had little to do with the shipping or initial handling of the coral. This from a Coral that was probably one of the first successful kept corals back in the late 80's early 90's.
 

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