Scarsdale Newbie!!

[Craig]

Cleaner shrimp would be a good choice.

 

[BlueSi4]

what will the cleaner shrimp or any other kind of shrimp do to my aquarium?

 

[Craig]

it'll act like a carwash to your fish and eat dead scales and parasites.

 

[cybermeez]

Looks like that little Hippo has Head and Lateral Line Erosion. It's cause is usually nutritional. Hippos are technically omnivorous, but tend to eat more algae than meaty foods. Still, both should be given and soaking the meaty foods in Selcon before feeding is good advice.

When I first got my Hippo as a baby he wouldn't eat. When he finally did, all he wanted was Ocean Nutrition Reef Flakes. That meant he wasn't getting his veggies and he developed Head and Lateral Line Erosion. I got him some Formula 2 flakes and he eventually took a liking to it and would also nibble on dried seaweed I'd leave clipped in the tank during the day. He also developed a fondness for hair algae which was great! He's now over 6 inches total length and although he still has scarring from the HLLE he had as a little tyke, he's very fat and happy now.

 

[BlueSi4]

Thanks for your post cybermeez,

i leave the algae in the tank for about a couple days, i usually see him taking little chunks of it every once in a while. I also switch the kind of algae around everytime, so now he's got some kind of red seaweed, then next time i feed him green seaweed, i try to change it around and see what he likes best. I'm also going to get NORI and soak it with Selcon. He eats flake as well as mysis and brine shrimp.
I put the algae on a rock attached with a rubber band, because i tried the veggie clip and he seems to scared to even go close to it, i don't know why.
Lately he seems very happy, he swims around a lot, rubs against the rocks, doesn't seem as shy as he was a couple days ago. So i'm hoping that with RO/DI water and him eating a bit more algae and greens he'll get healthy once again!

On the other hand, i have 2 blue streak cardinals. One of them swims around, seems active, but the other one, he sits towards the top of the tank, right next to the powerhead and doesn't move unless it's to get food, what's wrong with him? I was thinking maybe the current, he's trying to stay away from it, but he spends all day up there and there are other places in the tank that have not much current. What's wrong with him?

 

[KathyC]

Soak the mysis in the Selcon when you get it..the Nori will get mushy.

Leave the veggie clip in the tank..even with nothing on it. Eventually he'll get used to it, or you can buy one of the clear ones..less intimidating

Is the other cardinal or perhaps another fish pestering your guy? Not uncommon for a fish to 'hide' in a corner if that's the case. He just might like it up there too and it's good that he comes out to eat.
Was he one of the fish swimming against the current when you added the Seio last week??

 

[Jasonanatal]

Definitely would agree on the diagnosis of your Blue Hippo Tang and as in previous additions to the thread it is possible to cure given the proper nutrition and environmental conditions. You can soak the Nori and continue to feed in the tank as you are doing but Nori dose eventually get soft and starts to break up. You should really remove any uneaten nori after about an 1 to 2 hours after introducing it to your aquarium to prevent it from breaking up and adding excess nutrients into your water column.

Cleaner shrimp are a great addition to your tank. The will setup a cleaner station where fish will come to be serviced for the removal of dead scales and parasites. Be cautious with their acclimation which should be done over a period of 1 hour or more if possible using an acclimator or flex tubing with a valve to control the drip rate. They are very sensitive to fluctuations of salinity and temperature and you wouldn't want these little guys to die just because you added then too quickly. They will also eat uneaten food the falls on the rocks or your substrates. Plus it pretty cool when you put your hand in your aquarium and they attempt to service you.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

I agree on the HLLE diagnosis, and would suggest that a tang like that belongs in a much bigger tank.

Jason a belated welcome to MR. You should start a thread and tell us a little about yourself, your experience in the hobby and most importantly your tank.

 

[Jasonanatal]

Jason a belated welcome to MR. You should start a thread and tell us a little about yourself, your experience in the hobby and most importantly your tank.

Chiefmcfuz, thank you for the warm welcome. I will definitely do so shortly. Just getting some thing tied up at work. :birthday:

 

[BlueSi4]

Well as you might know, when i got the clowns, i asked about the Hippo, told him about my tank and my setup, and the guy at the LFS said that he would be fine, no worries. So since i was a newbie, i went and followed his advice. Besides the HLLE, he's doing fine. He eats, swims a lot, rubs against the rock every once in a while, seems to chase the clowns around (i think they are playing), so to my eyes, he seems good. I don't know how you can tell if he needs a bigger tank or not, but that's just my opinion on the matter.

I didn't really understand the whole shrimp introduction to my tank. I can't just dump the shrimp in like i've done with my fish?
Thanks for all the advice guys!!

 

[Jasonanatal]

Well as you might know, when i got the clowns, i asked about the Hippo, told him about my tank and my setup, and the guy at the LFS said that he would be fine, no worries. So since i was a newbie, i went and followed his advice. Besides the HLLE, he's doing fine. He eats, swims a lot, rubs against the rock every once in a while, seems to chase the clowns around (i think they are playing), so to my eyes, he seems good. I don't know how you can tell if he needs a bigger tank or not, but that's just my opinion on the matter.

I didn't really understand the whole shrimp introduction to my tank. I can't just dump the shrimp in like i've done with my fish?
Thanks for all the advice guys!!

BlueSi4, well one of the things that we as aquarist try to do is to provide an environment that is suitable for our aquatic inhabitants. We also do not want to provide them with any undo stress. Acclimating livestock and Corals is something that take only 30 minutes to 1 hour of time and allows you to slowly acclimate the speciman bringing the water parameters of the water in the bag to near what the water parameters of your tank are thus providing less stress to your fish. As far as shrimp and some other Invertebrates are concerned just dumping them in your aquarium bypassing the acclimation process will end up in your wasting money and overall death due to improper handling.

 

[KathyC]

...sigh...first of all, you should technically QT ALL purchases...fish, corals...before adding them to your tank so that you are assured of not adding any parasites or diseases to your current fish/corals.
And pretty much nothing that you add should just be dumped in the tank, they should be acclimated to your tank.
They were living in someone elses water, lighting..etc before they came to you and before they go into your tank you should acclimate them to the temp of your water, and all of the other parameters including salinity.
Best to find out when you purchase something what conditions it came from..ask the seller.
This is important stuff Oriol..so I'm going to ask that you do a search on acclimation and I'll bet you'll find a bunch of stuff to read about it.

As far as the Hippo, it's always best to research any fish or coral you buy prior to purchase. If you google Hippo tang, you'll find that it is not suggested to keep one of these in a tank smaller than 100g's..they get big and all tangs are poop machines, which means he is going to foul your water on a constant basis.
Fish do NOT grow to the size of the tank we put them in..they may grow smaller than the size you would commonly find them to attain, but that is ONLY BECAUSE WE HAVE STUNTED THEIR GROWTH..(oh, did I yell that?...)..so it will live an unhealthy life, never thrive and that shoots down the reason we are all here which is to learn and provide the BEST environment for the fish & corals in our care.
She now kicks the soapbox to the side...

I know you said you'd either upgrade to a larger tank or give him away before he grows up and I hope you still are sticking with that plan. For now, let's get him healthy again

You're doing great Oriol and moving in the right direction

 

[marrone]

The Hippo and the Clowns will get along just fine, so the person at the store was correct in what he told you.

As for the tank being to small for the Hippo, well it mayn't be now but in the future the tank will be to small. The Hippo, if fed correctly, will grow pretty fast, a 1"-2" can grow to 6" or so in a year. Because of that you need to make sure you have a large enough tank to handle a fish that size.

Fish size is something that you need to think about before you purchase any fish, finding info about a fish before you buy it is very important and something you should always do, even though it's can be hard to resist buying something that you see in a LFS and just want to get.

As for acclimating inverts, well this is something you need to do slowly as most inverts can't take the sudden change in SG, Ph and Temp. If you don't slowly acclimate them they may die or in some case they may lose legs or other parts.

As for fish, you should always quarantine all you fish in a separate tank or container, like a rubbermaid container, for at least 2 weeks. This way you can check and see if they have any diseases, you're also giving them some down time to rest before they're moved again which can be very stressful. Do a search on the board for QT or quarantine fish and you'll find a lot of info on the subject.

 

[Jasonanatal]

...sigh...first of all, you should technically QT ALL purchases...fish, corals...before adding them to your tank so that you are assured of not adding any parasites or diseases to your current fish/corals.
And pretty much nothing that you add should just be dumped in the tank, they should be acclimated to your tank.
They were living in someone elses water, lighting..etc before they came to you and before they go into your tank you should acclimate them to the temp of your water, and all of the other parameters including salinity.
Best to find out when you purchase something what conditions it came from..ask the seller.
This is important stuff Oriol..so I'm going to ask that you do a search on acclimation and I'll bet you'll find a bunch of stuff to read about it.

As far as the Hippo, it's always best to research any fish or coral you buy prior to purchase. If you google Hippo tang, you'll find that it is not suggested to keep one of these in a tank smaller than 100g's..they get big and all tangs are poop machines, which means he is going to foul your water on a constant basis.
Fish do NOT grow to the size of the tank we put them in..they may grow smaller than the size you would commonly find them to attain, but that is ONLY BECAUSE WE HAVE STUNTED THEIR GROWTH..(oh, did I yell that?...)..so it will live an unhealthy life, never thrive and that shoots down the reason we are all here which is to learn and provide the BEST environment for the fish & corals in our care.
She now kicks the soapbox to the side...

I know you said you'd either upgrade to a larger tank or give him away before he grows up and I hope you still are sticking with that plan. For now, let's get him healthy again

You're doing great Oriol and moving in the right direction

My apologies I forgot to mention that this is to be done to a QT tank. Long night. :fishhit:

 

[marrone]

My apologies I forgot to mention that this is to be done to a QT tank. Long night. :fishhit:

Acclimating a fish/invert/coral and QT a fish/invert/coral are two different things.

Even after you acclimate a fish/invert/coral to a QT tank when the time to move the fish/invert/coral to the main tank you're still are going to need to go through an acclimation process, as the water in the QT tank is most likely different from the main tank. This can be true even if you use water from your main tank to fill up the QT tank.

 

[Jasonanatal]

Acclimating a fish/invert/coral and QT a fish/invert/coral are two different things.

Even after you acclimate a fish/invert/coral to a QT tank when the time to move the fish/invert/coral to the main tank you're still are going to need to go through an acclimation process, as the water in the QT tank is most likely different from the main tank. This can be true even if you use water from your main tank to fill up the QT tank.

Okay I see everyone is nit picking..... let me clear up the definition of my version of acclimating livestock and corals. When you purchase something new from a store or website you get home and proceed with acclimating to your QT Aquarium. After your desired QT period to gaurd against any nasties then you acclimate from your QT Aquarium to your Display Aquarium since even in your own home the two Aquarium could be different in their water parameters. Is this acceptable to everyone? :tired:

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

They aren't nit picking they are just sharing that's all. It's all good

 

[marrone]

Remember this is a newbie forum, so you need to spell things out sometimes or people don't understand every time that that should know.

 

[Jasonanatal]

Remember this is a newbie forum, so you need to spell things out sometimes or people don't understand every time that that should know.

Marrone, sorry about that. My name has been the center of some attention ever since I posted on this site. I will promise to be as detailed as possible. :hug:

 

[BlueSi4]

I knew what you guys were talking about, and i had some idea about the whole process when adding new life in the tank. Before i even got the tank, i read about the process of how first you have to put the fish while they are in the bag in the aquarium so that the temperature gets adjusted. Then, every 30 min or so pour a little bit of water from the tank to the bag, and then after a while, cut the bottom of the bag releasing the fish. When i first got my fish, i was told by my LFS that i didn't really need to do that, that it wasn't necessary. So i didn't do it and my fish were fine, so i was just a little confused, because i get different opinions from different places and i don't know which one is the way to go. Also, for me it's harder to read the things and then try to do them. I'm better at looking at how things are done and then it's easier for me to do them. Did that make sense??
As far as the Quarantine tank goes, does it need to be another tank and have a filter, heater, powerhead and all the other stuff that my tank has? I haven't used a QT, and when i put my fish in, i just put them straight into my tank, same thing goes for my hermit crabs.
To answer Kathy's question, if my Hippo gets too big for my tank, yes i will get rid of him, unless by that time i'm able to get a bigger tank, which i doubt, since my parents are already pretty mad at me for having this one!
If i manage to get him back to health and make him happy, i'm going to sell him. So keep your eyes open if you're interested in a Hippo tang lol