danch
10/11/2007, 09:18 PM
So I was feeling good that my latest set of aquisitions (5 PJ cardinals, from 3 different stores) were placed into QT, and not in the tank. One newbie mistake I wasn't going to make (again)! Then they started getting sick.
When I left the house yesterday morning, one had a swollen, hazy patch behind his dorsal and didn't want to eat, and another was getting a little off his feed. When I got home yesterday evening, the one that was 'a little off' had lost a lot of color and was doing very little. A short time later, he was on his side at the bottom.
So, now I needed to get serious! Except I couldn't, because it was nearly 9:00, and I had no medications at all! I also had live rock in the tank, to give them more natural cover, and some pods to hunt (and it was a QT, not a hospital tank). So now I have 10 lbs of live rock I won't be trusting in my main tank in a while, and 2 fish have died because I didn't have any medication on hand (and didn't recognize the warning signs in time)
The lesson: don't assume that nothing will go wrong; assume something will go wrong, and prepare for it. Set up your QT so that it can be made into a hospital tank at the drop of a hat, and make sure you have the basics (a broad spectrum antibiotic, malachite green, methylene blue, copper, and a copper test kit) on hand.
When I left the house yesterday morning, one had a swollen, hazy patch behind his dorsal and didn't want to eat, and another was getting a little off his feed. When I got home yesterday evening, the one that was 'a little off' had lost a lot of color and was doing very little. A short time later, he was on his side at the bottom.
So, now I needed to get serious! Except I couldn't, because it was nearly 9:00, and I had no medications at all! I also had live rock in the tank, to give them more natural cover, and some pods to hunt (and it was a QT, not a hospital tank). So now I have 10 lbs of live rock I won't be trusting in my main tank in a while, and 2 fish have died because I didn't have any medication on hand (and didn't recognize the warning signs in time)
The lesson: don't assume that nothing will go wrong; assume something will go wrong, and prepare for it. Set up your QT so that it can be made into a hospital tank at the drop of a hat, and make sure you have the basics (a broad spectrum antibiotic, malachite green, methylene blue, copper, and a copper test kit) on hand.