New fish in quarantine

[Brinkfish312]

So we got a yellow tail damsel and a bicolor dottyback in quarantine today while we're waiting for our tank to finish cycling. With this being our first marine tank, I'm not familiar with the normal behaviors of these fish. We acclimated temp and water before adding to the QT, and we were gone for a few hours, when we came home, the dottyback worried me a bit because he was laying very still in the back corner of the tank. The damsel seems ok, hiding behind the PVC, but other than a bit of paleness from both fish, which I was attributing to traveling stress, I'm not sure if something else is wrong. He's not gasping or anything, so do these fish just "sleep" like this? The temp is good, and they have an air stone and PVC. The SG was a tiny bit low at last check at 1.023, would that cause lethargy?

[DDon]

Specific gravity of 1.023 is no problem at all for fish. Probably just stress related since you just got them. I would just just keep an eye on em.

[cherubfish pair]

With a one hour drip acclimation procedure you're going to triple you chances of success.

[Nina51]

With a one hour drip acclimation procedure you're going to triple you chances of success.

there have been quite a few threads lately concerning drip acclimation vs. matching temp/salinity/putting fish straight into qt. drip acclimation might be ok for fish that haven't been bagged for very long but for shipped fish, drip can be deadly.

to the op, what size is your display tank? i ask because both of the fish you have in qt are known to be aggressive, the dottyback especially. if you add these fish to your dt after the quarantine period and especially if you have a small dt, you are really limiting whatever fish you will want to add in the future. unless you have a ginormous tank, i would think about taking these 2 fish back and exchanging them for something less aggressive.

[Brinkfish312]

Our main is a 75g. The fish made it through the night, so that's a plus. I will continue to watch them.

[JMorris271]

there have been quite a few threads lately concerning drip acclimation vs. matching temp/salinity/putting fish straight into qt. drip acclimation might be ok for fish that haven't been bagged for very long but for shipped fish, drip can be deadly.

I seem to have read something about air stones being hazardous in a QT.
Power filters seem to be safer.
Do you recall anything mentioning that?
I would not bet on it but I have seen it spoken on by a very reliable poster.

[reepher315]

From what I understand air bubbles are not good for salt water fish.

[Brinkfish312]

Really. The couple books I read before all this had that as part of the QT setup. To help with surface movement and stuff. So the filter movement should be enough? The tank is only 10g, and the filter is for up to 20g

[Brinkfish312]

I just took the stone out to see if that helps

[Nina51]

i don't use any air stones in my dt because they aren't necessary and they can cause major salt creep but i see no problem using them in a qt. i don't recall seeing anything negative about them.

[cherubfish pair]

there have been quite a few threads lately concerning drip acclimation vs. matching temp/salinity/putting fish straight into qt. drip acclimation might be ok for fish that haven't been bagged for very long but for shipped fish, drip can be deadly.
Ask around on the reef fish forum and most do the drip.

[Menace2Sobriety]

Hmmm surprised no one brought up the fact that you just put two INSANELY AGRESSIVE fish in a QT.
Dottybacks will kill shrimp.... That's a bad thing cuz shrimp are good cleaners. I also took in a 4" hawkfish because it was too agressive for the previous owners tank and my dottyback killed it in an hour. (Dotty was less than 2").
I finally tore my tank down and put dottyback in sump. Now he lives in a 180 gal where I still think he's gonna wreak havoc down the road.

[Brinkfish312]

They've been really calm and on opposite sides of the tank. Not even seemingly aware of the other. The damsel was swimming around a bit, seemed ok until I added some stress coat solution to see if it helped them and the damsel was dead within 10 mins. So sad. The dottyback is still not moving much, just laying there breathing.

[Nina51]

Ask around on the reef fish forum and most do the drip.

i was speaking specifically of fish that have been shipped. or if i was to go to say, st. louis which is a 4 hour (at least) round trip for me, i wouldn't drip. this is a good read...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2415839&highlight=acclimation

[Brinkfish312]

The chemistry of that makes sense, of what little I remember of that horrid class. We didn't drip, but we did ad small amounts of the QT water to the bag after temp acclimation over the course of 30 mins or so. At least they were not the expensive ones. this is definitely a hobby of learning from mistakes.

[rocsec1]

Those are pretty aggressive fish. They might be battling whenever you are out of the room.

[ca1ore]

The chemistry of that makes sense, of what little I remember of that horrid class. We didn't drip, but we did ad small amounts of the QT water to the bag after temp acclimation over the course of 30 mins or so. At least they were not the expensive ones. this is definitely a hobby of learning from mistakes.

In the future, just adjust the salinity of the QT to that in the shipping bag - all that is then required is a quick 15 minute temperature float. Clear best practice. You can then adjust the salinity back up over the course of a week or two.

BTW, what do you do to monitor ammonia in the QT? That is a very quick and effective killer.

[Brinkfish312]

I meant to grab a couple of those ammonia wheels with the suction cup, but I forgot on my last trip out. That will be on my next list. I did just purchase the Red Sea Marine Test Care kit though, and am now using that

[kenman345]

Is the QT Cycled? Even if it is, whenever you have a dead fish, you may want to do a water change to get rid of any ammonia that might've come from the deteriorating fish post death, no matter how short a time that was in the tank.

[cherubfish pair]

i was speaking specifically of fish that have been shipped. or if i was to go to say, st. louis which is a 4 hour (at least) round trip for me, i wouldn't drip. this is a good read...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2415839&highlight=acclimation
It is a good read.