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SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 12:17 PM
Is this just how their skin looks?

This is a scooter blenny (dragonet) and I just got him and am trying to train him and observe him.

He shows no signs of being irritated and his fins are not clamped and in my novice opinion it is the way he looks, but I wanted to double check.

FraggledRock
03/05/2015, 12:33 PM
maybe a zoomed in shot. its hard to tell..

SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 12:44 PM
See if these work any.

If it does have ich, how would you treat for it in a fish like this?

65Stang
03/05/2015, 12:47 PM
Following... I have seen the same thing on mine. Thought it might just be debris from all the rocks he plays on. Haven't seen it on any other fish.

FraggledRock
03/05/2015, 12:49 PM
well did you add any new fish recently?

did you quarantine them?

how long have you had this guy?

SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 12:53 PM
He's the only fish, I just got him, and this is actually his QT. Not hospital tank, but training and observation tank.

Sk8r
03/05/2015, 01:02 PM
THey have a very sticky slime coat, about like holding warm jello, and often pick up sand grains on their skins, which can look very much like ich. They almost never get ich unless the water conditions, particularly alkalinity, are horrific. The alk, btw, should ride around 8.3. Pick one white spot you can find again and if it goes away in a few hours or moves, it was just a sand grain.

SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 01:10 PM
My alk is actually too high. How can I bring it down?

jminick2
03/05/2015, 01:31 PM
these fish are very ich resistant I high doubt its ich

Compliance
03/05/2015, 01:57 PM
Yep - sticky slime coat...

He/she's really skinny :(

SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 02:07 PM
Yep - sticky slime coat...

He/she's really skinny :(

Yup, that's why I got it.

I planned on getting one in 3-4 months after introducing all my other fish. The scooter was going to be the last addition and I planned to introduce just 1 every few weeks starting the first of april. Which is where the 3-4 months comes from.

He is the first though, I just couldn't say no. He was starving and I knew I had food at home, so I took a chance.
I figured he would maybe last another week in their tank, maybe...

I watched him for a good 30 minutes before deciding to bring him home.
He was very active and trying to find food, but just didn't have much luck. There were at least 10 other blennies in the system with him, plus other fish and corals. He was actually the smallest of them all. He is about an inch tip to tail and the others were all at least twice his size, one was even 3 and another 4 inches.
He was eager and also quick to defend his little territory and also try and take over a little more. So I felt like he was still in good strength despite being underfed.

He's been in his tank for almost 24 hours and still striking every few seconds. I'm also in the process of hatching some baby brine and I am going to start training him to take some frozen foods. The tank is a 20 gallon with only inverts, so it should be pretty comfortable for him to learn in.

SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 02:11 PM
Except my alkalinity is too high and I can't find a good answer on how to lower it. All my searches result in ways to raise it, not lower.

LeRenard
03/05/2015, 02:11 PM
He's the only fish, I just got him, and this is actually his QT. Not hospital tank, but training and observation tank.

......what are you training him to do?

SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 02:16 PM
......what are you training him to do?

Jump through hoops of fire!!!


Take foods other than copepods. Stuff like baby brine shrimp, decapped brine eggs, frozen foods.

FraggledRock
03/05/2015, 02:54 PM
Except my alkalinity is too high and I can't find a good answer on how to lower it. All my searches result in ways to raise it, not lower.

are you using IO REEF CRYSTALS?

SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 02:56 PM
are you using IO REEF CRYSTALS?

Yes

Sk8r
03/05/2015, 03:27 PM
YOur alk s/b 8.3. To lower it, do water changes.

What you need is a bottle of pods. I fear this is not going to end well. Try sinking Formula One pellet. I've had them go for that. But in general, they do not eat fish food. Live Brine shrimp is a pretty nutritionally poor food for marine fish, but might keep him alive.

jminick2
03/05/2015, 03:32 PM
YOur alk s/b 8.3. To lower it, do water changes.

What you need is a bottle of pods. I fear this is not going to end well. Try sinking Formula One pellet. I've had them go for that. But in general, they do not eat fish food. Live Brine shrimp is a pretty nutritionally poor food for marine fish, but might keep him alive.

If his salt mixes to 11 alk which I believe what IO mixes to, doing water changes is not going to help is it?

actually reef crystals mixes even higher - 13

SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 03:54 PM
YOur alk s/b 8.3. To lower it, do water changes.

What you need is a bottle of pods. I fear this is not going to end well. Try sinking Formula One pellet. I've had them go for that. But in general, they do not eat fish food. Live Brine shrimp is a pretty nutritionally poor food for marine fish, but might keep him alive.

I have bottles of pods. The tank will be a year old in July, so still young, but I've dosed pods and plan to continue to dose them until we find our groove.

I've actually done quite a bit of research to prepare for this as it was always the plan to get one.

I've read that baby brine shrimp, freshly hatched, are a viable addition. That decapsulated eggs are as well and that you can hatch those eggs and the resulting babies will be slightly even more worthy as they won't have used as much energy to hatch.

I've read up on training them and setting up a diner. I've read up on frozen roe, bloodworms, and cyclopeeze. I'm in direct contact with someone who has 7 dragonets and lots of success.

This is all before I got him, in preparation of getting one in a few months.mont

I have absolutely no problem buying pods to dose the tank on a regular basis for the next few weeks.
Technically it is pricey, but compared to the cost of high quality mammal pet foods, fish foods are very cheap.

Compliance
03/05/2015, 03:55 PM
From Randy Holmes Farley: "Adding a mineral acid, such as hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid) or sulfuric acid, will reduce pH, but will also reduce the alkalinity (Figure 10). This alkalinity loss is not returned as in the case of vinegar, when the vinegar is metabolized. These acids also are usually very concentrated, so it is very easy to grossly overshoot the pH target (Figure 11). For these two reasons, I seldom recommend using such acids to reduce pH (although they can be used effectively under certain circumstances when the aquarist is acutely aware of their drawbacks). I showed experimentally in a previous article that adding enough hydrochloric acid to reduce alkalinity by 0.5 meq/L (1.4 dKH) instantly dropped the pH from 8.10 to 6.91. Then, as the water released excess carbon dioxide into the air, the pH rose back up to 7.91 after 24 hours, and finally to 8.15 after 48 hours (the same water without acid treatment rose from pH 8.10 to 8.11 to 8.21 over the same time frame)"

So - you can use muraic acid, but he does not reccommend it....

SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 03:57 PM
I definitely don't want to lower my pH though.

I guess I'll order another brand of salt that has a confirmed lower alkalinity than what I currently use.

jminick2
03/05/2015, 04:14 PM
tropic marine pro mixes to 8.5

jminick2
03/05/2015, 04:15 PM
http://saltwateraquariumblog.com/best-aquarium-salt-mix-review-popular-reef-salt-mix-options

jeperry3
03/05/2015, 04:18 PM
Years ago I had good luck with a mandarin eating frozen Cyclop-eeze. I had plenty of pods in my tank also. Is Cyclop-eeze still available? I remember reading that the company was in financial trouble. If gone, is there an alternative?

Sk8r
03/05/2015, 05:23 PM
It's your alkalinity that should be 8.3. Ph is a somewhat related but separate issue.

SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 05:30 PM
Years ago I had good luck with a mandarin eating frozen Cyclop-eeze. I had plenty of pods in my tank also. Is Cyclop-eeze still available? I remember reading that the company was in financial trouble. If gone, is there an alternative?

As far as I know it is. I was about to order some right now along with some more pods to have on hand.

My idea was to get it on a diet of pods, plus supplement with alternating foods.

I will also be keeping NPS corals like sun coral in the tank which will also need to be fed a similar diet, so I planned to give the scooter whatever I was feeding the coral that day.

It's your alkalinity that should be 8.3. Ph is a somewhat related but separate issue.

Indeed, I don't want to mess with my pH as I am happy with where it is. The alkalinity is what I want to bring down. I'm going to see about another salt mix.

SeeCrabRun
03/05/2015, 05:53 PM
Years ago I had good luck with a mandarin eating frozen Cyclop-eeze. I had plenty of pods in my tank also. Is Cyclop-eeze still available? I remember reading that the company was in financial trouble. If gone, is there an alternative?

I take that back. Apparently the owner died and now things are in a bad way?

Guess I'll look for another frozen food option to train with.