Marine Velvet and the new hobbyist

[missblonde]

UGH. Let me start with - you live and learn and starting out in saltwater I knew I would learn, just not this quickly.

I got a tank from my LFS - a nanocube 24 - that had live rock, live sand and water that had already been set up in store. Took it home, cycled it at home and once all my water parameters were good I added a pair of clowns and a tiger pistol/YWG pair. All was happy and content. Watched a little spike in my numbers. Once it settled again I added a bicolor pseudochromis. A week after that I notice my CUC wasn't keeping up so I added 6 snails and an emerald crab.

Exactly one week since adding the crab and snails - bicolor is dead in a rock (this is last night). I didn't notice anything wrong with him before his death - newbie - and started to research options. My clowns were happy as a clam (maybe because he was no longer guarding the cave and they could now swim in it). Welp I wake up 12 hours later - one dead clown and the other upside down on his way out.

I also haven't seen my YWG since the day I added him with his shrimp - so jury is out on his current status of health (or if hes even alive).

SOOO here's where I need help - do I pull out my pistol shrimp, crab, snails and hermits and put them in a hospital tank and tear down my relatively small 24 gallon to get rid of the velvet spores (I know not the right word). Then recycle the tank for a month.

OR

Or do I wait the two months of hell for the velvet to die off.

[snorvich]

The period for velvet to die off is six weeks assuming a fishless tank.

[welcome]

[missblonde]

Thank you! I am pretty sure it was marine velvet - they were all happy and healthy 24 hours prior. I noticed a dusting of tiny white spots all over the clowns the morning of their demise. I just wasn't able to act fast enough.

Because I am the most impatient human ever (this is definitely the right hobby for my right? :spin2: - was considering picking up a 36 gallon to start cycling (my 24 gallon I am realizing might have been a bit small for the cooler fish) and placing my inverts in QT for the 6 weeks. I would break the 24 down - sanitize and resell the tank and equipment. After the 36 gallon cycles - I wanted to get a gold stripe maroon clown and a fairy wrasse and then reintroduce the inverts to that tank. This break down would also allow me to try and discover the fate of my YWG since he has been MIA for 6 weeks now.

Am I totally ridiculous?

[snorvich]

Thank you! I am pretty sure it was marine velvet - they were all happy and healthy 24 hours prior. I noticed a dusting of tiny white spots all over the clowns the morning of their demise. I just wasn't able to act fast enough.

Because I am the most impatient human ever (this is definitely the right hobby for my right? :spin2: - was considering picking up a 36 gallon to start cycling (my 24 gallon I am realizing might have been a bit small for the cooler fish) and placing my inverts in QT for the 6 weeks. I would break the 24 down - sanitize and resell the tank and equipment. After the 36 gallon cycles - I wanted to get a gold stripe maroon clown and a fairy wrasse and then reintroduce the inverts to that tank. This break down would also allow me to try and discover the fate of my YWG since he has been MIA for 6 weeks now.

Am I totally ridiculous?

No, but a gold stripe maroon clown is one very ornery fish. If you are going with this fish, I suggest a pair as you will not be able to keep other fish with a gold stripe maroon clown in a 36 gallon tank. Also, nothing good happens quickly in this hobby.

[ThRoewer]

I would not say that you can't keep other fish with a maroon pair, but you will be seriously limited in your choices. Gobies and dragonets are probably OK. Blennies and other low profile fish may get accepted as well, but I would be very careful with active free swimming fish, especially wrasses.

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[snorvich]

I would not say that you can't keep other fish with a maroon pair, but you will be seriously limited in your choices. Gobies and dragonets are probably OK. Blennies and other low profile fish may get accepted as well, but I would be very careful with active free swimming fish, especially wrasses.

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In a 36 gallon tank?

[missblonde]

If I chose to get a 55 gallon would that change my maroon set up? I have a friend with a maroon, a splendid dottyback, a lawnmower Benny, and a
McCoskeri Flasher Wrasse. They also have a few others like a type of hawk fish. I don't have those same goals, but I do also love the following fish- splendid dotryback, mandarins goby (so long as he's eating frozen at the store), cleaner wrasses, and Coral beauties.

Any recommendations would be awesome!

[ThRoewer]

In a 36 gallon tank?

Not that I recommend for others to try this, but I kept a spawning pair of Sumatra Maroons in a 15 gallon tank with a ceramic flowerpot as anemone surrogate and a pair of pipefish as tank mates - no aggression.

There are fish they will simply ignore, usually those that live on the ground, don't swim a lot or don't look really like fish (for example pipefish).