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Potter's Angel 3/11/05 Still a
relative newbie to things aquatic and need help ASAP w/ a Potter's
Angel purchased 4 days ago from reputable LFS. <hmmm... a
difficult angel overall... does poorly in new/young community tanks...
and is dearly in need of a proper 4 week QT period before putting into
displays to train them to feed strong> My first tank...Have a 46
gallon tank w/ two small percula clowns and a sixline wrasse all who
have done beautifully since introduction 6 months ago and continue to
thrive. <careful with that wrasse... very territorial> Have
about 35 pounds of nicely encrusted live rock. 2 scarlet hermits and
various snails. A modest hang on tank skimmer running that seems to be
doing the job w/ my modest bio load. I now know that the Potter's
was the wrong choice for a relative beginner such as myself... but I
guess I didn't do enough pre purchase research. <it is very
difficult indeed. It is unlikely to survive one year if even six months
for you. Do take note if this is so (or not) either way. Perhaps a hard
lesson.> I seem to have a curse trying to add fish #4. Royal Gramma
died within a week of introduction about 4 months ago. <lack
of QT again and a very poor choice mixing Atlantic fishes with Pacific.
Asking for an Ich outbreak <G>> Gave it about 6 weeks, added a
Firefish and found him half eaten one morning only days after
introduction. <the wrasse likely harassed/killed it at night.
Bad mix> (Also lost an Emerald crab about 3 weeks ago.) Waited about
6 weeks, since losing the Firefish and added this Potter's-about 3
inches long. (Water parameters all check out fine including calcium and
alkalinity) <please read, understand and apply the use of quarantine
tanks> First few days went fine until this morning when I noticed he
was not swimming out of the corner and his bright yellow fin on his
side is half ripped off! <*cough*... *wrasse*... *cough*>
He is obviously struggling to swim and from my limited knowledge, I
think his outlook looks grim. Can it be the little wrasse as the
culprit? <does a bear bring a Reader's Digest into the
woods?> I didn't observe any aggressive behavior but if it was
disease, wouldn't I see it on the other fin or tail as well? What
to do?! <QT, QT, QT please> Can he be saved? <pull the
fish into a spacious isolation tank, add vitamins with B12 (Vita-Chem
or the like).. also get some Beta Glucan from GNC, and perhaps vitamin
E for food/water> Do I try to catch him? Bring him back to
LFS? <surely will kill it> Once a fin is torn as badly as
this is, can it heal? <easily... with vitamin E and with
HUFA/lipid rich foods (Selcon)> Am I seriously cursed? <bad
husbandry... you can learn :)> Should I not be adding any more fish
besides these 3 little guys? Help Please. MUCH Thanks... <get thee
to QT :) Anthony> Acclimating Coral Beauty Hello Bob, I have on four occasions now tried to stock coral beauty's in my store but have always had very limited success getting them to feed. I have tried pretty much all of the prepared foods we stock. Do you have any recommendations on getting these guys started? <Yes... in well-established systems with plenty of healthy live rock... and a live sump/refugium in addition if possible. They nibble on algae, sponges, sea squirts in the wild...> All of the ones we received have been from QM and looked great on arrival. I have had great success with other supposedly less hardy dwarf species and am close to putting coral beauties on my "Do Not Order". <It may be that you're spot on here... the source your supplier is using may be "bunk" for this species. If you can, avoid ones from Indonesia and the Philippines... pay more for better specimens from elsewhere in the West-, South-Pacific. Bob Fenner> Thanks, Richard Dwarf Angel Woes Bob, You were so helpful to us when we opened our store 4 months ago. Things mare going better than we could ever have hoped for. The people, customers and suppliers, we have met have made all the hard work worthwhile. <Outstanding. Glad to hear> Here's my questions: Why is it that we cannot seem to keep dwarf angels alive. We have lost more of these than any other family. Is there a trick to these? <A few... careful, lengthy acclimation is key... oh, more below> I have tried 3 separate suppliers and still they die. It bothers me as I truly do care about the fish under my care. <Yes... as is careful selection, choice of sources, locations... Do look over the individual comments posted on species on WetWebMedia.com here, and look into Fiji, other locales than the Philippines, Indonesia for Centropyges> Second, what do you suggest by way of water changes for our store? We did a 10% water change this past weekend and lost all fish out of two tanks. One tank is on a system of 4 and no other fatalities in the other 3 tanks! The other tank is one of 8. The other 7 house corals and inverts and they are all doing fine. Was this just one of those things or did we do something to cause their demise. <You likely have enough "water change" going on from water replacement from selling livestock... I would definitely pre-mix and store new water for a week or so ahead of use... have mucho live rock in the circuit...> Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. <Do give the WWM site a read over... Especially the sections on marine disease. Bob Fenner
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