soggycookies

Xenia doesn’t contain palytozin but it definitely is toxic in its own way. There’s a reason why most fish don’t try to eat it hahahaha Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Yes. This is why it’s never a good idea to “cook” your rock, no matter what the internet may say hahaha. If there are zoas or palythoa or basically any kind of more toxic soft coral on it they will definitely emit toxic fumes when you boil them Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

I don’t blame you haha their videos are very lengthy.. but very informative and professional without much bias Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Check out this video. Explains the various methods of curing rock. BRStv is a very informative channel for reefing overall. Since you’re new to the hobby you might want to watch some of them. They clarify not only what to do but why to do it. I try my best to explain some things here but I’m afraid my explanations might not be pinpoint. Safer to watch more detailed tutorials especially for this kinda thing.

Pure freshwater will kill most if not all of them depending on how Long you cure them for. Generally they say 4-8 weeks but 2 weeks should be ok once you see your ammonia and nitrite at 0. The 8 week long process is to get rid of phosphate deep within the rock as well as other potential contaminants. But like others have mentioned.. bleach is if you really want to kill everything on your rock guaranteed at once. Freshwater works IME but only if given time

IMO you should cure them cause you don’t know how Long they’ve been out of water. Some things might still be alive but many things have probably died or started to die when the rocks were taken out of water. If you trust the LFS you got it from when they say it’s already cured then I see no need to though. Also try not to soak with tap water.. run it in RODI water/distilled water that’s been dechlorinated at the very least, and then use the necessary chemicals/bioproducts to speed up the process if you want them cycled fast Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

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Pasir Ris Beach, Changi beach, ECP.. pretty sure it’s not illegal to collect them Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Unlikely but not impossible, if something like a crab manages to somehow snip off and detach a small cluster it could float around the tank and settle elsewhere. These things don’t need a lot of light to grow either. But in my experience they only grow really fast once established for some time in your system Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

That works well, also keep them away from the glass. They can grow on the glass edges of your tank too if conditions are well Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Great to see increasingly more variety [emoji5] Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Fair enough. Even trace amounts of copper is a no-no for any coral or invert. There is definitely a learning curve with optimum quarantine procedures, and I can understand your worry about fish dying. If you’re serious about the hobby when it comes to fish though, it’s worth learning more about proper QT, even more important if you’re keeping a reeftank with both corals and fish. If it’s a fish-only you can practically treat the whole DT with copper, but then like you said, you’ll have to worry about copper staining parts of it in the future if you plan to use it for corals as well. Either way, hope all goes well for you. I’m not saying die die must use copper, I’ve seen many people with successful systems who haven’t touched copper or never QT their fish, but you can only be lucky for so Long. Once the big hit happens, expect things like entire tank crashes to happen. Don’t mean to be a downer but the most stressful part of this hobby is the beginning methinks, tho once you’ve gotten past that initial phase and understand more about why things are and not just what they are, it becomes more rewarding. Just my two cents haha. Or.. you could just keep buying new fishes when they die without you knowing why(and blame the LFS)[emoji276] Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

That’s why it’s called personal experience hahaha. Never try, never know. Either you trust what others say completely or do it yourself heh 🤷🏻‍♂️

Possibly. lol @ the jokes on premium LFS using cupramine hahahaha. And like you mentioned before, the main idea is to sell the fishes off as quickly as possible. It’s a fundamental business model for livestock like the fishes we get. That’s probably why they seem fine at first but who knows what they’ve been through in the process of getting to us. A few weeks down the line in another different environment and they might not look so good because of “unknown reasons”. This is why I believe in QT so much, at least you can observe them for an extended period instead of risking your entire DT Also IME I’ve treated fishes with copper with no issues. Fishes are more likely to die in QT due simply to stress, improper acclimation to copper-treated water or an uncycled QT that doesn’t receive water changes. The reason I mentioned cupramine is I know from personal experience that it does not kill the beneficial bacteria involved in cycling a tank. I haven’t tried too many brands of copper treatments but I know cupramine doesn’t destabilize my cycled QT so I continue to use it(and no I’m not a promoter of the brand just a humble consumer who has had success with the product lol [emoji23]) Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

You’ve won half the battle if you are doing these things to safeguard your DT as a whole. Even without treatment/pre-emptive measures that can seem intimidating to newbies especially(like copper treatment), it’s still much safer than doing the old ‘float bag in main tank then release after 15mins’ idea of acclimation. But yeah like he mentioned, in the case of an issue.. what are you gonna do? If you’re still worried about using copper I’d suggest using a combo of the tank transfer method(you can read up about that)praziquantel and freshwater dips. Medicated dips are more advanced but there’s plenty of information about these things online. Some of them sound unbelievable at first (like freshwater dips), but are actually very helpful and simple once you realize what you’re doing them for. Hope this helps Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Thankfully if you’ve read other forums and feedback on copper treatments, the market standard of cupramine is for now(and been for some time)less volatile than some of the older copper treatments that are more toxic to fish. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

If hyposalinity treatment worked for velvet or if chloroquine phosphate(though apparently that stuff is more toxic than even copper)and stuff like formalin were more accessible in the aquarium market here, I probably wouldn’t use copper either Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Always happy to share knowledge especially where it helps bro. Cheers Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Some fish like tangs(yes all members, blue tangs just have that label cause their general temperament is also a bit more crazy than other tangs lol) are more susceptible to these parasites cause they lack a slime coat to fight them off. Also sort of explains why when a tank has ich you sometimes only see the tangs, or in this case blue/hippo/regal tangs having the worst of it. Doesn’t mean that the other fish don’t have it. Just take it as an indicator that your tank definitely has it cause it won’t be limited to a single fish. The other fish just have a better resistance/immunity to it due to their own genetic makeup. As for ich vs velvet, from personal experience and extensive reading, when visible, the former is more like salt sprinkles on the fish while the latter is more of a fine sugar dusting, almost powder-like coat on the fish. If you can count the no. of spots, it’s probably ich. If they’re smaller and more numerous it’s probably velvet. Also, if it’s velvet.. sometimes you’ll see the fish dead before you even see any symptoms. They can be dead in less than a day with no signs. That’s how deadly it is. On the contrary fish can develop a longstanding immunity from ich and generally are able to fight it off with good system conditions and feeding. Not the same case with velvet. Usually if it’s ich and you don’t treat immediately, it’s still ok. Fish will live for months and with good conditions can fight it off and develop immunities. For velvet, if you don’t treat ASAP, it’s a death sentence more or less, very few fish even survive the initial attack let alone develop an immunity. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Yes. It’s very common in the hobby though still very possible to run a completely ich-free tank. But once you kena velvet before.. you realize ich isn’t a big deal unless your system conditions are plain awful Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Also to add on to my previous post, if the fish was in QT but not treated with at least 0.2mg/L of copper in the water for at least 2 weeks, it could have been that the ich was on it but didn’t infest its skin but was in its gills. And due to stress in the main DT perhaps from other fish harassing it, it lost its resistance/immunity and the parasite could spread further on the fish Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Yes. Ich is not always going to show white salt-like spots on the fish’s body, especially if the fish are resistant or immune to it. But as Long as there is a host fish in the tank, there will be ich if it’s introduced into the system earlier or later on either a carrier fish and/or anything wet that has an irregular surface area for their cysts to latch onto and lay dormant like coral frags, clean-up crew etc. Honestly it’s hard to completely avoid, which is why most people just adopt the “feed them well and have a stress-free environment/stable water parameters etc” policy. The fish can fight things like that off, but not so much things that are more deadly like velvet(and very similar but much more lethal). Generally it’s unlikely you’ll bring in these parasites into your system via other things than infected fish though, but there’s still a chance. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

It’s alright bro, if you are new the urge to get everything done quickly is definitely there. Even seasoned hobbyists sometimes cannot wait hahahaha. But with time you’ll realize the importance of quarantine. It can determine whether your entire tank crashes or not in the worst cases Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

It’s best to quarantine every new fish to observe them and place them in half dose of copper before putting them in your main system. Reason being some fish that carry protozoan parasites like ich and velvet don’t show any signs of carrying the parasite either because they’re in the gills or they are immune/resistant to it but carry it on their bodies anyway. By having the fish in a copper-treated tank for a couple of weeks you essentially halve or even completely eliminate that issue. But that said i wouldn’t go through with the full dose of copper unless I can confirm the fish has ich or velvet. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

You will have less temperature fluctuation issues indoors with adequate ventilation IME. Higher or lower doesn’t exactly matter for fishes in our tropical climate unless you’re getting coldwater species, stability is more impt Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app