Keeping livestock alive in isolation

[tuajia]

Hi all, I recently attempted to catch and give away my yellow angel as it was too aggressive towards his tank mates. After 2 weeks of trying to catch it with DIY bottle traps, my family surprisingly managed to catch it while i was at work. Not wanting to keep it inside a small bottle trap, I instructed them to fill a small tub (6" diameter) with tank water, put in an air stone and cover it but leave a small gap for air. Sadly, when i got home 6 hours later, the angel was dead. 3 things i observed:

1. My family had thrown in fish food

2. The angel pooped a lot

3. The air stone dropped off the hose, and the hose did not touch the water. Earlier on when i asked them to check on the angel, the air stone was fine. So i estimate that the hose probably fell out for about 1-2 hours

I feel  terrible for accidentally killing the poor guy. Looking at my angel, I'm not sure how it died. i think that it either died because of a) stress,  ammonia from poop and decaying food, or c) lack of circulation. Stress could be a cause, as my folks did say the fish kept poking his head out of the water and looked distressed. I don't think that he could have been poisoned by his own poop within 6 hours, and i don't think the fish food would start breaking down so quickly either. So I'm guessing most possible cause of death was lack of circulation, which depleted oxygen in the water. But is 1-2 hours without water movement really enough to kill?

So, in the interest of not repeating such a stupid mistake, I'd like to ask bros who have sold their livestock here for tips and best practices. How do you all keep your livestock alive in isolation while waiting for buyer? Sigh. Thanks in advance.

[kenyee]

Sad to hear this bro..high chance is stress n lack of oxygen in the small tub as 1-2 hours is quite long..

The best is to cfm buyer liao then catch or catch liao placed in beta box or sump..ideal is dun let the fish stay for too long in a confine space (size of fish vs the isolation space)..

Good luck yea

 

[Mike Stone]

Hi Tuajia,
A better way is to buy those ISO box with lots of holes on all 4 sides, and you can hang the ISO box on the DT wall by suction pad or DIY magnet. I find it very useful to temporary hold fishes there for a day, you don't have to worry about water quality and oxygen. Big fishes cannot be done this way as it is too stressful imo.

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[Mike Stone]

You can also put such ISO box in your sump. Its available in all LFS.

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[Joboh]

Nice sharing

[Dechew]

Any sifu to advise for new fishes ard 4-5 inch what's the best way to temporary house them for feed training before going to DT?

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[tuajia]

Any sifu to advise for new fishes ard 4-5 inch what's the best way to temporary house them for feed training before going to DT?

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I don't know about others but I usually just put my new arrivals into my reef tank, which has no livestock except snails and corals. So essentially it acts like a quarantine tank.

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[Mike Stone]

Any sifu to advise for new fishes ard 4-5 inch what's the best way to temporary house them for feed training before going to DT?

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If the fish is big, you can either place directly in your refugium compartment of the sump, or put inside QT.


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[tuajia]

Hi Tuajia,
A better way is to buy those ISO box with lots of holes on all 4 sides, and you can hang the ISO box on the DT wall by suction pad or DIY magnet. I find it very useful to temporary hold fishes there for a day, you don't have to worry about water quality and oxygen. Big fishes cannot be done this way as it is too stressful imo.

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Thanks for the advice. I actually have that but mine is small, perhaps I need to buy a bigger one. I use an IOS tank due to lack of space, if not i think putting fish in a proper separate sump is a good move too.

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[Mike Stone]

Hi Tuajia, there are two type of ISO box, one compartment type will be more useful for you I believe.


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[reefbuilder]

Hi Tuajia,

To be a responsible hobbyist we should always have a QT ready if we intend to keep livestock. We owe it to them to provide the best care possible.

[Mike Stone]

Hi reefbuilder, as much as all of us wanted a QT, but some of us using IOS tank may not have that option due to space constraints and also keeping temperature low for QT may also be an issue. If the QT is small, the stress build up for the fish may have killed it instead of quarantining it.
I certainly agree QT is an option we love to have, I was a victim of not quarantining my fishes in the past.


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[Dechew]

Thx for the valuable information. BTW if using QT any advise the easiers means to upkeep the environment for a longer period ard 2-3weeks?

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[tuajia]

Thx for the valuable information. BTW if using QT any advise the easiers means to upkeep the environment for a longer period ard 2-3weeks?

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If you want to be kiasu, most parasites' reproduction cycles span from 2 weeks to 1 month. So keeping for 2 months is a guarantee to see any parasites appearing. Sometimes a fish may be infected but seems ok because the parasite has not fully grown. I kept fish inside my reef tank as long as few months before I transferred to my DT.

Another cheat method, which is not 100% guarantee, is to buy from reliable fellow reefers here. At least you know they kept the fish for a period of time with no problem. But like I said, no guarantee. I also had fish die on me because they happened to develop problems due to stress or just somehow didn't adjust well to their new home etc.


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[tuajia]

Sad to hear this bro..high chance is stress n lack of oxygen in the small tub as 1-2 hours is quite long..
The best is to cfm buyer liao then catch or catch liao placed in beta box or sump..ideal is dun let the fish stay for too long in a confine space (size of fish vs the isolation space)..
Good luck yea
 

Thanks for your kind words bro

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[Mike Stone]

Thx for the valuable information. BTW if using QT any advise the easiers means to upkeep the environment for a longer period ard 2-3weeks?

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For QT, it depends if you dose copper or not (can be a debate point on copper dosing as it may hurt the fishes in long term).

In the case you dose copper, you must be able to measure copper content to do that, else you may accidentally overdose and kill the fish. Copper do acts as a double edged sword.

In this case, no live rock or limestone rock as filter media, it should be a bare tank set up with water aeration and water change like 20% on alternate days. Remember to measure ammonia daily to play safe. Do set up a good nano skimmer for it.

This set up also use for curing lch with different copper dosing amount.

In the case of no copper dosing, just set up a nano tank with full nano set up. Live rocks and filter, skimmer all are okay. Let it live for 8 weeks and transfer to main tank if fish is healthy.

I prefer this as fish is far lesser chance to get stress by medicine and environment. But if you see the fish got sick, change the QT to above first method.

If either way, mini chiller or fans is needed to cool water, don't let water temp exceed 28 degC.

Above are just my suggestion , it is not hard and fast rules.

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[Dechew]

I reckon the summary of both suggestions is to have 2 complete aquariums (DT & QT) running parallel. Shall consider it. Thx so much for taking time to reply and providing valued inputs.

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[Mike Stone]

You can have one tank as your main DT, and a second smaller tank to keep some coral and cuc, Frag tank or Zoa tank is a good option for second tank, as it is easy to catch the fish.


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[Dechew]

Sound good. However, if I need to convert QT to a hospital tank then where to relocate the coral. Can I leave them inside without harm?

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[Mike Stone]

Hospital tank must be bare bottom, because most medicine are not reef friendly.


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[Joboh]

Can 1 ft tank use as a hospital tank?

[Mike Stone]

Ideally a 10g tank minimum. Otherwise ammonia can be a problem.


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[Joboh]

Thanks. Look like my yellow tang which kana HLLE has to be left in the DT.