Quarantine Subject II

[seamonkee]

Got this from S****e today.... A pair of Watanabei Angels... Always wanted to have a pair esp the male which is hard and rare to get...

Anyway, there were 3 males left at the LFS and only one was feeding mysis.... so why wait? I bought a pair (male+female) which are feeding...

Poured water from main tank into lower tier of my 2 foot QT tank... upper tier tank has Subject I - Sailfin Tang which is undergoing cupramine treatment...

Added some Seachem Stressguard and the fishes were released.... Amazingly, both were swimming together... what a sight...

Will monitor and observe the fishes for three weeks.... if need be, may do some cupramine treatment too for them...

Also, I will be getting some Oyama black paper to cover the sides and back of my QT tanks... this way, the fishes will be less "disturbed" by the surrounding.... hooray!!!

[seamonkee]

Close up of male watanabei... nice bluish hues and stripes....

swimming actively and feeding mysis at the LFS and in my QT....

[seamonkee]

This is the female... swimming very well and actively too...

Female follows the male everywhere...

I spent one hour in the LFS observing them...

[hamannbmw]

the male looks big huh.. how many inches

[seamonkee]

the male looks big huh.. how many inches

I'm not sure... male is about 6 inch

The female is around 4 inch...

[seamonkee]

Cupramine treatment administered... presently at low dose of 0.25mg.... monitor for two days before raising to standard dose...

For my main tank which is now fallow, I have changed UV bulb to raise its effectiveness against killing off the ich minions..

[patrick123]

Is it true that Watanabei Angel is 100% reef safe? Sorry for the off-topic.

If yes, then the male looks pretty attractive to have in a reef tank.

Regards,

Patrick

[neokn]

Is it true that Watanabei Angel is 100% reef safe? Sorry for the off-topic.

If yes, then the male looks pretty attractive to have in a reef tank.

Regards,

Patrick

Yes, they are.

Gouldian wrote a pretty nice write up here

The rest in on the webby. Do a search for it.

[seamonkee]

Is it true that Watanabei Angel is 100% reef safe? Sorry for the off-topic.

If yes, then the male looks pretty attractive to have in a reef tank.

Regards,

Patrick

Yes they are.... hahaha but too bad... my understanding is that males are super duper rare.... you hardly get them in shipment to Singapore.. the last batch came and sealife took them all... so technically, only sealife has all the male specimen...

There were three males left when I went there... only one (which I bought) was feeding... the rest were not... maybe the other two were already well-fed when I was there... I dunno... but go down and give it a shot...

[roidan]

Actually it is not 100% reefsafe, it's just a relative comparison with other fishes or angels that makes it stand out as one of the more/most reefsafe.

It won't be surprising to see the watanabe pecking at your corals too...I think our bro Dispar Anthias know also, his friend used to have a naughty one

His friend must be damn lucky (or unlucky) to find that 0.000001% specimen whereas the 99.999999% are probably quite safe

[Dispar_Anthias]

Actually it is not 100% reefsafe, it's just a relative comparison with other fishes or angels that makes it stand out as one of the more/most reefsafe.

It won't be surprising to see the watanabe pecking at your corals too...I think our bro Dispar Anthias know also, his friend used to have a naughty one

His friend must be damn lucky (or unlucky) to find that 0.000001% specimen whereas the 99.999999% are probably quite safe

yup... his watanabei love acros... go ard wacking all the acro tip till ti was white

[patrick123]

Wah...seems like nothing is guaranteed... hehehe

Heard that some tangs also wack corals....... sigh....

[seamonkee]

At least, I have only leathers in my tank...

[seamonkee]

Here's an update of my two quarantine tanks...

1) Subject 1 (Sailfin Tang) - Still ok!! Feeding well on nori + Mysis. Been in there since 12 April.... Gonna release him only on 12 June (cause now my main tank is left fallow)

2) Subject 2 (Pair of Watanabei Angels) - Went into second QT tank last Thursday on the 12th May. Both feeding on mysis... two days later on the 14th May, female has a scale slightly popping out on the side... added some seachem guard to add in its healing...

[seamonkee]

Tank look "dark" cause I boughtsome black backing sheets to cover the sides and back of both the QT tanks... This is as recommended by Bob Fenner to lessen environment stress for the fish in QT...

[seamonkee]

Here's an update of my two quarantine tanks...

1) Subject 1 (Sailfin Tang) - Still ok!! Feeding well on nori + Mysis.  Been in there since 12 April....  Gonna release him only on 12 June (cause now my main tank is left fallow)

2) Subject 2 (Pair of Watanabei Angels) - Went into second QT tank last Thursday on the 12th May.  Both feeding on mysis... two days later on the 14th May, female has a scale slightly popping out on the side... added some seachem guard to add in its healing...

Update....

Sad to say...the female watanabei angel did not made it and pass away yesterday night....

She was breathing heavily since one of the scale "pops" out apparently due to viral laceration or something (three days ago)..... yesterday morning would not eat... so I already suspect that something is wrong.... in fact, the scale pops out further few hours before it died out on me....

Did some water change after removing the body.... Male is fine and feeding..... phew...

[neokn]

So sorry to hear that.

Quick, head down to SL to get another Female.

[seamonkee]

Before some uninformed emotional wrecks come flaring up and screw me upside down for killing one fine specimen... Then I better remind whoever that before you start doing that, do read up more on quarantine practices and its objectives before you decide to go on a machine gun spree at me instead of getting the facts right first or empathise with me on my fish loss...

If some bros feel I am kiasu and am putting up my disclaimers too earlier, thought I state it out first because I am so sick of it when people dun get objective about matters or understand reasons for doing things when they go on an emotional rampage....

In case you are uninformed and still decided to shoot me.. then I have to say this:

The whole idea of QT is to set up a separate tank (water parameters have to be well-kept of course!) to allow the buyer of the fish more time to determine the health state of the fish before putting it into the main tank.... .If you feel that one watanabei angel died and I'm cruel and responsible for its death... Then if it truly had died of viral causes, then I can't imagine if more fishes would have died if I put it into my main tank direct...

Maybe if you can't stand QT practices, then have it out with Underwater World, Singapore Zoo and Jurong Birdpark first before coming in to screw me... For all I know, they set up large quarantines to observe the animals before putting them on display... some animals in the zoo can be in QT for 3 months and some died along the way.... OR EVEN PUT TO SLEEP if found to carry any harmful virus or bacteria...

The whole idea of QT is to protect the other healthy animals in the main exhibit (main tank in our case).... Too bad if the animal (or fish in our case) died.... One fish die better than whole tank crash or whole display wiped out....

[seamonkee]

So sorry to hear that.

Quick, head down to SL to get another Female.

Thanks for the condolences...

I wait for the male to stabilise and release into the tank first before I get another female...

[neokn]

Thanks for the condolences...

I wait for the male to stabilise and release into the tank first before I get another female...

But But but he's will be lonely leh..... Poor fella, his mate die and he all alone in the QT then he will be transferred to a 5' tank. Even more lonely.

[seamonkee]

But But but he's will be lonely leh..... Poor fella, his mate die and he all alone in the QT.

He ok lah.... I will get him a harem of female watanabei angels after he is released into the tank..

Actually I was quite relieved that it was the female and not the male... otherwise....

[neokn]

He ok lah.... I will get him a harem of female watanabei angels after he is released into the tank..

Actually I was quite relieved that it was the female and not the male... otherwise....

If he dies (touch wood) then you will be cursing yourself "Wo Ta Na Bei" bad lucky

Look forward to your tank release of the 2 subject.

[seamonkee]

If he dies (touch wood) then you will be cursing yourself "Wo Ta Na Bei" bad lucky

Look forward to your tank release of the 2 subject.

Then it will not be WA TA NA BEI Angel

It will be called )(#@$*)(@#*$ KA NI NA BEI Angel...

[iori_del]

bro was surprise the female is dead, and sorry to hear tat.. but the shop selling u the pair, have been a very reputable shop with good fishes in their place..

Is it this type of angel are more sensitive to copper??

[seamonkee]

bro was surprise the female is dead, and sorry to hear tat.. but the shop selling u the pair, have been a very reputable shop with good fishes in their place..

Is it this type of angel are more sensitive to copper??

The copper was administered at 0.25mg (very very low) for only two days....

No physical symptoms of copper poisoning or whatsoever (e.g. "shivering")

But the copper was slowly removed through water replacement over the next two more days because the fish look healthy enough without the need for copper administration.... besides I use cupramine which is a less toxic form of copper than pure or chelated copper... and at a low low dosage to test out first...

Only after that the female starts to get a fin scale "pop out" near its head, stop feeding... that is when I notice something funny which happened to my previous yellow tang before it died... same symptoms... scale "pop" out, grew into an open wound, start breathing heavily and die.... Yellow tang did not go through copper treatment

As for LFS, I have no comments.... My only bet is never to rely on the LFS to quarantine the fishes for you... or throw a fish directly into your main tank on the account that it is a reputable shop... Every SHOP claims they quarantine their fishes..... This is my own experience.... it's business for them and not a hobby... remember...

Directly quoted from the horse's mouth when I notice ich in the morning and late night after getting some fishes previously from one "reputable" LFS.... thats when all my $600 worth of fishes got wiped out... that incident...

The "Boss" himself SAYS this... after I shared with him what happened.... "Aiyah, ICH IS NORMAL AND PART OF THE SYSTEM.... In my shop, every morning and late night when the fishes goes to sleep, they are all covered in white spots... very normal one.... but by afternoon they will be ok and swimming.... can buy one.... it's part of the fishes... get some more fishes lah" I won't mention who even though I still got my recent fishes from him (Oopss..... sound like I leak out who it is liao... ).....

After much survey, most of my khakis who bought fishes share that in their honest opinion, Henry's (Marine Life Hobbyist) fishes are still the best in quality and outlived the longest... If not for the long journey, I would have gladly bought my fishes from him instead... As for the watanabeis, I dun really have the choice cause only one LFS was carrying the male specimen.... Besides, I got my QT tanks running and can afford to QT on my own and give it a shot...

Good thing... it is not the male... phew...