got ethical husbandry?

Question about wrasse qurantine

I took the water, rock, snails, and coral from my 20long and setup a 33long with new sand (and a little bit of old sand). I plan to buy two halichoeres and one flasher wrasse all at the same time. The quarantine methods I've read about seem complicated, and sometimes have negative effects on wrasses. How should I introduce these first fish? Is it even a good idea to get them and quarantine them all together in the old 20long? Should I leave them in home depot buckets for a month while doing tank transfer method?
 
TTM is always a good starting point.
I would start with that in buckets. From there, move them into your old 20l.
Observe from there. If they are eating good and look good and healthy, I would probably just drop them into the DT.
If one out of the three doesn't look so good. Keep that one in the 20l for further observation.
 
The Halichoreus sleep in the sand and the flashers sleep in a coccon on the rock. How I have done QT with sand sleeping wrasses is to do TTM with a 6" x 4" area of sand that gets replaced every 3 days when you transfer them to a new tank. They seem to be much less stressed out when I have done it this way.
 
IME, The key is to buy the fish from a trusted LFS source. For example, all my fish are from Aquatic Collection. Then, from that point, I make sure the fish has been settled in their holding tanks by checking the date the fish was added. Finally, I feed them a little of the mysis from the bottles they have nearby. I watch to see if the fish is voraciously going after the food, not nonchalantly or hesitantly eating, but full on savage mode.

IME, wrasses tend to have less problems with ich, velvet, or lymphocystis. I've read it's because of their slime coat?

If you go bare bottom in your hospital/quarantine tank, you can always use a plastic container filled with sand for the wrasses, maybe 1 for each wrasse you plan to add?

Good luck.
 
IME, The key is to buy the fish from a trusted LFS source. For example, all my fish are from Aquatic Collection. Then, from that point, I make sure the fish has been settled in their holding tanks by checking the date the fish was added. Finally, I feed them a little of the mysis from the bottles they have nearby. I watch to see if the fish is voraciously going after the food, not nonchalantly or hesitantly eating, but full on savage mode.

IME, wrasses tend to have less problems with ich, velvet, or lymphocystis. I've read it's because of their slime coat?

If you go bare bottom in your hospital/quarantine tank, you can always use a plastic container filled with sand for the wrasses, maybe 1 for each wrasse you plan to add?

Good luck.

I'm not so sure about that one regarding wrasses less susceptible to ich. I had many wrasses die getting ich and velvet. Only thing I can say is to getting healthy specifiments. Always quarantine properly and you won't have as much issues with parasites.
 
I have my quarantine methods with ttm.

This is my protocol

Quarantine everything wet. For fish I do formalin bath 45min, then straight to TTM during ttm I dose prazi pro. Also during ttm I put nitrofuracin green in to help with bacteria infections. After ttm it goes in my cycle quarantine tank for 2 weeks observation. Then into my display. Since doing this I haven't lost any fish to diseases.

For corals and inverts it goes in my cycle tank for 2 months.
 
So, I got 2 halichoeres (biocellatus and leucoxanthus). I let the internet scare into thinking quarantine would be too stressful for these wrasses. I drip acclimated and introduced them together. They hid for a day then started calmly exploring the tank.

They get along but now I'm worried about feeding them. They don't seem interested in my year-old Cobalt Aquatics coral flake food. And they don't really go for the Hikari frozen mysis. I've been adding those $20 bottles of tigger pods so at least something will be available for them to eat.

What other food should I try? Should I continue adding pods? How often?
 
That's what I was thinking. But I still need a solution for weekend feeding. I would like to sustain pods instead of getting an autofeeder. Which are the best pods for halichoeres?
 
I don't have the biocellatus but I've got a melanarus and your yellow wrasse, and I think they both will take readily to standard aquarium diet. Has it only been a couple days? I think just give it time. They are both super hardy for me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Sometimes they eat the frozen mysis. Most of the time they just rush up then swim away. Sometimes they spit it out. Could it be too big for them? If they won't eat the mysis I can save it for my LPS.

I can't find any live foods. Would it make a difference if I switch from hikari to another brand of frozen?
 
The other thing you can try is to grate frozen shrimp from the grocery store. When frozen it grates into really small pieces which are smaller than most mysis. This has worked for me in the past.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I gave them a choice between hikari mysis and hikari brine. They've been accepting the mysis but swim away from the brine. Maybe because it's green? They act like kids who won't eat their vegetables. Now I just want enough pods available for them on the weekends. I can't tell if they're surviving in the rubble piles.

Thanks for all your input!
 
Back
Top