Chalk Bass

[SoulFish]

Picked up two large Chalk Bass tonight from Aquatic Central in SF. Great looking fish, both I think came as a trade in and are the largest I've seen around 3.5" each. They say they are reef safe, just wondering what you guys think of them? Do many guy keep them in a reef tank? Not sure since they kinda are like a Basslet if they would try to eat shrimp.

 

[phishphood]

I love 'em. If they're in a decent sized tank (since they're on the large side) then they should be fine. I would think cleaner shrimp/peps/fire etc would be OK, provided they aren't tiny themselves. Any ornamental (sexy, anemone, etc) is fair game though in my experience.

 

[tuberider]

I saw those and almost bought them last week, they looked real healthy.

I keep them in reefs all the time, the ones you got looked real clean, if they are fresh from the wholesalers it's good to dip CB they are usually infested with flukes.

 

[GreshamH]

Flukes and more so, internal parasites. They are known for having internal parasites.

 

[SoulFish]

right now they are in a fish only tank, gonna add copper tonight as a precaution and run it in that tank for a month. Yeah I heard about the flukes. The guy there not Chris said they were a trade in from a guy who broke down his tank. That's the main reason I got them. I have always heard the little ones were infested with parasites. So I figured with larger ones they were prolly safer to get then the little ones.

They haven't eaten yet, still scared and hiding in the rocks. Gonna try to feed them Spectra A+, laced with garlic hopefully to any internal parasites issues.

 

[GreshamH]

There is no size to parasite ratio, sorry. All are just as susceptible to them. Copper won't do much for them IIRC, you need a different med. Copper won't do much fo flukes either. Prazi is great for the flukes, maybe Jeremy can recommend a good anti internal parasite med.

 

[tuberider]

I wouldn't worry about parasites on those guys they looked real healthy, fat and if I were to take a guess had been in someones tank for at least a year.

AFA parasite meds, I've used the Spectum anti parasite food and it seems to work pretty darn good, as long as the fish is eating of course.

 

[GreshamH]

But one sign of internal parasites is being fat, well, everly fat. I lost 3 of 10 chalks to those over the years. I love chalks though, great fish

 

[SoulFish]

what about hyposalinity? Would that kill Flukes? Could do that as a precaution too

 

[GreshamH]

Hypo works but IMO/IME it's harder on the fish then Prazi. Watch for secondary bacterial infections from where the flukes were attached. Jeremy, what's a good med for that? I was just talking to some one last night about this and I figured out I have forgotten nearly all my med knowledge

 

[Natterjak]

Prazipro works great for external flukes - I just treated a new regal angel with it, and within seconds you could see the flukes peeling off. Doesn't harm the biological filter either, just have to turn off the skimmer and any UV and remove carbon during treatment. Freshwater dips also supposedly work well for flukes.

 

[GreshamH]

[quote author=Natterjak link=topic=6589.msg85065#msg85065 date=1235756893]
Prazipro works great for external flukes - I just treated a new regal angel with it, and within seconds you could see the flukes peeling off. Doesn't harm the biological filter either, just have to turn off the skimmer and any UV and remove carbon during treatment. Freshwater dips also supposedly work well for flukes.
[/quote]

Hypo = FW dip Read above for what I say about that

 

[tuberider]

I would imagine the Prazipro would internally clean out a fish to a certain extent since saltwater fish do drink, I just don't know how far down the gut it gets before the animals body breaks it down. That's one of the reasons Hypo is so hard on the fish it's drinking near freshwater and that hoses the liver and kidneys.

Back in the day we used metronidazole, Clout, Fluke Tabs, formalin, etc. to clean infested fish out, before Prazipro was all the rage, most seemed to work real well, although the fish I see now come in far less healthy than when I was dealing with them in quantity. I was always a big fan of formalin, real easy to dose and the only thing to worry about were DO levels, Jim Hall (my mentor) used Fluke Tabs and metronidazole most often.

Gresham, if you like chalk bass you'd have snatched these guys up in a heartbeat, I kid you not they have enough meat on them I'm sure you could make 4 nice pieces of nigiri with the mini fillets

 

[GreshamH]

I like smaller, they don't live super long

Forgot about Metron. I used to use that rather ofter.

For flukes I used something most can't get and shouldn't handle (nerve agent IIRC) Dylox. Best fluke med on the market but extremely toxic and potent.

 

[GreshamH]

For Metron we used to put it into other gel foods in order to get the fish to actually eat it. Koi we'd use bread

 

[zambavi]

[quote author=GreshamH link=topic=6589.msg85078#msg85078 date=1235758877]
(nerve agent IIRC) [/quote]

So... a quick interuption to this thread here.... I see frequent use of "IIRC" here on BAR. I have assumed that it stands for "If I recall Correctly"... am I right? Just looking for clarification.

 

[tuberider]

Same here with the feeding metro, very effective. With wild cichlids we got food from Andres Ryan that was already packed with it, we never had issues with those fish and Tanganyikans can be pretty loaded IME.

I've never worked with Dylox, would you dip with it?

 

[tuberider]

[quote author=zambavi link=topic=6589.msg85081#msg85081 date=1235759190]
[quote author=GreshamH link=topic=6589.msg85078#msg85078 date=1235758877]
(nerve agent IIRC) [/quote]

So... a quick interuption to this thread here.... I see frequent use of "IIRC" here on BAR. I have assumed that it stands for "If I recall Correctly"... am I right? Just looking for clarification.
[/quote]

correct

 

[GreshamH]

[quote author=tuberider link=topic=6589.msg85082#msg85082 date=1235759327]
Same here with the feeding metro, very effective. With wild cichlids we got food from Andres Ryan that was already packed with it, we never had issues with those fish and Tanganyikans can be pretty loaded IME.

I've never worked with Dylox, would you dip with it?
[/quote]

I forget the amount but it's more effective as a tank treatment. We did do dipping with it but that wasn't me doing it and he did it in FW as well. I found that to be to hard on the fish so I never did it that way. We'd dose the entire systems every few weeks as our suppliers would nuke us with flukes every 2 - 3 weeks

 

[SoulFish]

so should I treat the entire tank with Prazipro as a preventative? I don't see any issues with them, any signs I should look for?