NateRealBig's Truly Minimalist 120g Office Build

naterealbig · Mar 29, 2023

Still don't have the system up, but couldn't pass up the opportunity. Luckily my brother has a reef as well, and he agreed to keep her for me until i was ready.

Seller did not want to ship, but I convinced him... Debated over heat packs, box size, etc... Box came early and thank God it did... The bag had busted open and the fish was lying in about an inch of water - temp was in the 60's.

When i opened the box, I was 100% certain she was dead. Pale gray, no gill movement... Here's what i saw.

naterealbig · Mar 30, 2023

Sorry, couldn't finish the story last night....

My brother looked closer and saw just a bit of movement... not much hope at this point, but we had something. First reaction was to want to dump the fish in the main tank, but at 80 degrees the 20 degree jump might have killed her. So stepped it into gear, and started triage. Water on the gills was the first thing - started a drip line from the main tank directly to the fish. Once the water was high enough, we dropped an air stone into the bag for added circulation, trying to get oxygen to the weak gills... She started to move a little more - great sign.

After about 30 minutes of drip we saw some fin movement - another great sign. What we're doing seems to be working...

One we had enough water in the bag to fill a five gallon bucket enough to give her room to move we transferred her over... When we did, completely floored that she upright herself and tried to swim.

After about an hour total drip, temps roughly equal, we decided to drop her in the tank. It was disheartening to see this large, beautiful fish drop to the bottom and just lay against the side of the tank. She stayed like this until the end of the day, occasionally having just enough energy to swim a couple feet, and come back to rest on the bottom. We left the lights off all day to try to minimize stress... had to go home eventually, knowing that if she made it the night, we had a 70% chance she would pull through. More to come.

naterealbig · Apr 1, 2023

So she made it through the night, and was actually "swimming" the next morning... She wasn't swimming as much as she was just kindof bobbing around in one place. But! We made it through the night, so progress.

naterealbig · Apr 3, 2023

And, here she is 3 days after introduction. After she made it through the 2nd night and finally started eating we gave here a name "Lulu" (I know I know, super corny) - short for Honolulu - after her Hawaiian origin...

She has been doing great in my brother's tank. After I am done with the first round of fish QT, she will start a prophylactic quarantine. I'll describe the process that I use, which has proven infallible for me with respect to common, catastrophic fish diseases.

i cant think · May 3, 2023

naterealbig said:
And, here she is 3 days after introduction. After she made it through the 2nd night and finally started eating we gave here a name "Lulu" (I know I know, super corny) - short for Honolulu - after her Hawaiian origin...

She has been doing great in my brother's tank. After I am done with the first round of fish QT, she will start a prophylactic quarantine. I'll describe the process that I use, which has proven infallible for me with respect to common, catastrophic fish diseases.

Out of curiosity, is this a true hawaiian black?
These guys aren’t Hawaiian endemic and can be found around the Marquesas Islands, Cook Islands and a place in Indonesia that I always forget.

Perry · May 3, 2023

Dude!!!
Man great job with the fish, can't wait to catch up brother, you and bro need to stop in and check our the new tank!!!
Great job Nate!

naterealbig · May 9, 2023

Been a while once i checked in here... Tank was delivered from Glass Cages a couple weeks ago - still in the garage gated by a handful of action items. Tank is absolutely beautiful! I'm in love.

naterealbig · May 9, 2023

Prophylactic quarantine fully complete - fish waiting to be placed.

naterealbig · May 9, 2023

Corals doing well in QT. Have a couple aiptasia that need dealing with before they start to spread more than they already have. I lost a Rock Flower Nem a couple weeks back - not sure exactly what it was. The second nem is not doing well either, even after a full week of Cipro treatment. Thread below on the first nem if you are interested. Also, one of my fire shrimp killed the other. Literally chased it around the tank, and took it apart one leg at a time. I've never observed this level of aggression from fire shrimp towards each other.

Help! - Sick Rock Flower Nem - Treatment Options?

Hi everyone, I consider myself an advanced aquarist, and have kept many anemones, but never the Rock Flower variety. I have a coral quarantine set up, and currently all corals and invertebrates are in great health. The last several days one of my two has shrunken and stayed that way. Some...

www.reef2reef.com

naterealbig · May 9, 2023

CSB currently in my brothers tank, awaiting transfer (along with a plethora of high end softies and LPS).

naterealbig · May 9, 2023

Major gating item below to installing the display: Setting up the "fish lab". Need this completed so I can move the fish and coral quarantines over to their dedicated space (and off the display stand, where they are currently). Made some progress on this yesterday - all shelves removed and walls cleaned up. Working on wrapping most of this up today...

Current status:

naterealbig · May 9, 2023

Perry said:
Dude!!!
Man great job with the fish, can't wait to catch up brother, you and bro need to stop in and check our the new tank!!!
Great job Nate!

Hey Perry! Thanks for stopping by - and yes - would love to see what came of your plans for the new tank and the spare room!! Thank you for the kind words, and I'll reach out soon. Should free up a little by the end of the month.

naterealbig · May 9, 2023

i cant think said:
Out of curiosity, is this a true hawaiian black?

As far as I can tell, yes. This is the exact specimen that I was looking for, although a little bigger than planned.

i cant think said:
These guys aren’t Hawaiian endemic and can be found around the Marquesas Islands, Cook Islands and a place in Indonesia that I always forget.

Sri Lanka is the place you are thinking of, and all commercially available fish are coming from one of the latter locations. I know for sure this is not a Sri Lankan variant - these have very pronounced snouts, with a long, almost beak-like mouth at the tip.

i cant think · May 9, 2023

naterealbig said:
As far as I can tell, yes. This is the exact specimen that I was looking for, although a little bigger than planned.

Sri Lanka is the place you are thinking of, and all commercially available fish are coming from one of the latter locations. I know for sure this is not a Sri Lankan variant - these have very pronounced snouts, with a long, almost beak-like mouth at the tip.

I was also thinking of Papua New Guinea, they’re also found in the Christmas Islands so it may not actually be a Hawaiian and if it’s not from a Tank Break Down it’s likely to be from Papua New Guinea or Marquesas.

I don’t believe there is any difference between the other populations outside of Hawaii. Generally long snouted specimens are True Blacks whilst short snouted specimens are Hybrids with the Scopas as they cross over origins quite a lot. The other thing with the Hybrids is that not all of them are obvious and some of them hide as ‘true’ blacks.