Moonraider
New Member
Hey guys, I'm new to this forum but I've been keeping a SW tank for nearly a year, it's been 3 months with fish in the tank, 4 with coral (took my time adding copepods and snails first after aging the water).
My setup & parameters: I use Instant Ocean reef crystals to mix seawater. 55gallons. 78.6 degrees on avg. Salinity 1.025. Water chem has a pH around 8.0+. Nitrites 0, nitrates near 0 (I have a bunch of macroalgae (2 kinds of caulerpa, gracilaria, halmieda, with some red grape too and a mangrove planted in there for this). There's coralline algae, copepods, a feather duster worm, and 2 soft coral. One occelaris clown that came in almost 3 months now and today I brought in a Valentini puffer. I have seen hydroids here and there and I nip those in the bud ASAP (I cover the cluster with seashells and decorations and this smothers them on my rockwork). The fish are separated by a partition; it's a 55 gallon that came with a divider in it with small holes, the clownfish chose the smaller size given 2 options so there's flow between the 2 sides but the fish can't interact (barrier is above the water line by a few inches and there's a lid on the tank). The clown stays on the 15-20 gallon "fuge" side while the 40-45 gallon side went to the new puffer. The fuge side has a 6" deep sand bed and the "display" side has a shallow one (less than an inch or so). I have 3 pumps, an airline/airstone, and 2 heaters. I feed the clown a combination of marine pellets, veggie and meat flakes, and frozen goodies in rotation (I have not fed the puffer yet because...see problem below).
I'm currently working on a low calcium problem for the coral and a bacterial infection that I didn't know about because my water wasn't visibly discolored but now that I know the Calcium/magnesium tests are en route to my house and I've got covered uv lighting right now b/c the new fish's eyes went from clear to a slight green tint on the outside after a few hours. UV lighting seems to be helpful thusfar. I haven't historically been the best at water changes, something I'm also correcting. The tank was cleaned the other day and the sand vaccumed just yesterday before my new fish came in. The clownfish doesn't have anything wrong with it at all, shows little sign of stress and was in fact mildly curious as always when I cleaned.
So today I got this new puffer, I acclimated her in ~30mins (same process I've done with all my fish). This new puffer has been chowing down on detritus worms (yes I'm sure they're detritus and not bristles) and the clown does occasionally too, no big deal. The puffer hasn't stopped eating though. Pieces of hair algae with worms in it, coralline, stuff in the sand, EVERYTHING. She even nipped at my coral once but gratefully didn't seem to have a taste for it. All of this is great, only its belly went from flat to full in a few hours too. And it's still eating!
Is this normal? I understock on purpose so I can keep a good eye on my stock and I'm worried b/c I lost a goby on my sandy side too a month and a half ago (all these are Petco purchases btw). The store said the pinkspot watchman that I bought was brand new and it declined slowly over the course of a week where its scales lost their shine and looked patchy/scaly. My watchman was a voracious eater too, curious and loved sand sifting so starvation wasn't the issue until the last few days. The store said this puffer had been there for a while on the other hand, still, I'm really sensitive to body condition changes on my animals, especially so fast.
If y'all can suggest other things I need to try to keep them healthy, let me know! I'll try to upload some pics, the puffer isn't puffed up, she's just full and still snacking. Specifically my questions are:
Why the green tint to the eyes so quickly?!
Do puffers overeat like this in general?? Please tell me she's not going to gorge herself to death.
Why has my clown been fine and not the other two? (It's been on both sides of the tank and is thriving).
Could this bacteria that the UV killed have gotten my goby or is it more likely that it came into Petco/my tank with some illness?
Could it be something toxic in my sand?
Please and thanks, Tori
My setup & parameters: I use Instant Ocean reef crystals to mix seawater. 55gallons. 78.6 degrees on avg. Salinity 1.025. Water chem has a pH around 8.0+. Nitrites 0, nitrates near 0 (I have a bunch of macroalgae (2 kinds of caulerpa, gracilaria, halmieda, with some red grape too and a mangrove planted in there for this). There's coralline algae, copepods, a feather duster worm, and 2 soft coral. One occelaris clown that came in almost 3 months now and today I brought in a Valentini puffer. I have seen hydroids here and there and I nip those in the bud ASAP (I cover the cluster with seashells and decorations and this smothers them on my rockwork). The fish are separated by a partition; it's a 55 gallon that came with a divider in it with small holes, the clownfish chose the smaller size given 2 options so there's flow between the 2 sides but the fish can't interact (barrier is above the water line by a few inches and there's a lid on the tank). The clown stays on the 15-20 gallon "fuge" side while the 40-45 gallon side went to the new puffer. The fuge side has a 6" deep sand bed and the "display" side has a shallow one (less than an inch or so). I have 3 pumps, an airline/airstone, and 2 heaters. I feed the clown a combination of marine pellets, veggie and meat flakes, and frozen goodies in rotation (I have not fed the puffer yet because...see problem below).
I'm currently working on a low calcium problem for the coral and a bacterial infection that I didn't know about because my water wasn't visibly discolored but now that I know the Calcium/magnesium tests are en route to my house and I've got covered uv lighting right now b/c the new fish's eyes went from clear to a slight green tint on the outside after a few hours. UV lighting seems to be helpful thusfar. I haven't historically been the best at water changes, something I'm also correcting. The tank was cleaned the other day and the sand vaccumed just yesterday before my new fish came in. The clownfish doesn't have anything wrong with it at all, shows little sign of stress and was in fact mildly curious as always when I cleaned.
So today I got this new puffer, I acclimated her in ~30mins (same process I've done with all my fish). This new puffer has been chowing down on detritus worms (yes I'm sure they're detritus and not bristles) and the clown does occasionally too, no big deal. The puffer hasn't stopped eating though. Pieces of hair algae with worms in it, coralline, stuff in the sand, EVERYTHING. She even nipped at my coral once but gratefully didn't seem to have a taste for it. All of this is great, only its belly went from flat to full in a few hours too. And it's still eating!
Is this normal? I understock on purpose so I can keep a good eye on my stock and I'm worried b/c I lost a goby on my sandy side too a month and a half ago (all these are Petco purchases btw). The store said the pinkspot watchman that I bought was brand new and it declined slowly over the course of a week where its scales lost their shine and looked patchy/scaly. My watchman was a voracious eater too, curious and loved sand sifting so starvation wasn't the issue until the last few days. The store said this puffer had been there for a while on the other hand, still, I'm really sensitive to body condition changes on my animals, especially so fast.
If y'all can suggest other things I need to try to keep them healthy, let me know! I'll try to upload some pics, the puffer isn't puffed up, she's just full and still snacking. Specifically my questions are:
Why the green tint to the eyes so quickly?!
Do puffers overeat like this in general?? Please tell me she's not going to gorge herself to death.
Why has my clown been fine and not the other two? (It's been on both sides of the tank and is thriving).
Could this bacteria that the UV killed have gotten my goby or is it more likely that it came into Petco/my tank with some illness?
Could it be something toxic in my sand?
Please and thanks, Tori
