tmz
10/24/2007, 01:35 AM
:( About two months ago I found a beautiful Longnose butterfly who was eating heartily. It ate everything even flake. It had been living well in a aquarium for over a year. This is a reef safe species which often has trouble feeding in an aquarium so I was happy to find him.
. I decided to get him and give him a new home in the new 89 gallon tank I am adding to my system. I brought him home and put him in a qaurantine tank . After 4 weeks ,I moved him into a 40 gal tank which is integrated into the system.
The night of the Monday night football game against Dallas I decided to take a peek at him before leaving for the game. I had about 15minutes to spare.:eek1: There it weas white spots not two or three but a dozen or more. I tried to tell myself it was air bubles or detrius but I knew what it was. I couldn't understand how crytocaryon got him.:confused: :rollface: I'll treat it tommorow, after the game,now Ithought as I went up and down the stairs. Finally I decided to treat it immediately and to practice what I preach.
I began siphoning water from my system into the 29 gallon qt backfilling with new water in the sump. Out of salt. A box was in the back of my truck. Ran upstairs carried the box of 300g salt mix down and caught up with backfilling. Plugged in and started the over the side filter heaters etc. Dropped the digital thermometer into the tank,a bad omen.Took out he carbon. Added the sea cure copper. I'll add rock or gravel or something for denitrification later.If I don't hurry I'll never find a parking spot for the game, I thought.
:rolleye1: Time to catch the fish. The net goes into the tank and the fish jumps out the back of the tank and lands in the two inch space between the tank and the wall. I didn't know a butterfly would do that.No way to reach him since there are tanks just a few inches from this one on either side. :( I've just killed a beautiful animal ,I thought.Tried to reach over; no good, tried to reach over with a net;no go. Scampered around like a lunatic themn I spied a spare piece of pvc in my workshop. I was able to slide it behind the tank and push this poor fish through spider webs and years of acumulated dust to a spot in between tanks where I could reach in a grab him. Too late, I thought. It must have been minutes since he jumped.
Ran to the 29gallon qt and dumped the dirt ball hiding the butterfly into the tank. It sunk to the bottom. Ahhh the tank is overflowing. Forgot about the siphon . Stopped it. Oh Oh sump is low. I'm gonna ruin the whole show. Backfilled the sump. Back to the 29 . The dirt ball is twitching and moving. A minute later it hatches a butterfly fish.:mixed:
As the fish began to swim I could see that his tail was ragged and one pectoral fin was almost gone and immobile. Nothing else to do now. i left for the game Wearing a wet salt stained Bill's tee shirt.
The Bills lost but when I got home the fish was still alive and swimming some. I grabbed some rock from a fish only tank and some crushed gravel from the same tank to use for denitrification and decided to wait till moring before doing anything else.I the morning I could see how bad the tail and pectoral fin looked but there didn't seem to be any eye damage or other wounds. I was concerned that fungal or bacterial infection might form on the wounds which were looking a little white, probably from slime. I checked to see what I had on hand and chose to try some Melafix.
I used the recommended dose for the full seven days and kept the copper at the .020 level reccomended for 14 days. After the first two days the fish started eating again and is now doing very well with at leat 60% of his tail and pectoral fin regrown and functional.
This will be one of my favorite fish . I hope for a long time. Oh yeah GO BILLS.
. I decided to get him and give him a new home in the new 89 gallon tank I am adding to my system. I brought him home and put him in a qaurantine tank . After 4 weeks ,I moved him into a 40 gal tank which is integrated into the system.
The night of the Monday night football game against Dallas I decided to take a peek at him before leaving for the game. I had about 15minutes to spare.:eek1: There it weas white spots not two or three but a dozen or more. I tried to tell myself it was air bubles or detrius but I knew what it was. I couldn't understand how crytocaryon got him.:confused: :rollface: I'll treat it tommorow, after the game,now Ithought as I went up and down the stairs. Finally I decided to treat it immediately and to practice what I preach.
I began siphoning water from my system into the 29 gallon qt backfilling with new water in the sump. Out of salt. A box was in the back of my truck. Ran upstairs carried the box of 300g salt mix down and caught up with backfilling. Plugged in and started the over the side filter heaters etc. Dropped the digital thermometer into the tank,a bad omen.Took out he carbon. Added the sea cure copper. I'll add rock or gravel or something for denitrification later.If I don't hurry I'll never find a parking spot for the game, I thought.
:rolleye1: Time to catch the fish. The net goes into the tank and the fish jumps out the back of the tank and lands in the two inch space between the tank and the wall. I didn't know a butterfly would do that.No way to reach him since there are tanks just a few inches from this one on either side. :( I've just killed a beautiful animal ,I thought.Tried to reach over; no good, tried to reach over with a net;no go. Scampered around like a lunatic themn I spied a spare piece of pvc in my workshop. I was able to slide it behind the tank and push this poor fish through spider webs and years of acumulated dust to a spot in between tanks where I could reach in a grab him. Too late, I thought. It must have been minutes since he jumped.
Ran to the 29gallon qt and dumped the dirt ball hiding the butterfly into the tank. It sunk to the bottom. Ahhh the tank is overflowing. Forgot about the siphon . Stopped it. Oh Oh sump is low. I'm gonna ruin the whole show. Backfilled the sump. Back to the 29 . The dirt ball is twitching and moving. A minute later it hatches a butterfly fish.:mixed:
As the fish began to swim I could see that his tail was ragged and one pectoral fin was almost gone and immobile. Nothing else to do now. i left for the game Wearing a wet salt stained Bill's tee shirt.
The Bills lost but when I got home the fish was still alive and swimming some. I grabbed some rock from a fish only tank and some crushed gravel from the same tank to use for denitrification and decided to wait till moring before doing anything else.I the morning I could see how bad the tail and pectoral fin looked but there didn't seem to be any eye damage or other wounds. I was concerned that fungal or bacterial infection might form on the wounds which were looking a little white, probably from slime. I checked to see what I had on hand and chose to try some Melafix.
I used the recommended dose for the full seven days and kept the copper at the .020 level reccomended for 14 days. After the first two days the fish started eating again and is now doing very well with at leat 60% of his tail and pectoral fin regrown and functional.
This will be one of my favorite fish . I hope for a long time. Oh yeah GO BILLS.