Troubles Multiply

4/12/04
Saturday we were to go on a trip, but I woke up to find the new coral beauty fish covered in white spots. You freshwater aquarium fans will know right away, as I did, that this was marine ich, caused by a parasite that afflicts stressed fish. So I chastized myself for not putting the fish in a quarantine tank and hastily began assembling one--not so easy with saltwater--remember, you gotta have the salty part, and you aren’t supposed to put a fish in freshly mixed salt....so I solved that by taking water from the main tank, and topping it off with fresh water, which had the advantage of lowering the specific gravity of the main tank, which is supposed to be a good thing to do when fish are sick. Pretty clever, I thought, and just 1/2 hr before we were to leave, I was ready to catch the fish. Didn’t take long to realize how futile THAT was. There are 5 or 10 cavities in the live rock that composes the reef, all with multiple entrances/exits, and that fish was pretty adept at exiting whatever hole I hadn’t blocked. We declared it hopeless after only 5 minutes of trying, and decided when we got home, we’d take the reef apart to catch the fish. (All of which is why you aren’t supposed to put fish into a tank right away, you are supposed to quarantine them. Only reason I didn’t was that the tank had no fish, so I figured the newcomers wouldn’t make anyone else sick. I didn’t think of the catching problem.....)

Anyway, I called the dealer after I got home. She didn’t seem nearly as worried as I was (in freshwater fish, this disease can kill in a few days). When I told her the fish seemed to have fewer spots now than it had this morning, she said the cleaner shrimp had probably been working on it, and to wait and see, that the fish might recover of his own accord with the help of the shrimp. (Cleaner shrimp--the fire engine red guy I took a picture of-- are pretty cool. The fish that wants parasites taken off goes and parks next to them, and the shrimp work them over, having a meal of whatever they pull off the fish.)

Meanwhile, my soft-tubed featherduster worm (on the right in the picture) has met a sad end. He crawled out of his tube, apparently not liking where I had put him. Got caught on the rocks in the current, which damaged his body, and by morning, he was a gonner. First casualty. One of the things I obsess about is the level of current. When I see how strong it is that the worm could hardly keep his head up, I worried it was too strong. Kept moving the worm to try to find a calmer spot, and eventually even turned the pump down, but then I read in a book how important strong current is, and worried the other way and turned it back up. Being inexperienced is no picnic, let me tell you, expecially for a compulsive worrier! My dealer says my “caring qualities” are admirable but may be contributing to my worry/stress levels. Gee, do ya think? Never mind, this hobby is very fun, and someday I’ll have the algae gone and all the inhabitants healthy and happy. Stay tuned.