Fish Serial killer

[GraviT]

How much water/how frequently should I be changing? I usually do about 5 gallons weekly to bi-weekly. I changed 5 last night, should I do more?

[JohnO]

[quote author=David Guzman Jr link=board=Fish;num=1096058902;start=15#19 date=09/28/04 at 12:30:44]Sucks to lose fish. *But there are somethings you need to know. *If a lionfish dies in your tank the release of toxins is a sure bet. You know those beautiful dorsal fins, that's where it comes from, trust me I know. Start with the water changes ASAP. *Bioload measures are always on the dime, so unless you're water goes though a super filter count on fish dying as you push the limits.

A word of advice for those poor beings lacking patience in this hobby. *If a fish dies, research why, wait 2 months AT LEAST! before introducing any other fish or creature for that matter. *

Just a note that predators don't usually do well in community tanks, those percs will soon become fish food.[/quote]

David,

I'm not sure that's correct :-) The toxins are not released as a matter of course. Also the toxins of which you speak are neurotoxins and need to be injected directly into the blood stream to be poisonous ( hence the spines )

Even in death the spines are toxic and you should be very careful when removing the body, but the toxin itself will not harm other fish unless it is injected.

A dead Lionfish just needs to be removed ( carefully ) and treated like any other death.

John

[GraviT]

Judging by the brown blister on my gramma's side when I found him on the bottom of the tank, he figured this one out first hand...or fin so to say!

Also, like many other things in this hobby, there seems to be varying opinions of what is considered acceptable stocking. Given my recent experiences, I'm not going to push my luck.

Woohoo! I'm a bristle worm!

[JohnO]

[quote author=GraviT link=board=Fish;num=1096058902;start=15#22 date=09/28/04 at 21:04:15] *Given my recent experiences, I'm not going to push my luck.

Woohoo! *I'm a bristle worm! *[/quote]

That's rubbish :-) Given your recent experiences you now have something, and that's knowledge. Cups half full mate, not half empty :-)

Congrat on becoming a BW BTW.

John

[Birdlady]

Hey GraviT...

I was just at my LFS this week and after checking if the fish I had intended to purchase was a net caught...we got into a little discussion about cyanide captured fish. FWIW, he said, one can never be totally certain, as he is told by his vendor, and they are told by the fish catcher (whatever they are called, I am not sure) the method by which the fish are caught. For example, he used Lionfish. He said with the exception of the volitans lionfish(and one other one (I forget which one), they are noctornal animals and by and large, people are not swimming the reef in the middle of the night to catch these fish. So be suspicious of those..and we continued our conversation.

But I thought of you when he used that example and I wanted to share it with you.

Feel free anyone who knows more about this than me to pipe up!!

[Birdlady]

PS, he did say there are methods for catching those w/o cyanide but did not feel it was widely practiced.

[GraviT]

Thanks for the info BirdLady. The LFS I got the lions from had each and every one of the dwarfs they sold come back dead. Needless to say, they suspected cyanide and switched distributors.

I decided to hold off on the lions for now and not to replace the gramma. But, I did get another fishy.

There was a tank in the corner of the LFS's showroom for weeks marked 'Coral Beauty', I had never seen a single fish in there. One day, I decided to stand in fro.nt of that tank, searching in hopes to find something Eventually, she came out from behind the ricordia covered rock she was hiding behind and right up to the glass. It was love at first sight! [smiley=love.gif] She is well behaved and hasn't been caught nipping at things she shouldn't (softies, clam mantle, etc..) and is always happy to see me.


_{sorry for the bad picture, it was taken with my old camera}

Now that I think about it, all my fish tend to be happy to see me (food!). I'm like the ice cream man of my fish's world! [smiley=laugh3.gif]

A bit late, but thanks for the advice/congrats JohnO!

[Gresham]

Nah, not juice, don't need it for a slow moving fish that doesn't leave its area of the reef. Miss it once, go back in a few minutes, it'll be there again. Problem with lions is shipping, they ship hard. Many lions are coming from further out, so longer boats trips back, longer holding time, etc. is taking its toll. FWIW, none of our lions are ever suspected of being caught with juice (we know most of the divers our exporters use by name) and they do land hard. Its not unusual for an entire batch to go down. Again, it's in post harvest techniques, not in collection methodology.

[Gresham]

Not swimming at night to catch these, man were do land lovers come up with this stuff. What a joke, shows his knowledge, er, lack of Tell him to go to PI and tell them that they'd sure geta kick outa it!

Plenty of things are caught at night, eels, octopus, lions, batfish, and PLENTY more.

Next he's gonna tell us juice is used on mandarins

BTW, which store is telling you this? Please do tell.

[Birdlady]

That's why I put it up here! I knew you would give us the real low down! The Scoop! The Real deal!! Thanks Gresh!

It is the same store you had asked me about before that doesn't believe in fuges - in this area! THR in NE Philly.

Need more info. LMK!