Fish die corals live?

[quote author=CG link=board=Fish;num=1074566470;start=0#12 date=01/21/04 at 16:44:36]-
and the mandarin maybe 2,
Your tank is 5 months old and you have a Mandarin? To soon to get one of those.

-the lfs said i absolutly did not need a skimmer, but i'll definately pick one up this weekend if ya'll suggest so,

The LSF say alot of things. A skimmer is needed on a reef tank!

-the test kit is fine it's a red sea sea lab,
-i'm not sure about the parameters of the ro water but i'll check before i buy some next time, the temp is normal,
-nitrates are  little high, ph is 8.2ish,

How high is a little high? on nitrates?

-i change the water once a month about 10 gallons, i think that might be too little?

A tank with out a skimmer nor a sump/refugium is going to need weekly water changes. IMO

-i use a penguin bio-wheel filter, no refugium no sump, i was told i didnt need one on such a small tank
-i asked this before but i'm not sure if anyone heard, could the current be too strong for the fish? somehow i doubt it but...could be

If the fish dislike the current then they will move where it does not bother them.

-and i'm not laughing haha its more of a frusterated haha[/quote]

THE LFS is in business to sell you fish so they maybe telling you something wrong just to get you to buy more fish.

Your tank has not balanced and you bio load is to high.

High Nitrates kill slowly but they do kill!

Good Luck Dave

 

thanks, i'm definately picking up a skimmer, the mandarin is actually the fish that has been in there the longest, it and my shrimp were the only things to survive through a month where i couldnt take care of the tank, i just did a water change so my nitrates are undectiable now, do u think i should invest in a refugium or sump? maybe i could build it myself?

 

Watch your Mandarin very closely. If it starts thinning at all it is slowly starving to death. Your LFS consultant should be throttled for the irresponsible garbage he fed you, a capiatalist pig I tell you!

Mandarins need large a fully matured tanks with sufficient copepod ans amphipod populations to forage on. There is very little chance, even when matured, your tank will be able to support it's dietary needs. If it is not eating fleshy foods, ie mysis, it is probably in trouble.

Research, research, research in the future to avoid LFS entrapment. Not frustrated with you, just the situation.

 

well he's been doin good so far, and the live rock i bought from the start was colonized with algae and such...so i might have a winner, yeah i bought him earlier, i've been much more carful with my purchases after though

 

I agree with Nautilus to some extent, LFS are in business to make a buck. You really need to feel them out, spend some non buying time there. Watch how they handle others questions. If their answer is always "you need to buy", switch stores or DON'T LISTEN to their advice. You may also find a single good employee in the midst of a bunch of equipment pushing employee's. My advice, spend as much time as possiable at your LFS to feel them out. I also agree with most comments in this thread, I too feel you tank isn't in the full swing of the cycle. A skimmer will help things as will more regular water changes.

Phil wrote earlier: Did you know cyanide stays in the digestive tract so if the fish you are buying are cyanide caught you are essentially poisoning them every time you feed them.

Phil, cyanide is pissed out within a few days to a couple of weeks, depending on fish size and feeding of said fish (a big problem for the current CDT (cyanide detection test) protocals). The cyanide destroyes the digestive tract, not allowing for nutritional uptake. This doesn't occur in all CN caught fish. It either out right kills them, destoyes their digestive tract causing a slow death or shows no signs at all of being caught with dope. One really wierd thing about cyanide caught fish at point of collection/exportation the fish ACTUALLY looks way more colorfull then a net caught fish. Thats no indication of them being healthy or in any way an exceptable fish for our trade (or ANY trade for that) though.

 

I guess I should explain why the pissing away of cyanide is a problem for the CDT. The cyanide fishermen or exporters can hold them long enough as so there's no detectable levels left in the fish. The can hide shipments in back tanks, keep them in the open water pens longer and simply wait for them to become "clean". This is a major issue, and one of a few that has caused US Fish & Wildlife not to consider a stateside test for MO imports. Another major issue is, the by-product of cyanide, which is what they're testing for, is also found naturally in nature. From what I've been told by the scientist whom wrote the CDT protocals, cyanide breaks down into its by-product VERY quickly.

 

Great stuff Gresh! Can they test for the lack of enzymes or whatever is missing in the digestive tracts after the cyanide?

Hope you had a great trip!

 

I'm not sure about that Craig. The current CDT protocal calls for the fish to be killed, put into a blender, then put thru some other extraction methods to find the by-product of cyanide. The one problem I see with testing for lack of enzmes is (from expereince) many natural causes can lead to the demise of digestive enzmes so it wouldn't or couldn't be legal binding.

 

Hey Thanks for the clarification looks like ZI was on the right road but had the wrong Map! LOL Either way it just doesn't make sense to support the use of poison as a collection method. Thanks again.

 

Any person concerned with the use of destructive fishing practices is not only on the same map as me, but in the same room. The use of Sodium Cyanide for MO or any type of collection is wrong. It kills almost all it comes in contact with. Yeah, some fish *MAY* live, but what about all the larvea, corals, algae's, inverts and the fish that didn't survive. The use of such methods assures that there will be no future PRESTINE corals reefs on this planet. The use of cyanide is WAY larger then most believe. My boss went to Bali late last year to work with a new net-caught exporter/collection station and brought back some VERY distrubing news about how wide spreed it is there and how bad the reefs looked.

Sorry for the thead diversion, back on topic now