feeding fish inQT

[snooky]

Just set up the QT....I put two clowns in yesterday....I planned on feeding 2 to 3 pellets per fish every other day, any suggestions....the fish only ate two pellets each today.....there are two pellets still on the bottom of the tank....should I remove right away, or wait til tomorrow to see if the fish eat.......thanks

 

[madswife]

Remove the pellets right away they will quickly screw up your water balance if you leave them in there. I am assuming you used water from something that has already cycled? IMO i would feed them every day but im not sure it makes a big difference.

 

[beth]

Get some other quality food, such as frozen, and offer small amts 2x a day. Why did you add fish to a new QT? Do you know that this tank will cycle and you will likely loose these clowns?

 

[snooky]

In retrospect i thought the same thing....i was told by some locals that this would be a good way to cycle the tank(these fish were hardy)....I am hoping that the fish will do fine after cycling....this has been such a learning process, at times its a bit overwhelming....i learn alot from these forums, so I'll just continue to ask questions....Thanks

 

[beth]

I would see if you could return those fish to the LFS. Instead, use a couple of pieces of LR rubble to cycle your QT.

 

[madswife]

Is your display cycled? If so you could take the clowns out, put display tank water in the qt and then acclimate the clowns to that.

 

[snooky]

Big Dilema....now I really need help.....
My display tank has been going thru a cleansing process since I lost all my fish 3 weeks ago.....i was waiting for the 6 week period to add fish to the main display tank...(the were wiped out due to a huge temp spike)....
I was thinking about two choices here....
1- put the clowns in the display tank (all levels are right on), and hopefully no problems, or 2- by the precycled water from the lfs at around 12 bucks for 4 gallons..... and replace the 10 gal QT tank with th4e precycled water.....any thoughts??
I Do Not want to lose any fish!!

 

[harris28]

I am not sure if the cycled water from the lfs will yeild enough good bacteria per gallon to make a difference. Every bit helps but It seems like they might be selling what sounds good to people in need, a expensive tub of water. I would take your clowns and acclimate to your main tank since you said all levels are good and cycle your qt with a crocery store shrimp or lr. But that 's just me and I could be totaly wrong with the cycled water bit.

 

[madswife]

wait so a temp spike wiped out your fish? Then did you change out all of the water??? If so why? It was only your temperature its not like yo had a giant outbreak of a disease or something all you had to do was wait for it to go down and possibly get a new heater or something... anyways if you didnt change the water out i would go ahead and acclimate them to your display tank.

 

[snooky]

I did two 10% water changes since the wipe out.....Like I said, the levels are all good......my inverts are fine.....Im rethinkin this process and maybe acclimate the clowns to the display tank and seeing what happens....in the meantime, I will cycle the QT tank with some lr and this way if the clowns do in fact have issues, the QT tank will be used....any thoughts??? thanks

 

[unleashed]

ok i think i have the idea of what your talking about but as beth stated return the clowns to store if thats an option you willing to take or them being willing to take.
another option is to use the water from display tank.if the water is fine an it was an outbreak of disease or paresites and just as you stated a temp the water should be fine.
if you decide to keep these fish you have 2 ways of looking at it
#1 cycle the the tank with the poor fish in it.risking high amonia spikes stress paresites bacterial infections on top of more ammonia spikes more stress then trying to medicated and or rectify chemical imbalences in the water due to cycling on top of medications to treat the illnesses that all of this stress provoked
option #2use water from main tank that is more mature and stable keep close eye on water quality to reduce stress and or outbreak of disease or other illness normal to new arrivals .and if a problem does happen to arrise then treat the tank apropriately to correct the situation.
:thinking: descissions descission
oh yeh #3 almost forgot this one place new fish in main tank and hope they dont have anything that will contaminate the tank and make removal of fish through all that live rock they will be hiding in(always fun to do) making it nessesary to treat fish in qt while keeping your main tank in cleansing mode again