Introducing shoal of 11 Lyertail Anthias into my DT
OP
OP
RealWorld
Community Member
You are absolutely right, the 18G is more of an auxiliary / temporary observation tank as opposed to a true QT. It is situated below the DT and 2 feet away from the sump to minimize the potential for any splashing back into the sump. A valve completely isolates it from the DT. I should probably post a picture of the set up so you can see. I’ll try to do that later today.
Great suggestion about fresh water dip and putting the fish straight into the DT, but if that’s what I’m going to do, why not put them into the 18G auxiliary tank while allowing water from the DT to flow in and out of it. That way if something develops I will not have to catch them from the (8’x3.5’x2’) tank.
Regarding comparability, none of the other fish have shown ANY aggression towards the 9 Chromis that are already in the tank, which mostly move together in a group. I’m hoping this will be the case with the Lyertails as well. We shall see.
The last fish I introduced into the DT was a 4” Majestic Angel (MA) , which is now about 5 inches. After 2 weeks in the auxiliary tank (isolated from the DT), it developed cloudy eyes and white spots on its fins, which I successfully treated with Copper. 4 weeks later I put the MA in the DT, but being an expensive fish, I separated it from the rest of the fish by inserting a sheet of plastic grating to give him his own small space within the DT for about another 4 weeks. All other fish were curious and would visit him by coming close to the grating (as did the MA) without being able to pass through. Although after a few weeks some of the smaller Chromis managed to slip through small openings between the edge of the plastic grating and the glass, but they would stay within the MA space for a few hrs and then get back to their group. When I eventually removed the grating, it was like they all knew each other for years and none of the other fish even came close to chk him out. I’m planning to do the same introduction approach with the new shoal of Lyertails. Has anyone else tried this method? It seemed to work very well for me with the last two fish I introduced into DT. Prior to that, I put a 4 inch pink square Anthias directly into the DT, which the squirrel fish attacked and killed within 24 hrs. . I think slow introduction is the key here, as you would when you bring a new cat to a house with existing cats or dogs.
Fishfinder
2500 Club Member
The point everybody is trying to make is that once you throw a fish in your auxiliary tank all of your display fish are now subject to that disease. So if you ever added some thing with a high mortality rate it will affect your display the same
ShepherdReefer
5000 Club Member
Hello and welcome to the channel. super nice system and fish.Hi all and Happy New Year to all:
I just joined the forum, but have been reading your posts for a while now. I will be purchasing a shoal of 11 Lyertail Anthias in the next couple of weeks and was wondering where to post my question for some input. The background and my question is as follows:
Hi everyone, I’m new to this forum. While I have been reading many posts here and learning from the vast amount of knowledge and experience of the participants here, this is my first post/question.
DT INFO:
I have a 2.5 year old 350G FOWLR DT with a 75G sump filled to 60% capacity with an 18G run-through (attached) QT. Salinity is 1.021, PH of 8.2-8.4, temperature of 78-79 F.
CURRENT TANK OCCUPANTS:
NINE blue-green Chromis,
ONE 7-in. Bird wrasse,
ONE. 7-in. Red fermosa wrasse,
ONE 6-in. Naso Tang,
ONE 5-in. Majestic Angel, and
ONE 5-in. Candy stripped squirrel fish.
I really like the grouping of blue Chromis and thought a group of small orange/red fish would really add a popping color to the DT, so I recently ordered 11 female Lyertail Anthias from my LFS, which arrived yesterday (thinking that one of them will turn to male over time). The LFS owner is a good friend and is kindly holding all of them for me for a couple of weeks after I return to town from the holidays.
QUESTION: I am a firm believer in putting the fish I buy in QT for 4-6 weeks before going into the DT, but given the relative small size of my QT (18G), and assuming that none of the fish don’t show any signs of disease and are eating well at the LFS after 2 weeks, would it be advisable to put them all (11) in such a small QT? My options are as follows:
A) put them all in the 18G QT (which will be isolated from the DT, which currently gets incoming water from the sump, with outgoing water to a UV sterilizer, which then goes back to the sump. I will have to do 30-50% water changes daily to keep the bio load down, and attach a hanging sponge filter with auxiliary air pump for aerating the QT.
B) get another 20-Gal container, splitting the group of 11 and repeating the above. This would be a lot of work, so not my fav option.
C) assuming all 11 Lyertails are doing well and eating well after 2 weeks at LFS, just acclimate and put directly into DT (scary thought for me, but nevertheless an option)
D) any other options you guys can think of.
As of now, my plan is to go with option A unless you guys think there is a better approach. Thank you so much for your suggestions and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you. Attached are pictures of the Lyertails currently at the LFS.
OP
OP
RealWorld
Community Member
Thank you so much .... I really appreciate it..... only if I can get through the transfer process from LFS, and then through the Quarantine period and into the DT w/o any casualties. I’ve never dealt with handling the introduction process of this many fish at one time, so I’m kinda anxious about it. But I have read that dealing with a shoal of Lyertails at one time is better than trying to add one fish at a time.
Were all your 14 Lyertails female at the beginning or did you have 2 males w 12 females all along? I decided to go w all females and let them go through the natural process of selecting their male(s). Kinda fun to watch that unfold actually when that happens.
av8soulfly
Active Member
One other thing to consider, placing that many fish in your 18 gallon will be way more stressful on them (especially for an extended length of time) than placing them in a large reef like environment. I've tried that with my butterflies and found I have a higher mortality rate in the QT than just introducing them into the large display tank where they are "tricked" into thinking they are back on the reef in the South Pacific. The existing 'flies "teach" the newbies how to feed and there are abundant places to seek shelter. The existing 'flies are sort of like mentors or cheerleaders for the newbies. I know my description sounds goofy or lame, but I swear it works/helps.
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