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melev

Helfrichi, plural. Redux.

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A year ago, I tried purchasing three of these beautiful firefish. It didn't go well. Business is good, so I figured I'd try once more. I ordered three more for my reef, which arrived today.

I'd been up all night and kind of felt like I should stay up all day to get stuff done, but even a three hour nap would be better than no sleep at all. At 9:45am, the doorbell rang with the Fedex guy standing box in hand. He told me he was glad I was here, because what was he going to do with live fish?! hehe I took the box inside, quickly checked the three bags and floated them in the QT and went back to sleep for two hours. That's how tired I was.

I got up, and added the firefish into the QT. They were shipped in some type of medication because the water was quite yellow, at least with the blue actinic lighting flooding my fishroom. Here are a few pictures.

Firefish, Helfrichi (Nemateleotris helfrichi)







These are such beautiful fish, the type I'd love to enjoy seeing daily. I hope these do well in the 400g. For now, they will be fed and observed in quarantine. They were purchased from Pacific Island Aquatics, the same place I got my angels. I'll try to get some better pictures of these little guys.

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  1. twomonsters's Avatar
    Awesome looking fish, did you drip acclimate them too?
  2. edandsandy's Avatar
    Best of luck with the addition!
  3. Hat39406's Avatar
    Pretty fish! Will sure to be a good addition to ya tank, Marc.
  4. melev's Avatar
    Actually no, now that I think about it! I cut open the bags, poured them into the net and put them in the QT. We'll have to see how they do. You got me curious because I never did test the salinity of the yellow water, but at the time I just felt I needed to get them out of that "pee" water. lol I just tested it and it was 1.015sg, and I dumped them into 1.025sg!
  5. twomonsters's Avatar
    I am in the process of setting up a QT tank. I think I have dodged enough bullets and my time is soon approaching. Can you explain your QT? Is it up all the time? Filtration? I am thinking of setting one up only when I get a fish, keep a filter in my sump to soak up some bacteria and then when needed fire up the QT.

    I am currently cycling some Marco Rock in a tote, been there for about 4 months and when I do a W/C on it I notice how yellow the water looks, very similar to that water. I think its from not running any carbon on it.
  6. melev's Avatar
    My Quarantine tank is simple. It holds a heater, thermometer, a powerhead or airstone, and some live rock that is dedicated to QT forever. I don't move rock back and forth between systems. I'd prefer to add a small controller to control heater, lights, a cooling fan and a top off, but haven't gotten that fancy yet. A skimmer would be another great addition, but a HOB filter would be a practical alternative.

    I rely on water changes, taking water out of my reef and replacing what's in the QT as needed. I've changed water daily or every other day with fish, but with corals I don't change it much at all. Whatever reef water is used, this is replaced with aged saltwater providing a tiny water change to the 400g.

    I don't know that using Marco Rock would be of any value in a QT, at least not for the first few months. It needs to load up with bacteria and life. Now if you had some established Marco Rock in your reef you wanted to put in your QT from now on, that could work.

    I keep my QT running almost all the time. I leave a cover on it when not in use so it doesn't have evaporation issues.
  7. twomonsters's Avatar
    Oh ya, this Marco rock will eventually make its way to my DT sump, but I am curing it a really long time. Its been in the tote for 4 months now. I was just commenting on the water color compared to my DT system. The Marco Rock water is really yellow, almost identical to the shipping water that you had.
  8. melev's Avatar
    Change the water weekly now, or start running carbon like you mentioned.
  9. melev's Avatar
    One was dead in the QT today. I'm not surprised. The other two are active and eating.
  10. Blake's Avatar
    I wish I could get a sohal tang from them! but I hear that they get too aggressive
  11. melev's Avatar
    And now I'm down to one left in QT.
  12. Siasl's Avatar
    I am sorry for your loss of the two. I have a single one (the other member of the pair died in QT a year ago when they first arrived), but it has been the most entertaining fish in the tank.

    Albeit, he spends most of his time hiding in a rock, but he comes out to take a cheap shot at the Tang every once in a while if he gets too close.

    They are great little fish.