FishBeard
New member
So yea, I just found one of these, and it's a magnificent specimen. Absolutely beautiful, and I can't wait for this beauty to finish its solitary stint in QT. I knew I was taking a risk on this guy being NOTORIOUSLY more difficult to acclimate than their more common powder brown cousins, but this particular fish appeared to be in excellent health visually, no signs of infection around its mouth or the base of any of it's fins, and speaking of fins, not a single bit of damage could be seen on any of them. So anyways, fast forward to getting home, slow acclimation getting the bag to temp, then a slow 1 hour drip acclimation to its new temporary home. Acclimation to the new tank went rather well, the fish never really looked or acted stressed, actually appeared calm with regular breath the entire process. So moving the fish to the tank by hand seemed the most appropriate method (I like to be hands on with my fish, not sure if it instills trust or not, but it's better than a net anyday) I gently cupped the fish and it hardly put up any resistance. In the new tank it looked like it couldn't be happier, swimming around and thru all the rockwork I had set up for it. It even came right up to the front glass to stare back at me several times in between laps around the tank. Seeing the fish was comfortable I figured I would just move right along with acclimation and turned on the actinic light so it would see its private reef better. Only a minute of apprehension and it regained full color and resumed exploring. Ok, so next step... Got my veggie mag and clipped in a little chunk of green nori, and in the tank it went. It only took a few minutes for the fish to locate and inspect the new addition to the tank, and quickly proceeded with caution to nibble at the food source. Great news, so at least it's eating seaweed I thought to myself. At this point I left the fish so I could stop by Lil BamBam to drop off a powerhead he wanted to buy and check out his tank. When I got back, figured time to take the next step in acclimating and try prepared food, rods original is my food of choice with pe mysis as a tasty supplement once or twice a week. I got a small piece of rods food and put that in with the gold rim, and much to my surprise only a few hours since getting home with it, that it was cautiously picking at the food! I wasn't expecting disaster bringing the fish home, but I certainly wasn't expecting this sort of success so quickly. At this point I am satisfied with how things are turning out, and have high hopes for this fish. Now a few weeks in observation for any sort of diseases or parasites, and it will be ready to join its new tank mates. Man, it's gonna be a long few weeks!
EDIT: Since its less than 24 hours, Im adding the video to the first post:
http://s1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa364/Fish_Beard/MISC1/?action=view¤t=GRTDay1inQT.mp4
And I apologize for the shoddy video, wrong orientation, low light off an iPhone...
EDIT: Since its less than 24 hours, Im adding the video to the first post:
http://s1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa364/Fish_Beard/MISC1/?action=view¤t=GRTDay1inQT.mp4
And I apologize for the shoddy video, wrong orientation, low light off an iPhone...
But he walked home happy and I had the best ice cream from this one place in Wood Dale : ) Glad things are doing well
