Chick-In-Of-TheSea

May 31

On 5/30/2024 at 11:46 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Seachem is really bad about their directions in this regard. My process has always been: One treatment, 50% water change (maybe 2, with a 24 hour break) and then roll into the next treatment.

Basically, with the way seachem has the direction you dose in the meds and wait 48 hours. Treatment is 3 doses, but treatment is also 6 doses. Thanks seachem.
Day 1: dose med
Day 2: monitor
Day 3: dose med
Day 4: monitor
Day 5: dose med
Day 6: monitor
Day 7: water change and ponder if you need to continue treatment, this is almost always going to be a yes given the diseases that kanaplex is used for.

Day by day instructions. Love it. Thanks!

On 5/31/2024 at 12:14 AM, Tony s said:

Wow, your little guy is such a tough little guy. That just really looks rough still.

Yeah. Truth is, if I hadn’t done an evening feeding and found him stuck, he wouldn’t have survived. When I approach the tank he ALWAYS greets me and “dances”. That day he didn’t, and I had to investigate. I can’t begin to tell you how traumatic it is to break a decoration that a pet you love is trapped in. You don’t really know how the decoration is going to break and if it will be a good or bad decision. My husband had to break it by brute force, squeezing pliers as hard as possible on a spot right next to the fish, to get the ceramic to crack. It took several tries and the fish and decoration were above the surface of the water several times. I was freaking out.

Prior to breaking the decor I tried to gently push him through forward, then push him through backwards, like, pressing on his nose. Used gentle pressure on his side with a Q-tip to “tuck in” his fin to see if that would make him skinny enough to go through. Let me tell you, there was not much leeway at all. Then I had to slowly turn him to see if he could fit through another way, because the holes in the ceramic are not perfectly round. All of this caused abrasions but I had no choice. Whatever I did I tried to be so gentle. But the fish was struggling and fighting and causing his own injuries too. Hes got a lot of fire in him, that one. Very very stressful for all involved, and I knew I was destroying his slime coat too with all the handling. That’s why salt went in the tank ASAP afterwards.

Also the decoration had been in the tank for a year at least and he never even seemed to notice it? There were some shrimps in his tank. Maybe he saw one go in there this time and wanted to chase it.

Truly shocked at how well he is doing now. I expected otherwise. Also he is a senior citizen. He’s at least 4 or 5 years old, but never acts like it. He gets around just fine.

May 31

Seems a little less red today.

May 30

On 5/29/2024 at 6:22 AM, Colu said:

course of kanaplex

The instructions on kanaplex don’t mention changing water between doses. Should I be changing water before redosing or no?

May 30

Alright, now that I’m home for the night and will be home for the next few days, I did a water change and brought the tank back to level ONE salt. I fished out every trumpet snail I could locate, then I dosed the tank with Kanaplex. Geppetto ate some pellets and seems to be taking the treatment well. I did give him “a hint” of extra air. At first I tried to go full throttle but with his long fins he really struggled against the increased flow then had to lie down on the sand.

May 30

The fishy was just sitting there on the bottom, not moving much. I decided to try Kanaplex because of all the meds I have it is labeled for dropsy which is a type of bloating, and I don’t have the metroplex.

Then I decided to move another fish in. Red gill fish that’s been in the other quarantine, because salt level 2 didn’t cure it. I normally don’t play musical quarantines but they both need the treatment. I wasn’t sure if there would be any bullying because of how lethargic the neon was acting, but upon release of the head-and-taillight tetra, she was immediately intrigued and upbeat and eager to follow him around! He doesn’t seem to mind, and I think they are friends? She seemed so depressed and now she’s done a 180 and is swimming all around with her buddy.

May 30

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

But the green one was right there!!!!!!!

That was the one that drew me in. But having a closer look, it didn’t have the definition that the white one does (ie: shading behind every scale and around the corals).

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Steve Irwin laying on a beach on his belly crawling up waters alongside a mom laying her eggs

That’s magical. I participated in beach cleanups and nest protection with the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

There's also a very feisty "fun shark" at the bottom there

That was the type of shark that had the baby with her.

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The damage jaws did in imprinting this personality of mindless killers on so many people when it comes to sharks is such a misnomer.

Yeah. And Shark Week.. 😐

I’ve dove with shark many times, and it’s never been ANYTHING like any of those TV shows. Except one time when a diver shot a fish with a speargun. Then sharks were circling. The piercing blow released fish blood into the water, and that’s what the sharks wanted. The diver let the sharks have the fish.

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I can only imagine that you have hopes for another shark-ey dive in future somewhere.

Always!

On 5/29/2024 at 6:49 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Almost got clocked by a hammerhead" 😂

Truth! 🤣

Thanks for taking the time to read! It was a long post!

May 29

On 5/29/2024 at 6:22 AM, Colu said:

I would do a course of kanaplex it's a more broad spectrum antibiotic treatment

I was hoping you’d say Kanaplex. I didn’t want to obliterate my filter with Maracyn.

I have to fish out my trumpet snails to treat his tank. QT tanks are in use.

May 29

May 29

Shrimps vs soybean pellet

May 29

My brother is a song artist and has been dabbling in creation of music videos. Here’s a recent one. Maybe throw him a like? 👍 (if you want to)

May 29

Today I observed redness at the gill. He just completed his 7th day at level 2 salt with water changes and catappa tea daily. I did drop him to a level 1 today to give him a bit of a break, and I observed this after making that change. The redness concerns me.

On 5/21/2024 at 6:07 AM, Colu said:

if you see any Reddening I would do a course of kanaplex or maracyn

I have both. Which is better?

May 29

May 28

On 5/28/2024 at 6:43 AM, Colu said:

It's possible you could have organ failure that caused fluid buildup in the body cavity parasite are l less likely unless you added fish recently that you didn't quarantine small chance of an internal bacterial infections what you could do is add aquarium salt to help reduce any possible fluid buildup do a course of maracyn in food feeding a small amount twice a day for 7 days to treat any possible internal bacterial infections and dose the tank with metroplex for upto 3 weeks that most effective treatment I have found for dropsy@Chick-In-Of-TheSea

Thanks. No fish were added recently.

@Colu any idea of success rate? I read dropsy is hard to cure?

Also I do not see any pineconing

May 28

I prepared a quarantine tank with salt. I was going to try that? Could this be something like dropsy?

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/bloated-fish

May 27

This weekend I participated in Epcot’s DiveQuest, and I’m excited to tell you all about it!

I parked in Crush and boarded the tram for a 1:45 meetup and 2:00 tour.

We signed waivers and were asked for our shoe size. Then we took turns saying our name, where we are from, and our favorite sea creature (mine is the sea turtle). Then the guides asked which animal we wanted to see on today’s dive. Many said sharks, and one or two said the bowmouth guitarfish. I wanted to see the hammerhead most of all.

The tour started outside where we saw the filtration units/tanks, but we were not shown any mechanisms. The tanks looks like horizontal cylinders, similar to the oil trucks you’d see on the highway, only these were made of plastic. The aquarium is 5.7 million gallons and the filter processes 30,000 gallons per minute.

Next we went into a building and passed by a series of labs. We passed by those fairly quickly but I was reading some of the signs, notably, the husbandry lab and the water chemistry lab.

We proceeded to the food kitchen which was about the size of a bathroom, equipped with restaurant-kitchen sinks, coolers, and freezers. A member of the kitchen staff met with us. Kitchen staff arrives at work at 5am. Each animal gets a high quality, specific, restaurant quality diet based on their nutritional needs. Some of the foods they eat were shown to us, such as fish and blue crab, bok choy, and romaine. The (frozen) blue crabs they showed us were in pristine condition; very healthy.

Each (large) animal is tong fed to ensure other animals don’t steal their food, and the animal’s name is written on a small, portable whiteboard. The type and weight (in grams) of each food is written on the whiteboard in one column, and the amount the animal did NOT consume is written in the other column. This data is tracked and recorded for every feeding. For example, each manatee eats 17 heads of lettuce daily, but animals are also fed a Disney proprietary recipe gel food which is packed with nutrients.

Uneaten food is placed on a compost pile, except crab shells etc which are placed in the trash. The kitchen is a 97% zero waste facility, and all of the seafood they procure for feeding is sustainably sourced.

We were taken to a room just outside the locker room where they issued gear by calling each person’s name. Each of us was given a shorty and a pair of booties, and we went into the locker room to change. Each person locked their locker with a provided key, then all keys were collected and locked in a different lockbox. We were only allowed to bring our own dive computer and mask; nothing further. Women were given “Mickey friendly” hair ties that were safe for the animals to consume if they should fall out during the dive.

We proceeded (on foot) through the manatee feeding area where a large manatee (Blue) was having some lettuce. Blue is a rescue and is missing half of his tail due to a boat propeller. After a few minutes, Lil Joe, the young manatee, swam through a hole in the wall to join Blue. Lil Joe was found at 50 lbs when he should have been 200. They fattened him up and tried 3 times to return him to the wild, but he couldn’t understand how to get around or forage.

The floor of this manatee tank is heavy duty egg crate, basically. They can raise it to lift manatees out of the water to do dental checkups, etc. The ceiling is a skylight but the manatees can be airlifted through it if/when needed.

Next to the manatee feeding station was the dolphin feeding station. No dolphins were in there but a young dolphin, Andre, was resting his chin on the portal into it, just watching us. Nosy, but shy dolphin.

We were called by name to line up single file, then we were escorted through a doorway and found ourselves in the main aquarium. We went over a catwalk to a round platform where the dive staff were. I also saw some computer terminals there. Our BCs (Buoyancy Compensators) were already weighted, and air was already turned on for each tank. After a dive briefing by the head divemaster, who is the twin of the maestro from Mozart in the Jungle, we descended, in the same order, a few steps onto a platform where we were waist deep in water. There we put on our fins first. The staff told us to lay our mask down on the platform while we got into our BCs. Immediately there was a staff member to help me put my arm through. Wow, what service. We turned to face the upper platform again and found that defogging solution had already been applied to every mask. We also got to pose for 2 photos at this time.

The maestro from Mozart in the Jungle

There were 12 of us and 6 divemasters. Again, WHOA. I’m used to be dumped in the middle of the ocean with 15 other people and just one divemaster, who people may or may not drift away from.

Rules were simple. Group up, descend, and follow the divemaster for a brief tour underwater. Then 2 rocks would be clapped together to signal the start of “free time”. Stay 6’ off the ground or objects (corals were fake, btw — “tank ornaments”) to give animals the right of way. Listen for the tank banger which the divemasters will use to alert one of us if something is coming. After 45 minutes, the rocks will be clapped together again to signal the end of the dive.

All divers were welcome to surface whenever they pleased. Due to the 25’ depth of this dive, decompression did not apply. But before we got off the platform to even start the dive, we had to stay still and wait for the guitarfish to exit the platform first. LOL. The guitarfish was very social (and bizarre!). That was definitely a fish I have never seen on any prior dive.

bowmouth guitarfish. Photo credit: GA Aquarium

^ like a half ray, half shark

The first animal I saw after descending was a spotted eagle ray. Swimming alongside it was a baby that didn’t have its spots yet.

Spotted Eagle Ray. Photo credit: Wikipedia

Then I saw a shark swimming along the bottom. The shark also had a baby tagging along. Various rays and schools of fish were all around me. 20 minutes of the dive something comes out of nowhere from behind me, and FAST. It was the hammerhead. It started circling around the perimeter of the tank. I kept my eye on it, fascinated. It moved with such purpose and speed, it was hard to ignore. (Fun fact about the hammerhead. Its head gets a bit awkward so, to chill, it swims sideways. It is more “aerodynamic”, if you will, when doing this. However, THIS hammerhead did not chill-swim.

Hammerhead in Epcot’s aquarium. Photo credit: Disney Parks

^ Mickeys are “hidden” throughout all the theme parks. This was an obvious one though. 🙂

I was finning around, having a great time making hand signals to the tourists. Throwing peace signs and using 2 hands to make a heart. I did this to a couple dining in the coral reef restaurant, and they got a kick out of it, started laughing, and hand signaled a heart back to me. Then a guy behind them several tables away started a large, exaggerated wave at me. I mirrored him, and then he made the heart. LOL!

Little kids going through the aquarium were charmed when I waved to them too. Their eyes got big and they quickly looked at their parents to make sure they saw what happened. It was very fun.

Then I heard the tank banger and looked around as I was instructed ahead of time to do. Approaching me was the >100 year old loggerhead sea turtle. Do you know what its name is? Tolstoy! (Nudge @tolstoy21). It headed to the surface, and I surfaced with it just for fun, to watch its cute snoot stick out of the water and its mouth open to take a breath. We descended together and continued the dive.

Loggerhead. Photo credit: WDW Parkhoppers

In the meantime, I saw the other turtle was out & about. That turtle was nearly black. The pattern on its shell looked like a hawksbill turtle would have, but I don’t think hawksbill was stocked in their tank. Therefore, it had to be a green sea turtle.

Green sea turtle. Photo credit: WDW Parkhoppers

Next I joined a school of fish, then another.. in the meantime the sharks and rays, and the beloved guitarfish, were making appearances. I then heard the rocks clapping together and returned to the middle of the tank where the head divemaster was waiting with the rope to the orange buoy in hand. He pointed to each person, clearly taking roll, and after he was satisfied all were present, we ascended together.

We were met by the other divemasters and the surface team and helped out of our gear. We were handed fresh, clean towels and asked how the dive went. Everyone was excited and had a great experience. We crossed the catwalk and re-entered the dolphin and manatee feeding room where 2 dolphins were splashing and playing? Or sparring? Or something. Idk, but there was a lot of splashing.

We got back to the locker rooms where there were more towels, hot showers with body wash, shampoo, and conditioner, and even a swimsuit drying machine. We placed our shorties and booties into designated bins and regrouped in the room just outside.

There they had a table setup with a self-inking stamp with the DiveQuest logo. This is so divers can stamp their logbook, where some divers keep track of all their dives. I definitely brought my logbook (logbook #4) with me, stamped it, and recorded it as my 126th dive. Stats of the dive were displayed on a TV screen, and I jotted those down. There was also a list of all the creatures in the tank on the screen. This was the only time we were permitted to take photos: of these 2 TV screens. Maestro, I mean, the head divemaster was there and I had him sign my logbook. It is customary for the dive charter or company to do this, if divers so choose to include that as part of the entry. For those who forgot their log books, large, ruler stickers with the DiveQuest logo were provided so divers could fill them out and stick them in their log books later.

We were each given a gift! A small dry bag with the logo. Cool! Dry bags Velcro shut, then the top is rolled down a few times and the corners clipped together. Much better and more durable than, say, a ziplock. These were small dry bags that would be great for holding keys and phones while doing water activities of any sort.

Each person was also handed a card with a code on it where we could access our photos online later (at no charge). My photo is not available yet. Will update post later when it is.

To conclude the adventure, everyone was escorted outside the building, where I caught a glimpse of Goofy! Then we were led to the park exit with a very warm goodbye. 💙

Here are some stats about the aquarium:

The Living Seas Fact Sheet

Here is a video of the experience in general (this video was taken at some point for/of another group; I am not in this video)

https://youtu.be/twib4h-JP_k?si=PMjeVZUOIyD3jTSj

Here are some of the creatures I saw:

https://youtube.com/shorts/ENgrTK84U-8?si=ts75pcXVoZu3pS1p

Sidenote: everyone was perfectly weighted.. all different height and weight people. How is this possible?!? At least someone has weighting issues when diving. ????? Supposedly they used some algorithm to find the perfect weight amount for everyone’s gear. Either that or it was Disney MAGIC! ⭐️

May 27

Looking great, @Guppysnail! But this is not going to help your case of MTS…hehe

May 26

On 5/26/2024 at 7:31 PM, Chris said:

I dig it! I picked up these pewter storage containers last year.

Very nice!

May 26

Hey guys, got a new lamp. What do you think?

May 25

Great to hear from you @TeeJay! I got a milk brother so I can have fancy coffee with @TeeJay.

May 25

In person the wounds are barely noticeable. I really have to look with the flashlight. One of his kickstands has loss of pigment in a little spot. I checked closely, and I cannot see fungus or anything there which is a relief. I just keep changing water every day and dosing back salt and catappa tea, plus like 3 leaves are in the tank. His fins do need a little help; they are looking ragged from the ordeal. Also not sure why he’s so attracted to that thermometer lately. He never seemed to notice it before.

I gave him a flower pot tunnel today. It has no bottom, and it has been sanded smooth. The opening is way bigger than he is, so no concern there and it gives him a new something to explore.

By the way, I hope everyone has a nice holiday weekend (if you are in the U.S., and if you’re not, then I hope you have a nice weekend in general). 🙂

May 24

It is hard to get decent photos so here’s a video of how our boy is doing.

May 24

Geppetto got white worms again today and was very excited about it. I saw him diving down to the bottom of the tank when I was across the room, checking on his pet trumpet snails. He loves to watch them. Wounds look good. Light pink. Last night I boiled the catappa tea and let it sit overnight, and today’s water change added back tannins. Redosed salt to level 2 as usual, and all is going well.

He’s so nosy too. If I do stuff with the tanks below or next to his, he is right there watching everything that is going on.

May 24

Today was the last day of treatment. We did 17 minutes. She starts darting at about that point, I noticed.

May 23

May 23

Got the co op measuring spoon! Didn’t realize the bottom of it was also 2 measuring spoons! 4 spoons in one! (Why isn’t it green tho?)

Perfect timing for this salt treatment. This is how you season a tank, right? (Hehehe)

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