The Flame Angel is still living it up in his new quarantine tank with antibiotics. So far, so good, except that he's back to eating very little.
If he isn't showing any new signs of illness but persists with the whitened lips and facial lines after the meds are complete I think I may let him rest and attempt a strong feeding/vitamin regimen to make sure it isn't food related. He struggled most of the first two weeks to eat anything so perhaps this issue is nutritional? It does not look like HLLE, but maybe it is nutrition related.
As soon as the medicine dosing is done (after today) he will have a large water change and I'll be doubling down on finding something he can't resist eating. Yesterday he nibbled a tiny bit on what was put in the tank, but nothing substantial.
If anyone has any ideas on what I can use to entice him to eat, please let me know!
Right now I have ALL of the following and have tried each over the past few weeks with little success. The first two I had the entire time and he began eating the LRS with garlic, but then stopped with the medication. The others I purchased yesterday and tried to tempt him with, but to no avail.
- LRS Fish Frenzy (frozen) alone and soaked in Garlic. I also added Seachem Vitality to it once as well, but he seemed to like it less with the vitamins on it. The clown fish reacted the same way to the vitamins.
- New Life Spectrum marine life formula pellets. I have also soaked these in garlic and fed separately as well as 'mixed in' the LRS Fish Frenzy.
- Alive Fusion Flakes (Spirulina & Spinach)
- Omega One Super Veggie Kelp Flakes
- Freeze Dried Mysis Shrimp soaked in Selcon
============================
As for the main display tank, I was finally able to turn my attention to it yesterday and do some maintenance. Another small water change and some glass scraping goes a long way.
A couple days ago I noticed small patches of cyano so we installed the powerhead we had on hand to get the water moving and it has mostly receded in a day or so. The only places it still appears is directly behind rocks where the flow from the powerhead doesn't directly reach. I was fairly confident that it was not a nutrient problem... the hair algae that made an appearance hasn't grown any more and only reached about 1/4 inch before stopping.
I have to say that the chaeto and the Kessil H380 have been absolutely amazing at keeping the nutrients in check. I am sure I 'over feed' the clown fish, because they are only willing to go about 8 inches from their home to get food that is put into the tank, and anything that drifts away ends up on the sand bed to decay. Without any CUC in the tank yet, all of those particles are breaking down and feeding the nitrogen cycle. I do not remove them (unless I happen to see a big piece floating around that I can get with the net), nor do I siphon the sand. I have deliberately tried to push the boundaries of what the Chaeto is capable of removing, and so far I haven't found the break point.
Is it weird that I'm glad there is some hair algae growing, and that the cyano has appeared? This tells me the tank is evolving. I don't want them to get out of control and take over the tank, however I'm not big on overreacting to something that is natural and even probably necessary. The tank will go through phases, and for each one, if something becomes too far out of balance, I will try to add some kind of natural predator to the ecosystem to bring it back into balance.