Is my LFS full of it?

[wwinters]

I went to LFS to get something for my clown fish. My neon goby has been nibbling on one spot of her for a while and I thought she might have a parasite that needed some attention.

The LFS tells me it is probably not a parasite but another fish attacking it. -unlikely the pair of clowns and goby are the only fish in the tank.

They then say it must be water quality. No Nitrites, Nitrates, Ammonia and Phosphates all Look good and corals are happy.

LFS says put 1 bottle stress coat in tank but the bottle says it is for 60G. and my tank is only 18G.

Should I put the entire bottle in or just part?

The last thing the LFS told me was that there are NO CORALS THAT COULD HURT YOU if you touch them in your tank, unless you are hyper sensitive to them.

I am sure I have read otherwise can anyone list corals that are painful or deadly?

Aren't button polyps (Palythoa) poisonous?

 

[jemichaeliv]

I have to agree with ophiuroid, I would not put the any stress coat in there at all expecially if you have a protein skimmer. It will go crazy.

If the neon is attacking your clown you might want to try to re-arrange the rocks in your tank to make the neon less territorial.

 

[Krim]

Fire corals can give you a really good sting. I have one and I only use plastic tongs when moving it.

 

[davelin315]

There are some people who don't have adverse reactions to coral stings (like me for example, I can mess with bristleworms, touch fire coral, etc. etc. and have no signs of any irritation at all, other break out from touching any corals at all). Your LFS could have a point, though. Some cleaners will harass another fish and cause problems for the host fish. Especially if there's only one other fish in your tank, being the clown, and the goby is looking to eat. He might pick and pick at the same spot and open up a wound.

In nature, there are even some fish that pretend to be cleaners to get a quick bite to eat. There is an imitation cleaner wrasse that I have seen that takes a bite out of whoever it is supposed to be cleaning. Don't know if there's an imitation neon goby, but there could be.

As far as stress coat, don't waste your time with that stuff. It dumps all kinds of garbage into your water, and I don't think it's really all that effective. Also, if you dump a whole bottle in there, you conceivable could kill your fish by poisoning them. Also, I think that stress coat has a lot of phosphates in it, so you'll end up with undesireable algae growths with any type of light.

 

[ophiuroid]

IMO, I wouldn't bother with the stress coat. I think that the claims are a bit debatable, and how, pray tell, was that supposed to deal with a case of a fish attacking another fish? I certainly wouldn't go with the whole bottle, but that is my opinion. Do you see anything on the clown? Is she trying to get away from the neon?

There are corals that can sting, though sensitivity is an issue. I can get a bit of a mark from hammer or elegance and I would not consider myself hypersensitive. Besides, one should avoid touching them for *their* sake too. There are some of course that don't tolerate being handled too well...so if their mentality is that you can handle them readily, I wouldn't buy corals from them.

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Brittlestars!! http://home.att.net/~ophiuroid
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[ophiuroid]

There sure is a dead-ringer mimic of the neon, and it wouldn't hurt to do a comparison. Check out the mouth positions.

Here is a link: http://www.wfu.edu/users/okuyy0/mimic.htm

Their picture of a 'false cleaner' shows quite a stunning similarity!!

Note that these animals are commonly for sale, and many LFS employees would NOT know the difference.

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Brittlestars!! http://home.att.net/~ophiuroid
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[ August 23, 2001: Message edited by: ophiuroid ]

 

[wwinters]

WOW!!
"mimic ones eat fish scales and skins"
describes what looks like is happening with my clown. I will take a very close look at my neon when the lights come on in the morning.

Thank You,
wendy