The brittle star is back to his old self. Instead of gingerly trying to snag
a small piece of scallop like yesterday, he latched on to my fingers with
three arms immediately and was almost completely on top of my fingers before
I got the willies and pulled my hand out of the tank. I think I heard grunts
and smacking sounds he crammed the food into his mouth so fast....

"miskairal" wrote in message
u...
Thanks for this feedback and good luck with your tank health.

August West wrote:
Some of you regulars might remember this thread from a few months back. I
had a nice clean tank that a diseased fish that I did pre-quarantine
infected, and all the fish died quite rapidly . I got some invaluable
advice and warnings from several people here regarding Potassium
Permanganate, but the fish had all died before I got the Permanganate in
hand.

Here is an update:
After about 7-8 weeks empty except for the crabs, snails and starfish, I
started restocking the tank. All well and good, all fish are happy, blah,
blah. This was some time ago. Well, today I notice that the Fridmani has
signs of fin rot, and a couple of very slightly "mildewy" looking spots
on his side. Just like the last time. And the Scissortail goby had it as
well. So, knowing full well the risk I was taking, I decided to blast
with Potassium Permanganate instead of dissassemble, catch fish, and
reassemble. For 80 gallons, at a dose of 2mg/L, the math said use .6
grams.

"Grams of Chemical = Gallons Treated × 0.0038 × 2 (mg/L)Therefore, to
treat a 250-gallon vat, the grams of potassium permanganate needed are
as depicted below:

Grams needed = (250 gal) × (0.0038) × (2 mg/L) = 1.9 gramsAn
inexpensive gram scale can be obtained by purchasing a dietary scale
at your local grocery store or pharmacy. One level teaspoon of
potassium permanganate weighs about 7.0 grams."

I did the math twice (80x0.0038x2=6.04), and calibrated the scale.
Measured, mixed with R/O water and dumped it in. The fish and snails were
unaffected, except the lawnmower blenny and the flame angel did that
"scrape the head on something" maneuver a few to several times each,
which was not surprising. They have not repeated the behavior. All other
fish acted unnaffected, but the goby went to sleep since it was dark
purple in the tank. The inverts DID NOT like it at all. All the hermits
drew as far back in their shells as they could. The Green brittle star
completely dissappeared. I've never seen him hide that well before. The
purple lobster came out and waved his arms around like he was cussing me
out, and withdrew in to the rocks. He repeated this two more times, then
went and hid.

4 hours later, I add activated carbon and when the water got clearer,
looked for unusual things. I have killed my purple lobster, poor thing.
The hermits seem to be OK but a little sluggish. There were the very tips
of the starfish "arms" poking out of the rocks, so I laid my finger on
one. Very little reaction, which is bad. Nornally Ringo whips his arm
around my finger and tries to pull himself toward me. So, I brought out a
bit of scallop, and laid it on the arm, no reaction. This is really bad.
So I push the scallop into the bottom of his arm and he slowly wrapped
around it and pulled it in for consumption. I tried to feed him again,
but he is having trouble. If he were a human, it would be like someone
who had drunk a fifth of whiskey and was trying to pick up a paper clip.
He tries, but seems really uncoordinated. But he seems a bit livelier
than before, so I'll keep offering him scallops. The hermits and emerald
Mithrax crabs are grooving on what he drops anyway.

So, for my tank and Potassium Permanganate compatibility: Fish - Yes, no
problem. Snails - Yes, no problem. Hermits seem to tough it out and
recover quickly. Purple lobster - most definitely not compatible at all
(maybe a lower dose, but I'm not going to do it again with a lobster or
starfish in the tank). Starfish - No. Although he seems to be on the road
to recovery. We'll see.

No anemones or corals yet, the halide light fixture arrives tomorrow.
Those things ain't cheap.