Strong actinic can help with screening/QTing fish

[Amici]

I made a surprising discovery when I ordered a good amount of fish from Dr F&S a few weeks ago and of course QTed them all. The 58g tank they were in QTed in had a bunch of LED actinic on it with a 150w halide. I did this because I noticed my fish eat and come out more in blue light than when the halides are on. What I did not expect was that 3 fish had pop-eye and the cloudiness glowed under the actinic which made it quite apparent. I could even see the scales on one of the wrasses had some kind of parasite on them and could see where a patch of scales were not laying flat on his body. I treated each fish for its symptoms and it made my life a lot easier to have an idea of what I needed to treat.

Someone else out there give this a try when you get new fish to see if it helps you in spotting what you might need to treat for. You can DIY a CREE set up or you can order pre made strips from reef led lights and then slap on a driver. Ill be keeping a ton of actinic on my QT tanks from here on out.

[weaglereefer]

I know I can spot my asterina starfish on rocks very well under LED actinics, they pop out white while the rocks stay dark.

[Amici]

Yeah I really am impressed with how awesome LED actinics are. VHO used to be the only way to get that crazy pop but LED's have them beat.

I forgot to add that I borrowed a buddies ecoxotic LED strips for the QT and was pretty impressed. They arent cheap but they are pretty darn bright.

[slayer]

yeap...i use a actinic light when im looking for corneal abrasions, herpetic lesions, foreign bodies and all kinds of other stuff to look in peoples eyes all the time. It does make things you cant usually see in regular light become very apparent. Its marketed as a "woods lamp" which is basically a magnifying glass with built in actinic lighting.

I even used the actinics from my tank with my first born when she had new born jaundice, and saved her a hospital admission. Only if i was smart enough to have thought of using actinics in medicine i would be a rich man.

[Amici]

Haha no kidding Jaime. I did a search for anyone else posting something like this on other forums and hadnt found one. Very cool to know this is verified by modern medicine.

[DrNecropolis]

That's really cool Charlie!

I have learned 2 things:
Use Actinics on QT tanks
Don't order fish from F&S..

LoL!

[Amici]

Haha nah any fish that goes through that much stress and is that large of a holding system is going to have a little bout of something. I would much rather a simple gram neg compared to a nasty protozoa like brook.

To be fair my order was some fragile stuff.
-Yellow Coris (pop eye/ich) rebounded just fine, no signs of ich
-2 female/1 male lyretail anthias (male didnt make it, females had pop eye) both females doing just fine after metro
-mccoskers wrasse (healthy)
-spotted mandarine dragonet (healthy)
-2x sexy shrimp (healthy)

All in all given the fact I am a 4 hour drive from the closest sponsor, I would order from them again in all honesty. I would not even think of it in Atlanta though.

[andregarcia_73]

I gotta give it a try.

[weaglereefer]

Is it one of the ORA spotted mandarins? If so, is it eating prepared food as advertised?

[Amici]

Originally Posted by au01st

Is it one of the ORA spotted mandarins? If so, is it eating prepared food as advertised?

Did not see any ORA mandarins on Drs FS but didnt look in all honesty. They probably would have been in divers den. Mine is however eating planaria and prime reef flake soaked in garlic.

[DrNecropolis]

Eating Planaria you say?

I've heard quite a few times they will.. Think I might add a pair..

[Amici]

After FW Exit failed horribly twice at getting rid of my FW's I just decided to go biological and mechanically sucking them out. Its slowly working.