Hi all, new to this forum as well as to monster fish. Long story short, I fell completely in love with these guys and finally decided to just go for it. Got my 2.5 inch baby ocell today 
Currently he's in a 55gal with 6x giant danios roughly his size or a smidge bigger than him. The tank has been established for a while with a fluval 305 for filtration. I plan on adding an additional HOB filter soon. PH is 7.6, zero ammonia and nitrites, nitrates 30ppm just prior to a 60% WC.
The acclimation process went HORRIBLY.
This was the first time I've ordered a fish online and I was such a nervous wreck about it. Shipped 2-day mail and I've been keeping a careful eye on the tracking as I was so anxious to get my baby. I have a newer piece of driftwood in the tank that's going through that awful fuzzy white bacteria business so figured I had time to scrape some of that eyesore off and suck it up while I did a PWC before he got here. As the tank was filling back up, I checked the tracking one more time and it said "delivered- parcel locker"!! I live in the Arizona desert, mind you, and temp was already approaching 100f by then. The thought of my baby roasting in some metal box in the sun about gave me a heart attack. I ran to the mailboxes and the mail woman was still there sorting the mail and hadn't closed up any of the boxes yet so I must have caught the delivery update within minutes. He was in a medium flat rate box with absolutely nothing on it indicating there was a live animal in there. Judging by the dents on the box, I can't even imagine how it must have been handled these past two days.
I got the package home, preparing myself for a DOA. He was double bagged, wrapped in newspaper, and tucked into some styrofoam cut outs.... And he was alive! He had no color to him but I wasn't sure if that was just him or due to his size or what. I was originally planning on setting up a drip acclimation but I was so nervous for him and caught off guard I just didn't want to try fumbling around trying to figure all that out and end up stressing us both to death haha. So I went with the traditional bag in the water method. After about 10 minutes I opened up the bag and started adding the tank water a bit at a time. Actually, I only got to do that twice before the bag tipped over and he went darting out into the tank. Ugh.
He spent maybe 5 minutes in one of the hiding spots I set up and when I checked on him again, he had stripes! He came out and started frolicking around with the danios for a good while. He ate three neon tetras and is now lazing about in one of his hiding spots. Every once in a while he'll come out for a quick stroll and settle back into his spot. Doesn't appear to be super stressed or anything.
I gotta say, seeing this guy in person and not just a picture is absolutely amazing! I love him so much!!
Currently he's in a 55gal with 6x giant danios roughly his size or a smidge bigger than him. The tank has been established for a while with a fluval 305 for filtration. I plan on adding an additional HOB filter soon. PH is 7.6, zero ammonia and nitrites, nitrates 30ppm just prior to a 60% WC. The acclimation process went HORRIBLY.
This was the first time I've ordered a fish online and I was such a nervous wreck about it. Shipped 2-day mail and I've been keeping a careful eye on the tracking as I was so anxious to get my baby. I have a newer piece of driftwood in the tank that's going through that awful fuzzy white bacteria business so figured I had time to scrape some of that eyesore off and suck it up while I did a PWC before he got here. As the tank was filling back up, I checked the tracking one more time and it said "delivered- parcel locker"!! I live in the Arizona desert, mind you, and temp was already approaching 100f by then. The thought of my baby roasting in some metal box in the sun about gave me a heart attack. I ran to the mailboxes and the mail woman was still there sorting the mail and hadn't closed up any of the boxes yet so I must have caught the delivery update within minutes. He was in a medium flat rate box with absolutely nothing on it indicating there was a live animal in there. Judging by the dents on the box, I can't even imagine how it must have been handled these past two days.
I got the package home, preparing myself for a DOA. He was double bagged, wrapped in newspaper, and tucked into some styrofoam cut outs.... And he was alive! He had no color to him but I wasn't sure if that was just him or due to his size or what. I was originally planning on setting up a drip acclimation but I was so nervous for him and caught off guard I just didn't want to try fumbling around trying to figure all that out and end up stressing us both to death haha. So I went with the traditional bag in the water method. After about 10 minutes I opened up the bag and started adding the tank water a bit at a time. Actually, I only got to do that twice before the bag tipped over and he went darting out into the tank. Ugh.
He spent maybe 5 minutes in one of the hiding spots I set up and when I checked on him again, he had stripes! He came out and started frolicking around with the danios for a good while. He ate three neon tetras and is now lazing about in one of his hiding spots. Every once in a while he'll come out for a quick stroll and settle back into his spot. Doesn't appear to be super stressed or anything.
I gotta say, seeing this guy in person and not just a picture is absolutely amazing! I love him so much!!
