From: spass@or.credence.com (Spass Stoiantschewsky)
Subject: Re: [M] Cowfish, live rock and beginners...
Organization: Credence Systems Corp. Beaverton, OR
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 19:49:16 GMT

In some article steve@coho.austin.ibm.com (sTeVeN CaLlAhAn) writes:
>Well, my thanks to David Packer for solving the mysterious death of my
>poor cowfish.  

...mmm...i wouldn't be so quick to make this call.

>I believe that my live rock DID kill my cow.  However it was not parasites
>that were on the rock that floated out into the water.  Instead it was
>the fact that the cow was eating stuff off of the live rock all the time.

shouldn't have been a problem.  fish usually know what they can and cannot
eat.  they just don't understand "balanced diet".

>I have two different types of live rock.  One type is covered with purple
>sponge.  The other is some kind of orange stuff.  The orange stuff is
>starting to flake and fall off making a mess in my tank.

ok, so it is dying.  if it is a sponge, maybe it needs more/less direct
water flow.  if it is a calcerous algae maybe it needs more/less light,
more/less calcium in the water...lacking strontium?  pull out the rock
and scrape/break off the stuff that is obviously dead.

>The reason that the cowfish was affected was that 
>it was always eating stuff off of the orange rock.  The other fish 
>never grazed my live rock, and thus are still alive.  Alas, what is this
>orange stuff that is on this rock?  Why is it peeling off?  The rock itself
>is very fragile and breaks if mishandled.  

some live rock i've seen is very fragile.  depending on which coral formed
the "rock" the calcerous skeleton may be thick or thin walled (assuming it
was a coral rock...I have some "tubeworm" rock--very light, very fragile, no
coral at all).  the orange stuff is most likely yet another variety
of sponge.  

NOTE: some sponges release toxins as they die, and you may see problems
arising from this.  it is generally a good idea to scrape sponges off your 
liverock if the rock has been removed from the water for a longer period 
of time...sponges grow back quite easily from just a few cells left on the
rock.  Obviously if you are buying a big sponge, you might not want to 
follow the advice to "scrape off the sponges and throw them out".  In this
case you want to make sure that the sponge is never allowed to "drain"--
big sponges should not be pulled out of the water because air bubbles
get trapped in the sponge and the sponge dies if it cannot rid itself of the 
air bubbles.  Bad news.  And don't expect to be able to "see" the air bubbles,
they can be quite small...think about how your shop handles big sponges
before buying one.

Another thing the "orange stuff" could be is a calcerous algae.  This
shouldn't be a problem...

All in all, i'd have to say that i doubt that the live rock was your problem,
and definitely *DO NOT* "treat" your tank with medication if you have liverock
in there.  This is probably the worst thing you can do.

i can't tell you what got your cowfish (swim bladder problem? stung by 
something? bad food--what are *you* feeding it? old age? water problem?
the orange stuff decaying?). it could even have been something hereditary!

i had a leopard wrasse for about a year and one day before *my* dinner
i looked in my tank and everything was just fine, and after my dinner my 
wrasse was dead.  Nothing was new in the tank for a *long* time.  Bang.
i write that one off to a coronary failure.  who knows? by the way this 
was a really cool fish...and i've never seen another.

	good luck.

	~spass

-- 
spass otto stoiantschewsky	"mmm...i think it's time to flush the goldfish"
			put this subject in your kill file
From: sylvia@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (Sylvia Budak)
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 15:59:20 GMT
Subject: Re: [M] Salt mixes
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Loveland, CO