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I recently got a gorgeous, healthy, fat, and very active naso tang. Great colors. He is about 5-6" front mouth to tail. Has a boracious appetite and eats tons of everything I feed the tank. He does not have streamers. I looked very closely at his tail fin to see if they were just dropped or cut while being captured and shipped, but it is perfectly normal looking. I know nasos will get their streamers as they mature from juvenile to adulthood, but what signs do I look for to know when this is happeneing? Any other info on these guys would be great. I've been trying to find a web source of information about fish where you could just put in the name and come up with plenty of info on it with no luck. Anyone has a source or link? Thanks, Alberto

I was there yesterday and they only ahd a rather large pair, mated I think. They wanted a$100 for them. Did you ask them to order in a pair for you?

I have been meaning to get me a pair of these guys. I know all they eat is starfish, Other than that, I really don't know much else. Does anybody know were I can get some of them? How much are they running for? Exotics have a pair in Baltimore for $100. That is a bit too much for me. Alberto

Well, I think mine are still so scare of their new home, they haven't come out from under the rock where they sat after I introduced them. They are alive and moving around, but nobody is coming out though. IN time.......... ???

I have a rock full of mushrooms that I got from geofloors a few months ago. He warned me back then that they would spread all over the place. Well, they have. I must have gone from 40 or so in one rock to hundreds all over the tank. They seem to be attached at the based to the rock by a small stalk. Can I just cut the stalk? Would one regrow from the stuff left behind? How would the cut mushroom attach to anything? I just want to give away some of them. Alberto

Well, I got 3 of them today. Pretty good sizes too. They are all scared now and hiding behind the rocks. Maybe in a couple of days they'll be out. They are pricey indeed. $27 each at Exotic Aquatics. What was worse is that I laid my wamas card on top of the exotics card that they give you points for and the lady took the exotics card and swipped it. I wasn't paying attention, so it wasn't until I got home that I realized she did not give me the discount. I told her about having a huge sale on livestock and such before the move so they wouldn't ahve a lot of livestock to move and wouldn't loose so much. Do I think that is going to happen? You tell me. Her response after a weird diabolic look was: So, what are we going to sell at the other store if sell most of it here??? ??? I think I am going to let Kabala work his Rico Suave charm and lay the smack down on her. :D

How many cleaner shrimps can one safely place in a tank?? What are their most common predators?? Alberto

I think I need a towel..... :p That teal is awesome. Must win Must win Must win........

John: I would be interested in a frag of those 2 you mentioned. Do you ahve any pictures?

Is there a list of all the items to be raffled somewhere? Maybe I missed it! :D Alberto

Ah, the beauty of over rated credit :D :D

Brobak: I don't know where you checked prices, but a 300 gal rubbermaid stock tank is about $150-160. I know because I looked into it while setting up my tank. Regardless, I think your set up looks good. You can pile up some insane amounts of LR in that thing, which is what I would do to maximaze space on the tanks themselves. You can build some PVC racks to put rock in the display tanks where they won't ne seen, but leave a lot of room for fish to swim and also have the appearance of larger rock amounts without actually having it since you can place it on the sump. There is a guy on ebay, or at least was a few weeks ago, that sells bulk dead rock. You could go with it as base and then get some live rock on top for seeding like a 3:1 ratio. In a year, you would have so much live that you wouldn't know what to do with it. If you go this route, I highly recommend you put some lighting over it even if it some NO bulbs. It is not for making it look good, but rather for making some of the photosynthetic stuff thrive. Keep the pictures coming a you progress.

Couple of comments. First of all, very impressed with the entire thing. I see in the background you have torn a concrete block wall. It makes me feel better about making a hole in the wall to get my tank in the house! :D Seemed like a fun project and it doesn't look overly complicated. A couple of things "I" would have done differently though. I would have lined the entire interior with fiberglass epoxy and then put the liner like you did. Would have made it 100% water tight and waterproof not to mention that it would allow yout to drill for bulkheads after it was done rather to be limited to what you put in while building it. I see you have a couple of computers in the background and washer and dryer. If that liner ever gets a tiny break from rubbing live rock there or from the corner of the racks you have, you are going to have a huge problem to solve extremely quickly. Another thing is that I see no holes or plumbing. That leads me to believe that you are going to be using internal pumps only. Although that simplifies some things (less plumbing), you are going to be extremely limited. As far as heating the water, since it is in a basement I see no problems keeping temps stable so long as you mildly heat the room to low 70's. As far as the design itself, you are going to find out in a few months that you wished you had gone with half as tall!! Getting to do things in that sump is going to be a real chore because it is so deep. Getting very wet to do things a few times is going to be fun, but past that it will turn into a huge pain in the a..s. Having said that and seing the space you have available, I personally would ahve gone with two 300 gal rubbermaid tub. Plumb them together and turn one into a propagation section with the skimmer and hardware in it and the other turn it into a 300 gal refugium with a DSB. More versatile, about the same cost I presume and quite shallow (easy to work on). :: Would love to see this thing running, plumbed, lit, and going. Keep the pictures and updates going.

I can tell you that rule is just kaka. I have 1600 wats of heater going at4 full blast on my 450 gal system and it is set up at 80 degrees. The temp by morning when the lights go on is at 77 and barely hits 82-83 with the lights during the day. Our electricity bill had a dramatic jump last month with the weather being so cold and trying to heat up that sump in the garage. That is despite covering the top of it!! ???

I had tried the mysid and brine shrimp before without success, although maybe I didn't try hard enough. I make my own mix of what I feel like adding and what I happen to find the day I was in the mood to make it. Pretty scientific, ah? This last batch I mixed the following: -1 fish fillet (halibut) - 8 or 10 large shrimp -oysters -clam juice -fresh mussels -3 types of flake food -pellet food -some sheets of sea weed -frozen mysid shrimp -frozen squid -frozen brine shrimp -some drops of multivitamin -a few scoops of freeze dry phytoplankton -garlic juice They can't get enough of it. I made about 7 large ziplock bags. This is the second time I make it and I think this one is much better than the first time. I highly recommend you try it.

I guess I got lucky on this one or like my grandpa used to say: Even a monkey falls off a tree once in a while!! As some of you know, I bought a mandarin fish a few weeks ago and it was beaten pretty badly by the 6-line wrasse. After about 2 days, the wrasse mostly ignored him, but would harrass him a bit when coming out of the rock work. After about 10 days, he ignored him completly. The mandarin had been grazing along during the day. I think he thinks the tank is only half of what it is because he only hangs out in the front half of it. It never goes inside the rock work and grazes mostly on the ope areas. He looks a tiny bit smaller around the waist than when I fisrt got him though. 2 days ago I noticed as I fed the tank with a home made food that a big chunk that got on the sand was caught behind my favia coral. The mandarin was coming around from behind it and stopped to stare at it. It then took a bite of the chunk. I thought he was just exploring and went about my bussiness. Today I was feeding the same food and some chunks felt to the sand while the fish were eating. The mandarin came out towards it and started to take bites off it. He must have eaten half of the bigger chunk, which for the fish size, was huge. I hope this is more than a fluke. I truely hope this fish continues to eat the prepared food since I think in the long run he will do much better given the variety of things I put in it. I know this is pretty unusual to find these fish eating anything other than pods, espeically since they will starve to death in their absence. Anybody has had similar experiences in the past??? Alberto

Jeff: I'll be glad to give you a ride. Hope you are not going to try to molest me....... :p :D The only down side to riding with me is that you'll have to listen to me talk the entire time and then you listen to my music too Give me a call a few days before the meeting to remind me and to arrange where/when to meet. Alberto 443-904-4244

You know, I don't even know either one of you, but OK, whatever and whoever said it, drop it. I think we all left high school behind a while back. You all made your points, got a little heated, and said more than necessary. So, now that we have vented and feel better, why don't we just wish each other a happy new year and wish the best of sentiments to each other. Without snappy or sarcastic remarks would be nice :D :D :D Leave any animosity behind and welcome a new year with an open heart, and open mind, and an open wallet to toss all the money you have into your tank :D :D Have a Happy New year, Alberto

Mike: That blue anemone looks like the son of a gun child of a leather and a frilly mushroom :D :D :D Nice color though.

Mike: Having lived in IL for 11 years before I moved to the edge of the pond, I can tell you winters last on average 2 and even 3 months less, the temps are on average 15-25 degrees higher during the day and a good 30-45 degrees at night, and there is no snow or wind here whatsoever! :p

I've never even seen the blue ones. I have seen a gorgeous green/teal color one before the rose started to become the new gold to have. If you have any sites to refer me to so I can check them out, please do so. Also, if you find a great link to reading more about them, let me know as well. I really don't know much about them, but it is my understanding that they are all about the same in terms of requirements: prestine water, medium strong lighting, direct feefin 2-3 times per week. They do host different types of clown though. Also, I have heard that when they start moving around trying to find their favorite spot, they can sting other corals in their path, so it is a good idea to place them not near other corals. Back to our scheduled programing Mike...... :D

I believe his web site says something about setting up the store and when it is going to be up.

You are right. No question about it. After the marine ebola outbreak, I took over 8 weeks before adding anything else to let thing settle. Then, I added a few green chromis, which are growing great and doing well by the way. Then, I waited about 6 more weeks before I added the new tangs and the fox face I got about 1 week ago when I made the post. I am not adding anything else for a while to let things settle down a bit. These have not been impuslse purchases either. I had planned on getting these fish all along, I think I just got extremely lucky to find a few of them this healthy for the great price all at once. When I mentioned before about the 20 or so fish, I was refering to small little fish like small cardinals, clowns, small gobies, etc. Even then, it was a stretch for I would never add that many fish at once. An Emperor, oh yeah baby, that is coming to a tank near you at some point, but not now. I am even plumbing in a 40 Watt UV unit to keep things calm in the disease front. I've been talking with a lot of the larger reef tank guys to come to find out that even the ones with large propagation systems have UV going because they had too many problems with the fish. None have seen any bad things to the corals since installing them, some more than 2 years ago!! We'll see. I can tell you though that working with 450+ gal is a completely different ball game although some principles are the same. I have 1700 watts of heaters working at full blast during the night to barely keep up with the cold temp in the garage. During the day it is not so bad since the lights provide quit a bit of heating. This is one of the reasons I have not plumbed in the other 100 gal sump. I don't think I would be able to keep all the water warm during the night causing too many swings!! The huge Ca reactor I have going I can't even count effluent rate or bubbles because it is too much for my eyes. I can guesstimate the bubble rate is probably about 200-250 bubbles/min and probably about350-400 cc(ml)/min. So long as the output from the second chamber has a pH of 6.6-6.8, I am OK, especially since the numbers are looking good. I am going to start working out so I can look all suave when I go back to exotics and try to talk your counter buddy into a moving sale. :D :D Alberto

how much was he asking for them??

:D good one Mike :D I guess I just assumed they would anyways! I would love to pick up another 20 fish or so if nicely priced :: ??? Or maybe just a couple more including an emperor angel