FishWife

Thanks, all! I sure love this club!

THANKS! We did know this and have covered accordingly, but you are kind to take the time to warn us!

So, after research, I bought two purple firefish from Johnny at BRK, along with an AMAZING Golden African Midas blenny. We brought them home, acclimated them for about 8 hours ('cause they had to come up from .13 to .24 salinity) and put them into our QT system. Now, our QT system (thanks to donations via WAMAS) is bigger than most. It's two long tanks (a 55 and a 45) on a stand. In the top tank, we have three pieces of live rock and a little substrate in a corner for those fish or snails who need it, and in the tank below we have a bunch of live rock and rubble. (Mostly rubble.) The upper tank has a cannister filter and then its overflow has a UV sterilizer. Water flows via a pump from lower to upper and via the overflow/UV from upper to lower. This setup means we can easily keep fish long term in QT while we observe them. (We use our hex 30g for a hyposalinity, no rocks hospital tank when needed.) Already in our QT was our copperband butterflyfish, who had FINALLY kicked her backteria infestation (at least I think that's what it was--ich-like white encrustations on fins and dorsal, but not on her body that lasted a month). She was eating ok, but not great, so we wanted another few weeks to get her eating really well and also have her in with other tankmates for the first time. The point is that we got the firefish and blenny into the QT system with the copperband For the first day we saw only one firefish. Today, the second one made a brief appearance. They seem to spend all their time hiding in and around one of the live rock pieces. Question: will they eventually be good community members, or are they too quiet for a tank (large, 175g) that has two active tangs, a maroon clownfish, a CBB and a midas blenny? We aren't planning many more fish: probably just a wrasse in this tank; looking at the Melanurus wrasse, since its a little less aggressive by most accounts. For those of you who've had purple firefish, what else is in with them, and how long should it take for them to come out and be comfortable, if they're going to at all?

Josh: I, too, feel your pain. We were (luckily) between tanks when ich hit our fish on Christmas morning. Sigh. We left our display tank (with corals and inverts) fallow for 6 weeks. I think it's just a matter of pure science: there are no tests. The cycle of the parisites is regular: if they have NO fish hosts for six weeks, they all die. Period. At least, that's my understanding. It also helps to have a UV sterilizer. As my father says "belt and suspenders."

If they don't have mussels to feed our copperband, can she get cherrystones or other clams? We're trying to train our copperband to a feeding station (a la this thread) and need to know, pronto! (Thank God for cell phones!) TIA!

We're definitely getting the golden midas--hopefully this weekend! Johnny at BRK expects one today!

Thanks! Right now, we have a Kole tank and a purple tang and a clown fish (maroon). Also a copperband in quarantine and hope to get two purple firefish and a midas blenny this coming weekend at BRK. So, yes!

We had bought the idea of leaving a lot of room in our rock work for coral growth. To this end, we originally aquascaped our tank using large rocks, a low profile, and horizontal lines. What we have quickly discovered is that there simply isn't enough space for us to plant all the corals we want. As we looked at pictures of TOTMs, we began to see that most tanks have levels of growth with different corals naturally thriving at different levels. So, for instance, mushrooms and LPS's can be low in the tank. Monti caps tend to grow laterally, and a bit vertically. Acros grow up, like trees. Added to these considerations is the fact that LPSs need space from SPS's (because of sweeper tentacles) but can be clustered near one another. Our original design had the LPS's up on the eggcrate anchors, but this meant that we couldn't put acros in front of them where they could grow upwards. Given all these considerations, we have re-aquascaped. Three substantive changes were made: 1. We repositioned our LPSs all on the left side of the tank. (Not all are moved off the egg crate on the right side of the pictures below, 'cause we haven't yet purchased all the SPS's we will eventually want and they're fine there for now. ) 2. We added rocks so that we could have a mid-range. 3. In adding rocks, we moved existing mushrooms and zoas down, put some acro's and monti dig's that we own in the middle, and put at least one acro up high... a portend of future things to come. Here's the result: Full tank shot: Left side closer: Right side closer: The difference is particularly striking on the right. (Here's the before shot for a quick comparison.)

We had heard of this, and actually acted on it in our new 180 (see link below). What we found was that we QUICKLY ran out of available places to put our SPS's. We converted this past weekend, putting in more rocks and turning our big ones from ledges to towers. FWIW.

Yikes. OK. Hi ho, Hi ho, it's off to Home Depot...

This would concur with our experience. Our skimmer in the 80g was up high on a shelf, and we had microbubbles galore until we opened it up using (in your case) an upside-down T, left open to the air (put an extension to make sure it doesn't overflow). It's ugly, but it did work. 'Course, Dan and others probably know better than we do!

:::blinking::: We got a cheapo trash can... what kinds of chemicals are we talking about? Isn't plastic... well... plastic? Can we test for any of these alleged chemicals?

Ditto; only we used vinegar--white stuff for common kitchen uses. Works for aiptasia, too.

I read various pros and cons for these two fish, and am trying to decide on the best one for our tank. Pros for both seem to be pest control. Cons for each are: *Sixline: can be aggressive towards other fish; limits who else you can put in the tank (i.e. purple firefish and midas blenny) and I really want these fish... and I don't want to wait for "wrasse benefits" 'till I have all the fish I want in the tank. Furthermore, I read that sixlines won't brook another wrasse in the tank. *Melanurus: they can eat clams, I read. Is this true? 'Cause otherwise they seem to win: more congeneal with tankmates and other wrasses, and also a good overal pest eater... Any thoughts?

I thought of that. Put in flakes (her favorite) and she barely looked at it. (Too full of coral? Nope. She spat out each bite!) I think we're going to try to catch her (a trick in itself) and then put her into our frag tank for a time out (mom talk... ) while we figure our options. If I can't catch her, I might take out that one frogspawn for a bit and see if she'll leave the others alone. I kind of wish I'd bought a pair of clownfish anyways, so maybe she'll be a good one to sell/trade to someone with a FOWLR tank. (In any case, we plan for one in the future, so if she lives in the frag tank for another 9 months, it won't be that much of an issue.)

So.... she's really damaged this frogspawn today... what would you guys suggest? Take her out... permanently? Or... she'll quit after a time? She had a BTA that's not been doing too well... it's not near the coral in question... Hmmm.

I have a maroon clown that I've had for about six months now. She's all of a sudden taking to systematically nipping off the tips of a relatively new frogspawn. Anyone ever seen clowns nipping corals? I thought they were "reef safe"...?

Aww. Ours flickered out at 8:30 AM but that's all. Hope it comes on soon!

Thanks! (I love WAMAS )

Last night I was enjoying my tank around 10 PM and noticed that my Kole Tang's surgeon bone is protruding. It's sticking out, hook-like, at almost 90 degrees from her tail (it's tiny; maybe 1/8"). The fish shows no signs of illness... is acting perfectly normal and there are no signs of a wound around it. It *looks* like she caught it on a rock and snagged it out of joint.. The other side of her body/tail is normal. I've been watching all day and it's like there's no problem for her. Anyone ever seen this? Nothing I can do, right?

These are the questions we must ask ourselves. Really, look at pictures of any nice mature tanks. Stuff is CROWDED in. So, thanks for the advice above... any other pearls of wisdom? For instance, I think I'm noticing that it might work to put my LPSs lower in the tank and acros and other SPSs up higher????

OK, so we're now into the great and real business of stocking corals. I love LPS's waving in the breeze, but we're concerned about chemical warfare between them and SPSs. In most TOTMs and other pictures of thriving tanks (like Chip's) I see corals all crowded in together. ALL my corals were pretty well jammed in in a holding tank as we switched tanks recently, for a full month. All SPS's were in one half, and all LPSs in the other... Any insights on coral placement for the long haul?

Helpful for me, thanks!

That's what I figured, too. SO... I have read that Midas Blennys are hardy and "easy keepers." Water's fine; live rock processes amonia, etc. Anyone have any ideas about why she would die? She was kinda skinny and small, but was eating and swimming in the water column more and more... *looked* healthy last night!

Last Tuesday we bought a smallish midas blenny from Aquarium One. She had a bit of a rough start in acclimating, but all week has been eating well, and sleeping in a hole in the rock we put in the QT tank. This AM, she didn't come out to feed. We finally shook her rock hard and found her poor corpse, eaten some by the small, red-legged hermit crab that I added two nights ago to eat detritus. Question: could a small hermit crab have grabbed/killed her as she slept, or was she probably dead of "natural" causes and then picked at? If the first, how do blennys survive in reef tanks? (I want to know 'cause we really want to get another Midas and I don't want to repeat the problem. :( )