miniflea

I have a 30 gallon biocube with a pygmy cherub angel (centropygae argi) who shares the tank with a pair of ocellaris clowns and a yellow watchman goby (my avatar). I remember being told that my tank wasn't large enough for him (not by anyone here though, I think) but it seems like he's got plenty of space. I love the little guy, he is tiny but a real stunner, especially when he catches the light just right. I have caught him nipping lightly at one of my leathers and a couple of zoanthids a few times, but the corals don't show any signs of distress so I'm not particularly concerned. Anyway, you've had one yourself so you probably know all this already I originally wanted a flame angel but decided my tank wasn't quite big enough. Perhaps if the angel was very small and there weren't any other fish in there, but I would still worry about swimming room. Of course, I am by no means an expert so maybe it would work well. If you do get one, please, post about it! I couldn't find any accounts of someone trying to keep one in a tank that size when I was researching my options.

Then you'll want to check out the east wing of the national gallery of art, if you've never been there. Its on the mall, easy walking distance from the aquarium. Also, the Hirshorn which is the big circular building more or less across the mall.

To be fair, I'm fairly certain that puffers can only poison you if you eat them.

Make sure that lighting in addition to camera settings stays exactly the same. Ideally, shoot at night with only the tank lights on. There can be a pretty big difference in color temperature between tank light and room light and even tank light and natural light.

Thanks! It's a Biocube 29 with stock everything, so power compacts. I'm seriously considering though upgrading to halides (looking at a sunpod fixture). My corals seem happy with the exception of some of the zoanthids, but I think they would be much happier with more light. I'm also for sure going to upgrade the stock pump.

First off, full tank shot as of last night. Charlie the yellow watchman goby. Xenia frag couple months ago Xenia frag now My two clowns haven't shown any inclination to host (guess nowhere good) but the other night I saw them sleeping right over the frogspawn. I thought it was so cool I just had to take this- then right away I felt like a jerk for using the flash. They didn't seem to mind though.

The mushroom rock in my tank. Looks great!

Well, they deserve it. You guys are awesome! Stopped in for the first time a few days ago and walked out with a rather large Xenia (I know they grow like weeds, but still... only $10!) and a very nice rock covered with blue/purple mushrooms. Also picked up some frozen cyclopeeze which my fish go nuts over. Both corals are doing very well and look great in my tank. The xenia is already starting to attach itself to my rock. As soon as I upgrade my lighting, I will definitly be back for some sps frags.

Agreed, I really like the place. Years and years ago, Superpets was the first non petsmart/co store I found that carried fish and I remember being very very impressed. I don't know if they have gone downhill or I have just found way better stores since then but I suspect it is the latter. I have been happy with all the freshwater fish I bought there but the marine section is just downright depressing. Pristine on the other hand is great- most of my tank is stocked from them and everything is doing very well.

I've got the canon 100mm macro, and it is one heck of a nice lens. Also, it takes great portraits.

Autofocus is often next to worthless with macro shooting. Also, when you're that close, things like stability and camera shake start to become very important. Are you using a tripod or handholding?

Are you asking if tank water contains some phytoplankton and will get the culture started, or are you asking if tank water is a workable growing medium for starting a culture?

Question here- Chromis species will get too large for a tank that size? There's this one tank at the shop I usually go to that usually has 15-20 or so small (inch or bit less) blue green chromis and I've always thought a large school of them would look very nice in the eventual multiple hundred gallon reef tank I would love to someday have.

What exactly are you looking for information on? I would let you take a look at my collection, but it, alas, only goes about a year and a half back, with some holes. These might help: http://www.tfhmagazine.com/archives/article-index/ http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/subject/index.php Indexes for TFH, which I subscribe to and find very informative, and Reefkeeping online which has tons of great info but is only online AFAIK.

Ebay usually has an ok selection of back issues of TFH. Not nearly as many as I would like, but its worth taking a look.

Would it be worth it to buy some of the gunk at the bottom of a dealer's live rock bin to add to my main display? I don't have a refugium but I'd like to add some variable habitat areas and all I've got in there right now is plain sand and single large chunks of rock. Also, is there anywhere I can get small to medium sized shells? My hermit crabs are starting to gang up on each other and even some of my snails. The one who managed to fight off the others for the snail's shell is now twice as large as all the others. Figure it might be more peaceful if I got them some large shells to grow into.

If you are having trouble posting pics directly here, you can easily set up a flickr page for them.

If anyone is curious, I found this thread over on Reef Central: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...hreadid=1656766 Seems you guys saying "buried in sand" were indeed correct.

Treesprite, are you talking about Centropygae argi? I have one, and have caught him nipping at my zoanthids a few times, but never at any of my other softies. He could have just been nipping algae off the surface though. As for color, they certainly aren't as stand out as flame angels, but I think he's an absolutely beautiful shade of purple and blue. Just my opinion

Ah. My girlfriend wants to come with me, but she isn't a member. Can I get her in?

I'll be there (most likely) but I'm a new member, don't really know anyone, and don't have a card or anything yet. We are supposed to get cards right? Just wondering if that was going to be an issue? I don't think it would be, but just checking.

I dunno. If I had a hundred thousand dollars sitting underwater somewhere, I would go check on it more often. Maybe someone took some, got away with it, took some more, got away with it... maybe even over several months. Or its just under sand, who knows.

My ocellaris clowns will nibble oh so gently at the tips of my fingers until they realize I don't have any food. My skunk cleaner shrimp never leaves my hand alone though. Feels especially funny when it digs under my fingernails.

I see I'm not the only one then, and I guess the "interesting" stuff I've seen there is stuff I have not seen at other more responsible stores. They almost always have small greyish nudibranches, but the last time I was there there were some very very pretty purple and yellow ones. I wonder what I would have been told if I asked about them.

Sorry If you game at all, check it out, easily one of the best RPGs of the past few years, and enough content to last you months. Regarding your original question, the two near there that I've been to are Congressional and Aquarium One. Congressional I'm split on. They have some interesting stuff, but I've also seen a lot of sick and overly thin fish, plus some stuff that I'm not sure is questionable or not, like nudibranches. Plus they sell wild caught banggai cardinals, which IMO should not be done, but perhaps that's just me. Plus I get the sense whenever I talk to employees that they would rather sell me stuff I don't need than genuinely help me. Aquarium One, which is right down the street, I like better. They have some very nice frag tanks. Also, it is probably too far away for you, but I highly highly recommend Blue Ribbon Koi in Manassas.