jawfish

my maroon is a monster, he'll bite me whenever I clean but he will also head butt live rock twice his size until it falls - I'm just waiting for him to destroy some coral colonies

Ok i just realized you can buy caribbean lionfish off of liveaquaria. Still, I wish they advertized the option more than they do now. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+36+279&pcatid=279

I've dove the statue garden in Grenada...really fantastic, definitely a surreal experience

Sad, isn't it? Budget cuts won't help much either. As far as I can see, the only people actually doing any control work on lionfish are divers and organizations like REEF. Perhaps that is the best way, though - if you get divers in sufficient quantities spearfishing lionfish, you might make a dent in the population. Also, if we can make it financially profitable for locals to kill/import live lionfish, that would also be a huge help. I realize they are doing this now, but it isn't a mass effort - we almost need to have the local conservation organizations on each of these islands talk to the fishermen and convince them to start hunting lionfish. I will be working on lionfish for an internship this summer and several papers I've read so far basically say that it is near impossible to remove lionfish from the ecosystem - we now have to live with lionfish on Caribbean reefs as permanent residents, and hope the local fish populations can rebound somehow. Thanks for the report on your visit!

That's great! We just need to get the big guys on board. I was thinking of writing an email to some companies.

I had this thought today while reading about the P. volitans invasion in the Caribbean, that none of the major livestock suppliers (liveaquaria, etc. ) offer lionfish from the Caribbean; all are exclusively from the indo-pacific region. would it be possible to convince these suppliers to start catching and offering Caribbean caught, invasive lionfish in lieu of or as an option of the indo-pacific lionfish? I imagine it would be cheaper to transport (if not to catch), and would be a more ecologically sensitive solution to getting the lionfish from their native habitat. Also, I'd imagine hobbyists would love this. According to this article (see attached), lionfish are found in densities of 390 ind./ha in the Caribbean compared to 2.2-80 ind/ha in the indo-pacific, so it would be easier to collect these individuals in the Caribbean. These are just some thoughts of mine, feel free to critique them. I feel it would be cool if hobbyists demanded the invasive lionfish over the natural range ones from suppliers. Arias-Gonzales et al 2011 - Predicted impactoftheinvasivelionfish Pterois volitans on the foodweb of a Caribbean coral reef.pdf

wow! I've never seen one of those before! Awesome. How much?

I've always wanted to do a temperate tank! Really cool.

Unfortunately, I found him all dried up on the floor this morning, he must have jumped despite my best efforts at creating an escape-proof top :( No idea how he did it, I just feel really sad, barely had him for a month.

I had a candy striped pistol shrimp with my ywg, but they are really small, don't really do much work. The tiger pistol shrimp a bigger, much more active, and seem to bond better with my ywg. Just my observation.

I found this online - a bit long but it's a great summary about issues facing reefs.

I've seen clowns host in Goniopora...also, yes I love anemones (I have two) but be prepared that they will move. To add to the list of fish-eating anemones, I highly suspect my green BTA of eating three Bangaii cardinals.

thanks! there should be a few more in the gallery

thanks for the tips! He has been eating more, and today he even came out of his cave and ate regular old pellets, which I am very happy about. Funny thing about the lid: I have a glass top on my tank, but I don't have the plastic blockers on the back because I have so much HOB equipment that i would have to cut really weird shapes. Not 30 minutes after I put the wrasse in the tank, he managed to jump through this inch gap and land on the glass hood. Fortunately I was nearby and I was able to scoop him back in the tank, and spent the rest of the evening cutting out plastic backing that hugged my equipment so tightly that there was no way anything could get through. Lesson learned: when they mean tight fitting top, they really mean a TIGHT fitting top. Here are some pics I took when he was out