OcalaReefGirl

Welcome! Welcome! Wamas is a great forum

That is a wonderful shot of your cleaner shrimp in progress!

Did you feed your clam? If so what and how often?

Ok, I know that spectrum is probably more important that just PAR, but I have found numbers ALL over the place for what amount of PAR you need for your corals from 125-500 for SPS. What do you keep your PAR at? Any consensus on the numbers or ranges for best growth for soft, LPS or SPS?

My first saltwater was when I was about 21. I think 20-30 gallon is a really good size. Maybe rig an auto top off for when you go out of town. There are a lot of cool predators that are small like smaller puffers, scorpion fish, dwarf lion fish, anglers etc. Have her get one and see if she can take care of ot for several months.

+1 on the fox face

I agree with Dave W about scaling it up, but that is if you decide you want to do it long term. You might decide that it isn't as enjoyable or you might decide this is your life passion. Who knows. I for one am starting my fish breeding (absolutely NO experience so far) with a basic set up before I spend a fortune. Scaling it up allows you to spend less time doing a lot of the time consuming boring stuff and allows you to enjoy the fish breeding part more and keep it from being a huge hassle. I spend at least 1-2 hours per week on just sanitizing all my containers because I am too unorganized to separate the different buckets and tubes for different strains of phyto, rotifers etc. When I do start to work with larvae I will have to be more organized because I simply won't have the time otherwise. I am sure you will find a way that will slowly help you cut some corners and simplify some steps along the way. Again, best of luck to you! Very exciting!

Agreed, they meant if you cooked them. Not the heat from a basic heater. Make sure you wash your hands after touching them though. If accidentally ingested you could get sick.

In all this time, I had never though about growing things on my back wall. Ohhhh, the possibilities! I am so inspired right now!

Wow, absolutely beautiful!

You mean you have a paly stuck on your heater?

Welcome! It is amazing how much has changed in the past 10 years. the lighting alone is a amazing! Have fun learning all you can

How awesome! I just kept reading the post and hoping she would start getting better!

The are supposed to eat some fruit, think veggies as mentioned before. I usually feed them a meat diet of clams, shrimp, mollusks, etc.

Their digestive systems aren't good so they have a lot of waste in their poo. Also, maybe they like a warm meal, lol.

Really beautiful fish!

Welcome! Really is a great forum! Hope you can share and learn here

+1 to everything Scott_LM said. The video was awesome! So cool that you can see two eyes and the swimming pattern. The reason for using green water is really for three reasons. 1. To diffuse the light and also makes prey easier to see. (The rotifers stand out as white against the darker background. 2. Using live phyto allows the phyto to "clean" your tank water by helping to remove or lower the ammonia. 3. Rotifers have continual food to eat in the tank until they are consumed making them as nutritious as possible when they are consumed. Again make sure you black out the light except the room light. That includes the light on the heater. Good Luck! I can't wait to hear more about your efforts! Keep posting!

Wow! Really great structure. Isn't starting a new fish tank fun!?!

This is from what I have read and do not know first hand. I read this in "The Complete Illustrated Breeders's Guide To Marine Aquarium Fishes" a wonderful book that was very instructive. First: pelagic spawners generally "lay" their eggs over the course of the spawing season. A small amount of egg and sperm is released every night. So it is best to have some sort of egg collected or top skimming device to maximize the amount of "eggs" you get . They have a "yolk" sack so they float. Smaller species produce a hundred to a few hundred eggs each night. For this reason they are usually kept in 50-100 gallon drums. (however yours seem very happy!) Second: the pods. Everything I have read is that mandarin larvae only eat copepod naupli (babies) during the first few weeks. They have to be strained from the main copepod tank and feed. Unfortunately that is all I know. There are breeding forums you can read about peoples successes. Keep us updated on any success you have!

That was amazing! Its so cool seeing all of the colors of the reef come out in the photos.

I would wait and see if it looks like it is healing on its own. Hope it does!

That is awesome! Hope you can collect and try to raise some babies!

Clowns all have different aggression depending on species. Ocellaris are one of the least aggressive and can tolerate more than two clowns in a tank. However, there can only be one female and usually only one sexed male. The other clowns that you add to the tank have to be small enough that they haven't become sexually mature. Then if one of the dominant (male or female) dies one of the smaller ones will take its place.

Beautiful tank! I'm getting inspired to set up my new tank