430gal., L-shaped display
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"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
A weird day today. My kiddo walked into the room and said, "Papa, there are police in the yard." And there were--a Boulder PD K9 unit--guns drawn. Apparently, they chased someone to my house and couldn't quite find him. So, I was in lockdown this afternoon. Weird.
An update on the fishroom:
Finally got rid of the ugly stairs!
The barrel is plumbed into the system and running (and holding water ***shock***):
The barrel overflow:
The return to the barrel is the vertical PVC tube. Water flows down to the bottom and around the circle of the barrel up to a high overflow:
The butterfly tank. They are making some progress on the Aiptasia. Unfortunately, I think I must have two of the same sex as they are always putting on a weird display to each other. They try to compete to see who can get lower (so lay sideways on the bottom) and flap their pectoral fins wildly at each other. Weird.
Purple tang:
The copepods think I'm really cool for growing so much algae:
A cool colony of tunicates have popped up on the bottom of this coral. They like the greenwater, too:
The computer:
An update on the fishroom:
Finally got rid of the ugly stairs!
The barrel is plumbed into the system and running (and holding water ***shock***):
The barrel overflow:
The return to the barrel is the vertical PVC tube. Water flows down to the bottom and around the circle of the barrel up to a high overflow:
The butterfly tank. They are making some progress on the Aiptasia. Unfortunately, I think I must have two of the same sex as they are always putting on a weird display to each other. They try to compete to see who can get lower (so lay sideways on the bottom) and flap their pectoral fins wildly at each other. Weird.
Purple tang:
The copepods think I'm really cool for growing so much algae:
A cool colony of tunicates have popped up on the bottom of this coral. They like the greenwater, too:
The computer:
falesdk
New member
Did they ever find their guy? That had to be really bizarre to look outside and see that!
Yay for the ugly stairs being gone!!! Man I've got to go look at the updates on the rest of your house...I'll bet there's a ton of them I havent seen! I still love those purple tangs by the way!
Yay for the ugly stairs being gone!!! Man I've got to go look at the updates on the rest of your house...I'll bet there's a ton of them I havent seen! I still love those purple tangs by the way!
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
I don't know. I doubt it, but they were crawling all over the yards and alleys of the 3-4 houses right around us.
I have to admit, I haven't posted any photos in a while. We're still fighting all of the February illnesses--I'm kind of wondering if the kid'll go to school tomorrow--and have half emptied boxes and stacks of books everywhere. We just aren't presentable yet.
Plus, my editors have decided to just dump on me this month. So, I work the computer 'til I can't stand it anymore, then I go work on the fishroom.
I have to admit, I haven't posted any photos in a while. We're still fighting all of the February illnesses--I'm kind of wondering if the kid'll go to school tomorrow--and have half emptied boxes and stacks of books everywhere. We just aren't presentable yet.
Plus, my editors have decided to just dump on me this month. So, I work the computer 'til I can't stand it anymore, then I go work on the fishroom.
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
Thanks! I don't think they ever caught the guy.
'Course, I guess I should be emptying boxes instead of working in the fishroom, but I don't need to work hard to get sympathy for that around here, no?
My LFS has let me keep a pair of project fish there since New Year's Eve, but they're tough ones to keep and I've been driving over there way too often to take care of them (like three times a day, sigh). I'm trying to get a tank ready to get them home so I don't have to make the trip every day.
It'll be nice to see those tangs in a display tank, though. I have a mirror up on their tank, because the dominant one has been a jerk to the other since his move. It'll be nice to give them some more room to stretch out. Display tank FW pH today = 9.66. Sigh.
'Course, I guess I should be emptying boxes instead of working in the fishroom, but I don't need to work hard to get sympathy for that around here, no?
My LFS has let me keep a pair of project fish there since New Year's Eve, but they're tough ones to keep and I've been driving over there way too often to take care of them (like three times a day, sigh). I'm trying to get a tank ready to get them home so I don't have to make the trip every day.
It'll be nice to see those tangs in a display tank, though. I have a mirror up on their tank, because the dominant one has been a jerk to the other since his move. It'll be nice to give them some more room to stretch out. Display tank FW pH today = 9.66. Sigh.
EnglishRebel
Retired Rebel Reefer
K9 -- NO, TANG POLICE
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
:uzi: :fish1:
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
So, when I set up the barrel the other day I also plumbed in my old frag tank, a 40 XL (4' x 1' x 1'). I know that I have mentioned that the LFS was keeping a pair of "project fish" for me. I brought them home today and set them up in this tank, so I guess it's time that I finally came out of the closet with them.
I had heard of someone being quite successful with these guys and was talking to the LFS owner about it and saying , "I really have to try them someday." Well, on New Year's Eve, he called me to tell me that my fish were in. What?! I didn't even have a tank set up. "Oh, we'll keep them for you 'til your ready." So, I've been driving over there 3 times a day ever since in order to feed these guys.
:eek1:
So, with all of the buildup, I should probably tell you what they are: Oxymonacanthus longirostris, the Harlequin filefish.
Up front: These are the hardest fish I've ever worked with, trying to get them to eat. The female got paper thin before I finally figured her out. So, please just take this as reporting. If you ever want to try these, please do your research. Their survival rate in captivity normally averages about a week. Getting them feeding was really expensive in food and water changes, too. You've been warned. :strooper:
So, here's their new tank:
And the files:
For comparison, the male day 1:
The male today (day 60):
The female, day 1:
The female, today (day 60):
I had heard of someone being quite successful with these guys and was talking to the LFS owner about it and saying , "I really have to try them someday." Well, on New Year's Eve, he called me to tell me that my fish were in. What?! I didn't even have a tank set up. "Oh, we'll keep them for you 'til your ready." So, I've been driving over there 3 times a day ever since in order to feed these guys.
:eek1:
So, with all of the buildup, I should probably tell you what they are: Oxymonacanthus longirostris, the Harlequin filefish.
Up front: These are the hardest fish I've ever worked with, trying to get them to eat. The female got paper thin before I finally figured her out. So, please just take this as reporting. If you ever want to try these, please do your research. Their survival rate in captivity normally averages about a week. Getting them feeding was really expensive in food and water changes, too. You've been warned. :strooper:
So, here's their new tank:
And the files:
For comparison, the male day 1:
The male today (day 60):
The female, day 1:
The female, today (day 60):
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
In other news, I added a copepod predator:
And, a butterfly being cleaned:
And, a butterfly being cleaned:
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
Thanks! I think it's working out pretty well right now. I like having the flexibility to change the direction for a tank as my needs change, like with suddenly deciding that I need a coral-less tank for the butterflies because I wanted an Aiptasia cleaning station. They're pretty slow, though.
They are getting the job done, in their own time.Thanks, Ed! I don't know about happy. They were pretty mad at me for moving them. Worse will be the juvenile orchid dottybacks that were in their tank at the LFS. They were getting pretty used to all that food.
klondike4001
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14505595#post14505595 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by "Umm, fish?"
So, with all of the buildup, I should probably tell you what they are: Oxymonacanthus longirostris, the Harlequin filefish.
Up front: These are the hardest fish I've ever worked with, trying to get them to eat. The female got paper thin before I finally figured her out. So, please just take this as reporting. If you ever want to try these, please do your research. Their survival rate in captivity normally averages about a week. Getting them feeding was really expensive in food and water changes, too. You've been warned. :strooper:
The female, today (day 60):
#1 I love these fish, I think it's the eyes, I've been crazy about camo eyes since I kept Uroplatus Geckos
#2 You mentioned how hard/expensive it was to get them to eat, what was the final combination that worked?
TIA,
Jonathan
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
#1, Thanks! I've been enamored for quite a while, so got really excited when I heard that someone was doing well with them.
#2, For mine, the male was holding steady as I tried all sorts of things though not gaining. The female literally wasted away to nothing. One day, out of desperation, I ordered a batch of live mysis despite the fact that they showed no interest whatsoever in live BS. I took the mysis home to put them in a tank. The next day, I brought 10 or so in, figuring that I'd get no real response (and figuring, honestly, that the female was past saving). They went nuts. I'd never seen them swim so fast, though I doubt either one caught one of the crustaceans. But from that moment on, it kind of jumpstarted them out of their lethargy and they've eaten pretty well since. Then it was just a matter of finding food that they'd eat that would get them to put on weight.
Edit: Oh, I forgot to add: I tried adding live mysis after that. They showed absolutely no interest at all. Go figure.
The magic combo for these two seems to be a small bit of Rod's Food (as an appetite stimulant), prawn eggs, the Reed's oyster eggs, some other small frozen zooplankton in rotation (BBS, Cyclops, Daphnia, etc.), and HUFAs and vitamins. It seems like the prawn eggs are the important part. But it seems like each of the files that people have been successful with go for different things, so it's lots of trial and error. For example, mine won't go for anything larger than Daphnia or Arctipods, but I've heard of people giving them adult BS or mysis, or even flake food. We're having none of that stuff.
Oddly enough, the foods don't seem to work that well singly. It's the combo.
Also, at one point the female started taking larger foods so I figured I could start dropping the small stuff. She started slowly losing weight (and interest) again until the owner of the LFS reminded me that I'd dropped the prawn eggs. As soon as I added them back she started gaining again. So, the prawn eggs are the magic, but they need the other stuff for variety and as appetite stimulant. Besides, eggs are really fatty and I don't want to screw up their livers.
#2, For mine, the male was holding steady as I tried all sorts of things though not gaining. The female literally wasted away to nothing. One day, out of desperation, I ordered a batch of live mysis despite the fact that they showed no interest whatsoever in live BS. I took the mysis home to put them in a tank. The next day, I brought 10 or so in, figuring that I'd get no real response (and figuring, honestly, that the female was past saving). They went nuts. I'd never seen them swim so fast, though I doubt either one caught one of the crustaceans. But from that moment on, it kind of jumpstarted them out of their lethargy and they've eaten pretty well since. Then it was just a matter of finding food that they'd eat that would get them to put on weight.
Edit: Oh, I forgot to add: I tried adding live mysis after that. They showed absolutely no interest at all. Go figure.
The magic combo for these two seems to be a small bit of Rod's Food (as an appetite stimulant), prawn eggs, the Reed's oyster eggs, some other small frozen zooplankton in rotation (BBS, Cyclops, Daphnia, etc.), and HUFAs and vitamins. It seems like the prawn eggs are the important part. But it seems like each of the files that people have been successful with go for different things, so it's lots of trial and error. For example, mine won't go for anything larger than Daphnia or Arctipods, but I've heard of people giving them adult BS or mysis, or even flake food. We're having none of that stuff.
Oddly enough, the foods don't seem to work that well singly. It's the combo.
Also, at one point the female started taking larger foods so I figured I could start dropping the small stuff. She started slowly losing weight (and interest) again until the owner of the LFS reminded me that I'd dropped the prawn eggs. As soon as I added them back she started gaining again. So, the prawn eggs are the magic, but they need the other stuff for variety and as appetite stimulant. Besides, eggs are really fatty and I don't want to screw up their livers.
EnglishRebel
Retired Rebel Reefer
Andy
Those harlequin file fish are G O R G E O U S
:thumbsup:
Those harlequin file fish are G O R G E O U S
:thumbsup:
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