African Fancy Gumdrop Coral Croucher (Caracanthus madagascariensis)

[tkeracer619]

I purchased these today :fun4:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversde...ref=4282&subref=AI&cmpid=E-_-TR-_-DDN-_-PRDCT

I would be grateful if anyone who has experience with them could give me some care advice. They will arrive on friday.

Thanks!

 

[tkeracer619]

Check out this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNSQuNeJPhU&feature=player_embedded

This while short was helpful.
http://aquariumadventures.blogspot.com/2009/02/caring-for-caracanthus.html

 

[HHIreefer843]

Ah man i was about to scoop one of these up about a month back. I was nervous they would run through my shrimps and crabs!!! really cool fish! i cant wait to see them in your tank!!!! GOOD LUCK

 

[tkeracer619]

I hope they will take up a large colony. I can probably manipulate the vortechs via my controller feed mode to push the mysis towards them. If I have to spot feed I am ok with that but I would rather not.

Tank is already fed twice a day with but I will probably step that up a bit.

1 mysis cube
1 spirulina brine cube
1 bloodworm cube - or live if I have them
1 Formula 1 cube
1 Formula 2 cube
1/4 sheet of grocery store nori

The other new additions are a trio of female Bartletts because my male Bartlett is lonely and a Copperband Butterfly. I hope the Copperband gets along with the Chelmon Marginalis and isn't fond of lps...

 

[tkeracer619]

Update:

The Fancy Gumdrops are hanging out in a large sps colony. They look quite comfortable. I don't really see much feeding activity (i have seen them eat) but they are pretty skittish around me so I have been hosing down the colony with mysis and brine (what live aquaria said they were eating) and walking away. They are starting to get used to it. I also re directed my vortechs for feed mode so that the mysis goes their way. So far they won't even consider leaving the branches of the colony.

The Anthias are doing fine but unfortunately the Copperband died today. It was getting along with everyone and eating like a pig.

This is the best pic we are going to get of them. They have incredible coloration.

 

[HHIreefer843]

Abhhh man sorry for your loss...good luck with the gum drps I can't wait to see them out and about

 

[tkeracer619]

I tried to get a video with my gopro hd hero 2. It didn't really come out that good but I will work on putting some clips together. They are still kickin and eating like champs though. Awesome fish!

I think these fish would work well in two types of systems. A very small system with just passive fish or a larger system with large sps corals.

If you put this into a medium to large tank and don't have any large sps colonies then I doubt you would ever find them. They would surely starve to death.

 

[namxas]

Abhhh man sorry for your loss...good luck with the gum drps I can't wait to see them out and about

Chances are that the OP is seeing about as much of the coral crouchers as he/she is going to see. They don't really venture out of their perch/lair...they're poor swimmers, and rarely stray too far from safety. In fact, that first video of the croucher popping out to grab the food from the stick was our fish, and that's pretty much all we saw of it...quick flashes during feeding time, but being "scorp nuts" that was OK with us.

Another thing to mention is that these fish are actually small scorpionfish, and as such can sting you if you get careless.

They're cool little fish, but it's imperative to SEE them eat and not ASSUME they eat just because the tank is flooded with food. Since we target feed all of our fish, we always know what each one gets.

HTH

 

[HHIreefer843]

yeah after a little more research on these fish the OP is right bout the tanks and coral size..i wouldnt add these fish unless you had a fairly large coral colony. unfortunately my sps colonies are a little too small ATM, hopefully this will change soon enough!!

 

[tkeracer619]

They are definitely getting used to their surroundings. They are out and visible from top down pretty much all day long but are difficult to get on camera.

Greg, can you give me some feeding tips? Right now I am basting 1 cube mysis and 1 cube spirulina brine into their host coral. They will eat a couple and then hang out till one of the other fish stirs the shrimp up and then the gumdrops will go in for a second round. I would like to try feeding them a wider variety and get them them to eat off a stick like in your video. It is probably better for the coral.

Thanks for chiming in. The fish are worth the challenge.