American Samoan Mixed Reef Build

[Chevre]

Absolutely beautiful. Once im done my carpentry apprenticeship im hoping to travel and work in amazing places like this for years to come. Tank looks great.

 

[M4rz]

Outstanding progress...can't wait to see the livestock you get!

 

[domination2580]

Omg....I wish I never had opened this thread. Now I'm extremely jealous and severely depressed since I live in the middle of the country here in the US.....ugh

 

[dendrite]

The pictures look like paradise. How are the reefs there holding up against onshore pollution, acidification, and ocean warming?

 

[Nihoa]

Finally, after more than a week of looking I found a lion for the tank on Saturday night. To my delight it is a ~ 10cm Pterois radiata and only the first one I have seen here. We most commonly see Pterois volitans and I was hoping for either a Dendrochirus zebra or a Pterois antennata but was thrilled to come across this little gem. The terrain and current made getting her into the tupperware a bit of a nightmare but a little patience went along way and now she is settled nicely in the tank hunting crabs. Anyone know anything about sexing this species?

Also managed to to score a nice decorator crab sitting right next to the lion. Sorry for the crappy iphone pics. I have a DSLR but uploading pics from it is just a pain. I will see about doing a proper photoshoot some night when the lion has finished acclimating. No plans for any more fish for a few weeks.

 

[maxxII]

Radiata lions are among the most difficult to acclimate to captivity.
Start with shrimp and small fish and see if you can get it onto prepared foods.

Good looking fish though.

 

[Nihoa]

Radiata lions are among the most difficult to acclimate to captivity.
Start with shrimp and small fish and see if you can get it onto prepared foods.

Good looking fish though.

From what I've read, this sounds very correct. I don't plan on converting this fish to prepared foods, though, as there are plenty of crabs and small inverts in the tank and I have an endless supply nearby on the reef. I'm hoping it will be the lean mean crab killing machine that I need!

 

[maxxII]

You are in a unique position to be able to regularly go out and catch food for your fish.
But its not a bad idea to consider the possibility that you may need to go someplace for an extended period of time.

I've been reefkeeping for too long to do anything but think of worst case scenarios try to plan for them.

 

[Spinelessspade]

Wow!!! What a gorgeous fish!!! I'm so jealous

 

[Nihoa]

Another shot of this beauty.

 

[joshky]

Beautiful fish and beautiful photos of your island, absolute paradise.

 

[CuzzA]

Very cool Nihoa. Looking forward to seeing more collecting adventures. You mentioned not having access to skimmers, reactors, etc. but if you're a little handy you could DIY just about anything. Plenty of DIY's on the Internet. PVC would likely get just about any job done. Even if a DIY skimmer pulls half the crap a commercially built one would, it's still removing half of the crap. Better than no crap.

Subscribed.

 

[indyjaco]

updates?

 

[Sapelo]

Just saw this thread for the first time and I am in awe.
Please, please, please tell me there are updates!

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Yes, updates please. This is a great thread and many watching it even if they don't post anything