I don't know about long term success but here are my short term results and most of the results are pretty much what RC folks been saying all along.
Watanabei--added two small female last November and the third small female in February and all three are doing very well. They eat everything I feed and swims out in the open and mid-column.
Bellus--added 2 females and a large male in February. The male didn't eat since day one and lasted 3 months but the females are doing fine. Also added a Swallowtail female the same time and doing well. The Genicanthus group grows pretty fast.
Bandit--5.25" ate on day 3 on frozen mysis and everything the following 2 weeks from pellet, freeze dried mysis to nori. I was so happy as everything looked so promising then all of a sudden it stopped eating. There was no physical sign of illness, it just stopped eating, didn't swim as much and within 5 days it died. I'd a few RC members stating that larger bandits are difficult to adapt and best size to get is under 4". I got the wind taken out of me on this one and if I attempt to try again I'll definitely look for one in the 3" range.
Borbonius--had 4 different sizes from tiny, sm, lg (same vendor) and med (from another vendor). They all ate great from the start but within a week the med & lg died. Tiny and small are doing well and sm is med size now and hangs out in the middle of the tank all the time. So, the larger ones didn't fare well for me but others on RC said theirs are doing well. I agree with everyone that said they grow fast.
Collinis, Venustus & Personifer angels, Burgessi butterflies--only had them recently. The angels nips on rocks all day long (like my flame angels) and hangs inside caves sideway and upsidedown. So they may prefer lower lighting. The Burgessi eats everything and swims out in the open. Personifer with time is swimming from one end to the other end and comes out much more. I've 3 lighting zones since I added the deeper water fishes and the bright zone only seem to bother the collinis and Venustus and none of the other fishes.
As for flows--from my own observation they seem to like strong flow areas as I see them swims toward the powerheads all the time without any problem. I run 6 powerheads in the tank with 2 additional Eheim canisters for flows.
As for feeding--I mix frozen mysis, emerald menu, marine cuisine, bloodworm, Angel & Butterfly and prime reef. On the dry side I mix Kent, NLS, Formula 1 & 2 pellets and nori. On the live side I feed live clams or mussels on half-shell once every 7-10 days.
Temp has fluctuated from 75.5 (winter months) to 80 recently. I try to maintain at 77-78 most of the time.
Hope to see other folks chime in with their experiences.
