Building Big Bertha: 800G

Welp, six tangs arrived today looking pretty darn good. All are going at it in the main tank now after oxygenization and drip acclimation in a 5 gallon breeder. (Nothing like $500 of fish jammed into a 5 gallon tank to keep one on one's toes!)

I'm going to bring up the lights for an hour or so this evening, and I'll take some pics then.

News at eleven. Er, seven. Mountain Time. :)

Ben
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10669923#post10669923 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bbrantley
Welp, six tangs arrived today looking pretty darn good. All are going at it in the main tank now after oxygenization and drip acclimation in a 5 gallon breeder. (Nothing like $500 of fish jammed into a 5 gallon tank to keep one on one's toes!)

I'm going to bring up the lights for an hour or so this evening, and I'll take some pics then.

News at eleven. Er, seven. Mountain Time. :)

Ben

Hope the animal rights people don't see this. You may need M. Vick's legal council.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10669937#post10669937 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
can't wait to see the pics. How many male vs female?

No idea! How do I sex them? I certainly didn't specify anything when I ordered, not that I was asked. To their credit, they did throw up a yellow flag when I said I wanted so many.

Ben
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10669958#post10669958 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AquariumSpecialty
Hope the animal rights people don't see this. You may need M. Vick's legal council.

Har, har, har.

The really interesting thing is that, if you put enough fish into close quarters, they drop their territorial instinct! Doesn't seem very logical, but then, there's a lot of illogical stuff in this hobby.

This is how people keep those crazy (often Asian) tanks packed with bajillions of fish. There is a tipping point above which the fish stop bothering each other. Now, whether they <i>enjoy</i> being sardine-ized, I dunno...

Pics still to come. I forgot about a chauffeuring commitment this evening, so I'm doing that now. I noticed the fish took to hiding around 6pm, so I may not be able to get any pictures this evening. If not, tomorrow should be good.

Ben
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10670381#post10670381 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TRITON1
Did they calm down after you told them your tank was 800g :lol: ?

They sure did! I guess in my dreams I would encourage them to have enough CRM technology to recognize, the next time I call, that I don't need a cautionary lecture. But, to tell you the truth, I'm just pleased to get quality fish at decent prices from a trustworthy dealer... so I'll gladly explain every time I call and order 5 times more fish than "normal." (Which really won't be many more times, to tell you the truth.)

I'm down to 9 chromis now. :( Maybe I should keep adding a dozen more until they evolve down to the 20 strongest? Maybe this is hopeless like nearly everyone else seems to think... Hmm....

Ben
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10671410#post10671410 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by carloskoi
the Chomis' aggression problem would sort of belie your previous statement.

Hmmm, lost ya there. What do you mean? (And what was my previous statement?)

I haven't observed anything I would classify as aggression, not that that means much. When they first went in the tank they liked to nip at one chromis that was already injured on arrival. I haven't seen any of that since then, but it just seems like one dies every week or so. I was seeing a stable count of ten for several weeks, but today it looks like there is one less than before. Almost like there is some night marauding going on or something.

Weird.

Ben
 
they are thinning the herd. I am confinced that in the wild, they kill of the weaker ones to keep the bloodline strong.
 
Well, everyone came back out and went for a swimmy-swim this evening after the lights came on. (I've had the lights off for over a week trying to cut down on algae, so it was a bit of surprise even for the tank veterans.)

bertha29.jpg


Alas, I've not scraped the acrylic in a week, either, so there is a plethora of mess on it that makes it most unpicturesque. The good news is that the newbies seem to love swimming directly into the flow pretty much continuously. The bad news is that they did it in two groups (of 3 and 4, respectively), so it was impossible to get them all in one shot tonight. Perhaps tomorrow with some food it will be easier.

bertha30.jpg


One of the yellows has a little tear in his fin; one of the purples has some tiny white spots evenly spaced around the outer edges of his top and bottom fins. I'll be watching closely to see how those heal up (cross fingers). All the purples are already grazing on the hair algae (they also all ate nori off the clip immediately in the holding tank... unlike Tabitha!).

Until next time,

Ben
 
In my experience, the little spots on the fins on tangs (possibly ich) clear up fast if they are getting fed alot. I like to feed new arrivals alot when they first get put into the tank to plump them up. It seems to help them defend disease the best. Not to mention it would be a major PIA to try to take one of the out now!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10680531#post10680531 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TRITON1
In my experience, the little spots on the fins on tangs (possibly ich) clear up fast if they are getting fed alot. I like to feed new arrivals alot when they first get put into the tank to plump them up. It seems to help them defend disease the best. Not to mention it would be a major PIA to try to take one of the out now!

Yeah, the little spots were cleared up by the next morning, actually! I was kind of surprised. Everyone seems crazy about swimming in the flow now, except Tabitha, who just goes back and forth and tries to annoy each tang. I think she will run out of energy for that soon!

Ben
 
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