Garibaldi Damsals at BZ
- Thread starter kirkaz
- Start date
triggerfreak
Active member
You lucky dogg.Just curious as to what you paid for him and of course, WE NEED PICS!!!
Sitarangi
New member
Garabaldis are coldwater fish, they thrive best in water >70 degrees. They are incredibly territorial fish, to my understanding, the blue spots are an indicator that the fish is still juvenile and tells other garabaldis to leave it alone. When they are born, they are 50/50 orange and blue. They grow really fast, most i've seen were easily pushing a foot. What kind of tank is this fish in? They really are not suitable for home aquaria and belong in only the largest kelp tanks.
i had one for about a year, until i sold it to a teacher with a coldwater tank in his classroom (where it is still thriving). it was one of the most interesting fish i have ever had. very intelligent and attractive. they are indeed "aggressive," but this is really results from their intense territoriality-- they are otherwise shy (at least as juveniles) and would likely ignore tank mates that learned to avoid their turf (something possible only in a very large tank). Males are known to defend territory much more vigorously than females.
i ordered mine from reef hot spot. after gently repudiating them for holding them in tropical aquaria (and grossly misinforming customers about optimal temps), i requested that my two specimens (one was originally for the teacher) be sent without heat packs; both arrived (with heat packs) in water warmer than i would ever ship tropicals in. mine BARELY survived the shock of being transfered to my 57-59F tank-- the other specimen, which went to the teacher's tank, died within a day or so. despite the company's failure to follow one extremely simple, reasonable shipping instruction, they would only offer credit for the wasteful loss of this rather pricey fish. i would use extreme caution in dealing with the aforementioned company, at least in acquiring temperate species.
an abundance of rocky caves is critical to a garibaldi's happiness (especially juv's), and is probably more important than the presence of any macroalgae or kelp. sponge is an important part of its diet, supposedly even supplying the compounds needed for its pigmentation-- mine absolutely loved the frozen anglefish formula (the one with sponge) and seemed to be doing quite well on it, along with cyclopeez flakes and other goodies to vary its diet. this is a fish that is very fun to feed-- makes any cichlid look like a prissy eater. however, it was quite finicky during its first days in captivity and could only be induced to begin feeding by offerings of live brine shrimp and live blood worms.
hope this helps-- moral of my story-- an extremely gratifying species to keep, but don't even bother unless you are willing to provide a very large tank (and large chiller) for it.
I got it for $54. It ate last night after 1 hour of being in the tank and has eaten this morning. So far it isn't shy at all. It is maybe 2" right now. How is the growth rate for these guys. I keep my tank temp at 74-75 all year. It is in a 150g right now but will be going in my new 11 foot tank.
interesting... let us know how things are going in another few months.
Will do coolwaves. JMC, I have not moved it into the main tank yet....afraid to see how the queen trig responds to it. I had tried it with two smaller triggers in another tank but they were too mean towards it. It will stand and fight, but it wouldn't have won so I moved it out. It seems quite content where it is with the rock cave.
AquaticEngineer
New member
The tank I am setting up is a 200 gallon (66x20x36) that I have made a built in foam background with lots of large ledges, crevices, caves and overhangs. It will have a large open sand area that kelp will be growing up from. I will have a surge device also on the tank. Live orange sponge will be a mainstay in the tank, as well as being introduced probably monthly when I go collecting.
The tank will have a 110 gallon lobster tank utilized as the sump, as well as a 1 horse chiller hooked into the closed loop on the 200 gallon. The closed loop will have 6 returns all at about 8" off the bottom of the tank. There will also be a large surge device that dumps into the tank from one corner opposite the overflows.
Tank inhabitants will will be a combination of Oregon coast tidal animals and californian coast tidal animals. The temperature will be maintained around 56 degrees fahrenheit year round.
Think one juvenile Garibaldi will be ok in here?
