Peter Eichler
New member
So, I had a female Bellus for a little over a year and was keeping my eye out for a healthy male. I finally found one and kept them for nearly 3 years with no color changes and regular spawning and spawning behavior. The male was considerably larger than the female and there was zero aggression when he was added as would be expected. He ended up becoming a bit of a bully towards my Copperband Butterfly. Sadly, I had a power outage earlier this year and lost some fish. All inhabitants were unphased except for my Bellus pair and a leopard wrasse. That leads me to believe they're a little more sensitive to either PH drops or lower oxygen levels than the average fish.
Some random notes...
The male Bellus started picking at clam mantles several months after addition. This was a very fat and healthy fish, so it wasn't because he was hungry. An unhealthy polyeasian clam seemed to start him on his addiction...
RIP
So, after a little time passed I really missed my genicanthus angels and came across a healthy little juvenille/female Watanabei
I asked the LFS to keep an eye out for a male for me... I took him home the day of arrival, managed to have the bottom of the bag blow out and have him hit the floor with a thud, put him in my frag tank in a panic with no acclimation where my purple tang proceeded to freak out on him. So, netted him out and threw caution to the wind and added him directly to my display after him being nastily tangled in the net. I fully suspected he was done for, the next tank he was a bit tattered but was eating flake food and happily swimming around the tank... Tough fish! Not even the least bit shy, he was soon gathering and nipping at my fingers when I feed like all the other little pigs.
At the same time I had picked up an achilles tang and quarantined him. A beautiful and healthy specimen, I decided to get him in the display tank after just 2 weeks. I had big fears of my sailfin tang, that I've had for nearly 10 years, ripping him to shreds. Similar fears with my longtime resident convict tang. But no, I watched in horror as the recent addition male Watanabei relentlessly pursued and ripped the achilles to shreds. So, despite their seeming delicate demeanor these can be some nasty fish. I would imagine that goes especially for a larger male since they're probably the extreme alphas of their species. Great fish, but I'll probably never add another fish to a tank that he's in that's even close to being his size.
Some random notes...
The male Bellus started picking at clam mantles several months after addition. This was a very fat and healthy fish, so it wasn't because he was hungry. An unhealthy polyeasian clam seemed to start him on his addiction...
RIP
So, after a little time passed I really missed my genicanthus angels and came across a healthy little juvenille/female Watanabei
I asked the LFS to keep an eye out for a male for me... I took him home the day of arrival, managed to have the bottom of the bag blow out and have him hit the floor with a thud, put him in my frag tank in a panic with no acclimation where my purple tang proceeded to freak out on him. So, netted him out and threw caution to the wind and added him directly to my display after him being nastily tangled in the net. I fully suspected he was done for, the next tank he was a bit tattered but was eating flake food and happily swimming around the tank... Tough fish! Not even the least bit shy, he was soon gathering and nipping at my fingers when I feed like all the other little pigs.
At the same time I had picked up an achilles tang and quarantined him. A beautiful and healthy specimen, I decided to get him in the display tank after just 2 weeks. I had big fears of my sailfin tang, that I've had for nearly 10 years, ripping him to shreds. Similar fears with my longtime resident convict tang. But no, I watched in horror as the recent addition male Watanabei relentlessly pursued and ripped the achilles to shreds. So, despite their seeming delicate demeanor these can be some nasty fish. I would imagine that goes especially for a larger male since they're probably the extreme alphas of their species. Great fish, but I'll probably never add another fish to a tank that he's in that's even close to being his size.
