My new additions (pics)

philter4

New member
Well I'm in Placerville and I have a new 24 gal nano with sunpod metal halide lighting. I moved everything from my 6 gal and added a bunch of stuff, here are some photos of animals that I just collected on my last trip as well as some stuff I got from a HI collector. My next trip will be to HI, in the last year I have been two times and collected my own flame wrasse and bandit angel as well as a colony of potters (all in my tanks in FL so no photos as of now, but I'll post as soon as I go home with my camara)

Here is the female cherub I collected
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here is the lightning wrasse, collected in the sand about 110 ft deep
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I brought back a couple of red serpent stars, this one is small and they don't develope the deep red until they are older
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this is a white claw hermit
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I also collected a jawfish which has made his burrow in a perfect place to watch him
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Here is my new butterfly and small potters
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and finally the cherub and potters seem to just ignore each other, in my other tanks the males seem to fight a little, but nothing more then some nipped fins
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Hope you enjoy these, I was just on a collecting trip for my in June, but my health has prevented me from doing much real travelling or diving.
 
looking good

what kind of butterfly is that?
and do I see a pair of harlequin shrimp on the last pic
 
the butterfly is hawaiian bluestripe, and yes there is pr of harliquins in the photo, this is a pr I bought from HI, in 2006 I collected a pr but the male didn't make the trip to FL, it died in the bag. The female from that trip is in the upper right hand side of my avatar, she is huge compared to the 2 I just got, and someday I hope to match her up. Just an interesting fact, some authors say the Hawaiian harlequin is a different species, H. picta, not H. elegans. They are very different in color, with the hawaiian ones being wine red instead of the pastel purple-red of the indo pacific ones.
 
That's pretty neat.

How is cherub and potters doing together? I missed on a chance to add another pygmy.

edit: oops I just read the line above the pic.
 
And you can collect this stuff in Hawaii?
I have relatives living out there... I may have to visit and attempt to catch a Flame Wrasse... LOL
 
good stuff phil, i like the cherub :) i saw a pair at aquaworkz. didn't realize how small they were, do they nip at your corals?
 
Tofumushrooman pygmys are hermaphrodytes, they are born female and switch to male if and when they become dominant. This creates a problem for hobbyiests who want to keep colonies or breed them because the normal practice from collection to the pet store is to seperate them, usually causing them to begin to change to male. Once the change starts they can't change back.

Doahh, it is legal to collect in HI with a license, but for recreational aquarium use it is free. The problem with flame wrasses is they are deep, not found shallower then about 100 ft.

Bluenassarius, I'm not allowed to collect stony corals so I don't keep many, the ones I do have were given to me or came with the live rock. Because of this the fish are my main concern and I don't care if they eat the corals. Up to this point I have not seen any of my pygmy angels bother the corals, but I think I'm lucky as I have heard this is the exception, not the rule.
 
The problem with flame wrasses is they are deep, not found shallower then about 100 ft.

If this is true, I wonder what the long term affects of keeping them in a SPS dominated tank would be as this would most certainly be simulating shallow water depths.

Food for thought....
 
Once a fish is acclimated there are no long term effects from being in shallow water. This is born out in most peoples tanks, with the exception of bahama cought cherub angels all the ones in the trade come from 100 + ft, (f when I collect pygmies I start looking at 100 to 120 ft) same with all of the genicanthus angels they have problems with their swim bladders, but once they get through the acclimation phase they live long lives in tanks. The only problem that a fish might have is the high light, potentially it could cause them to be shy in tanks.
 
I have also heard of deep water fish going blind from the intense light in an Aquarium.

Good stuff! It must be nice to have a tank full of creatures you have caught yourself!!
 
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