My new tank

[Recty]

If you want, you can just skip to the bottom to see pictures!

Well, I dont have time to maintain a large aquarium like my old 210 gallon which I sold months ago (look at my avatar picture if you're wondering what is taking up my time nowadays ), but I finally decided I wanted to maintain something small, I was tired of not having a fish tank. I deliberated on what type of fish to get, something that can handle a small tank for a while and not outgrow it immediately.

I came up with the idea of an undulated trigger. I've always really liked triggers (they are what convinced me to get my 210 gallon tank) and I've never been able to keep an undulated because they are so mean, so I figured hey, I'll get one now that I just want a fish tank that only has two or three fish. It's a great fish, he is a little skittish but that's because he is new to me, when I feed he loses all skittishness and comes and hangs out wherever I'm at. The nice thing is it doesnt hide in the caves all day long like I had heard some do, he comes right out and roams around, blowing through the sand and what not.

Then I went ahead and got a Hawaiian hawkfish because I've always liked them, they arent pushovers and can handle being in the tank with a trigger. I've snorkeled and scuba dove in Hawaii and seen these guys, they are a great little fish. This one is no exception, I've only had him a couple days and already he begs for food like crazy. Definitely a lot of "personality" in this fish. Or is that fishionality?

Oh yeah, and I have two smallish hermit crabs, about 1.5" shells... just for cleanup although I assume they will eventually become trigger or hawkfish food.

And finally, I got a sixline wrasse. I'm a little worried about him and the undulated, as he is about bite sized but he is fast and a good swimmer and the undulated doesnt even look twice at him. They swim together around the tank and dont really seem to even see each other.

Make no mistake, the trigger is king. Everyone gets out of his way, but he doesnt chase anyone or try to beat anyone up, I hope it stays that way.

Everyone has eaten from day 1, the trigger and hawkfish eat mysis and formula one pellets, the sixline only eats mysis now but I hope to wean him over to pelleted food soon.

 

[Crabber]

Very nice. I've always wanted an undy. Do you have any liverock in the system? What size tank did you downgrade to?

 

[barbianj]

I knew it wouldn't take too long for you to get another tank. I think you make some good choices for a smaller tank. Undies are really cool fish. Btw, are those Greek or Roman ruins. I gotta ask. :wave:

 

[Recty]

Very nice. I've always wanted an undy. Do you have any liverock in the system? What size tank did you downgrade to?

No liverock, except some REAL small pieces I put in there, like 4, for the undulated to move around if he wants. I may slowly add live rock, I'm a little worried the six line wont survive long term without rock to pick critters off.

This is a 38 gallon tank. It's a typical 29g tank size but it's 6" longer, so 36" long which is about perfect.

 

[Recty]

I knew it wouldn't take too long for you to get another tank. I think you make some good choices for a smaller tank. Undies are really cool fish. Btw, are those Greek or Roman ruins. I gotta ask. :wave:

The undulated seems great so far. To be honest, I almost went with a small queen trigger and if I could have found one cheap locally, I would have. My biggest thing is I really dont want to upgrade for a year or two at least and I know the queen triggers grow much faster than undulated, so it's a good thing in the long run that I didnt get a queen.

Yep, I really like the undulated. He isnt doing what you always hear about undulated triggers, i.e. hiding in the caves the whole time. He is out and about and reacts to my presence through hiding a little bit, but if I move slow he just watches me and eventually comes back out.

As far as the decorations go, I'm sporting a Roman coliseum in the middle of the tank, that's the large structure the undulated calls home, then a small set of Greek columns on the right side of the tank just for good measure

I've always been a fan of only live rock and real natural looking environments for saltwater fish, this tank is going against everything I've ever set up before but it's very easy to maintain and has been great so far

Oh and because I forgot to mention it in my previous post, both the undulated and hawkfish are three inches not counting the tail and the sixline is about an inch.

 

[barbianj]

I'm not a big fan of the kitschy scapes, :artist: but honestly, it doesn't look half bad. If it was your first tank, not so much. Very nice colors. Also, it helps to take good pictures.

 

[Recty]

I'm not a big fan of the kitschy scapes, :artist: but honestly, it doesn't look half bad. If it was your first tank, not so much. Very nice colors. Also, it helps to take good pictures.

I think I'll eventually work some nice live rock in there, but for now this was simple and easy to set up I was a little worried how it would look but I like it.

 

[palmer373]

whered you get the 38 from than? was it custom or what? any more fish planeed? i thought this system looked familiar

 

[jjk_reef00]

Good to see you got the aquarium bug again. I like the undy, and have always enjoyed when you post pics.

 

[johno4]

very cool tank and welcome back.

 

[Recty]

whered you get the 38 from than? was it custom or what? any more fish planeed? i thought this system looked familiar

Not custom, it is sold at Petco. They dont sell them as just a tank, you have to get the "deluxe" kit which includes heater, filter, light and a stand, but the whole thing is $250 which isnt bad for a nice cherry stand and a good tank plus all the basic stuff to start.

Good to see you got the aquarium bug again. I like the undy, and have always enjoyed when you post pics.

You'll most likely be seeing weekly pictures again

very cool tank and welcome back.

Thanks! This tank is actually pretty enjoyable. The funny thing is how much less "stress" this tank is compared to my 210 gallon. I say "stress" with quotes because it wasnt really stress, but that's the closest thing I can think of. This tank is just easy.

I know the fish have ich, I got them from Petco, some of their other fish were riddled with it. The undulated has been at that Petco for over 5 months and survived it just fine, I went in there from time to time and saw him and he would have a dot or two of ich most of the times but he lived through it just fine. Same with the hawkfish, it's been there for over a month.

My old tank I would have NEVER bought a fish that had ich and NEVER put it right into my display tank because I had a lot more finicky of fish, ich in my display would have killed everything. Now, I'm just buying a couple bulletproof fish and giving them a good home, it's easy and satisfying.

What's even better is my little 3 month old loves to look at the bright lights I convinced my wife we need a fish tank again because Nicole will like it, and so far it's working!

 

[Stuart60611]

Very nice, especially the cutie in your avatar. What are you doing for biofiltration without rock. As I am sure you have read, my display has crypt also, once again. At this point, I am leaning toward not treating also. My fish do not show too many adverse signs from the crypt and otherwise seem to be going about their business, other than some occasional scratching and some small amount of spoting. We shall see. Best of luck on the new tank!

 

[Recty]

Very nice, especially the cutie in your avatar. What are you doing for biofiltration without rock. As I am sure you have read, my display has crypt also, once again. At this point, I am leaning toward not treating also. My fish do not show too many adverse signs from the crypt and otherwise seem to be going about their business, other than some occasional scratching and some small amount of spoting. We shall see. Best of luck on the new tank!

Thanks The cutie in the avatar is an amazing little girl, it's been fun. I'm a proud and happy first time dad.

I'm using a canister filter rated for a 100 gallon tank and a smallish hang on back filter rated for a 30 gallon tank. I'm not using any powerheads as of yet but I might if it looks like the tank needs it. For now, the fish I have arent fast swimmers and dont need lots of flow, so it's working out great.

I had a 75g reef for over a year with just two canister filters and I did just fine, some of my corals were a little brown but they were happy and grew nice and fast, I figure if I can do that with a reef I can certainly keep a small fish population happy and healthy.

As far as ich goes, it just depends what kind of fish you keep. My previous tank my angels and tangs would have died from the ich. This undulated trigger is a completely different story though, he is a monster. Any fish that can survive in Petco's tanks for 5 months is almost impossible to kill. I've always heard hawkfish are tough and able to survive with ich no problem, so I went ahead and got him. My only concern is the six line, I've seen those die of ich in other people's tanks but I'm hoping he will be OK. If he does come down with ich, as long as it doesnt look too bad I'll just leave him in and see how he does. Otherwise, one of the LFS has a bank of tanks they always leave copper in, I can take him there and just donate him, they will treat and resell it.

I almost didnt buy the undulated, it was kind of pale and didnt have good coloration really. Everytime I saw it I liked it but knew it didnt look like some of the undulated I see online. However, when I got it home the transformation was amazing. Within a day it got all colored up and great looking, nice dark skin with bold lines and really orange tail and fins. I guess the stress of being in a 10g tank all day for over 5 months was wearing it down, it sure seems to like the new large space to explore.

One thing cool I didnt know about undulated is it can get pale (seems to happen around feeding time) but it keeps a dark spot underneath each eye, almost like a football player smearing the dark paint under the eye to help with glare.

 

[palmer373]

just hypothetical but when the undy grows and gets full size are you planning on upgrading?

 

[Recty]

just hypothetical but when the undy grows and gets full size are you planning on upgrading?

I think by the time he is big enough to outgrow a 40g, I'll be ready to pass him on to one of the FOWLR guys around town that like big triggers. I dont really want to have to buy a bigger tank just for him and I dont plan on having a big aggressive FOWLR ever again either for him to go into.

Enough of the guys at ACF like triggers I'm sure I can move him to a good home without much issue.

 

[kirkaz]

Nice to see you have a tank again, and that your photography skills haven't left you....I do however fear for the lives of your Hawkfish and Wrasse.

 

[Recty]

Nice to see you have a tank again, and that your photography skills haven't left you....I do however fear for the lives of your Hawkfish and Wrasse.

I'm not too worried about the hawkfish, time will tell though. The wrasse, on the other hand, I'm starting to think was a bad idea. I just wanted some small fish that would eat leftover bits of food left from the bigger fish. However, a little sleeping wrasse in a cocoon of mucus at night is probably a pretty tempting target for the undy.

 

[kirkaz]

I'm not too worried about the hawkfish, time will tell though. The wrasse, on the other hand, I'm starting to think was a bad idea. I just wanted some small fish that would eat leftover bits of food left from the bigger fish. However, a little sleeping wrasse in a cocoon of mucus at night is probably a pretty tempting target for the undy.

Don't get me wrong, I hope it works and it certainly could. I always worry about fish that don't move around much (like Hawks) with Triggers. You have me thinking about an Undy in a solo tank though...BlueZoo always seems to have 1 inch Undy's in stock, and I have a tank collecting dust that would work.

 

[Recty]

I ALMOST bought the 5-6 inch that they have in stock, I was thinking that would be cool but at that size it's already outgrown my 40g I'd love to have a big undulated, this small 3" one seems like a great fish I can only imagine with age they get better.

I'd definitely recommend them for a species tank, this one is out and about and pretty cool so far, although I've had it for a short time so I cant say long term how they are.

 

[mrwilson]

... I finally decided I wanted to maintain something small, ...

By the looks of your avatar, you got your wish! I kind of like the kitschy 'scape. Looks like what a lot of saltwater tanks looked like back in the '80s when I first kept one. Hope you continue to enjoy your tank.