New powder blue and other pictures

I set up the autofeeder because the fish is still a little scared of me and is more concerned with hiding when it knows I'm looking at it. Due to my work schedule I have an odd photoperiod, 7 pm to 2 am. Actinics turn on at 3 pm, turn off at 3 am. But sometimes I'm not able to feed the tank until 10 pm.

Made a mix of the small NLS and formula 2 to feed a small amount of pellets at 7, 9, 11, and 1 am. That is working really well, PBT finally learned to compete with the triggers and get the pellets out of the water column. May keep the autofeeder going, I normally only use it for vacations but it's pretty convenient.
 
I love the auto feeder... I cant say enough good things about it.

I know that even if I plan on being home and feeding my fish 4 times a day, stuff comes up and I forget or dont have time to do it.

With my autofeeder, I'm guaranteed my fish are eating 4 square meals a day and then I can just supplement with mysis and nori as I want to. IMO, that's one of the main things I attribute to not only my fish health/fatness but also to their lack of being territorial. They are fat and happy... and dont need to fight.

They are definitely much fatter than they would be if I was trying to feed 4 times a day. And I'd really recommend to anyone who is trying to place multiple tangs or angels together and have aggression issues to try out an autofeeder and up the feeding as much as they can while still maintaining water quality... I think that will help keep aggression down. It sure has in my case.
 
One thing strikes me as very interesting. I've only been doing it for three or four days, but the triggers know when it's about to feed and camp near the feeding hole. They also know when it's 5 minutes before lights out, because they go and lock into their sleeping caves with the lights still shining bright.

How do they know?
 
I really like your Niger! I've always wanted one...but I don't have a tank that doesn't have a lionfish or that isn't a reef. The powder blue has some striking colors :) haha I love the picture with the white flash across the front; my pictures of my tanks are horrible.
 
good looking fish, thought about a powder blue but not really sure what else im going to put in my 150 havent put a whole lot of thought into it
 
Here's a feeding video, since I can't get most of the fish to hold still long enough to photograph. Before anyone asks, I'm using that HOB because the tank is in hypo and the skimmer doesn't operate as well at 1.009. Maybe next time I can get more wall and less tank in the video.

 
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Figured it would make sense to get a video without all of the equipment in the way, as beautiful as it is.

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See if you can spot the glitch in the matrix.

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You can just barely see the bluethroat sneaking back to the left if you watch the top left corner.
 
Getting chubby now...

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Some updated shots. The PBT has developed a bit of lymph on one if it's fins, which is a bit irritating. Also has a speck on one of it's eyes that won't go away, but doesn't appear to be hurting anything. You can see it in the first picture if you look closely, but I'm not going to overreact and treat.

All of the fish are getting really thick on the Formula 2/NLS Pellet mix. Especially the tangs. Still at hyposalinity, will probably stay there for a little while longer even though the last sign of ich was over a month ago. I'm in no hurry.

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I was soaking some pellets in selcon and left them on a small table by the tank.

Come back later to find the container knocked over, pellets everywhere, and a guilty looking dog.

Do NLS pellets help a dog's colors? I guess we'll see.
 
Wow. Those are nice looking fish. That Blue Throat was going crazy for food in that first video. When I did hypo about 8 months ago, towards the end of it my Hippo got lymphcostis (sp?). After a couple of weeks and bringing the salinity back up, it went away and hasn't returned.

Jim
 
Great videos!
Your pbt looks great. I wouldn't wory about the lymph, it will go away in time.
Before you know it all your fish will be in line for you autofeeder, and will fight to get position. My fish got extremely aggressive before the auto feeder went off so I had to get a second one for the other side of the tank. I feed 2 times a day with the auto feeder, but maybe I should be feeding more...
 
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Yeah, all are pretty aggressive feeders, I have to target feed the maroon clown on her side of the tank to make sure she gets enough to eat. She decided to host the bare back left corner of the tank, appears glued to the corner most of the time. The tomini also hangs back there and nips the algae clip, isn't into the pellets as much. Clown gets mad when I try to clean this corner, so I usually leave it be.

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Not worried about the lymph on the PBT, it's just annoying to see it pop up on a visible fin. The Blue Throat can't seem to shake it, keeps reappearing in different spots.
 
Put a ruler by the tank and take a picture when it swims by. I'd bet it isnt 7". Not doubting you, but water has a way of tricking you.

I've seen quite a few old powder blues at LFS and they never got more than about 6" and even those looked huge because I'm used to seeing 3-4" ones all the time...

Anyway, you should try to measure him :) Didnt you get it around 5"? They dont grow very fast, so if it did add two more inch in 6 months, that's very impressive.

Very nice looking fish btw.
 
I don't blame you for doubting. When I brought it home it was the largest powder blue I'd seen in person and I still haven't seen one as big. Where I really notice the difference is in the first feeding video, it is a lot bigger fish now. The powder blues at the LFS look like toys.

I moved my tank about a month ago and hand measured all of the fish before transferring them. My largest fish was my harlequin tusk which was about 7 1/4 inches even though I had convinced myself it was 8". The power blue came in at about 6 1/2. Now they look to me to be close to the same length. Some people say their PBT's never grow, this one looks bigger every time I look in the tank.

They seem to grow differently than other fish, doesn't seem to be getting any "taller" but is definitely lengthening.

Here's a video from today that I also posted in another thread, see if you can see size difference between the two.

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I saw an absolutely enormous achilles tang a few months ago at a LFS. It was a trade in, and it was a joke how big this thing was. A 400 gallon fish, it looked miserable in a 180.
 
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