I didn't think Ducans had the sting of, say, an elegance.
Sometimes I think it comes down to things that can most easily be summed up by the term: luck. For example, a collector may chance upon a pipe to begin with due to the pipe being distracted by a commotion on the reef, and the health of the pipe may be very good; or a collector may catch the slowest pipe on the reef, the less fit, that maybe isn't so healthy. And your LFS may order that pipe from the wholesaler as soon as that fish comes in, or that pipe may sit at the wholeseller's for a week, not getting proper food, before it is subjected to the rigors of shipping. And during any of those flights, that pipe may sit out in 50 degree or 100 degree temps, or it may not.
Similarly, that pipe may be an old salt of the reef, and live in an area filled with all kinds of stinging corals and know how to navigate around them. Or it may be collected as a juvie, or from waters where tube anemones are not common, and thus have no experience with them. Who knows? I do think that fish can learn from experience (even goldfish in a pond learn to surface when footsteps near after they have been fed a few times.)
The LFS close by had quite a few CB pink skunk clowns in a tank with some buble tip anemones, and everything was going fine in the tank and it remained unchanged for about a month. Then, the LFS added two tube anemones to the same tank. The next time I went in, there wasn't a single pink skunk clown left -- and I doubt that they all sold....
If it works, great. But I have gone through my Borneman book and essentially put at least half of the corals listed in the category of "not appropriate for me" (either because they have a dismal rate of survival, need care that I can not give, or are too aggressive to fish and/or one another.)
Felicia, you need to post photos of your guppies sometime.
Sometimes I think it comes down to things that can most easily be summed up by the term: luck. For example, a collector may chance upon a pipe to begin with due to the pipe being distracted by a commotion on the reef, and the health of the pipe may be very good; or a collector may catch the slowest pipe on the reef, the less fit, that maybe isn't so healthy. And your LFS may order that pipe from the wholesaler as soon as that fish comes in, or that pipe may sit at the wholeseller's for a week, not getting proper food, before it is subjected to the rigors of shipping. And during any of those flights, that pipe may sit out in 50 degree or 100 degree temps, or it may not.
Similarly, that pipe may be an old salt of the reef, and live in an area filled with all kinds of stinging corals and know how to navigate around them. Or it may be collected as a juvie, or from waters where tube anemones are not common, and thus have no experience with them. Who knows? I do think that fish can learn from experience (even goldfish in a pond learn to surface when footsteps near after they have been fed a few times.)
The LFS close by had quite a few CB pink skunk clowns in a tank with some buble tip anemones, and everything was going fine in the tank and it remained unchanged for about a month. Then, the LFS added two tube anemones to the same tank. The next time I went in, there wasn't a single pink skunk clown left -- and I doubt that they all sold....
If it works, great. But I have gone through my Borneman book and essentially put at least half of the corals listed in the category of "not appropriate for me" (either because they have a dismal rate of survival, need care that I can not give, or are too aggressive to fish and/or one another.)
Felicia, you need to post photos of your guppies sometime.
