08-16-07
Been an interesting week at work....and with the tank.
Not really gonna get into work except to say that heat makes people do stupud things and alot of stupid things have been done in our town lately.
Regarding the tank...
I have some pictures this time to post so thats something at least...
Its been 4 days with the Berghia Nudi's in the tank and I havent seen a single aptasia disappear. According to Salty Underground's website, Berghia's will starve to death after 5-7 w/o feeding. So I'm really convinced that the Berghias were blown off the rockwork by the current in the tank and went into the overflows.....which sucks.
So....I did some reading up on various butterfly fish and looked hard at the Raccon Butterfly's like Lisa at Salty Underground suggested. According to Scott Michael's book "Angel Fish and Butterfly Fish" (Vol 3 of his Reef Fishes series of books), the Raccoon Butterfly fish
Chaetodon lunula), has a pretty varied diet with the Hawaiian fish not known for going after hard coral polyps predominantly, but the African varients do go after hard coral polyps....so that ones out. Checked several other species of Butterfly's out, and saw a few that I thought were pretty, but were potential coral eaters....and were expensive. Then I saw this guy:
Its a
Caribbean Long Nose Butterfly Fish. Before anyone asks...I got him from Live Aquaria, and paid about 1/3 of the price listed the marine center's website. It arrives Saturday. Live Aquaria says he's eating aptasia, and according to Scott Michael's book this butterfly is hardy and common. He rates fish on a 1-5 scale for difficulty in keeping...1 being almost impossible, and 5 being tough to kill even with a stick...
For reference, he rates the standard Copperband Butterfly a 2 on his scale, and this fish a 4.
He lists its diet as polychaete worms, nemertean worms, crustaceans, the pedicellaria of urchins (tube feet), fish eggs and black coral polyps. He states this fish readily acclimates if provided a proper captive environment,and can be kept in a deep water reef aquarium, but there is a moderate risk it will begin picking at some large polyp hard corals, and gorgonians, and will also eat tube worms.
This particular fish is rather small at 2.5 inches in size, and reaching a max size of 3.9 inches. I'm hoping its small enough that it wont even consider going after my Ritteri...and if it does, the clowns can protect it well enough. If it does and they cant, the Ritteri Anemone will be moved to the 120 until the Butterfly fish has eaten all the aptasia. Then it goes to a LFS for credit.
I also ordered a pair of Togan Anthias, (Pseudanthias flavicauda), from
www.phishybusiness.com.
I have ordered from PB in the past, and had great results. I got my Red Sea Regal Angel from them, and my Ritteri Anemone form them as well. The Ritteri has been in my care since March 10th of 2006, and the Regal has been in my care since Sept 27th of 2006. Both are doing great. I dont know what Serdar, (the owner of PB) does, or how he does it, but he has some amazing fish that are eating incredibly well. I spoke with him over the phone about the Anthias, and asked what he was feeding them. he told me they were the most aggressive feeding anthias he had in the store. He told me they are taking flake food, mysis, brine shrimp, nori, and prime reef....he said they were in a tank with several larger angels and were feeding just fine with them in the tank. They also arrive on Saturday.
Finally,
Last Friday, 8-10-2007, I ordered a beautiful purple H.crispa anemone from Divers Den on Live Aquaria.
I already have a small purple H.crispa in my 10 gallon tank with the Dwarf Moray, but liked the color of this one and felt they would do fine together.
(Look closely at the tentacles of this anemone.....)
Here is what arrived on Monday from Live Aquaria
This is a M.doreensis anemone.....pretty, but not what I ordered. Ironically, its the same species of anemone I just gave away because it was wandering around the tank and parked itself almost on top of my H.crispa. SO contacted Live Aquaria and spoke with the Customer Service Manager. They looked at the pics I just posted, realized the anemone was in fact the one in the picture they posted on the website, but it had been mislabeled, and they offered me a credit for the anemone. Which I accepted...
So thats been my week with the tank.
Nick
LA is good to work with on that!
Must be old age creeping up on me. Most Butterflyfish LOVE the feather dusters. I hope he will start hunting aiptasia for you soon.
