RAREst fish in your sps tank

looking good john. I love those pyramid butterflies. I had one forever i didn't want to sell. lol i kept him for a while and fed him lots, then decided he needed a better system then my bare bottom holding system. :)

i will also have a pair when i get enough room :)
 
For all you fish collectors.. here's some Japanese eye candy for you! I've seen these fish in the Chinese Fish Only tanks but never with corals. Im impressed! :)

Nick.. how much does an Interrptus & Hotumatua cost? Those fish are sweet!


konnsupikurarionn041204.jpg


img_3777_000.jpg


Holacanthus clarionensis
kurarionn041121_000.jpg


konsupi040814.jpg


Centropyge bispinosa @
orennjiruriyakko-m.jpg
 
Hey Edward,

Nice pics, the Japanese have the best angels out there!

The Hotumatua are now protected, so the few that are probably collected illegally go to Japan for BIG $$$ now.

The interruptus go from $800 - $1400 (a spectacular male sold at a LFS recently for 1.4k).

Nick
 
Well....no is the short answer Edward. It is a risk no matter what ;). You just have to decide if it is worth the risk. To me and the others that posted on this thread it is. Some get luckly, others have to tear their tank apart to get out angels that do no work.

That's why I always try my angels out in my frag tank first ;). A TON easier to get them out if there are nippers.

Nick
 
hotumatua's aren't entering US markets and probably wont again. As nick said they are protected. A few people go and do "research" and collect them and after they are doing "inspecting" them, sell it in Japan or Hong Kong. Same with nahackyi (although NONE have entered the trade anywhere, and waikiki aquarium has the only one in captivity). they are a very nice pygmy angel (it is in a sps/lps/clam tank!)
 
Well.. thats not what I want to hear! ;) But thats why I like it.. its a challenge. Looks like we will wait on the Hotu until its not protected.

Nick, order some angels, then try them out. then sell them as reef safe! I'm starting to itch for a beautiful Angel!
 
Nick, How are your hybrid angels doing? My pair is getting bigger and are a hoot to watch. Always moving, always picking. My pair have a few corals they seem to enjoy the slime from and I have caught them nipping briefly at some micromussas, enough to get the polyps to retract ever so slightly for a moment then they puff right back up. I am not worried in the least at this point. We'll see how I feel in a year :D. I think a lot has to do with your attitude and if the corals are really bothered. It is so random at this point and the few corals that have soem polyp retraction are growing well and seem fine, they even look better with the polyps pulled in slightly, lol.

Edward, I say go for it...I like your idea to have Nick do all the work in his frag tank and then sell the ones that are good citizens. Although there are so many stories about angels doing nothing and then suddenly one day going on a tear. I'd rather have some incidental nipping per their nature and character and have the corals get kind of use to it.
 
You know I don't believe the hotumatuas are themselves protected, but rather all collection of reef life at Easter Island is. I know Nick's referring to my conversation with Frank Baensch when we talked about this, but Zem, what reference are you referring to? Either way they won't be showing up... They're found outside of Easter Island at a few islands but all the ones that have entered the trade have come from Easter that I know of... When I last saw Frank in October he had three "hot tomatoes"... Just 17 hours after I left Oahu on that trip for Guam an earthquake hit that knocked out power on parts of the island... Frank's backup systems ran life support but not the chillers, and he lost one when the temperatures went to the high 70s. Frank says that these guys can take no higher than 72 degrees in the long term, so they need almost a dedicated system with a larger than average chiller... He offered me his remaining pair but I passed, as my wife would shoot me if I set up another separate system :D. Honestly... if I was single I wouldn't have been able to pass them up... :) Beautiful they were... They went to a guy in California who did just that... a dedicated cool water system for them... Even in the future Frank said he won't do much with them simply due to their cool water requirements... Oh well... so many fish and so little space :)

Alicia... Mom and Dad C. resplendens and C. fisheri are a hoot also! They ar little terrors to new additions... especially the resplendens... it's true what they say about them! I added this past weekend some fairy wrasses to my dwarf angel tanks... A trio of rhomboid wrasses went in with the resplendens/fisher's pair and they were getting tagged pretty well... shut the lights off for the night and it was better the next day and gone by the third day... In the Colin's pair/ interruptus tank I put a trio of Hawaiian flame wrasses and they fit right in with no aggression... I also got a TRUE Hawaiian flame angel... it came in with a bunch of Christmas Island flames and man did the red on him stand out... not a bit of orange or yellow to speak of... pretty neat... I'll get some more pics soon. :)

All corals have been okay with my dwarfs, but I did recently find a coral that my regal angel trio went to town on! I'm getting together a symphyllia collection and placed three healthy pieces in my large display with the regals... they nearly ate one to death before I could get the corals out :) I'd still choose angels over LPS any day of the week! :)

Copps
 
Everyones dwarfs look awesome!!!

I remember when i entered the hobby (2000) i met a couple people that were getting Hotu's, Joc's etc pretty readily. At the time, i didnt REALLY appreciate how difficult they were to get. One guy had a 20 gallon in his kitchen with a HOB filter setup for his Joc so i didnt think the fish was that difficult to get. He also had 5 Gems in his tank at one point. My friend (another RC'er) ended up getting a Hotu for approx. 400.00 but it eventually died and he couldnt seem to figure out what. I guess it was due to the limited range of temperatues the fish can handle.

Well, just wanted to share my story :) Once again, beautfiul fish everyone.
 
HAHA. Funny story about a Clarion once too. I was at Lucky Goldfish in Oakland and i asked an employee how much a show sized Clarion was, just out of curiosity, to which he replied 99.00. Before he got to bag it up, the owner made sure to correct him, haha.
 
I guess my bluespot jawfish, and I had one of those wrasses from the first page but it went skydiving without a parachute.

My Jewel Damsel is pretty darn cool looking to (not rare, or expensive but I rarely see them in tanks.. if ever)..all black with Neon/electric blue spots and a yellow tail. He's a good size also almost as big as my angels and still is holding it's spots.


(not mine: http://www.tjorvar.is/assets/images/jewel_damsel.jpg)
 
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Copps, Easter is protected not the individual angels is what i meant :)
A few people have mentioned it here, as well as Waikiki Aquarium.

I actually think collection is legal there but you cannot used compressed air or surface air (hooka) to collect, only free diving. And if these guys are any deeper then 20 feet, not to many will be collected free diving. :)
 
copps - i have a true hawaiian flame right now to! They do look so much nicer then any other flame :) Diver caught it at 110 feet (any deeper then 20 is considered a true hawaiian flame)

Pics of the rhomboids!
 
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