Some mediocre pictures of some wonderful fish

[small alien]

Took a few shots yesterday and thought I'd share.

Green Mandarin

Female meleagris leopard and tailspot blenny

Matted file and scooter dragonet

Hector's goby

 

[small alien]

OSFF

bluespot toby and male meleagris leopard wrasse

male meleagris and tailspot blenny

male meleagris

female scooter

 

[small alien]

canary wrasse

orange multi-band pipe

male meleagris

FTS

 

[gsiegel]

Thanks for sharing. Beautiful Fish.

How is the blue spot Toby Puffer? I have been thinking about adding one to my tank but have been concerned about it nipping at the fins of some of the other fish such as wrasses.

Thx

 

[humaguy]

very nice tank!

 

[small alien]

its extremely peaceful. Really just minds its own business. Was added after all wrasses. Blue spots are some of the smallest tobies.

 

[small alien]

Thanks humaguy.

 

[rssjsb]

its extremely peaceful. Really just minds its own business. Was added after all wrasses. Blue spots are some of the smallest tobies.

I love your tank - we have very similar fish preferences.

One question - what motile inverts to you keep in this tank? I'm thinking of moving my toby to the "big house" but I've got a few hermits and serpent stars in there and I'm a bit worried he would bother them. I already know he would feast on snails but I think the hermits may have been doing that.

 

[SDguy]

Lovely selection of fish... it must be so relaxing to watch!

 

[small alien]

Thanks, Peter. I do love my fish population. The only change I would make is to remove either my male or female meleagris leopard. The male chases the female a good bit. She's always on edge. I've heard meleagris leopards don't pair up but I don't know. Mine certainly haven't.

Hi Robin. As far as the Toby, I'd already lost all my mini brittle stars to a Pervagor melanocephalus. The Toby seems to have taken out all nassarius snails regardless of size, all feather dusters and my cleaner shrimp's antennae are on the short side. Hasn't touched any coral that I know of but I do feed heavily. Love having it in the reef.

Cheers.

 

[small alien]

male bluestripe pipefish

royal gramma

banded pipe

 

[small alien]

banded pipe

matted filefish

 

[snorvich]

Always a pleasure looking at your tank especially with the fish you choose which I also love.

 

[small alien]

Thanks, Steve. Nice to hear from you.

 

[hobbzz]

Very nice. I love the eclectic selection of fish. Not stuff you see every day. How long have all the pod eaters been in the system? Ie the scooters, pipe fish, potters etc.

 

[SDguy]

Can you describe your feeding regime?

 

[djp2313]

Love the fish selection, seems like I've looked at everyone of them at one point or the other but decided they wouldn't work for this reason or that. The lone exception being the tailspot blenny that I did get.

 

[small alien]

Very nice. I love the eclectic selection of fish. Not stuff you see every day. How long have all the pod eaters been in the system? Ie the scooters, pipe fish, potters etc.

Thanks. Here's the best I can remember.

Tank is up 3 1/4 years with a bunch of live rock in the sump and quite a bit in the DT along with a substantial sandbed. The sump is always chock full o' live mysis. I don't see pods much in the display. Maybe an occasional what I think is a benthic copepod and some amphipods below the sand line against the glass in little channels.

Here are the "pod eaters" as I understand them and their approximate times in the display.

Scooter - 1 1/2 years
Banded pipe - 1 1/2 years
bluestripe pipe - 10 mos
orange multiband pipe - 3 mos
2 leopard wrasses - 2 1/2 years
green mandarin - 2 mos
canary wrasse (I assume) - 2 years

I think that's it. Everybody appears robust. The bluestripe pipe is downright obese. And it's a male so those ain't eggs. Cheers.

 

[small alien]

Can you describe your feeding regime?

I sure can!

I feed as much as possible without being absurd. That generally means 2X on weekdays and as much as 5X on weekends. A single feeding is approximately '2 cubes' for frozen or 1/2 tblspoon for pellets and a pinch for flake

I feed the following with approximate percentages.

20% small NLS pellets
15% Sustainable Aquatics Hatchery Diet pellets (great for betacarotenes)
20% PE mysis
10% Hikari mysis (the regular small ones)
15% Frozen Copepods
5% Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef Flakes (the OSFF love these and even the leopards eat them!)
15% Nutramar Ova Prawn Roe (this food being readily accessible is, in my opinion, just a huge boon to marine fish keeping. It is a near miracle food and I credit my relative success with largish population of pop eaters to this food in particular. It is the one food my green mandy eats. It is the first food I offer to all fish and I've weened many pipes and dragonets with it as a first prepared food. I recommend everyone have this food on hand if you're going to try a pipe or a mandarin. Phew!)

Here's a few archival feeding videos, ya know, for fun.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wlweNvlKZ-I?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hyZ1vae3YuI?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IBjJ0XRuWXY?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[small alien]

Love the fish selection, seems like I've looked at everyone of them at one point or the other but decided they wouldn't work for this reason or that. The lone exception being the tailspot blenny that I did get.

Many of the fish are considered challenging for various reasons, mostly feeding related. But my tank is not a burden. The initial weening can take a lot of time and effort. And I also employ mind control but that's for another post. Unfortunately, I've lost as many pipes and mandarins from not being able to ween them as I've had success with. To my mind, some fish just have a stronger will to live and will try new foods. And, sadly, some won't. I do think it's worth trying in that we make progress and develop new techniques. But I know there are people of many cultures and faiths who would disagree. And, in my heart, my feelings are a bit mixed. On some level, they are fish, and I suppose that is a difference makers. I probably wouldn't be willing to lose the same number of puppies to food weening issues if you get my drift.

If you want to try a "pod eater", I'd go scooter dragonet. They ween to any number of frozen small crustacean foods readily and can be sustained in most cases with twice daily feeding where they are not outcompeted and where the flow is low enough that food settles to the bottom for them. They will not eat out of the water column. If your tank is large enough, you have a decent sand bed for burrying at night and you can get a healthy one, leopards wrasses may be sustained with a similar regimen. I'd skip mandarins and pipefish until you're feeling really confident in your ability and availability.

Cheers.