Some new fish...

[DamnPepShrimp]

Man your display is active now! I bet a lot more then when you had the 5 triggers. Let me know if your queens colors change at all. Mine came in looking like yours, but since has turned more yellow I feel. It could be the lighting or could be its now in captivity and changing? I am thinking about doing the flame angel harem now that my eel hasn't eaten a damsel in a couple months. Btw, I have some fish coming in tuesday that you will appreciate

 

[saltman23]

you could try keeping them clean by taking the out and bleaching them every once in a while. I started doing that, but gave up after the algae just woulden't stop.

 

[Recty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15220368#post15220368 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DamnPepShrimp
Man your display is active now! I bet a lot more then when you had the 5 triggers. Let me know if your queens colors change at all. Mine came in looking like yours, but since has turned more yellow I feel. It could be the lighting or could be its now in captivity and changing? I am thinking about doing the flame angel harem now that my eel hasn't eaten a damsel in a couple months. Btw, I have some fish coming in tuesday that you will appreciate

Yes, this is definitely the most active my 210 has ever been. The 6 dwarf angels and 4 small tangs are constantly buzzing. The larger angels do their slow swim across the entire tank picking on all the rocks and the big tang does his thing. All in all, there is a lot of movement. I know I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, it is so cool how having the smaller fish has made all the bigger fish, especially the blue face, calm down and be peaceful and just open swimming.

I wonder how much of it had to do with changing around the rock work, and how much had to do with the "dither" fish thing?

 

[Recty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15221676#post15221676 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saltman23
you could try keeping them clean by taking the out and bleaching them every once in a while. I started doing that, but gave up after the algae just woulden't stop.

Yeah, the guy I got the old corals from used to bleach his from time to time, but I think that's a really bad idea.

For one, the chance of contaminating the tank somehow by pulling rocks in and out a lot is a lot higher than if I just leave them alone.

Two, I want these things to be full of bacteria. They are my filtration besides my skimmer. It takes a while to get the rock internally colonized with anaerobic bacteria and once that is going, I dont want to kill them all off by bleaching once a month.

I'll be OK with the algae rock look. None of my algae is longer than 1mm, it isnt as if I have hair algae going everywhere, just small short tiny cropped bits of brown or green algae that the tangs keep down. I've also noticed the dwarf angels picking all over the rocks and that has to help keep some of the algae down, although even with just the dussumieri tang I never really had any type of algae problem.

I'm certainly feeding more nori than I used to, I'm going through 2 large sheets a day whereas before I used to feed one. That will only continue to get higher the bigger the fish get! Of course, that's why I'm looking into redoing my sump.

 

[barbianj]

Recty, some of the rocks that are in my tank are volcanic rocks that I brought back from the Caribbean. They are almost as sharp as the coral. I was worried at first also, but after a few scrapes, the fish learn pretty fast. Also, it's not as bad when the algae grows on it. You have so many grazers now, you'll need all that surface area.

Since the Cupramine, my fish easily eat twice as much as before. Have you noticed the same thing with yours?

 

[Recty]

Hmmm not really, all my fish still are piggies. They stopped eating much during the cupramine, but before that they ate like pigs and they still continue to eat like pigs. My dussu and emperor are still both as fat as ever, the emperor is easily 1.5" thick, if not 2" and the dussu is fast approaching that as well.

I think they have forgotten they are supposed to be laterally compressed.

 

[Recty]

Just goofing around with my flames... I took like 50 pictures and I thought they were going to be amazing. I look at them on my computer and realize I had turned it down to horribly low detail for some pictures of our new SAN at work and I hadnt turned it back up, so they arent good for actual normal viewing but they turned out good like this.

 

[Recty]

It's funny, I was sure both my fire shrimp were dead.

I saw white antennae on the other side of a flame angel and figured a cleaner shrimp was cleaning one, but I got closer and looked and sure enough, one of my fire shrimp was hanging on a flame angel cleaning away.

So right now I'm sure I have one cleaner shrimp and one fire shrimp. I thought I had 2 cleaner shrimp but I only ever see one, so who knows.

 

[Recty]

The algae clip sure is a popular place nowadays... half a full 12x12 sheet lasts about 30 seconds and is totally gone. It isnt just ripped off and floating through the water, it's GONE.

My little flames are starting to swim around together a lot too, which is so cool looking.

 

[saltman23]

wow, thats going to be alot of algae. who eats the most? I'm guessing the Dus?

 

[barbianj]

Is your new coral getting covered in algae already? It looks better when it's not all bright white. I've always thought that if you look at at a Convict tang by itself, it's pretty drab, but for a lack of color, they have a lot of flash.

Is the Emperor healing up more?

 

[danorth]

Looking great!

 

[Recty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15235077#post15235077 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saltman23
wow, thats going to be alot of algae. who eats the most? I'm guessing the Dus?

I think the emperor angel still eats the most, it's a tie between the dussu and the emperor. They are by far the largest fish in there, they outmass the next closest fish, the queen and the blue face, but at least 3 or 4 times and they eat that much more.

The dussu eats pellets a lot faster than the emperor. He just inhales them out of the water and like REALLY zaps back and forth quickly between pellets. The emperor eats them too, but he takes his time.

 

[Recty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15235122#post15235122 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by barbianj
Is your new coral getting covered in algae already? It looks better when it's not all bright white. I've always thought that if you look at at a Convict tang by itself, it's pretty drab, but for a lack of color, they have a lot of flash.

Is the Emperor healing up more?

Yeah, the coral is getting algae growth. You gotta remember, I have a 250w MH directly above them, the tops of them are about 8 inches from my light

I took a real chance with the convict tangs. I just remember swimming with them in Hawaii a couple months ago and thinking wow, for a just black and white fish, they look really stunning in a school. I searched around on the web for aquariums with pictures of a school and didnt find any, so I just thought I'd go for it. I'm really pleased with the results, they do for my tank exactly what I wanted.

The emperor's forehead is healing up, but his face and cheeks still show large pits... I'll try to get another pictures of it, the tank lights are already off.

I think the forehead is going to be totally healed, but the cheeks will probably have pits for a long time, if not permanent scarring.

 

[Recty]

Well, now I've seen both cleaner shrimp alive and one of the fire shrimp... although the only one I've seen clean was the fire shrimp and it was just on a little flame angel. I'd love to see one of my cleaners climbing all over the big angel or tang. But it's good to know the inverts are living in there.

It's AMAZING how well the dwarf angels are controlling algae. I'm sure the convicts are helping as well too, but it's just crazy how much the dwarf angels pick on the rock.

Most of the dwarfs are eating pellets now too, which is great.

 

[danorth]

You're in the zone man.....hold on to it!

 

[DamnPepShrimp]

I really want to try a flame harem in my 210, but I feel the tank is too aggressive for them. Would love a shoal of convicts in a large reef tank. Sometimes wish I didn't go so aggressive.

 

[danorth]

Man, I'm thinking about trying 2 clown tangs.....anything is possible!

 

[Reeftanks6]

Recty beautiful tank. Havent looked on the thread in a while. Love the new convict tangs, they are great fish its ashame you dont see them to often. Do the convicts actually swim around with each other?

 

[Recty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15242084#post15242084 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reeftanks6
Recty beautiful tank. Havent looked on the thread in a while. Love the new convict tangs, they are great fish its ashame you dont see them to often. Do the convicts actually swim around with each other?

They pretty much always stick together. You'll see one convict off on the side of the tank but the other three together a lot. Basically one wanders away from the group but they never go far and then they come back together. They just kind of wander the tank loosely together. It's more what I think is termed a shoal, than a school.

It's really great to watch though and I'm glad I took the risk to see if it would work out. I hope it continues to work long term.

Interestingly, the only one that is a punk at all towards the other convicts is the smallest one. Every once in a while, he sticks his fins out and zips around just for like half a second and scares the other convicts, then he just goes right back to swimming like normal with them I think he's got the small man syndrome.