The inwall 380 starfire reborn
- Thread starter Sparkss
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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9816814#post9816814 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sparkss
I believed you Gresh.. especially since all of those listed for sale were the same A. pyroferus. Thanks for further reinforcing your statements.. It is amazing how the same fish can mimic, almost so completely, another fish's color and to a certain degeree even shape. I know that they typically do it as a defense... too bad they don't feel just a little bit more threatened as they get older, so that they might feel the need to keep their mimic colors.
You have to continually poke at it with a stick
Some people hire kids (child labor) to do it during the daytime hours. Remember to give them their alloted brakes though.It was originally the A. Nigricans, I will have to look up the A. Japonicus.
I saw a gold rim at an LFS a couple of months ago that had remarkably striking colorations. The LFS employees told me that it changed it's body color/intensity with as much frequency and speed as a sailfin does. When I saw it the tang was almost jet black with the color highlights around the fins. A definitive eye catcher (but I needed to research it first before buying it). I called back to talk to the owner (he was not present the day we visited the store), and he told us that the gold rim came from the Red Sea, and that explained the bright and vivid colors.
Thanks for the tip on the "other" gold rim, going to google it now
.Ok, I did my homework and now am a little confused. The Japonicus is the Powder Brown.. I could have sworn that I read it was almost as aggressive as it's similarly named brother, the Powder Blue. And that the Goldrim is the "quiet" one of the family.
But the reading material I found just now states the exact opposite, and that the Japonicus is the more hardy one and the nigricans is harder to come by and has a lower survival rate (very delicate, even after acclimation)...
The nigricans info : http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/tangs/GoldRimmedTang.php
and the japonicus info : http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/tangs/japonicus.php
My preferrence would be the Japonicus, but only so long as it is not as aggressive as a good portion of the other Acanthurus. Obviously more reading is called for
But the reading material I found just now states the exact opposite, and that the Japonicus is the more hardy one and the nigricans is harder to come by and has a lower survival rate (very delicate, even after acclimation)...
The nigricans info : http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/tangs/GoldRimmedTang.php
and the japonicus info : http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/tangs/japonicus.php
My preferrence would be the Japonicus, but only so long as it is not as aggressive as a good portion of the other Acanthurus. Obviously more reading is called for
We have that book, and it may have been where we got our orig info from. Thanks for the heads up
On a separate note, our 2 mandarins were doing their mating dance tonight. It was neat to watch, but also a little funny.. they would swim up and intertwine together and sort of let their upward momentum carry them, but they kept trying to do it near one of our Vortecs, and would get sucked towards the pump, then would be forced to break away to sink down in the tank to try again. After about the third time I went out and shut off that one pump. I waited that long because I figured they would get the idea and try it in a different part of the tank... no such luck.. ok, so now the pump is off and they take a couple of minutes to get over seeing my ugly self lurking around behind the tnak (to disconnect the driver for that pump). they finally do their upward spiral again, this time srtaying fearfully close to the back corner overflow (yea, they just can't catch a break
). As they near the top they start to get pulled towards the overflow, but that isn't what breaks them up.. they hit the top of the waterline and break through the surface and pretty much freak out, separating and taking off in different directions, but leaving behind a cloud of what we assumed was eggs and sperm, which was quickly pulled over the overflow and down the drain (*sigh*... did I mention that they couldn't get a break ?). I waited over an hour before I turned the Vortec back on, but they never made another appearance.
But the cool part is that now we know that our pair is now truly a pair. It is soo cool to see them swimming around and hunting together. After several weeks this was the first time we saw them doing the mating dance.
I would have tried to get a picture of the dance, but they did it after lights out, with only the light from the fuge, more or less like twilight/dusk, which is when I read that they typically mate.
I will try to get some pictures of them foraging together this weekend, when taking pictures of our "take" from the swap
On a separate note, our 2 mandarins were doing their mating dance tonight. It was neat to watch, but also a little funny.. they would swim up and intertwine together and sort of let their upward momentum carry them, but they kept trying to do it near one of our Vortecs, and would get sucked towards the pump, then would be forced to break away to sink down in the tank to try again. After about the third time I went out and shut off that one pump. I waited that long because I figured they would get the idea and try it in a different part of the tank... no such luck.. ok, so now the pump is off and they take a couple of minutes to get over seeing my ugly self lurking around behind the tnak (to disconnect the driver for that pump). they finally do their upward spiral again, this time srtaying fearfully close to the back corner overflow (yea, they just can't catch a break
). As they near the top they start to get pulled towards the overflow, but that isn't what breaks them up.. they hit the top of the waterline and break through the surface and pretty much freak out, separating and taking off in different directions, but leaving behind a cloud of what we assumed was eggs and sperm, which was quickly pulled over the overflow and down the drain (*sigh*... did I mention that they couldn't get a break ?). I waited over an hour before I turned the Vortec back on, but they never made another appearance.But the cool part is that now we know that our pair is now truly a pair. It is soo cool to see them swimming around and hunting together. After several weeks this was the first time we saw them doing the mating dance.
I would have tried to get a picture of the dance, but they did it after lights out, with only the light from the fuge, more or less like twilight/dusk, which is when I read that they typically mate.
I will try to get some pictures of them foraging together this weekend, when taking pictures of our "take" from the swap
did a good bit of re-aquascaping and placement of new corals. Picked up some nice ones this past weekend, that are still settling in before being moved to their final home within our reef.. no pictures of those yet, but the Paletta Pink tabling (granulosa ?), Aquascene True A. Echinata, Palmers Blue Millie, Nathans Green Milli.. just so much love and joy (and so little cash left now). But enough cash to order a couple more fish... 2 banded pipe fish will be here tomorrow from LiveAquaria, along with 1 female leopard wrasse (was supposed to be a pair, m/f, but there was a mixup and the male was not available when they went to pack and ship our order). along with the fish we are getting an ORA German Green with Blue polyps acro
and a Neon A. Vermiculata
We have been wanting an ORA blue polyped acro for some time, and they had it in stock when we were placing our fish order.. so it was fate.. we can't fight fate, can we ?
and a Neon A. Vermiculata
We have been wanting an ORA blue polyped acro for some time, and they had it in stock when we were placing our fish order.. so it was fate.. we can't fight fate, can we ?
Due to the mixup with our fish order they gave us credit for shipping. Not longer after they did that we got an Email that more corals and fish had been posted on their Divers Den (darn that automated Email ). So I heded over to see if they got any male leopard wrasses in....well, they didn't, but they did have some really incredible corals.. here is what we ended up ordering (and using our shipping credit for ). These will be here Friday *sigh* (Me : Hello, my name is Tom, I am a coral addict crowded room : Hello Tom)
A Dr. Foster and Smith Aquacultured piece that they labelled as a Pink Jacquelineae
Another Dr. Foster and Smith Aquacultured piece that they named the Pink Panther
This Montipora Mollis was on sale, assumedly because no one wanted it. We were intrigued by the multi-colored polyps and the dark "mysterious" overall tone of the piece.
). So I heded over to see if they got any male leopard wrasses in....well, they didn't, but they did have some really incredible corals.. here is what we ended up ordering (and using our shipping credit for ). These will be here Friday *sigh* (Me : Hello, my name is Tom, I am a coral addict crowded room : Hello Tom)A Dr. Foster and Smith Aquacultured piece that they labelled as a Pink Jacquelineae
Another Dr. Foster and Smith Aquacultured piece that they named the Pink Panther
This Montipora Mollis was on sale, assumedly because no one wanted it. We were intrigued by the multi-colored polyps and the dark "mysterious" overall tone of the piece.
ok, so enough about what is going to be.. here are a few, very quickly taken, tank shots. I didn't focus on any specific corals as they are still coloring up adn recovering from the dip protocols from hell that we employ to keep out any unwanted pests.
Here is a shot of the right side :
Middle :
Left :
and here is an FTS :
Spoke with Scott again today and the skimmer is slated to be wet tested tomorrow and hopefuly boxed up and shipped by Friday morning. I am planning (hoping) to be setting up and installing the new skimmer and calcium reactor next weekend. Scott was going to try to get us some pictures tomorrow night or Friday. Just as soon as we get them we will add them to this thread.
Here is a shot of the right side :
Middle :
Left :
and here is an FTS :
Spoke with Scott again today and the skimmer is slated to be wet tested tomorrow and hopefuly boxed up and shipped by Friday morning. I am planning (hoping) to be setting up and installing the new skimmer and calcium reactor next weekend. Scott was going to try to get us some pictures tomorrow night or Friday. Just as soon as we get them we will add them to this thread
.
hawaiianwargod
Active member
Tom,
Tank looks great! Corals are growing and your selections of fish is fantastic! Congrats on that new volcano...can't wait to see that in your system. Hope it will erupt some nasty skimmate..lol.
Spazz's stuff got great reviews...so great choice.
Tank looks great! Corals are growing and your selections of fish is fantastic! Congrats on that new volcano...can't wait to see that in your system. Hope it will erupt some nasty skimmate..lol.
Spazz's stuff got great reviews...so great choice.
Thanks HW and Jonathan . Most everything is growing in nicely, but there are those few mortailities that just bug us. RTN events of new, or almost new, frags and a lost fish. Overall a pretty good track record, but it always seems like the one frag or two that I am really interested in seeing grow out is the one that ends up not making it . Most of my favorites are hte deepwater corals.. which are quite fragile to alk swings and what not. The feed line to our calc reactor had clogged and I didn't notice it until one of my favorite little frags started RTNing from the base. I swear that they are the best indicator of a tank problem.. but darned if they are the prettiest and rather expensive to have die like that .
Aside from that we have been pretty happy with how it is shaping up. The mandarins do their spawn/mating dance almost nightly now, and are a joy to watch foraging around the tank together.
Johnathan,
Thanks for the offer on the Neon Vermiculata. We had gotten a frag from a local reefer that I now believe to have been one of these, but lost it due to a bad batch of Deltec epoxy (or I did something wrong when I mixed it). Suffice it to say we lost several corals that day and all were tied to the epoxy batch. Some were not even new corals, but corals that we reloacted, so the one common was the epoxy. As for wanting one.. I didn't even know what it was called until yesterday on LAs site. And it was a pretty good sized frag/mini-colony for $40, so I went ahead and added it to our cart. i will let you know how it turns out for us 
. Most everything is growing in nicely, but there are those few mortailities that just bug us. RTN events of new, or almost new, frags and a lost fish. Overall a pretty good track record, but it always seems like the one frag or two that I am really interested in seeing grow out is the one that ends up not making it . Most of my favorites are hte deepwater corals.. which are quite fragile to alk swings and what not. The feed line to our calc reactor had clogged and I didn't notice it until one of my favorite little frags started RTNing from the base. I swear that they are the best indicator of a tank problem.. but darned if they are the prettiest and rather expensive to have die like that .Aside from that we have been pretty happy with how it is shaping up. The mandarins do their spawn/mating dance almost nightly now, and are a joy to watch foraging around the tank together.
Johnathan,
Thanks for the offer on the Neon Vermiculata. We had gotten a frag from a local reefer that I now believe to have been one of these, but lost it due to a bad batch of Deltec epoxy (or I did something wrong when I mixed it). Suffice it to say we lost several corals that day and all were tied to the epoxy batch. Some were not even new corals, but corals that we reloacted, so the one common was the epoxy. As for wanting one.. I didn't even know what it was called until yesterday on LAs site. And it was a pretty good sized frag/mini-colony for $40, so I went ahead and added it to our cart
. i will let you know how it turns out for us I forgot to add that so far our experience with LA has been fine. I will let you know once we get the fish adn coral shipment tomorrow. But everything I have heard has been positive. Sanjay gets alot of his fish and coral from them IIRC.
One other thing about our aquascape.. the left and middle still needs some work, but until we can move those new frags off of the sandbed and to their final relocation placements, we will just need to deal with the crowded areas.. but rest assured that we plan to open those areas up more as soon as we can
One other thing about our aquascape.. the left and middle still needs some work, but until we can move those new frags off of the sandbed and to their final relocation placements, we will just need to deal with the crowded areas.. but rest assured that we plan to open those areas up more as soon as we can
jnarowe
New member
I haven't bought live animals from them but I do buy quite a bit of hard goods and I have been very happy with their fulfillment. They really seem to have their act together for such a large orgainzation.
I feel your pain on losing favorite corals and I too associate this with alkalinity swings. I lost my favorite encrusting monti (purple polyp) and beautiful. I sent the last surviving frag back with Steve Weast to see how it does in his system, and hopefully I will get one back later on.
I feel your pain on losing favorite corals and I too associate this with alkalinity swings. I lost my favorite encrusting monti (purple polyp) and beautiful. I sent the last surviving frag back with Steve Weast to see how it does in his system, and hopefully I will get one back later on.
Yea, we buy all of our salt from there as well, this will be our first live goods order
On a separate note we were able to get some pictures of our mandarins this evening. Here is the best we could get (bearing in mind that it was taken in a dark tank, w/ no moonlight LEDs, etc, and the mandarins were at the back of a 4' tank.. all things considered I think the picts turned out pretty good).
P.S. The Vortec was running at about 80% speed when the pictures were taken. You can sort of see the love birds "drifting" towards the pump in the pictures.
On a separate note we were able to get some pictures of our mandarins this evening. Here is the best we could get (bearing in mind that it was taken in a dark tank, w/ no moonlight LEDs, etc, and the mandarins were at the back of a 4' tank.. all things considered I think the picts turned out pretty good
).
P.S. The Vortec was running at about 80% speed when the pictures were taken. You can sort of see the love birds "drifting" towards the pump in the pictures.
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