20141028 Reef Safe

A Cleaner Shimp

One of the most common terms one hears or asks in the marine aquaria is "Is ____ Reef safe?"

Well, to answer that question, first we must define what is "reef safe"?

Here is an article from Wikipedia defining reef safe.

So in short, I think most people would agree reef sate in the home aquarium means the critter you are referring will NOT hurt invertebrates, including coral. Even though in the broad spectrum, there really is very limited true "reef safe" creatures as most fish, even those who are vegetarian, would need to consume crustacean at some point in there life journey. But for the sake of general reference, it means a fish/invertebrate will not attack or cause long term damage to other commonly available aquarium creatures. 

Even those that are considered reef safe, one can still find an occasional specimens that is a black horse who wants to redefine their diet habit.

To illustrate, here is a small sample of fish that are "reef safe"

Yellow Tang- Primarily vegetarian, very rarely harms invertebrates.

Clown fish- Not an herbivore but will not attack invertebrates.

Seahorse- Very gentle creature, will not attach invertebrates, but will eat pods.

A list of "reef safe" invertebrates

Tridacna clams- will not bother anyone, no feeding necessary with sufficient lighting and adequate water quality

Small Polyp Stony coral- same as above

Cleaner shrimp- will not bother anyone, will help pick on parasites on fish

What about "not reef safe" fish?

Any fish in the following family cannot be trusted:

Angel- most will nip on corals or clam

Butterfly- most will nip coral

Trigger- will eat any crustacean, will also harm smaller fish, but not necessarily corals

Puffer- Same as above

Lion- Same as above

Grouper- Same as above

Some not reef safe invertebrates:

Mantis shrimp- will eat ANYTHING alive

Lobster- will harm fish/clam

larger crabs- will harm fish/other invertebrates

Anemone- this is a tricky one, but they may consume smaller, weaker fish or crustacean. 

20140724 Waikiki Aquarium 3

My third installment of the Waikiki Aquarium post is the highlight of this facility- the 5,500 Gallon South Pacific Reef tank

 The reason this is the highlight of the facility- well, I think the photos speak for themselves. I guarantee you will not find happier captive fish, coral, anemone, and clams happier than this place. I have visited many high-profile public aquariums in my life. And none of these public aquariums with admission up to 6X the price of this place hosts healthier and happier livestock than this small aquarium.

 The pair of Tridacna Gigas here is the world's oldest, and largest captive grown giant clams. Please also observe the amount of hard and soft corals surrounding it. Also, the tanks houses a large variety of both common and rare marine fish.

 Once again, the tank is lit primarily with natural sunlight with a few 1000W metal halide lights supplementing the light.

Because of the size of this system, once again, it houses many of the species we would normally deem "not reef safe", yet none of them are nipping the corals!

20140719 Waikiki Aquarium 2

Part II of the Waikiki Aquarium tour today-
I've already said this was where I first fell in love with the hobby. But the true reason I fell in love with it was because of its clam display. The setting is a bit different now than before as they have moves some of the larger "small clams" to an outdoor display (to come later). But they still host a variety of beautiful "small" giant clams. Such as these three tridacna squamosa in a reef tank with some of the happiest soft and large polyp stony corals I've ever seen

 Here is another Long nose hawk, not as large as the display by the entrance but equally as adorable

 Another squamosa under the light. I also want to point out that almost ALL reef system aquariums here are exposed to actual natural sunlight with supplemented 1000W metal halide bulbs- you cannot beat this lighting environment.

With huge system capacity and space, you can clearly tell that you can break a lot of the "rules" on what's reef safe and what isn't. For example, normally people would not consider harlequin tusk wrasse nor copper-banded butterfly "reef safe". But you can see that they are not only thriving in this system, but so are the corals!

 An illustration of how "happy" corals should look like, look at the tissue extension on all of them! And the water seems really bubbly because of the unique "surge" tank system Waikiki Aquarium invented to provide natural, life-like surges for the best of corals' health and oxygenation.

Maxima clam pinched mantle

Very Sad Story, My Tahitian Maxima clam suffered what many hobbyists refer to as "Pinched Mantle" syndrom. The "pinched mantle" is caused by a protozoa infection, similar to that of the malaria type for human infection. This type of infection is widely spread amongst Maxima and Crocea clams, and has recently spread towards other Tridacna clams such as Derasa and Squamosa.

After doing lots of research, I decided to perform the freshwater dip (FD) treatment. The principle of freshwater dip is to kill invertebrates and bacteria cells by osmosis while the water finds equilibrium between brime and fresh. The Tridacna clam is actually surprisingly hardy when completely submerged under the freshwater. The key is the water must be of the same temperature and of the same pH level as the home aquarium. The photo above is my clam being soaked in freshwater for 30 minutes.

The photo above shows the pinch of the clam prior to the dip. You can see the second scute of the left mantle is slightly shrank. It is better to detect the distress and treat it while the clam is still strong and relatively healthy versus making the very invasive freshwater dip during its latter stage.

This photo shows the clam an hour after the dip. The clam is obviously distressed and is gasping for both the "right water" and fresh oxygen. The clam remained in this stage for the remainder of the day without much change. I will post follow up article if the clam's condition worsen or improves.