20150102 Fish enjoying new era marine grazer

I thought this time-lapse video really shows how popular this treat is among my fish!

20141215 180 Mix Reef Video Update!

Here is video to the 180 Mix reef update with the new family members added. All mingling with no aggressions! I love the blue tang's electric blue color and the pyramid butterfly's golden highlights.

One thing surprised me: I was expecting the blue tang to appear "black" under actinic 430nm lighting, however, it appeared to remain sharply blue!

20141214 New fish in my 180 Reef

Added two new family members to my 180 Reef tank today: The gold pyramid butterflyfish, and the Paracanthurus Hipatus blue tang. I need to add the full name for the tang because there is a lot of confusion over the word "blue tang" in the trade.

Shot o my mix reef with the new fish. Lower left is the desjardini. pyramid butterfly in the middle. and the blue tang next to the clarkii clownfish.

My initial fear for adding these two fish were: 1) the pair of flame angel can be aggressive to any new comers regardless of species and size. 2) the desjardini tang being aggressive towards another tang.
The result- I actually also also introduced four blue line cardinal fish at this time, and no one messed with them at all, they joined my existing school right away. When introducing the butterfly, only one of the two flame angelfish came up and sized him up a bit but then left it alone afterward. All other fish completely ignores it. The blue tang went into hiding for 10 minutes and scared himself upon introduction- in my experience, very usual behavior for this shy fish. After 10 minutes it came out and swam around and explore the boundaries. No one bothered the tang at all, not even the desjardini. The blue tang must look so different from the desjardini tang that it they felt no threat to each other at all.

20141205 180 Reef Video Update

An update of my 180 Gallon tank. Recently added four more blue eye cardinal to the school. And the two flame angels are really calming down and forming a bonded pair with occasional courting dances. The three herbivores: Desjardini tang, foxface rabbitfish, and the gold spotted rabbitfish are now getting along very well and are the tank's "BIG THREE" at feeding time.

Desjardini Update

Just an update of my Desjardini Tang. Doing great, getting fat, and kicking everyone else's ass in the tank!

20140915 Desjardini Tang acclimation

In my previous post I have described the five day process of trying to get the desjardini tang to eat and become used to human presence. One of my strategy was to reward them with food for greeting me. After a weekend of heavy feeding (Started Friday Night), the tang has become very good sport in swimming in the open in my presence.

I am sure too though, that all the overfeeding had escalated the nitrate level! well, I guess that's what the big derasa is there for! But at the end of the weekend I am very pleased to announce this desjardini tang is finally "house broken". Currently it swims alongside with three other larger fish in the tank to form the "dominant four"- The Desjardini tang, Chevron tang, Orange spotted rabbitfish, and flame back angel. and it's been fed heavily on flake food, frozen food (homemade blend), and nori sheets.

Conclusion- Based on my recent experience with the acquisition of Foxface Rabbitfish (in the other tank), the Chevron tang, and this desjardini tang, the average time for any new fish to become comfortable and feel blended in is about a week. The orange spotted rabbitfish though, gave me quite a scare, it was in the tank for over a month showing no sign of acclimation (while eating heavily). I must say most of the fish in this condition would have died within a month, but looks like choosing some open swimming tank mate was the key to open up the rabbit fish's personality.

20140913 mixing desjardini tang and chevron tang

Today marks the two week point for my chevron tang's addition, one week point for the desjardini tang. As with all tang additions and mixing, I kept a constant eye on these two's interaction. The funny thing with the Chevron tang is that it wasn't very active and was quite picky on eating during its first week of stay. But the moment I put the slightly larger desjardini tang in, the chevron seemed to have "came alive". Not only it became very active to swim in the open, its appetite suddenly opened up and ate everything I fed from frozen, flakes, pellets, and nori.

The desjardinit tang was never a picky eater even when I asked the store to feed it prior to my decision to purchase. But it had remain very cautious of eating. It does eat everything I feed, but only after a couple minutes observing others eat then it will join.

The two had some sparks during its first day of introduction. Desjardini raised its dorsal and anal fins to maximize its size while the two size up. Finally the desjardini found a nice little corner to settle and guarded it pretty well. No one can get close to the strong hold in the next few days.

I noticed the desjardini tang is hiding a lot whenever I want to observe it. I also continue to observe the slow to eat habit. So I hid in a corner and observe the tang's behavior to determine whether the tang is hiding from other tank mates or from me. Fortunately for it, the fish was hiding from me, which is unfortunate for me. So my next attempt is to spend more and more time in front of the tank, and reward them with food whenever they come out of hiding- in hopes to draw a more positive impression of me rather than all the traumatic experiences- captured, transported, and captured again, and transported again, gets tossed, captured... all by human.

20140906 New Tankmate: Desjardini Tang

Zebrasoma Desjardinii- The Desjardini Tang, aka Red Sea Sailfin Tang, has also been on top of my list of jeweled fish to keep. The problem is- I have already had a yellow tang, and knowing if I add a desjardini tang into the same tank, I will be picking out a dead body sooner or later, I never did.

About three weeks ago I placed a special order request for this fish at a local fish store- Living Art Aquarium. But two weeks later, instead of waiting for this tan, you probably recall I picked up a chevron tang (Ctenochaetus hawaiiensis) instead. I figured this fish is new, but somewhat established, plus the desjardini is nearly 5" (I asked for 3-4", but 5" is still OK) whereas the chevron is barely 3". I thought it would be a good timing to add this fish. And then, the funny thing happened...

During the first week of my chevron tang's addition, I had barely got this fish to begin accepting pre-soaked, soften flake food but rejects most all other food, including frozen. The chevron also spends much time hiding yet instead of patrolling. But the moment I added this desjardini, the chevron became very territorial and patrols all open areas of the tank (with the orange spotted rabbitfish as its deputy). The chevron also immediately begin to accept flake of all sizes, frozen, as well as nori pieces- as a show to demonstrate who's the boss!

The Desjardini, in the midst of all these domination demonstration, didn't seem too bothered since it's almost 2" larger than the little chevron. And it began to accept flake, frozen, and nori right away as well! And unlike chevron's introduction, the flame back angel didn't even bother to confront this big guy.

2014-06-01 Species Spotlight- Desjardini Tang

Tangs, or surgeon fish, are among the most popular for community reef tanks. Not only most of them do not grow of an exceedingly large size, they are beautiful, mostly hardly, and also utilitarian since they are algae grazers in nature and does not harm invertebrates or corals.

If one asks for my opinion on the most beautiful tang in the world, there is no doubt my answer will be Desjardini Tang (Zebrasoma Desjardini), also known as the Redsea Sailfin tang.

They can sometimes be confused with their closely related cousin, the Sailfin Tang (Zebrasoma Veriferum). However, upon close examination, you can see they are distinctively different, especially as they age. Here are a couple links to general information and a sample photo for comparison:

Desjardini: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product

Sailfin: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product

Like all other tangs in the Zebrasoma family, this fish is very hardy, active, and display lots of personality. However, you should also follow the general rule for tangs- do not keep multiple of them unless they are introduced at the same time, and also that there is adequate room for multiple- which comes the catch for this fish- they get BIG.

Among the commonly available surgeon fish for sale in the North American aquaria, this fish definitely ranks among the top 5 in adult size (among the larger tangs in the trade: Vlamingi, Naso, Sohal, Clown, and Orange Shoulder Tangs) The Desjardini Tang can reach up to a foot and a half in length. And when this fish fully extends its dorsal and anal fins, it is the tallest Tang in the trade (see illustration below)

For the sake of its size, please do not consider housing this fish unless your tank is at least 120Gallon (with lighter bio load), and no smaller than 180 gallon if you plan a fish-packed tank.

Besides full-reef quality water parameters, you must also provide ample vegetable matter for this herbivore to dine on (warning, you might hear many reef hobbyists suggest clipping terrestrial vegetable such as lettuce for tangs to eat, this might actually harm them as land vegetables are far less nutritious in the amount of mineral and amino acid their marine counterparts contain). 

Also you do not need to spend big money purchasing marine algae to clip on like this: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product

Just visit a local Asian grocery store and puchase the Nori (seaweed) sheets used for sushi wraps. It's the exact same stuff but 10 times cheeper.