20140930 Green Bubble Tip Anemone

Green Bubble Tip Anemone

I got this green bubble tip anemone two weeks ago. I have had lots of experience with rose bubble tip anemone (RBTA), but have never had a green bubble tip. To be honest I am a bit scared because I don't know if this anemone has the same light requirement and feeding habit as its rosy colored relative. This is why I have been hesitating to post about it to make sure it does well in my system.
I initially placed the anemone about 6" away from its current spot on to of the rock work. The anemone used the 1st hour of its stay here drawing around the rock to its current spot and has stayed there ever since. The anemone was not in very good health- the best way to judge an anemone's health is how sticky it is. I tried to offer it food for the first two weeks and none would stick. But the anemone had appeared to be doing alright- expanding and swaying under the light each morning.
Today I made another attempt to feed the anemone and the krill stayed! I must also mention, my 5" clarkii clown has been busy sharing her hosting duty between my other 6" RBTA and this GTA starting this week. So I think the anemone's stickiness must have something to do with the clownfish.
This has became one of my favorite corners of the tank as the GTA and the smaller RBTA flows with wave.
My feeling so far is they are hardy and very beautiful to look at, get yours here!

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.

2014-05-15 Species Spotlight- Dogface Puffer

OK,
This might not be the rarest fish, but they sure are one of the more popular in tanks for fish only with live rock. Yes, it's unfortunate they are definitely not reef safe as they are capable of devour anything that can fit through the mouth with shell- snail, clam, scallop, shrimp, crab, you name it!

Dogface Puffer as seen on Live Aquaria

Found this guy at Liveaquaria- I have seen many dog face puffers but never one this dark and handsome! And at a very affordable price (for salt water fish anyways)!

I don't think I need to write too much about how to keep this fish- proper seawater level, proper temperature, probably not a ton of water flow since they aren't fast swimmers. But they are very hardy and rarely come down with diseases. The only disease I've encountered with this species in the past is pop eye, which could have been caused by an injury.

Although you never have to worry about this fish not eating, feeing the right thing is the key to success. All puffers have a "beak" like mouth that, without shellfish to grind it down, will grow infinitely. So if you are used to feeding only artificial flake/pellet food or even shrimp, your puffer may eventually suffer starvation from not able to eat with its over grown beak. 

I have personally seen people take their puffer out of the water, take a grinder to grind down the beak- no joke!

So then what can you do to help grind this down? Well, the natural diet of a puffer is mainly made of shellfish. So the most economic way is to hit up your local grocery store and get some clams. Crab legs would be a nice workout for them to crack and grind down as well.

You can also purchase some high-protein mix and freeze it inside the clam shells to entice the puffer to "chew" it down.

2014-05-07 Livestock Sportlight- Rock Anemone

So I have not seen many great deals online recently. Instead of writing and sharing any coupons or discounts, I think I'll share something about rock anemone (or flower anemone):
Here is a really beautiful specimen at Pacific East Aquaculture: http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com

Rock anemone as seen on Pacific East Aquaculture

In my opinion, They are one of the most beautiful, lower-price point (in comparison to other reef critters) marine animals you can find.

I have personally kept a few of them in the past and present. They really are not very demanding at all. Moderate to strong light (if you feed frequently, I think you might even get away with low light).

medium to low water flow (anemones, in general, don't like strong flow). They don't really host clownfish, so you might be disappointed if that's your goal. And they might be aggressive enough to consume small (and very dumb) fish. So if you have small and slow fish such as mandarine, seahorse, etc, please don't bother.

They will take food from you, but not larger chunks. Sometimes they are a bit picky with what they want, so keep trying different things across the menu and eventually when you find what they like, you can then just stick with it. I've seen some beautiful tanks stocked with a bunch of this as a species tank. They come in a wide array of metallic to pastel colors. So I urge you to not settle for an ordinary one, and go out to find a truly colorful one.

2014-04-27 Livestock of the Day-2

Check out this cute possum wrasse! http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+3&ddid=225424
I have great experience ordering from LiveAquaria before so I would definitely recommend anyone to try them out.

Caution- All wrasses jump! They are jumpers! Please make sure you have good protection device in place for your tank before you order this little dude.
Possum wrasse are cute and wonderful to interact with. They can be a bit shy and timid so make sure they are in before you put any more aggressive "reef safe" fish in there such as dwarf angels and tangs.
The one thing you don't have to worry with wrasses is diet. I have never lost a wrasse due to not eating! If kept right, they can be in your tank for years!

Mantis update

My mantis is still alive and punching! In case anyone is wondering...

I am not really sure whatthe growth rate of this creature is. But since I've acquired her (yes, we are sure it is a her), she has only molted once that we know of.

She has been constructing and reconstructing her burrow into a chain of chambers. So we cant exactly be sure whether she's molted deep in her hole. But in order to maintain the water quality, I try my best to feed her minimally- one meal every three days with either a silverside fish or a cooked shrimp. 

7 Saltwater fishes you should never get part 3

The next fish that is available in common Aquarium trade but I highly discourage you keeping is the Sweetlips group (Plectorhinchus).

As you can see from the above photo, sweetlips are generally brightly colored with a thick, fleshy lip. By the way, where I grew up we can find these guys in the fish market everywhere, and they do taste very good pan fried (oops! let's continue to talk about fish keeping).

But as you can probably guess, fishermen do not catch tiny games to sell to the fish market. These schooling reef dwellers can grow up to 2-3 feet in length in the wild. So reason #1 for you should not get them: They will outgrow most common home aquariums.

 There is, however, no denying that they are one of the most handsome fishes in the coral reef. When they are juveniles, many of them are spotted and attractive in a different way than their adult counterpart. As they age, their lifestyle change from solitary to group. And their body marking changes from spots to lines, and the lines increases as they age. (see the spotted sweetlip below)

Juvenile stage

Adult Stage

 And if this photo doesn't speak for itself I don't know how else to put it, they can and will wipe out anything invertebrate and possibly anything fits through their mouth. As a juvenile entity, they are quite shy and are difficult to feed (we ordered them a few times and could never get them to eat). So that's your first challenge, to get them to eat. Assuming they will eat, you must then provide nutritionally balanced food for them to thrive. And enough of it for them to ignore their tankmates.

 My conclusion is, Sweetlips are beautiful, interestingly looking, and amazing when they swim in groups. But they are best left in the ocean, or if you must, enjoyed in a public aquarium where they can thrive in a million gallon tank. They are not for everyone and they are a pain in the butt to raise a a juvenile. So please, before you commit to one of them, think about what they will look like in the future, and think about where their tank mates may end up by then.

How to tackle algae problem in a planted tank?

A month ago my planted tank (bow front 46 gallon) had a nasty algae break out. And I had to take drastic measures to control it. I am sure many of your have also experienced algae issues as I have. It is one of the biggest headaches for many hobbyist. And from all the stories I have heard, probably the #2 reason for people to exit the hobby behind disease/parasite breakout.

Algae is naturally occuring in the water. There is almost no way for anyone to avoid it. Even if you use strictly RO/DI water from the 1st day of your tank set up. The bag you have brought the new fish home from the pet store is full of algae cells. Even if you dump the water out, you cannot dry off the fish's slime coat to rid of the algae already attached to them. With that said, there are ways to prevent them:

1) Light. As anything else that relies on photosynthesis to survive and thrive, algae needs light to grow and take over the tank. Some people keep their tank's light on for over 10 hours a day. The prolonged photo-period is the easiest way to encourage algae growth. If you have a planted tank, and you need to leave the light that long to allow your plants to grow, it means your light is too dim. What you should do is upgrade to a brighter light source and shorten the photo period to no longer than 8 hours.

2) Dissolved nutrient. Like any other creatures, light is not the only thing that is required for growth. Algae also need minerals and dissolved nutrient such as nitrate to thrive. If you have minimum lighting in your tank and your algae is still growing like weed, you might want to cut back on your feeding and up your water change frequency.

3) Prey. There are many critters to select from your local aquarium stores to help control the algae pest by consuming them. The options range from algae eating fish to algae nipping shrimps. Be careful with what you select though. The common pleco can grow into a foot long monster and will require additional feeding to satisfy its appetite. My best recommendations are amano shrimps and otocinclus catfish (grow to 1 inch long). Other no-no is the Chinese algae eater (becomes large and aggressive), and the flying fox (abandons the algae diet once it matures). And also compliment the cleaning crew with a few cute cory cats as they will help pick up all the table scraps.

4) Chemicals* Finally, there are chemicals you can acquire from stores to control algae as well. Personally I do not recommend it as it can be very harmful to your fish as well. Especially the sensitive catfish and any invertebrates you have.

The picture above is my tank a month after the battle. I have taken three drastic measures: 1) Rid of all my plants that were infested. 2) Turn the light on for only 2-3 hours while we are home in the evening and then turn it off before bedtime. 3) Cut back on feeding volume.

So far it has worked well, the once blooming algae is now under control. My next phase is to upgrade my light to a brighter source, reselect and stock my plants so I can enjoy my freshwater garden again.