20150201 African Cichlids

Until I became exposed and deeply memorized by the marine fish trade, I once considered going hardcore into African Cichlids. They are by far the most vibrant, colorful freshwater fish there is. Not only that, they are also quite hardy. And with the hard, high pH water here in the America Midwest, it is perfect for them.

African cichlids are easy to keep, and many of them are mouth brooders thus easy to breed and raise young. Unfortunately they have earned a bad reputation for being aggressive. Not only that, because of what people perceive as their aggressiveness, they also tend to offer them improper diet- Most African cichlids are primarily vegetarians but many people offer diet closer to the carnivore range.

The truth is, much like many marine fish, African cichlids are extremely territorial and requires a large range of space between each other, especially if they are nesting for comfort and security. For this reason, if you are overstocking the fishtank they can't help but squabble and display aggressiveness. While the tank above stocks quite a few of them for display purpose, for the long term health of the fish and tank, a tank of this size should really host no more than a three to four pairs of cichlids. And no, they aren't really community fish.

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.

20140901 Species to NOT keep

I started a list of fish to not purchase or keep a while back. And then I stumbled onto this:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1157901
Check this out and it is actually quite a good list.

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.