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2014年10月4日 星期六

20141005 Seahorse! Hippocampus Erectus

I have had my 28 gallon cube sitting for a while running with just live rock for about 2-3 months. I have always wanted to get some seahorse in that tank. And the opportunity finally arrived! Last week while browsing Best Fish in Milwaukee, I noticed they had a tank full of captive raised seahorses!
Erectus Seahorse
 Initially I saw the label "Kuda" on the tank so I thought I was looking at Kuda seahorse. The store was feeding them live brine and frozen mysis shrimp. These guys gobble up the food very eagerly. So I decided to take a couple of these 3" ponies home!
Hippocampus Erectus
Although at the time of purchase, one was significantly lighter color than the dark one, they do change color to match the environment. Over the course of a week, they have both shifted color slightly and are not not as far off from each other. I started by feeding them Hikari mysis since they are small in size. But then they were not accepting the mysis very well. After some forum posting on reef central, I decided to try PE mysis on them, with the fear that the big shrimp would not fit through their fused jaws. And to my surprise, they were able to chew up some pretty chunky shrimps!
Also, as I began to research more about seahorse, I realize they do not look like Kuda at all! Instead, I thought they look more like erectus. So I called the store today and confirmed that indeed they are erectus. The store only has females at this time, which is OK with me because I don't think I am ready for the difficult task of breeding seahorse just yet.

2014年9月13日 星期六

20140913 mixing desjardini tang and chevron tang

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.

2014年9月6日 星期六

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.