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.

20140717 Waikiki Aquarium part 1

This is the birthplace of my aquarium hobby. Ten years ago I came to this aquarium and fell in love with all reef dwelling creatures. Ten years later I love these reef animals just as much, but with much more respect.

 The Waikiki aquarium has been one of the leading research and educational facilities in marine biology. Unlike most aquariums in the mainland focuses on tourism with unnecessary dolphin or beluga whale shows, not to mention over priced admission- The Waikiki aquarium charges a very reasonable $12 / adult admission with optional audio tour included at no additional cost.

This is a very happy long nose hawkfish living in the display tank by the entrance. It's the largest long nose hawk I've ever seen, over 5" and very perky. This tank also features several butterfly fish (you can see the long nose in the background) that does not touch the corals at all.

2014-06-16: Tank moving 6- The semi-aggresive ones

So here comes the big dilemma- some of the semi-aggresive fish I have had in the previous system
The valentini puffer is really adorable but I know it will post a threat to my beloved shrimps (and all other inverts) as well as the smaller gobies.

I made the mistake of putting a hawkfish with a couple fire fish before. This is not the same hawkfish but I am not about to make that mistake again.

The six line wrasse can be aggressive, but this guy is actually kinda shy, so I am not so worried about it.