20141030 Species spotlight- Harlequin Tusk Wrasse

The Harlequin Tusk fish (Choerodon fasciatus) is one of the most beautiful fish in the aquarium trade. This is a robust, hardy, and colorful fish with lots of personality. The only catch is- they are "Not Reef Safe". Despite needing a large tank size to house this fish, I would consider this a beginner fish since they are hardy and robust.

Harlequen Tusk Wrasse

The Harlequin Tusk can get pretty big in the wild, but I have not seen any over 8" in private aquariums. They are very greedy eaters and would happily accept mysis, krill, small fish, feeder fish, you name it, they eat it! They are also quite disease tolerant, in the years I worked in the trade I have not seen one die from starving or illness. The only one we lost is- jumping out! Like all wrasses, this fish is a jumper. So you should have a good, heavy lid over the tank for them since they are very powerful.

To keep this fish, just make sure you have reef condition- water temperature no warmer than 82 no cooler than 76. Salinity should be Specific gravity range 1.022-27. They will grow big and need lots of swimming room, so I do not recommend keeping it in tanks smaller than 120G. Do not keep this fish with small, slow fish, any crustacean, or clams as the chance of them becoming food is high. The fish will do fine with coral and other larger, robust fish like tangs, angels, triggers, puffer, eel, etc.

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!

 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!

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.

Feeding time

Feeding time at my tank!
First I want to describe my fish food: fresh headless shrimp + Swordfish + red seaweed all blended together, then add in Selcon, rotifer, phytoplankton, mysis shrimp, spiraling enriched brine shrimp, plankton, all mixed then frozen in ice cubes.

When I feed, this food is so rich in protein I must turn the skimmer off for at least 12 hours before turning it back on! Ever since I began this diet all the coral's growth rate has tripled and fish became so wide they have a hard time squeeze through the rock cracks!

2014-04-29 Deal of the Day-Acan

Ok, I really don't understand why are Acan frags so freaking expensive! I have kept them and they grow really fast for me!
Anywho, I found this on Pacific East Aquaculture and man is this a gem!
And $89 price tag for a frag of this size- 12 heads, is a steal~
http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com

If you have never kept Acan, here are some tips:
Water quality- the usual reef parameter- no trace of nitrate.
Water Temperature, I would say that the polyps and tentacles expands the best when it's slightly cooler at around 75-77
Calcium- it is a large polyp stony coral so you need adequate amount of it
Light- T-5 seems to be the universally best light source. If you use LED or Metal Halide, make sure to place them medium to bottom. The color will become very light and eventually bleach out when there is too much light. They can actually do pretty well in dimmer condition because you can also supplement their energy by spot feeding- I've used a turkey baster to feed them grind up shrimp, mysis shrimp, spiraling enhanced brine shrimp, etc.
One word of warning, do not put them on sand, especially if you have something in your tank who likes to stir up the sand, they get irritated by sand quite easily.

7 Saltwater fishes you should never get part 4

Unlike the three previous fish groups that I do NOT recommend (let's review, the cleaner wrasse, sharks and rays, and sweetlips) which all require a gigantic system with enough room and food for these creatures to survive in captivity. I am going to change the pace and focus on a group I call the "nano pod-eaters"

Bonded pair Mandarin Dragonets

This group of fish normally do not require a large system to thrive, but they have a very finicky diet. Furthermore, they are extremely slow and shy in their locomotion that if you keep them with other robust, fast moving fish they will doom to die from starvation due to the lack of chance to feed. Among them, the Green, Red, and Spotted Mandarin fish are the most popular. You might find them available in aquarium stores. But what the store employee don't tell you is how demanding their diet is, especially the wild caught ones- They only eat pods: copepod, anphipod, etc.

Red Mandarin Fish

If you are new to the hobby, or if you have a community tank less than 200 gallons with less than 200lb of liverock and has been up and running for less than a year, you MUST NOT buy them and send them to their death role. There are, however, certain ways to keep them in captivity under very strict care:

1) If you can find captive grown (They can be easily spawned in captivity, raising them though, is another story) mandarinfish, your best best is to get one that has already been fed and is accepting frozen enriched mysis shrimp and brine shrimp

2) If you have a mature reef tank with over 200lb of liverock crawling with all kinds of pods and is connected to a large enough refugium to replenish the pod population, you may also have a good chance to keep it alive

Red Scooter blenny

3) In a smaller system (30-40 gallon), keep mandarin, and nothing but mandarin minus some inverts of corals in the tank. The lack of competition will allow you chance to train them into accepting frozen food. Using a fry netting, I have successfully trained my mandarin to accept food by first feeding them live brine shrimp, then slip in a few frozen brine shrimp, and gradually increase the portion of frozen ones until it is completely frozen brine shrimp. That particular mandarin grew really fat in a 23 gallon tank with two other very shy percula clownfish babies. 

spotted mandarin fish

Another variation of the mandarin is the spotted mandarin fish. In addition to the common frozen offerings, they have an edge over their green/red striped cousins: They eat the pest flat worms. So if your tank happen to have a flatworm breakout, they are a good patron to help you with that problem. But make sure you can achieve step 1-3 above to keep them alive once the flatworm has been eliminated.

scooter blenny

Others in this family are the commonly seen scotter blennies. The name blenny is misleading since they do not behave like a blenny (at least not their diet) but their movement. They too, must take lots of care and consideration as the mandarin fish.

Seahorse

The next group is Seahorse and pipefish. These two families of fish are closely related. And have very similar behavior: cling onto a branch and remain still for most of their day, only to forage in very slow motion when feeding is required. And the key word is "slowly". As you can tell from the pictures they are not designed with a streamline shape nor born with strong swimming fins. Thus they are best suited for a small system where food will be in a compact, condensed environment during feeding time.

banded pipefish

Many of the seahorse and pipefish are also very sensitive to water chemistry changes: salinity, temperature, etc. So it makes it extra challenging to keep in a small system as things fluctuate easily in a smaller system. One way to avoid that issue is to connect the system with a large sump using the overflow device thus increase the overall water volume without increasing the area for these creatures to cover for food search.

Some of the wild caught pipefish and seahorse also have a very difficult time accepting frozen food. Again, you must then try to introduce them with their natural food (pods) then progress to substitute with frozen food little by little with great patience. The dragon face banded pipefish is an example of one of the most delicate jewel fish out there. They are slow, fragile, and very finicky in their diet preference. You must provide them with a small space with slow water movement, abundance of hiding places with no food competitors for them to thrive.

dragonface pipefish