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.

20141028 Reef Safe

A Cleaner Shimp

One of the most common terms one hears or asks in the marine aquaria is "Is ____ Reef safe?"

Well, to answer that question, first we must define what is "reef safe"?

Here is an article from Wikipedia defining reef safe.

So in short, I think most people would agree reef sate in the home aquarium means the critter you are referring will NOT hurt invertebrates, including coral. Even though in the broad spectrum, there really is very limited true "reef safe" creatures as most fish, even those who are vegetarian, would need to consume crustacean at some point in there life journey. But for the sake of general reference, it means a fish/invertebrate will not attack or cause long term damage to other commonly available aquarium creatures. 

Even those that are considered reef safe, one can still find an occasional specimens that is a black horse who wants to redefine their diet habit.

To illustrate, here is a small sample of fish that are "reef safe"

Yellow Tang- Primarily vegetarian, very rarely harms invertebrates.

Clown fish- Not an herbivore but will not attack invertebrates.

Seahorse- Very gentle creature, will not attach invertebrates, but will eat pods.

A list of "reef safe" invertebrates

Tridacna clams- will not bother anyone, no feeding necessary with sufficient lighting and adequate water quality

Small Polyp Stony coral- same as above

Cleaner shrimp- will not bother anyone, will help pick on parasites on fish

What about "not reef safe" fish?

Any fish in the following family cannot be trusted:

Angel- most will nip on corals or clam

Butterfly- most will nip coral

Trigger- will eat any crustacean, will also harm smaller fish, but not necessarily corals

Puffer- Same as above

Lion- Same as above

Grouper- Same as above

Some not reef safe invertebrates:

Mantis shrimp- will eat ANYTHING alive

Lobster- will harm fish/clam

larger crabs- will harm fish/other invertebrates

Anemone- this is a tricky one, but they may consume smaller, weaker fish or crustacean. 

20141024 Huge Reef Tank Systems

While going through my list of posts I accidentally found an old draft what I was going to post regarding the Waikiki Aquarium, but totally forgot about it!

Waikiki Aquarium South Pacific Display

I think one of the biggest eye openers was the aquarium's main South Pacific system housing various fish that most aquarists would consider "not reef safe" yet none of them are picking on the corals or the giant clams. This is when I realized when it comes to keeping these "non reef safe" fish, the volume and feeding regimen really are the keys to success and having them leave the corals alone. The photos above shows butterfly fish, among others not in this photo that are known to be nipping corals in home aquarium, yet you can clearly see the SPS are growing very well in this tank!

Waikiki Awuarium Anemone Display

This tank, once again, is a very large system and you can see it houses many what we would consider "aggressive towards conspecific" fish together!

20141006 Derasa Clam nipped!

For the last two months I have been keeping my Derasa clam separately in a 75G RR that I have set up to allow the two squamosa clams more room to stretch. But two weeks ago I discovered that the Derasa clam have not been opening. So I decided to take it out of the 75 and place it back into my 92.

It turns out- someone has been nipping this clam! See the hole in the middle of the clam mantle (the white circle) My suspicion is the orange or gold spotted rabbitfish. Because not only the clam, the rabbitfish has also nipped on my leather corals.

2014-05-29 New Tankmate! Puffer

Over the weekend wife and I stumbled into local store and saw this cute guy.
I've never hosted a puffer in my personal tank. But I've always loved their personality when I take care of them in stores. So we decided to take this guy home.

The saddle back puffer, also known by many other names including valentine puffer, is one of the smallest, most commonly available puffer in the aquarium hobby trade.

No puffers are reef safe. However, with caution and good diet, they can co-exist with many other peaceful tank mates, including invertebrates.

I am taking a slight risk placing it in a tank with a little bit of coral, couple emerald crabs, few hermit crabs, snails, as well as a couple urchins. But my goal is to keep it well fed so that there will never be a need for him/her to attack its tank mates.

I now have a six lined wrasse, an electric blue damsel, an Ocellaris clown, and an African flame back angel housed with this puffer. The flamed angel is the king of this tank with the most aggressive demeanor. But the angel just checked out the puffer and left it along.

One note I must stress, if you have never kept a puffer- be sure to provide shellfish or hard shelled crustaceans in its diet frequently. It is necessary for the puffer to chew on hard object to grind down its ever growing teeth, which are fused into a beak-like structure. Without this care, the puffer's teeth will overgrow and eventually starve to death.

Additionally, they can be a bit of a messy eater; so be sure to have good filtration system with a strong skimmer.

A small saddle back puffer like this doesn't exceed 4", and is also a slow swimmer that doesn't require a lot of room. So it's OK to host it in a smaller tank. But if you are looking to get any puffers not in the cantigaster family, most of them can grow up to 1' or larger, be sure to prepare tanks no smaller than 120 Gallon.

2014-04-28 Livestock Spotlight

LiveAquaria generally has  decent price with very healthy animals- especially the divers den area.
Checkout this blue face angel. I do think you can probably find another blue face somewhere else to beat this price. But not with the 14 day guarantee!
http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden

Chances are if you are ready to invest $300 on a blue face, you are a seasoned fish keeper and probably know most of what you need to know. But just in case- Please do NOT purchase this fish unless you have an aquarium well over 200 Gallons.
This fish is also not quite reef safe as it may nip on some corals and will eat sponges.
Oh, and you probably want to put this fish no earlier than any other peaceful species as it is very territorial. Give it a rich, high protein, and high algae, high sponge diet!