Achilles Tang

Well... if Dersuz is getting a smaller tank, hopefully his wife is much smaller in size than mine! <-------------------

Woah. *stands up and clap* Pacificbetta, I guess today you blurred the line between being a hobbyist and a LFS owner with your affirmative action. While I admire your stand, you may wish to be less harsh towards those people who are ignorant of such issues and let them consider the debate that has taken place these few days first? Pospeh, if you say that I should adopt a similar approach in handling people, it would be more detrimental than the much softer and equally effective method of educating people while banning these kind of sales online (which is happening now). Things are cloudy enough now, how do you expect me to police the authenticity of corals imported with proper CITIES certification, even the AVA with its stricter procedures and massive manpower these past months, may not have completely stopped all improperly declared livestock! However, hobbyists who sell a large amount of livestock will be suspicious. And now that SRC has made a stand, this issue has been nipped in the bud. That is probably the most that we can do as a club. It just takes the co-operation of all now that I have made it black and white.

Going for in-wall look huh? Need a consultant? I'll only ask for a pink monti frag! (I thought I was the only one with an in-wall concept, welcome to the club!)

Actually, yours may be a different species... no way these crabs can survive even 24 hours without water. They dehydrate and die. The ones I caught last night at 12 midnight are already dried and dead this morning! Commensual crabs are different from these crabs.

Morgan used to have one. They can grow really big so a bigger tank is recommended for their happiness!

Go to the Newbie Forum section... there is a listing of all the abbreviations commonly used in the hobby. Some are names of LFS.

Somebody asked for pix of my tang? Here's my adult chocolate tang... I love his sickle-shaped orange tail and fins!

Here's what their black-tip claws look like.

Don't they look EVIL?

I was wondering why a few of my acro colonies didn't have polyps extended and then I saw it... hairy acro crabs... known to eat acropora polyps and doing just that!!! AARRGGH!!! Out came the pincers and gotcha... the big ones got the sharp point into their mouths and instant death... the smaller ones got yanked out. Danano was at my place a couple of weeks back and his sharp eyes spotted one on my blue tort that has a receding patch... and yes, you guessed it... a tiny hairy acro crab! I seemed to be hunting crabs with a vengeance now... just took out 3 crabs... biggest one had a carapace the size of a 1 cent coin. They are easily IDed by hairs on their legs and they seem to have whitish/blue eyes. Their claws also have black-tips. These are definitely not filter-feeders like the smooth and white Porcelain Crabs that inhabit acropora corals.

Well, that's not so bad! The spread is wider than I thought it was... compared to the first photo. Did you have to bend it out yourself or was it stiff at this position already? Pardon me for pointing this out.. but I really think the bulb should be just RIGHT under the V mid-point (as close as you can get) for optimal light reflection. As it is now, you can see that light beams will be hitting the bulb again rather than be directed back at the tank, note the leading edges.

You should get morgan to help you here. He pumps in 1 ton of NSW to his reeftank and FOWLR tanks. The NSW is off Bedok Jetty. I wouldn't say the water is exactly very clean but he has been able to keep SPS corals without much problems.

Wedgee, If its just for a FOWLR tank and you have no care for coralline algae growth.. then you can disregard KH and CA test kits as fishes do not need calcium and alk to survive. The levels provided by water changes should be enough. If the fishkeeper wants to move into coral keeping, yes, test kits for CA and Alk would be essential should he want to keep more calcium-demanding corals or sensitive ones. IMO, if its just cheap & hardy mushrooms... the levels provided by water changes should be enough.

The way you describe your coral seems to similar to how a Sea Pen will react. I have never heard of a leather coral retracting under the sandbed. Does it have a long soft phallic-like body?

I dropped food onto one end of the sandbed...

*SLAP*

AARRGGGHHHH!!!!!

If calcium and KH are detrimental to fishes, they would be living on the land by now!

I prefer my frozen foods thawed and then kept chilled as I want them to sink right away when fed rather than float as ice cubes in my tank, which then slowly thaw and drop off pieces. Reason being that I do not like to switch off my main tank's circulation during feeding times and having floating cubes means it will probably end up in the overflow. By scooping the chilled food up and swirling it into the front of my tank, they drop to the sandbed rather than end up being blasted all over corals where the fishes can't find them.

Geez bwilly... can't you hold a decent conversation without it having to include a mention about ######, girls or ######-related stuff? I should introduce a fine system... every time you say such things, you have to give me a dollar... I can buy good stuff every month then!

LOL! Okie okie. Private conversation then. Double A!

Yeah... good observation, Rumor. I think many of us need to buck up a bit and keep our nonsense talk to the Kopi Tiam section. We should get back on track and not let this forum degenerate into a turn-off. I think every individual needs to evaluate his own participation and contribution. I hope to see more serious stuff being done. Don't forget Aquarama 03 is coming up really soon and the whole of Singapore will be there and we need to get our act together/not lose sight of what we are. The Singapore Reef Club is a bunch of dedicated hobbyists who know what they want to achieve.

1. We can certainly do that publicly. It will take a lot of policing and effort through. But with everyone's co-operaton, of course! Privately? How do I do that?! I do not have the means or time to check what is discussed in private unless I get help from my ISD bros. 2. How do we verify non-certified livestock in the first place?? I think this is happening now. Most of the LFS are abiding with AVA rulings and getting proper clearances. Those that do not, run the risk of being caught and paying the price. We have been talking openly about livestock arrivals. The present system of using *** as part of self-censorship is to protect one from stating blatantly which establishment they are unhappy with. Knowing how poorly some shops react to negative comments, this is the only discourse unless one can take the time to give very vague descriptions. There is no conspiracy... I encourage open comments on the establishments provided you are willing to standby what you said or be identified for easy contacting should there be a need for communications. Most people won't bother anyway and hence use the *** for mostly negative feedback and to avoid the backlash. Positive feedback... there is no real need for using ***.

Wrong forum. Moving out.

I make enough to ensure that it doesn't last longer than 1.5 weeks worth of feeding. The whole defrosting/supplement adding process takes less than 5 mins and the lot is quickly chilled again. As long as the food hasn't rotted, your fishes won't complain.