Achilles Tang

Beautiful!

Well, sorry to hear that. One of the things that SRC tries to teach is to learn as much as you can about marine species before purchasing. A hasty purchase will more often mean that you'll have problems which can't be reversed forever/easily.

Hey dancing banana!! What happened to you bro? It's been so long since we heard from you! Still diving?

It has bleached mostly due to exposure to too strong lighting that the coral isn't used to. It's still alive but I suggest moving it to a shadier area. It may take a few months but it will colour back up. You may have to feed it with meaty foods like mysis shrimps to help it along.

Agree with most of you about looking forward to finding solutions. I'll start a new thread for members to post positive solutions. Anyone wishing to comment on exising problems can do so here but in a positive, non-accusing way. Anyone with issues with me persay... pls PM me for discussion. To lighten the mood, read this! One fine day, a bus driver went to the bus garage, started his bus, and drove off along the route. No problems for the first few stops-a few people got on, a few got off, and things went generally well. At the next stop, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet height, built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, "Big John doesn't pay!" and sat down at the back. Did I mention that the driver was five feet three, thin, and basically meek? Well, he was. Naturally, he didn't argue with Big John, but he wasn't happy about it. The next day the same thing happened-Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the one after that, and so forth. This grated on the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally he could stand it no longer. He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and all that good stuff. By the end of the summer, he had become quite strong; what's more, he felt really good about himself. So on the next Monday, when Big John once again got on the bus and said,"Big John doesn't pay!," the driver stood up, glared back at the passenger, and screamed, "And why not?" With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, "Big John has a bus pass." ******************** Moral of the story: Be sure there is a problem in the first place before working hard to solve one. ******************** Unfortunately, in our case, we do have one and so let's tackle it head-on.

Oh... the big red one is the African/Horned seastar. Omnivorous.... eats other inverts too.

No problem if they are just resting on them. The polyps will retract but that's about all.

Renamed and moving out to the correct forum.

True! True! Maybe you just have to be careful not to stock up on well known "impossible to keep long term" anthias like the Purple Queens. Even with multiple feedings a day, they still may not do well. Keeping picky anthias will mean your water quality will drop as you have no choice but to feed a lot of food several times a day in a bid to make sure they keep their weight up as they are high metabolism fish. Balancing their needs in an SPS tank is a nightmare... Trust me...

FAMA rocks!

LS, All corals have some kind of smell.... I have never said healthy SPS corals have no smell... but little smell. Perhaps when a coral is sliming more than usual, the slime itself could have a distinct sweet smell.... but FME, the ones that I smelt the sweet smell in the LFS are not known to produce copious amounts of slime and were on the verge of RTN or RTNed already so as a general rule, I will be less inclined to take it home coz there were some that I took back (had the sweet smell) and later RTNed shortly thereafter. AT

To feed filter-feeders like small clams, gorgonians, some soft corals, feed the micro-life larvae which end up as natural zooplankton for corals, sponges, tunicates etc etc?

50 anthias???! I know of one reefer some time ago who had something like what you have and one day... his tank crashed when there was a trip and he discovered it the next day. (please don't ask me who it is and I won't reveal anyway). The bioload was too high IMO so the oxygen levels crashed and the death of his fishes caused a huge surge in ammonia & nitrite which killed every single thing in the tank. Not saying that you're doing it wrong.... but for the benefit of newbies to reefkeepng... There is no magic number to put the limit on the tank inhabitants.... but you have to be sensible if you are not able to ensure pristine water conditions at all times (well, enough not to be overwhelmed by nuisance algae). No point having a tank full of stressed creatures (could be overcrowding aggression issues, poor water quality issues, individuals dying from fighting or lack of food etc). You have to see if your biological system or mechanical filtration system is able to sustain the bio-load LONG-TERM. You don't want the death of just one fish to push the entire system over the edge by the cascading effect. Freddychin, seeing that you have this tank for 13 years.... I assume you know what you're doing and its just a theoretical question?

He realized he was dressed in his mickey mouse pyjamas with his name tag "Sheerazzz" on it and holding on to his soggy bolster....

It could have turned brown due to lack of light or some other factors. You don't have to frag the healthy brown parts of the colony unless you intend to frag it off to place it in an area of better light or water circulation. Fragging should not be done to corals which are highly stressed or you may lose the entire colony.

OK... what you have there is not from the Fromia or Linkia species of starfishes which are reef-safe. These are not. I would say the large reddish one is very much like the chocolate chip starfish.... (can you take a photo of the top?). The smaller one is greyish brown at the top and very flat right? The diet of different starfishes could range from herbivorous to carnivorous. Some will be very happy to eat fishes, sponges & even corals.

SPS corals are not known to eat phytoplankton. Other corals & filters feeders in the reef will.

It sounds like marine velvet... it is definitely worse than ich. Your fish may be a goner if it doesn't eat strongly and unable to overcome the stress levels.

If anyone could ever catch out the ever reclusive peppermint shrimp from their tank in the first place....

Yup!

That's the kind of communication that's good!! None too personal, factual and always seeking to clarify the intention & meaning of the posts made. I've been to the shop... very nice & clean! I actually bought some fish from them too! AT

Watch your skin dudes... fire corals are the bane of divers and snorkellers... you may get welts on your skin that last for weeks and sensitive people may even get scarred for life. But they do have beautiful strong colours which is the only thing nice about them. Oh.. they don't last very long... quite hard to sustain them as they are non-photosynthetic and require food which is hard to provide for in captive reefs. AT

I don't think that species of phytoplankton has a saltwater variant! Do you mean Nannochloropsis? SPS corals eat mainly zooplankton and although some species are also found to ingest larger phytoplankton, it is debatable if they actually utilize it or its just an incidental catch.

They are mainly aggressive to their own kind and other species of fish that look similar to them, in terms of body shape. It's better to keep one to a tank.

mwang, you must be new here and didn't realize that your post: 1. Has a misleading topic title. (it should be: anyone seen small blue tangs for sale these few days?) 2. Is in the wrong forum (should be in weekly LFS reports). Pls comply with these rules (as seen in my signature) in future so as to help keep SRC a tidy place. THanks! AT