Achilles Tang

Tubeworms are harmless... it's the predatory bristleworms or fireworms that you have to worry about. They are known to attack the exposed bases of clams, especially those which are not secured to a protective rock base. Some are known to crawl in and eat the clam inside out. I suspect that happened to one of my clams once...

Sun corals, chili corals, non-photosynthetic gorgonians and seafans. You can probably have little light but these corals are demanding in the sense they require regular feedings of meaty foods or live plankton (or plankton substitutes) to prosper... or you will see them slowly wasting away.

Enough about the TP already! Makes my blood boil when I remember my encounter with them in RC. Anyway.... yeah sure... just advance notify me, you're welcome to visit anytime! My acros are brown when I bought them... I doubt if they will colour up much soon... we shall see. I do intend to upgrade to a 250 or 400 watt MH over my acro corner soon... maybe results will show. There is already fast growth in my acros... I need to take regular pix to monitor the progress!

Nope... that's a green porite rock with big x'mas tree worms. You can see some of the pix in the previous page in this thread. If you want to come down and take a look this weekend... let me know! Yeah... I agree with you totally about the lop-sided opinions of some of the RC TP...ridiculous... they should be giving up keeping aquariums if they want to carry their theology to the extreme. Same if they have pet birds or dogs. I mean I love tangs and all, but to protect them to such extremes... geez! I still remember one joker's statement... "I have seen tangs swim for hundreds of meters or miles without even turning".... ie. there is no tank in the world that can accomodate a tang! Oh well... the TP has some merit points about putting in tangs in a small tank but again... their definition of a 'large' tank is somewhat 'small' already...

Steno, if you are declaring yourself as the SRC Tang police... you'll be making yourself very unpopular here... heh! I can just read tomorrow's headlines: "A man naming himself after a Coral Banded Shrimp had just emerged from a LFS when he was killed mercilessly execution-styled. His murderers were seen running away, leaving behind evidence of blood-stained live rocks (the murder weapons), salt particles (later id'ed as Coral Death) and a dead tang (which they use to slash his face as he lay dying on the pavement). They even took away his purchases from the shop which were reportedly some LuoHan fish. Witnesses are requested to report to the police if they can provide more information. On a side note, the deceased was reputed to belong to a secret underground gestapo-styled organization called the Tang Police, originally from the US. He was known to be the first local rep and was thought to be a reasonable hobbyist until he aligned himself with this extremist group. Members of the Singapore Reef Club declined comment when interviewed about the incident. JOKING!!!!! To answer you: I am also monitoring the growth of my sponges... they are entrusting fast. Some of the blue sponges that broke off due to handling, I stuff into cracks and crevices, and they have attached themselves and are growing fast. Yes, some of my clams are unattached to rocks... I am trying to find flat rocks for them... or even mussel shells for them to attach. About my tangs... THEY ARE HAPPY AND FINE!!!!! I intend to overstock my tank with 1000 tangs, whatcha gonna do about it, punk?

I culture them. Yours is dead phytoplankton in a bottle... limited nutritional value and limited lifespan... and ultimately expensive... compared to live plankton... as you can theoretically culture them forever. I will be putting up more info on live culturing soon as Chan and Brandon have recently gotten their phytoplankton culture kits.

Alright... got my digital cam out tonight... I just fed my tank so I have a garlic film on the water.. heh! I also switched off my Reeftecs, which my expanded carnation coral on the upper left corner absolutely loves the current they provides (those who came that night saw it was shrunken then but they do shrink and expand at diff times of the day... mine tends to expand more at night when I feed live phytoplankton) Left View Centre View Right View I didn't get my tripod out... so I won't post my whole tank view just yet.

Well... if you intend to turn the whole industry on its head... be my guest! Let's just say that everyone's waiting for the good stuff... but no one's willing to risk anything... like before. Demand and supply... is a game we are pawns of.

Small clams below 1.5inch need supplementary feedings of live plankton in their diet.

If you enquire of any of the US LFS, they dun ship out of the US... at the most to Canada. The journey is too far and most of the livestock have a poor shipping rate over that distance. What's ironic is that most of the nice acros and clams from this region are reserved for the US market because they are prepared to pay a premium and because our market is too small/low demand. Hopefully, we can change their minds soon as local advanced hobbyists show that we have the interest and means to keep them. AT

Lucky, I made you eat something at my place first... heh! Seems like I was spending more time prying people away from my tank to go to the kitchen and start eating the whole party... hehe...

Oh I see... thanks for the compliments! Sam and family from Sealife did come by later in the evening...

Maybe if one of us live near the sea and can have access to large amounts of cheap limestock rock... you can tie them all together with a piece of rope and dump it in the sea... and harvest them in a couple of months time. LIVEROCK!!!!! As I suggested this first, I demand first pick plus 25% cut from all sales..

Uhh... Chris... were you at my place for the gathering, you saw my tank in person?

Huh? Oh... so the other empty tanks are not counted right? Oh! Heh! You are still mad... come lah.. what's so scary about being called a mad reefer? How was the wedding dinner? Enough food?

Better to set at 25 coz the thermostat will activate the compressor at 27. 25 to 27 is better than 26 - 28.

IME, A small, least demanding, PL lights OK, anemone is not available, besides the pest aiptasia. They will not remain small for long but expand the biggest they can, grow quickly under ideal situations, they will demand for meaty foods, and if using PL lights, will climb on the highest rock they can find to be right under PL lights (sometimes not where you want them to be). Not to sound discouraging, they are beautiful but will become a pain in the a$$ over time.

Firefishes when kept in a group will establish a pecking order to the point of death. A group of 7 can be reduced to only 2 in no time. I read that somewhere and also IME.

Nope, you don't need a anemone for that.... just a ceramic tile will do or flowerpot. I have a book on breeding clownfishes that I can share some tips with you. Basically, you need to seperate the adults from the fry when hatching.. and you need to feed live rotifers to breed the frys.... after which you can progress to live brine... Be warned... adults are highly protective of their eggs. You will get attacked.

Well, I am not a member of the US tang police, so I won't dare lay strict tang gospel rules on you... Tangs do grow big and they do need a sizeable tank to swim in. If you have a small tank <3 ft or even medium <4ft.... and also depending on how much corals/liverock you put in... your tangs may not have enough space to swim in. They will outgrow your tank and you will have to be prepared to give them away. As for compatibility, I would say that tangs will be able to accept each other as tankmates if they are all added at the same time. If you have tangs which have already established themselves... you will have a harder time, coz they will give the newcomer a hard time. But if the new tang can take the initial tail-lashing, not break out in ich due to stress, survive the ich... and EAT well... chances are you have a keeper. Harder-to-keep tangs like ATs and PBTs have a worser chance as they are ultra-sensitive and demanding eg. highly oxygenated clean turbulent water. I have a medium size yellow tang and used to have 3 purple tangs (1 is still with me, the other 2 I recently sold away a couple of months back)which I introduced together. There was a week where the established YT made his authority known by tail-slapping the 3 PTs... but after that... they are best buddies, eating, schooling and growing fat together.... IMO, tangs/surgeonfish are the most beautiful reef fishes.... but also cause a lot of heartaches when they don't make it.... poor acclimatization, stress, inability to adapt quickly, not eating well... Good luck!

X'mas carols... Singapore style. JINGLE BENGS (to the tune of ‘Jingle Bells’) Chorus: Jingle Bengs, Jingle Bengs Jingle all the way Oh what fun it is to squat And then shout, “Wah lau eh!” (Eh!) Jingle Bengs, Jingle Bengs Jingle all the way Oh what fun it is to squat And then shout, “Wah lau eh!” Hooting down the road And piah-ing down the street Later go Geylang And get something to eat Geylang is damn tok kong ‘Cos down every lorong You’re sure to find things all night long To make you si beh song (Eh!) Repeat chorus GST IS COMING TO TOWN (to the tune of ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’) You better buy now You better now buy You better shop now I’m telling you why GST is coming to town It will increase your bills By fi-ive percent Courtesy of the go-overnment GST is coming to town It’ll hit you when you’re shopping Whether food or household wares So you better start applying for Your Ee–aR-Ce-ee shares You better buy now You better now buy You better shop now I’m telling you why GST is coming to town O COME BACK YE QUITTERS (to the tune of ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’) Come back, ye quitters, Bring your kids or sisters Come back, o co-ome back to Si-ing-ga-pore Come and assist us In this big recession O come back to your country O come back to your country O come back to your country We mean Singapore I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE HUSBAND (to the tune of ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas’) I’m dreaming of a white husband Just like the ones on TV shows So I stake out Boat Quay Or Ho-lland Vee-ee To snag some rich expat ang-mors I’m dreaming of a white husband I read about in women’s mags I’m an SPG, all right And I want my husband to be white ISD IS GONNA FIND OUT (to the tune of 'Santa Claus is Coming To Town') You better not pout You better not cry You better watch out I'm telling you why ISD is gonna find out They're reading your mail They're bugging your soup To find out if you're A communist dupe ISD is gonna find out They watch you when you're sleeping Awake it's still the same And if you act boh tua boh suay You will sure kena detain So better not pout Or kau peh kau bu Or they will reserve The air-con for you ISD is gonna find out FILL THE MALLS (to the tune of 'Deck the Halls') Fill the malls with Christmas spending! Fa la la la la la la la la Use your Visa till it's bending! Fa la la la la la la la la Till you reach your credit ceiling! Fa la la la la la la la la And the interest starts increasing! Fa la la la la la la la la See the letters all demanding! Fa la la la la la la la la See the writ of seizure coming! Fa la la la la la la la la Bailiffs come with smiles-a-gleaming! Fa la la la la la la la la What a novel Christmas greeting! Fa la la la la la la la la O LITTLE TOWN OF SINGAPORE (to the tune of "O Little Town of Bethlehem") O little town of Singapore How small you are in size And yet you like To use your mike To go and proselytize Though your Asian values You know are but a ruse To justify Making folks cry Their liber-ties you bruise "You must obey your elders No matter what they say To be unfi- -Li-al, you see Is a treasonous display." SILENT FART (to the tune of 'Silent Night') Silent fart Smelly fart Eat durian Chin chia lat Bastard Why you so Buay tze tong Just let go Like that, si beh hiong Damn incon-si-der-a-ate Da-amn in-con-sider-ate SOUTH IN EAST ASIA (to the tune of "Away in a Manger") South in East Asia By a flag white and red The little lord Harry Lay down his vast head He's built up this island It's rich though it's small The people love Harry And carry his balls. WE THREE SINGHS (to the tune of "We Three Kings") We three Singhs Of Paya Lebar One in taxi One in car One on scooter Peeping his hooter All going to Khalsa. Refrain: Oh-oh, Bhai what colour? Ouch! It's white! Why you pinch So bloody tight? Homeward heading Ghee a-spreading Bhais want chapati tonight.

Trust me you dun wish to see it. It's white spots covering the entire body of your fish...including the eyes. Like salt specks...

Ahhh Morgan... you are definitely a mad reefer..... having a 8 feet tank and four 6ft tanks... that is being 'madder' than me, IMO! Apologies about my dog... I threatened to make him a eunuch if he does that again... Oh well... his genes are worth a lot of money... as he is a rare and purebred dog... we hope to get him a proper mate soon... but it'll be a 4 figure sum.... sigh! He's gonna be starring in the next Austin Powers movie as the new replacement for Dr Evil's hairless cat..

Are you as tall as me Kel? I can't remember the exact height of my tank... but yes, being tall (1.81m) I have to stoop slightly to see all the way back (unless I lift up the lid). It's a very subjective matter... coz we are all of different heights... being tall helps because you can see more... but if we all sit on chairs or stools in front of our tanks... we all see the same view. How do you then define what is the best height? I feel that whatever position you feel most comfortable looking at your tank for more than 20 mins is considered ideal. If your back or legs feel cramped.... then... well.... get a higher/lower stand, higher/lower stool.

I have an Aquabee pump and it comes with my H&S Euroreef skimmer...