yikai

i have always wondered about that too. if they arrive with the internal problems, means they had it already in the wild. dunno what's the reason and i've been trying to figure out too. maybe it has something to do with the parasite's life cycle, which is very often overlooked. internal parasites can be a a real PITA to cure. when it's too late, all efforts are almost futile. even when pinched in the bud, it will take many doses and even after, it may relapse. chingchai's one was better because he got them almost immediately and he did stringent QT. and also i guess because he may be lucky. althought stringent qt like wat digi said may not be helpful, thats why i think chingchai had lady luck smiling on him too.

i googled the same thing and got these

yup. the cleaner wrasse with the yellow patch is still L. dimidiatus. it's just a regional colour morph.

all except the 1.5 inch rusty flame is obtainable and have come in many times before. but it's difficult to obtain all at the same time though.

that's because the yellow variant is only found in vanuatu and fiji. only vanuatu shipment will have this and so far iwarna is the only shop with very regular stock of vanuatu fishes. there were a few in the past shipments.

stiffness after death is caused by rigor mortis, which usually sets in a few hours after death. rigor mortis is caused by chemical changes and is one of the signs used for confirmation of death. Indy, here's something interesting but nerdy for you to try on your future fish. if you can obtain ATP (adenosin triphosphate) and apply it to a freshly dead fish or any organism for that matter, the muscles will start to become active and the fish will "move". it has to be freshly dead. ATP is what our body cells use for energy and if muscles of a freshly dead organism is still alive, applying this on it will make it move. very intersting.. but kinda morbid

omg please don't coin that term "reef guru!" so paiseh! anyway the above topics i will be covering are all basic and very simple and definitely do not need the title reef guru. unless you want me to talk about all the chim and scientific things which im sure no one will be interested in and be bored to death. anyway, see you on that day!

cleaner wrasses are one of the more possible "impossibles" because if big tanks are present with many fish to clean, they can get their nutrition along with feedings from prepared food. same with the coral eating butterflies. if they are supplied with endless supplies of SPS, they can do very well.. the word "impossible" used does not mean CANNOT keep alive. but the "impossible" means that majority, if not all reefers will not be able to provide for the fish and thus indirectly unable to sustain it. but if these conditions are met, the fish will do very well. the word "impossible" is always used for obligate specialist feeders not coz the fish itself is impossible, but the conditions needed to be provided is. of course if one is very rich and has space with big tank, then the impossible will change to a possible. so i hope the word is not mis-understood here. perhaps i wasn't clear in the defition of the word in the first place. coz the word "impossible" used in this context is not the literal meaning. cheers!

yah lah! stupid leh! 1 of the 2 very healthy flames which have been with me for quite awhile now, feeding and everything. just suddenly found lying listlessly breathing hard underneath the urchin. my only guess will be it accidently poked it while swimming and then got poisoned and was then dying.. i've removed the urchin and put in the sump. i got it to clean up my hair algae last time but don't need it now. flame die nvm. these are philippine flames and are so rare!

most of the time, the easiest fish to keep are lost not to the difficulty of feeding ,acclimation etc, itself. but because of the tons of problems that arrive with it. like digiman said, don't give up and don't lose hope! and yes i forgot to mentioned that larger sized interruptus are difficult to adapt. smallest ones are best but way too ex.

if one really must try, then the common cleaner is the best choice. they are cheap and the easiest to get feeding. Labroides dimidiatus. this is the one. avoid the hawaiian endemic ones as those are almost impossible and are very uncommon even in the wild. i think they might be banned for catching due to being overwhelmed by cleaner wrasse crazy reefers who just keep buying them. the common cleaner wrasse that comes from fiji/vanuatu will have a yellow colour on it's black stripe. those are interesting and beatiful! look below

just be liberous with the prazi. my fish have gotten so accustomed to it that they eat the prazi residues straight off the bottle. without feeding the food. prazi is like fish food to them.

could be flukes. angels often come with a huge bag of problems. flukes, internal parasites and especially decompression problem if they are deeper dwelling species. don't lose heart. interruptus, like most other fishes, are easy. the problem lies with treating the common problems asap. as a rule of thumb, just prazi the food and feed to any expensive fish. prazi-ing the food does no harm in anyway and i see nothing except benefit once done. i dosed prazi in my fish tank before but had some casualties. don't know if it's the prazi itself, or other factors. but the 2 fish just died the next day. i find FW dip more effective and reliefs flukes faster. tried both methods before and from personal experience, i prefer a FW dip. of course you could just prazi your fish too but this is jut personal preference. anyway replied your PM.

Cirrhilabrus rhomboidalis. I've watched rhomboid wrasses come and go for the past 2 years. but never have i seen one so big before. so active even in the shipping bag and began feeding immediately after introduction. rhomboids typically display the "sian sian" behaviour. i.e, lying in the bag, lack of swimming, days to acclimate. this batch was not the case. this one came with a broken tail. nevermind. such minor imperfections should not impact decision making when buying a fish, unless the damage is severe, in the case of fin rot or infection. the tail is recovering and the fish is currently undergoing praziquantel treatment via feedings. a must for any deep water fairy wrasse keepers. if not, chances of survival may drop to as low as 30%, or lower! heard too many stories of fairy wrasses dying for no reason, or from internal parasites. experienced many cases for myself too. pardon the blue and grainy photos. tank still clearing up from cloudiness after accidently over-dosing bacteria ._.

a small group of bartlett anthias. all 5 are females. i've never seen bartletts with such striking purple and yellow colouration. moreover, the distinct separation of colours is so unique and bartletts do not typically show this kind of colouration. this prompted me to get them. i'm not an anthias person. even with 60 flavoguttatus anthias at iwarna staring at me, i just don't feel the urge to buy. did not get any males. i prefer the females too bad one will start morphing soon. moreover the easiness of feeding for bartlett anthias just astounds me. i kept them at the shop for 2 days with no feeding. and today after bringing home, they ate pellets instantly. bartletts are well known for their hardiness and often begin feeding even while still in the shipping bag. only put off for most reefers is their price, which compared to most other pseudanthias sp, is quite high.

elegance and very beautiful anchor/hammer corals at iwarna.

keeping marine fish and keeping obligate feeders are two very different things. obligate feeders will never ever survive for long time even if we have the best technology in the world. if we cannot provide their natural diet, then they will slowly pine away. i agree that cleaner wrasses are easy to feed. they just don't adapt to our food and will still perish soon after. same with obligate corallivorous butterflyfish. eat pellets and mysis can, but their digestive system and nutritient assimilation is only designed for coral polyps. so unless we can feed them endless supplies of SPS, there will be no way to keep them. same case for cleaner wrasse. unless we have hundreds of fish for them to clean and pick away at dead skin, dead cells, mucus etc, they will not get what they need and still meet their demise. do note that i'm not trying to flame anyone. this is just education and if we decide to keep marine fish, it's best we know what to keep or and what not to keep. cleaner wrasse is a common mistake and i myself have made it too. luckily they are not endangered and are aplenty in the wild. let's keep it that way! cheers.

read my comment above.

indy, i'm very very sorry to hear about your interruptus. although it's nothing short of misfortunate and no way to predict it, i feel partly responsible since i chose this specimen for you. reborn should have fed praziquantel right from the beginning to the interruptus angels. also just to let you know, the two wrought irons are doing very badly and are badly infected with some sort of disease and may not make it soon. it could be internal parasites and problems which could have been easily treated with prazi from the beginning. Rhomboid wrasses often suffer a similar fate. Constipation is another alternative but quite unlikely. yes mysis is known to cause conjestion, however the stomach is not distented from over-feeding. so i rule this out. besides, constipated fish can still swim and will still eat. my roseafascia had the same distented anus but also a big belly as it's very greedy and always over-eats. it has recovered from it's constipation with the feeding of nori and other greens. in any case i wish you the best of luck and i hope you don't give up in keeping you dream angelfish. if you decide to get another one, PM me. i have another source and might be cheaper too. take care.

you should know that you would have gotten flamed if you posted in reef central.. cleaner wrasses are frowned upon in captivity because they are obligate parasitivores and play an important role cleaning fish in the wild. ignorance is what lead reefers to buy them, thinking that they can eat white spots. they cannot eat white spots and will never be able to so if that's why you are buying them, then stop. anyway they can be trained to eat but will still die after awhile. they can live much more than 2-3 years. it's because of the diet we feed them that they die so early. fish can live for many years in the wild. cleaner wrasses are obligate parasite eaters. obligate means they eat nothing but parasites and are highly specialised. they cannot get their nutrition from our frozen food. they feed on dead fish skin, fish mucus, parasites and etc. just like obligate coral eating butterflyfish. they may eat prepared food but still wither away soon.

Rare bodianus izuensis at irene. also females bellus angels.

it's so beautiful. compared to your nox, flavicauda etc. it looks MUCH less dirty.

like what milch say, that is a mystery wrasse. mystery wrasse are available from 2 shipments. vanuatu and hawaii. only vanuatu ones will have the bright white stripes. hawaii ones do not, or rather, lose the stripes as they age.

armitagei in DD

ok confirm the real deal teminckii wrasse at iwarna.