yikai

feeding frenzy! haha. all fishes chiong there pulling chunks off the prawn. my overgrown yellow wrasse took most of it off with his fangs.. even the shy and reserved pencil wrasse joined in the fun too! and look at how FAT the rhomboid is!! prawn was completely devoured in 5 minutes :/ what a great sight. like sharks circling a poor helpless...well in this case, prawn

was feeling bored, decided to try something. what happens when you tie a small piece of market prawn into your tank?

a cute tiny plate coral and a nice orange acan too.

sch finish 12pm today. so early to be going home to study, so decided to drop by GO for awhile. got myself 2 very nice GSP. Bottom left of my tank has a barebottom spot due to the strong wave movement blasting away the sand there. hoping the GSP will grow onto it and make a nice carpet grass effect . i believe this particular species is called skin polyps... picture taken 5 mins after introduction. not opening yet

i dun put chaeto inbetween the amgnets just leave it as it is stucfk to the glass. i always see pods there. even amphipods. the longer its left there the better. but my magnet cleaner very dirty. alot of algae inbetween. maybe thats why they like it haha

haha. till u come and take fotos for me, flash is my best fren

i fully agree with what bro reddevilz said. to be honest, am never a fan of these off the shelf pods. sounds too good to be true. but never use before so cannot comment. in facts, i cultivate pods using 2 magnet cleaners. the pods will live inbetween the magnets on my tank glass, in the rough surface. u can see them populate there and grow tons. best of all, free.

you should not be too worried with that kind of mouth. this kind of mouth, is the picking worms from crevices kind. poly eaters are those with blunt mouths like angels and most other butterflies. copperbands will definately be more reef safe than your wrasses. yours are...not of the norm. haha. it will be very helpful for them if you have peaceful fishes that wont snatch for food. they eat slowly compared to other fishes. but not as slow as mandarins. feeding them with mysis should not be too difficult. to get them feeding, a very useful trick is to buy small feather worms from LFS, and stick them into your rocks. they will eat the feather worms. of course, sacrificing some livestock for your fish, but this trick works well. another trick is to use an open clam. they go crazy for those.

where's the flame angel u got at reddevilz house? haha. i was there that day. did not say hi to you

haha no idea. me not scientist :/ could be though! really love copperband and yellow long nose. chelmon vs forcipiger. two of the most reefsafe butterflies. 2 of the nicest.

just realised duncan coral grew 3 new baby heads. very small can only see at night when the coral is not open. no wonder i didnt realise it in the day take picture with flash since its night time. but still cant see clearly guess calcium level is good enuf for them to grow wahaha

its the scent. i can only make a guess, that a dying coral is a fragrant coral?

depends on size. not sure.

water change once every 3 weeks. iodine dosage once every week. zoomax once a week calcium,mg,ph buffer onc a week, usually, if i remember ._. i dont test water parameters. eveyrhting is agar agar.

YAH!! got some reaaaaaaly nice ones.

not all hitchhikers are bad........... according to definition, hitchhikers means anything foreign and not intentionally introduced. right? thus, there are good ones and bad ones. bad ones include crabs, mantis, pistols. unless u keeping them in predatory tank, then they become good! lol... good ones include sponges, snails, starfishes, corals, sponges, pods, brittlestars etc. depends on what u consider good.

ah. yes, no suprise why the copperband ate up the feather worms feeding them with deteriorating brain coral is a good idea to get them feeding at least. alot of butterflies and angels are attracted to dying or deteriorating corals. These corals emit a "smell" which excite the fishes and draw them to the coral. sometimes, when a butterfly or angel is seen pecking on the coral, most reefers will jump the gun and say not reef safe. could be their coral already been dying and the fish simply feeding off the remains. usually they wont harm healthy corals. only those that are dying.

please dont misunderstand what i said haha. they are not entirely reef safe. the definition of reef safe means they can be kept in a reef aquaria and be safe to ALL creatures. the fact that they eat tubeworms don;t classify them as reefsafe. they are however, relatively coral safe. again, the word relatively is used. so far none of my copperbands eat coral before, but there are cases nonetheless. so go with caution

haha. whole tank is xenia. every corner also have. my favourite softy. btw, good Ph is around 8. xenia like that. but since there is no scientific proof, don't worry lah lol. they look just as nice, not pulsing. they can, stop pulsing for nothing too. even with stable Ph.

xenia is a very unique coral. pulsing activity is increased with stable Ph and iodine. although there is no 100% confirm case, this has been the anecdotal evidence shared by reefers around the world. xenia appreciate high flow or low flow. do take note that the lower the flow, the more the pulsing therefore, current pulsing theory number 2 came about. xenia pulse to increase flow movement. that;s why in higher flow, they cease pulsing activity. but all these theories towards pulsing action are still only hearsay, and has not been proven scientifically. take care of them and they will spread like wild flower, till they become like this they do sometimes melt for no reason though

good to know that the clams at CF are not for sale then. haha. all 300 pieces received for export. at least that was what i was told by aunty during the weekend. wether they are for sale now, im not sure. perhaps someone can confirm. craftman, are they for sale already?

there are some naturally occruing leather corals that are yellow. these are from fiji i think. rare, but...leathers... haha. don't find them nice. most yellow/orange corals are azooxanthellae and require heavy feedings. like seafans, suns and sponges. there are some orange zoas, blastos,yumas. yellow and orange are quite unusual for corals huh. haha

aiptasias are anemones, aren't they? like with Almost all butterflies, anemones are irresistable. a copperband would most certainly TRY to eat them, unless they are too big or if there are clowns to protect their anemone.

Ah xenias!! my favourite softies. can literally go dizzy watching them pulse haha! they grow super fast too. have a huge mountain of them. can watch them pulse like mad and destress hehe. btw, can feed supersuns and suns with mysis too. squirt into their mouth, more than sufficient. easy to feed also. and no fear of them spitting back out...

have many experiences with this beautiful fish. one of my favourite of all chelmon sp, but non comparable to marginalis. ok back to the point. copperbands controlling aiptasias are not that impossible with slim success rates IMO. tried and tested, most all that i kept before feed on aiptasia. its not as difficult as most other hit and miss fish. copperbands eating corals are very very rare (they rather starve to death than eat your corals. their mouth is seriously not built in a way a coral eating fish would. that doesnt mean it won't try though. have heard of them picking on corals before). almost non existant. look at the shape of their mouth. they pick on worms and other benthic creatures rather than coral polyps. however, getting one to feed is very difficult, but not impossible. have kept before a pellet eating one. frozen should not be a problem if u get a healthy one and pique its interest in food quickly. henry often brings in very good copperbands. overall, i rate reefsafeness 95%(coral), and aiptasia eliminating prowess more than 40%. have kept this many times. lost the pellet eating 1 to a power failure, and the rest of them to aggressive fishes. all were feeding except 1. Try not to house them with boisterous fishes as they are rather timid. very peaceful, will only harm conspecifics. will love to get one actually, must do some aggressiveness control first though. do take not that all tube worms will not be spared. bristleworms too at times, i they are small enough to eat. Actually, they are not like cleaner wrasses. butterflies like copperband feed on worms and other small crustaceans in the wild. if u get one feeding on rozen food at home, like mysis and henry's, survival should not be a problem since they are getting their nutritional value almost identically to what they get in the wild. unlike cleaners which are obligate cleaners. just my opinion. others who wish to share may chip in too