yikai

i think xenia still win. it's now a forest bordering the side of the rocks and will soon spread towards the middle. can see some little cespitularia frags encroaching on the left side. they look extremely blue when viewed from the top

some pictures of my corals. blue cespitularia. now i'm wondering which one grows faster. this one? or my xenias. these are frags from the first cespitularia colony from LCK very long ago. the original 1.5ft tall colony melted when i was overseas. these are it's babies and they have overtaken my entire rock.

another pellet feeding venustus with extra blue colouration on the head. yellow band separating head from body is absent in this unique individual. now i have a pair!

i dunno.

not true. in US, these specimens are obtained either from Liveaquaria or wholesale centers. some lucky wholesalers will bring in by accident the big colourful males. but often, juvenile ones are brought in which are less colourful and look like juvenile flasher wrasses. juvenile is still good as it's still very rare and can grow to bigger males. just like when naokoae first came in by accident.

Aussy hooded wrasse flashing and spawning.

Another very rare fairy that i hope to see one day. C. tonozukai

more pictures of the pintail fairy. they come out of Cebu, Japan and Taiwan. Hopefully we will get to see it accidently shipped from Cebu via Philippines shipments at CF, iwarna or ah beng.

as of now, unobtainable. only a few have been caught and shipped to US or Japan. very expensive and very rare.

difference between 4 very similar butterflies. although all 4 are similar looking, each pair are similar looking towards their own. Chaetodon falcula, C. ulietensis. Cheatodon oxycephalus, C. lineolatus C. falcula differs from C. ulietensis by having two smaller saddles in the yellow region. Ulietensis has two very large black saddles and no yellow on the body. Oxycephalus has a spot on it's head. Lineolatus does not. common fishes but always mistakenly ID-ed. gorgeous all of them nonetheless.

3 times a day. of course you could feed 6x a day but small small feedings. lower your bioload. your tank is extremely crowded for a 3ft tank. do remember that fishes will grow too.

no cannot say if purple queen eat pellets means it is safe. you can feed it anything you want. it can also eat anything it wants. but that's not the problem. problem is how come they still MIA and die even after feeding? i don't know. guess no one knows for sure. but i know that to give it the best chance it has, feed it many times a day. regardless of what you feed it, as long as it is nutritious and it gets many feedings a day, minimum 3x for purple queen. that should give it a good chance. anthias spend their whole lives swimming in the water column, eating. they swim around and also hover on the spot. have you seen anthias in the wild? their bodies are always swishing left to right even when they are not moving. this high demand for energy is the reason why they need so many feedings. to maintain their body weight. imagine yourself running around the whole day. and even when you're standing still, run on the spot. because anthias swim on the spot all day too. i know people who keep purple queen for 1 year+. and videos from oceanic labs with continuous feeding systems have shown that purple queens are very sustainable species in the aquarium. so we can rule out 1 factor for death. - Diet. diet is not an issue with purple queen. they survive just as well on cyclopeeze, pellets, enriched baby brine shrimp etc. tested and proven. so the issue lies elsewhere. one important factor is frequency of feeding. keep feeding regimes high with purple queens. small feedings many times a day is better than heavy feedings few times a day. next could be water movement. anthias are found hovering over coral heads in areas with high water movement to draw food to them. a big tank with brisk water movement will help simulate natural environment. overcrowing could also be an issue. if you have too many fish fighting for food or space, purple queens may not get their share. these are just many factors which no one knows for sure why they are so difficult to sustain. purple queens are not encouraged for reefers with small tanks and/or SPS. their need for space and heavy feeding requirements are not for the average reef tanks. a good skimmer is a must as well as diligence to do water change.

1 week to start feeding is nothing. when you start keeping harder, more difficult fish, some will only take foods after months. surviving on liverocks for the few months they decide to go on feeding strike. i had a blue eye anthias that only ate pellets after 1.5 years. anyway purple queen is easy to feed. they take cyclopeeze pretty easily like most other anthias. but they just for some reason cannot survive long enough. there are some success stories. just keep feeding alot.

OMG very nice FTS!

you're welcome. since you're so interested in flasher wrasses, here are those you can obtain in Singapore. Pick those you like and aim for those. P. cyaneus (Blue flasher wrasse) P. flavianalis (Yellow fin flasher wrasse) P. filamentosus (Filamented flasher wrasse) P. carpenteri (Carpenter's flasher wrasse) P. lineopunctatus (Line-spot flasher wrasse) P. mccoskeri (Mccosker's flasher wrasse) P. rubricaudalis (Red tail flasher wrasse) P. angulatus (Angular/Royal flasher wrasse) Here are those that are obtainable in the industry but are not available in Singapore yet. Will pull some strings and try to get them in. these are gorgeous! P. attenuatus (Diamond tail/Seychelles flasher wrasse) P. octotaenia (Eight-line flasher wrasse) And then there are those that are just unobtainable. P. hemitaeniatus (Comoro's flasher wrasse) P. piscilineatus (Mauritian flasher wrasse) P. nursalim (Nursalim flasher wrasse) P. waltoni (Walton's flasher wrasse) P. tongeansis (Tongean flasher wrasse) P. bellae (Bell's flasher wrasse) If your're going to have a tank full of flasher wrasses, a hood is mandatory and i will be looking forward to your collection

flavianalis will turn yellow when flashing or displaying. P. cyaneus is exactly the same as lineopunctatus, except for having a forked tail, whereas lineopunctatus has a rounded tail. when P. lineopunctatus flashes, the top turns white too. here's a photo of lineopunctatus. compare. do note that for both species, the white dorsal fin and blue colouration is only displayed when flashing. P. cyaneus will display extra blue colouration below the dorsal fin, head and tail during flashing. the Blue line is what gives P. cyaneus it's common name, the Blue flasher wrasse. Although it is normally red when un-excited. Cyaneus comes from the word cyan, which means blue.

feeding them is very easy. keeping them alive after that is very difficult. i'm sorry but i will have to support terryz on this they will MIA. sooner or later.

nice. ups for you. the branching LPS is a Cyphastrea decadia.

will do. ahbeng often have them from bali shipments. here's a slide of beautiful flasher wrasses from my powerpoint talk during the marine expo. a little motivation for you

arrived around 5-ish?

good choice. this is a Paracheilinus mccoskeri. the Mccosker's flasher wrasse

Tosanoides flavofasciatus in the wild.

yes. Tryssogobius colini. arrived yesterday evening.

it's super rare right? will e-mail him, let him know

omg! i woke up this morning and saw his face on reefbuilders, and thought he caught another one. i was so happy and was going to post here! until i read slowly and found out that he died. although i don't know him, his smile is very endearing and he seems like a nice man. i've seen a video of him catching a juvenile bandit angel before and he was very happy. he definitely loves his job and it was a shame to have lost someone like him. R.I.P here's some videos of him in action.