diki88

I cant embed 3 videos in one post. So here's the last one on mysis.

Anyways, a couple of things happend over this week. The reefing gods are testing me. But it's alright, at least they are smiling on me for this one. This one of it eat eating the nori makes me feel super shiok as it devoured the big piece. Currently on Cupramine+Prazi run. I will not prematurely pull out cupramine anymore. minimum 4 weeks.

LOL. i am just too lazy to take them out actually.

Awesome looking tank. Congrats!

After eating pellets, it decided it had enough. So I let nori float around the tank for it to eat. Apologies for the bad quality video watch in hq pls! :lol:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgERaToogg&feature=youtube_gdata_player'> A big thanks to TFC bigbird for the constant query on its status and giving tips for its care. :D:D:D Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

I think with good water quality bro it will get better. Off hand I think if not wrong epsom salt helps as well. But dont quote me on this as im just remembering off the cuff as I read it somewhere. Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

On a side note, my tank is sweating abit as I lower the temp to acclimatise the bandit slowly. >_> Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

Soon bro they will notice ur marginalis eating it. Good luck! Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

Sold bro. My queen will not accept a new fish thats more than 3 inch in size. If I didnt sell, the bandit would not come. So I chose the bandit over the queen. Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

My current list : Angels Flame x3 Shepardi Regal Rock Beauty Argi Bandit Tangs Hybrid Yellow Hybrid Black Achilles Damsels Blue Chromis Occelaris Marginatus Hawkfish Flame Basslet Chalk That would be 17 altogether. Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

Wahh very nice bro Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

Yepp they like to term it as "clam on the half shell". Sophisticated words for a simple act haha.

Thanks bro. Hopefully it does well for many years to come. Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

Urs is still way higher than mine. Especially with the new incoming one Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

Yep those are the ones. Just to add, while its a good way to start fishes on feeding, there has been some debate regarding being over reliant on it and becoming the only source of nutrition for the fish as clams hv a high level of thiaminase. U have to vary their diet or use selcon or other vitamins to feed the fish. Here's the link. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_6/volume_6_1/thiaminase.htm Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

Bro, u should see some hidden dragons keeping way more rarer fishes than me. Anyways got ur white clams already? Very powerful feeding tool as u can see from my bandit's reaction haha.

Mine just passed as I was rescaping and didnt realise it was lodging itself below the rocks. It does that with the wavemaker previously when it sleeps. So every morning I would be shooing it away before I on the wavemaker. Actually bro, I think I got lucky with it. I feed my usual cyclopeeze and it started chasing the cyclops around. Then slowly to pellets. I was prepared to use a dead sps skeleton and smear some gel food on it, but the filefish adapted faster than I expected. If u really want a pellet feeding one, I saw a few pellet feeding ones, at of all places, jireh. With regards to ur sps tank, if u do a search about harlequin filefishes, many house them in huge sps tanks where they do relatively little damage. I think u have to supplement their diet with sps polyps also for long term good health. Hope this helps.

Maybe u can get a very small juvenile? Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

Oops didnt realise I didnt post the link. Here it is. Im super happy to be receiving a bandit this healthy and most importantly, feeding bandit. As bandits are rather deepwater fishes, prone to decompression, for TFC to condition this fish to be alert and responsive, I tip my hat to them. Their price also made me pull the trigger as opposed to previous bandit shipments. So here's a big thanks to the team at TFC for bringing in these 3 awesome fishes.

Didnt post this in my thread. Here's a short video of my hybrid black and achilles going at cyclopeeze on the 2nd day. Here are two videos of my last one. Just added it last night. This fish has made me broke. But totally worth it. Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2

Thanks bros for the good words. I think I have to learn more from the bros here. Yeah cupramine is very safe but anything in reefing, done in excess will always lead to bad outcomes. Im currently in the process of pulling copper out of the tank as I need to lower the concentration for a new addition. Getting invaluable advice from TFC boss regarding it. Will update about it soon. Cheers and have a happy Tuesday

Hi bro. Thanks for the words of encouragement. actually the best advice is to read and read. I google everything everytime haha. I simply type my question or topic then put reefcentral at the end of the sentence. To get a local context, put sgreef instead lor haha. For sure got something to learn one. Anyways, 1. I could not resist the swaying motion of soft corals to make my tank look more natural. It was also a little bit of my adventurous/egoistic side to prove the notion wrong that a coppered tank, after pulling all the copper out cant keep corals. I managed to.keep them but I overlooked the fish aspect. 2. Tbh, i was more excited the filefish was actually thriving and getting fat. After reading and reading about Matt Pedersen's success, how he said those who managed to keep them had 10 years of exp behind them, I was skeptical initially that I could even get it to feed but eventually I managed. I was reading so much about the filefish till sexing them was quite easy. And I loved the venustus haha. The blue area around its eyes were fading and turning yellow which was unique. I think if its small, alert at the lfs ur chances are very high actually. U quote John Copps, I believe venustus is in the group where he always say difficult to adapt, easy to keep. For the multibar, I give up. Not even my confident nature can take it. I added the second one in hope the first one would come out more and eat more. This tactic learned from Kevin Kohen when he wanted the narcosis angel to be more energetic. Heres the link. reefbuilders.com/2013/01/19/rapture-deep-elusive-narcosis-angelfish/ BUT what I overlooked was the multicolor was super stable and could take a beating but my new multibar was rather skittish. I ended up losing both, and as much as I like to say its cause of the method of collection, I cant cause it's my own doing. 3. For the dither fishes advice, I think its been around for ages haha. But to push it abit, I find fishes "monkey see monkey do" fishes of the same shape better. For eg. my new tangs learn faster by looking at the older ones eat as opposed to noticing what the angels/chromis eat. But this is just my observation hahaha. 4. Its those normal white clams u can get at Giant or Sheng Shiong. But sometimes will be out of stock. Alot of people underestimate the power of white clams. Here's a link on a Japanese legend aquarist, Mr Takama keeping corallivores with white clams. glassbox-design.com/2010/obligate-corallivore-captivity/ 5. Fishes need to be QTed, period. But I don't actively say it so much cause I understand how excited and scared we all feel. Plus most of us live in small flats. Plus we are impatient as singaporeans. Im just lucky to be running a fowlr and it has become a hospital tank now lol. To add just another point, compatibility really plays a part with fishes. Again John Copps quote, "not what u mix, but how u mix". However, no matter how I mix,my queen will always be super fierce hahahah. Hope u get a bigger tank and join the club man. Time to push the limits of ur abilities and knowledge. Thats what I always tell myself when im skeptical about a supposed difficult fish. Back to my first point, read up alot. Read fish primers, read people's tank thread, read how they run their system. I think ive spent more time reading up than actually spending time in front of my tank. Just an example, the following three threads are the many ive read or reading up on to know more about my two new fishes and maybe one incoming one. Its not just about getting them to feed actually but more of knowing the fish better, their pattern, their temperament. www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1867984 www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1492655 reefcentral.com/forums//showthread.php?t=2268893

September proves to be a bad month. My coral adventure was shortlived as the parasite named Ich decided to break loose and I didnt do anything about it hoping the fishes would develop some kind of immunity and fight it off. Plus I didn't want to dump my corals. With that moment of stupidity, I lost a couple of fishes. Namely, 1. Venustus 2.Small Semifasciatus 3. Shepardi 4. Both Multibars Secondly, the moment I decided enough is enough, I took out the corals and dumped cupramine. And so its dictated in my fate of fish keeping, my copper test kit is finished. It's okay I said, im experienced enough to play by eye and gauge without a test kit. I would know whether the fish is getting better just like how an sps keeper would know something is wrong by looking at their corals. Dump cupramine day 1, day 2 another dose, day 3 fishes still not looking good, another small dose.Most fishes got better but appetite dropped drastically. Some fishes stopped eating. So I came to terms with basic common sense and got the test kit. 0.8 almost 1. So much for playing by eye and being experienced enough. By now some fishes got burnt with reddish markings on their faces and fins. Change water throw carbon. And thus Cu lvls dropped but damage is done. The fishes I listed above either died of ich or made worse by my stupid decision to blindly dump cupramine thus making them weaker and more subceptible to ich. Learning point : dont be overconfident in ur abilities. Do not assume things are gonna sort itself out when it comes to keeping fishes. Corals may also contain ich esp if there's a rock attached, thousands of tomont lay waiting to release their ten thousands of tomites. 2. When aquascaping, always be careful for those passive fishes. In my urge to move some rocks and avoid my rock beauty and queen from pecking my hand begging for food, I dropped a rock quickly without checking.It took me a few hours later to realise the harlequin filefish was trapped by it. By then, too late. Another stupid mistake. Moving forward, a couple of people have been asking me on how I get some fishes to eat and eat well or how to keep a harem of flame and all. I think it was plain luck and choosing the right fishes at the lfs. Im of the opinion when a fish enters ur tank, it's ur responsibility to keep it alive. If it dies, its ur fault. Not the collectors fault not cyanide not the lfs. The moment u buy a fish, the burden is on u to keep it alive. Everytime a fish dies, I think I take it too personally. Other than that, from a practical point of view, dither fishes works great on shy fishes to come out and eat. I noticed my fishes give off this vibe when they are eating. I could drop a clam at one corner of the tank, without any other fishes seeing it except one. Within seconds, the rest would rush over to whack the clam. Second, cyclopeeze and white clams is the sex. If the fishes dont take cyclopeeze at first, white clams go in and that's that. Problem solved. I feel like going on and on but im starting to sound incoherent now. Maybe some other time. Till then rip my fishes. And hello new ones.

Get a new test kit. Its possible although highly unlikely u tio a bad box. Plus, if ur nitrates were to be that bad, ur corals most prob gone. But since u didn't mention it, I shall assume ur corals are doing fine. If the new test kit also reflects 100ppm, search ur rocks for dying matter. Something is decomposing badly in ur tank. Do one times large WC again. Ur phosphates are there if not there would not be any cyano. Which means ur phosphate is not the limiting factor to ur nitrates going down as per the Redfield ratio. After all that, I still suggest getting a new test kit.

All he needs now is a miniatus/cherry grouper but someone dont want to sell. :p:p Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk 2