FuEl

Ah...if i come back...kinda like the life here..everyone's so friendly and I can see frilled dragons and kookabaras on my campus..see how it goes..if I return to sg but still no proper job vacancies...scr*w it and I'll just settle in australia.

Do some reading up on the species...you will have to refer to scientific journals.. If the larvae hatch out with still yolk sac reserves you don't have to feed them immediately. If the larvae hatch out ready to feed you will have to feed them immediately with rotifers initially. If you are serious to raise them, it will be alot of work. You won't be able to set up the larvae tank, rotifer culture tanks in time, not to mention you need micro-algae to keep the rotifer cultures sufficiently enriched. You'll need to find out what micro-algae would be best to enrich the rotifers with as different fish species have different nutrition demands as they grow. Yeast can be used to keep the rotifers going but you will still have to enrich the rotifers with micro-algae as these have the essential fatty acids, etc which the larvae need to develop normally. Also you will need sieves of the appropriate size to separate the larvae from the tank water should you choose to implement water changes or some kind of filtration. It would be great to attempt to breed them in captivity. The marine industry needs more people to culture aquarium specimens.

Ask any chemistry students...they should know. I forgot most of my chemistry, but I think 0.15% is the same as 0.15 moles. Anyone who is taking chemistry at A levels or past that should be able to help you.. I'm lazy to dig up mole concept from within my brains, it has already been banished.

Decided to share some additional information on artemia culturing. Some things were new to me. 1)Hatch rate is superior in lower salinities (5% is optimal). Seawater has a salinity of 35%. 2)Illumination of the culture will enhance the hatch rate. 3)Best timing to enrich brine shrimp would be 12 hours after they hatch (They can only begin feeding after they moult into Instar 2). 4)Artemia cysts of higher nutritional value are collected from Great Salt Lake, Utah. Decapsulation method 1)1g of cysts are hydrated in 25ml of freshwater for 1hr. 2)Add 10ml hypochlorite solution (bleach) + 1ml 0.15% NaOH solution. Observe the cysts turning to orange in 5-10 mins. 3)Transfer cysts to sieve mesh (a coffee strainer or any cloth bag will work well) and wash with running freshwater 4)Dissolve 0.25g of sodium thiosulphate in 250ml of freshwater and dip the decapsulated cysts in it. 5)Cysts can be put into hatching vessel. Decapsulation benefits -potential digestive and disease problems caused by cyst shells can be avoided -cysts are disinfected from any possible contaminants -hatching rate will be improved -larvae of fish n crustaceans can feed on decapsulated cysts directly -no messy left over cyst shells in the hatching vessel

23m this year. Graduated from NUS where I majored in life sciences (really boring). Now in queensland, Australia doing postgrad studies in marine aquaculture. Enjoying myself despite getting the sunburns. Learning to culture oysters now and the best of all......REPTILES ARE LEGAL PETS! Muahaha..very tempted to get myself a black headed python. Love the way of life here, everyone is so darn cool and its not stressful at all. Everyday although I go to uni, its like a holiday. One word to describe studying in sg... "Suffocating".

Crab larvae..the female holds on to the eggs until they hatch.

Wow your ric garden.......

Feed animal based feeds like golden pearls, rotifers, cyclopeeze etc. They take up dissolved organics too. I don't think they take phytoplankton. Only filter-feeders like sponges, bivalves, gorgonians,etc do

The reason that I feel is simple. They got too much light all of a sudden. In the wild, corallimorphs are found at quite a depth down. I have diver friends who said they have never seen a single corallimorph while diving. So you can imagine the depth in which they occur, which might explain the pricing. Or maybe they come from turbid waters unsuitable for diving, which means the light penetration is very weak. Unless the yuma has been propagated in captivity and is accustomed to bright lights, you should always work very carefully with wild collected specimens since they already have been severely stressed by shipping. I find that newly arrived specimens should be put under cloth filtered lights rather than intense MH. And also decrease the lighting period. The photoperiod in the sea is much different compared to captivity. 8-12 hrs of MH lighting in my opinion is already an overkill. Wild specimens don't get such long periods of intense light from the sun, and not to forget the occassional cloud cover. The kelvin temperature also plays a role, if a corallimorph was accustomed to 20,000K lighting in the wild, a sudden change to 6500K lights for example for the same photoperiod would most certainly kill it. The important thing is to give it the minimum lighting conditions needed for it to survive and to slowly increase it from there. Remember corallimorphs are not SPS.

Hmmm...just don't lump them together like that in a container in the long run. Insufficient waterflow will lead to more melting.

No need to worry about 1ppm of nitrate. It won't kill sps. Just keep an eye on Mg levels. Ideal range try to keep between 1300 and 1500ppm.

BAffles?

Chiong the night away~ That's wat i do if i can't sleep..look at girls, drink lots of booze and you'll be sleeping by the time you reach home. Good place for girls>>DevilsBar.

Hmmm...don't think it's just a legend. From the time me and many others last asked over the past few YEARS, even with proper export permits or even for animals not listed on CITES or even captive bred animals past F2 generation as long as AVA views certain animals with some level of bias, chances of getting an import permit are literally nil. But in this case for the weedy sea dragon, there might be a chance. Afterall, it is a harmless fish which can never affect our local wildlife. And if even electric catfishes can be imported, I don't see any reason they should restrict the trade in captive bred fish. Or you could also look at it in this way, if it was called "weedy seahorse or seafish", there might be less problems getting a permit. But "weedy seadragon", that might be another issue. AVA being anti-reptile, might not like the name and ignore the permit application immediately.

Fishes eat egg yolk?!

I have used AquaZ phytoplankton to culture my seafan frags. Anything if overdosed will cloud your water, especially if your skimming is not sufficient.

If all other conditions are perfect, presence nitrates won't be a problem in the colouring up of sps. But still, strive to keep it below 50ppm. Of cause 0ppm is what the perfectionists recommend.

Kept a maroon clownfish before for 6 years. Gave away to an aquarium in the end.

Mortality rates from marine velvet is usually higher than ich as marine velvet spreads at an alarming speed.

Hmmmm...Rather reef safe butterflies would be copperband butterfly and the yellow longnose butterflies (got 2 species). To cover the additional sandbed that is exposed by the skirting, maybe you could consider black oyama paper? Hope to see your tank in person, do let me know when you are free? I'll be gone from Singapore in another....13 days.

Your seriatopora hystrix.....

Think its got to do with the quality of the liverock. From your description it seems that your liverock might have been from rather murky waters and hence the presence of so much sediments. If possible take your liverocks out and scrub them with a small brush in some of your tank water to dislodge the loose sediments. Alternatively use a powerhead to blow off the sediments in a pail of water. Some sediments (especially clay and other fine sediments) will have adverse effects on coral growth.

WOW.....Awesome decor. Hopefully I can have a place in future as nicely done as yours. It will be Amazon theme.

Depends on the species of cucumber and the maturity of your sandbed. In general sea cucumbers are not really recommended for tanks that have been running for less than 6 months. The sandbed is not established enough to support the feeding habits of sea cucumbers. If they feel they can't derive enough nutrition from the sand they will start looking at other places like your liverocks and your glass. Sea cucumbers mainly feed on detritus but in my observations if this is lacking they will compensate by feeding on the diatoms that grows most abuntantly on glass, which explains the glass sticking phenomenon. This is when many reefers get the cuke-powerhead problem. It's also good to have ample "grazing pastures" for the sea cucumbers. For the common 1ft or less donkey dung cuke it is good to provide at least 3-4 ft of browsing area for a single cuke. If your tank has been running for quite long it is possible to introduce more cukes. I've had 2 1ft cukes and 1 tigertail cuke in a 4X1.5X1.5 for many months and they actually continued growing. But I only introduced the cukes after my tank hit the 1 year plus mark. A recommended species that stays on the bottom would be the tigertail sea cucumber. Not commonly found but I've seen them before at Coralfarm. Does'nt grow as massive as the other sea cukes and the one I kept never ventured more than 5cm from the sandbed.

No point thinking about it. Just live your life the way you want it. Don't do anything you will regret.