Desi & Ketchup 4x2.5x2 tank

[desideria]

Thanks lemon.. we shall take note and just add in some snails first... starfishes can wait another 2 more months down the road yeah? for the cleaner shrimps, we may or may not get 1 pair so we'd see how it goes.. Maybe we'd try out luck and get just 1 pair.... a 4 feet tank having 1 pair of shrimp.. they can't move around THAT fast to snatch the food off the corals. HAHAHAH... guess either leslie or I would have to stand there and do food guard duty when we start feeding corals if we do get it... LOL

thanks all for your advice.

Oh yes, just got a lump of cheato from a friend and threw it into the refugum. now I'm gonna leave the lights on 24/7 to let the cheato ggrrooowww... For the main display, turning on the MH for 2 hours and the purple atinics for 4 hours since yesterday.

hope everyting will turn out fine..

Cheers

Desi.

[comycus]

Thanks lemon.. we shall take note and just add in some snails first... starfishes can wait another 2 more months down the road yeah? for the cleaner shrimps, we may or may not get 1 pair so we'd see how it goes.. Maybe we'd try out luck and get just 1 pair.... a 4 feet tank having 1 pair of shrimp.. they can't move around THAT fast to snatch the food off the corals. HAHAHAH... guess either leslie or I would have to stand there and do food guard duty when we start feeding corals if we do get it... LOL

thanks all for your advice.

Oh yes, just got a lump of cheato from a friend and threw it into the refugum. now I'm gonna leave the lights on 24/7 to let the cheato ggrrooowww... For the main display, turning on the MH for 2 hours and the purple atinics for 4 hours since yesterday.

hope everyting will turn out fine..

Cheers

Desi.

Since we can't persuade you to not keep cleaner shrimps... you wanna buy my pair? I'm gonna sell mine away. Both are about 4-5cm long excluding their feelers, and in healthy condition. Just molted ard 5 days ago. Drop me a PM if interested.

[yikai]

lol small 1 more hardworking lah! but they grow super fast anyway... in no time they will be like comycus's one. so are mine fish begging to be cleaned oso no do work.

[jackywongto]

get neon goby ... good cleaner

[Ketchup]

get neon goby ... good cleaner

Yeah, maybe will get some.. no hurry as tank just cycled so relatively "Clean"

Bought 5 small snails and throw it in... all burrowed into the black sand...very nice

Then Desi came home and throw in some fish food... immediately all the snails crawl out! Their antenna damn good.. LOL

Tonight will prob finalise our rockscape and add in some corals.. Will prob start another thread for ease of keeping track

Thanks all for the advice and we will try to update diligently so you guys can point out our mistakes (hopefully not too many!)

Cheers

Ketchup and Desi

[desideria]

Hi all,

... did a new rockscape last night with ketchup.. took us 3 hours plus to do a bit of rockscaping, some VERY unsuccessful epoxy-ing .. I think we wasted half a packet.. and we got all the corals which we had reserved previously from the place we have a love-sad r/s with ( love of corals and sad being when you see the credit card bill of the damage done).

We have also been testing water parameters on a daily basis to make sure that everything is AOK. After adding the corals last night and liberally squirting in Zooplankton, phytoplankton and rotifers, and some coral additive called : SOL DOM (from this brand : www.coral-shop.com ) which supposedly has 3 vitamins, 8 carbohydrates ,21 amino accids and 2 mixtures of complex acids! Anyone used this before? Also Dosed in some Kent Marine Vitamin C as per the instructions.

The water parameters after 24 hours of adding livestock are as follows as of 7pm 15th of Jan which is DAY 15 is :-

PH : 8.4,

Sg : 1.022 <-- on a mission to raise it to 1.024-1.025

Magnesium : 1260mg/L

Ammonia : 0

Nitrite : 0

Nitrate : 5ppm <-- slightly higher than last night's test results of 2.5ppm

Calcium : 400-420ppm

Phosphate : 0

GH & KH : 8.3Dkh & 2.97meq/L

Right now the livestock stands at :

5 Narsi snails added on Day 13

Added : Day 14 night :

1 Coco worm

1 Hammer

1 Alveopora

2 Flavia : 1 Flavia palida and 1 Flavia Specicosa

1 Trechyphillia

1 Lobophyllia

1 Clavularia Sp (clove)

And from the pathetic old 2 feet :

1 super sun

1 Cat's eye bubble

1 octopi

Will let Ketchup take better pictures of the whole thing but for now this is all I can take being out of sorts... only the purple atinics were on when these 2 pics were taken.

The tiny lump of cheato I manage to kapok from my colleague at work. So happy to find another marine fishy nut at work! So convenient to swap fishy stories

hee he hee... now in my refrigum HAH! let's see how FAST it grows.

That's it for now.

another 3 more weeks for penductors, ordered skimmer and FR to come in! ARUGH!

Desi.

[yikai]

looking good desi and ketchup! becaureful on your coral placement. favia and euphyllias can sting very well. especially the favia.... they look cute and harmless in the day... but at night they are terror.

[desideria]

looking good desi and ketchup! becaureful on your coral placement. favia and euphyllias can sting very well. especially the favia.... they look cute and harmless in the day... but at night they are terror.

hi lemon,

yes we know, we have put them in a place with no other corals around them. THANKS though for pointing it out...hee hee... we bought 3 books on Corals, Invertibrates and Fishes so that we can refer to it but as you know sometimes books can't give exact info unlike fellow reefers!!! So don't hesistate to tell us anything u deem necessary.

last night, though sick, I couldn't sleep, so I woke up at 2am with a torchligh to check them out and yup... I see some tentacles coming out form both pieces. HEH.

Desi.

[Ketchup]

looking good desi and ketchup! becaureful on your coral placement. favia and euphyllias can sting very well. especially the favia.... they look cute and harmless in the day... but at night they are terror.

ya... actually surprise to see the flavia's tentacles quite long

We will try and space it out a bit.. anyway, don't think will add in much more corals for now.. unless Desi cannot tahan and GO GO..

[desideria]

Hey all,

after adding the coral, now we have a couple of fish in there. The big one is a 6 inch BT we got a fellow reefer, a banana (yellow) wrasse and a fire fish. ALl eating anything and everything I throw into the tank. Here's some pics.

The old bubble from the 2 feet

THe Fire fish :

The view!

The pig of the tank at the moment with the wrasse behind him.

Already suffered one casualty whereby after 5 days, our little watchman goby cleverly swam into the overflow.. I managed to catch him the first time and throw him back to the main tank but this morning after trying a couple of times to catch him as he had gone in again over night.... I couldn't find him anymore.

Anyway, currently we only have 2 fish still sadly swimming in a very sparse 2 feet tank which we are going to turn into our QT tank. It's a 3-4 inch yellow tang and a tomato clown. We will be Quarantining 2 powder tangs by the end of this week for about 30 days before putting into the main tank.

I got a big Question!!! In the mean time, what do you guys think if I put in the Yellow tang into the Main display before I put in the powders? I was thinking of putting the YT in the sump first but that would mean the YT would be in the sump for 30 days until the powders are fully quarantined and added to the main display. Has anyone come across problems of adding powders to a tank with a YT in it? OR it doesn't really matter.. OR should I say.. it boils down to pure luck? Will the YT attack the Powders or even if I add in the powders first and THEN the YT.. the YT will still behave aggresively anyway?

Really grateful for some advice..

Cheers,

Desi

[yikai]

tangs are prone to fight amongst other tangs.. try betta boxing them and use a mirror to reduce aggression. zebrasoma tangs such as yellow tangs are less aggressive than acanthurus tangs, eg bt, pbt..

[craftsman]

Hey all,

after adding the coral, now we have a couple of fish in there. The big one is a 6 inch BT we got a fellow reefer, a banana (yellow) wrasse and a fire fish. ALl eating anything and everything I throw into the tank. Here's some pics.

The old bubble from the 2 feet

THe Fire fish :

The view!

The pig of the tank at the moment with the wrasse behind him.

Already suffered one casualty whereby after 5 days, our little watchman goby cleverly swam into the overflow.. I managed to catch him the first time and throw him back to the main tank but this morning after trying a couple of times to catch him as he had gone in again over night.... I couldn't find him anymore.

Anyway, currently we only have 2 fish still sadly swimming in a very sparse 2 feet tank which we are going to turn into our QT tank. It's a 3-4 inch yellow tang and a tomato clown. We will be Quarantining 2 powder tangs by the end of this week for about 30 days before putting into the main tank.

I got a big Question!!! In the mean time, what do you guys think if I put in the Yellow tang into the Main display before I put in the powders? I was thinking of putting the YT in the sump first but that would mean the YT would be in the sump for 30 days until the powders are fully quarantined and added to the main display. Has anyone come across problems of adding powders to a tank with a YT in it? OR it doesn't really matter.. OR should I say.. it boils down to pure luck? Will the YT attack the Powders or even if I add in the powders first and THEN the YT.. the YT will still behave aggresively anyway?

Really grateful for some advice..

Cheers,

Desi

Wow, nice!!!

[desideria]

SO it really doesn't matter whether I add the powders first Then the YT or the YT then the powders? Just have to find means to reduce the aggression towards each other.... Btw.. I think the glass of the tank already act as a mirror because the first 3 days the BT was in the tank, it constantly banged itself against the glass thinking it's another BT but it's own reflection!

HAH I thought YT is more aggresive than BT.. lol which is why I added in the BT first..

Because if I throw in my YT now, it would mean another 30+ days before the Powders go in after quarantine.

a tad confused at ze moment.

Cheers,

Desi.

[comycus]

SO it really doesn't matter whether I add the powders first Then the YT or the YT then the powders? Just have to find means to reduce the aggression towards each other.... Btw.. I think the glass of the tank already act as a mirror because the first 3 days the BT was in the tank, it constantly banged itself against the glass thinking it's another BT but it's own reflection!

HAH I thought YT is more aggresive than BT.. lol which is why I added in the BT first..

Because if I throw in my YT now, it would mean another 30+ days before the Powders go in after quarantine.

a tad confused at ze moment.

Cheers,

Desi.

I know powders are fairly aggressive when established. You will want to add them in later. They are also v. prone to ich and should not be tried in a new tank as you won't want to give them additional stress when the tank has not stabilised yet. The standard advice is to wait ~ 1 year for your tank to mature before thinking of quarantining and adding a powder tang in.

[Terryz_]

Zebrasoma are fairly aggressive once established... I have not kept YT before... But experience with Sailfin and Scopas and PT... They are considered quite bold, but will not chase other tangs around, they will stand their ground for their territory... Sailfin might chase a bit...

The mirror trick works well in distracting the old fishes...

[desideria]

ok we have put the YT in a betta box floating in the main tank......the BT is completely ignoring it. lol, will observe for a while before letting it into it's new home.

Cheers,

Desi.

[m12345y]

ok we have put the YT in a betta box floating in the main tank......the BT is completely ignoring it. lol, will observe for a while before letting it into it's new home.

Cheers,

Desi.

this blue tang is an individualist, never bothered my other tangs b4, but it will somehow hit down mounted sps fags

[Terryz_]

ok we have put the YT in a betta box floating in the main tank......the BT is completely ignoring it. lol, will observe for a while before letting it into it's new home.

Cheers,

Desi.

I have never encounter an aggressive BT before.. they seems to be quite docile...

[[V]tEc]

Hey all,

after adding the coral, now we have a couple of fish in there. The big one is a 6 inch BT we got a fellow reefer, a banana (yellow) wrasse and a fire fish. ALl eating anything and everything I throw into the tank. Here's some pics.

The old bubble from the 2 feet

THe Fire fish :

The view!

The pig of the tank at the moment with the wrasse behind him.

Already suffered one casualty whereby after 5 days, our little watchman goby cleverly swam into the overflow.. I managed to catch him the first time and throw him back to the main tank but this morning after trying a couple of times to catch him as he had gone in again over night.... I couldn't find him anymore.

Anyway, currently we only have 2 fish still sadly swimming in a very sparse 2 feet tank which we are going to turn into our QT tank. It's a 3-4 inch yellow tang and a tomato clown. We will be Quarantining 2 powder tangs by the end of this week for about 30 days before putting into the main tank.

I got a big Question!!! In the mean time, what do you guys think if I put in the Yellow tang into the Main display before I put in the powders? I was thinking of putting the YT in the sump first but that would mean the YT would be in the sump for 30 days until the powders are fully quarantined and added to the main display. Has anyone come across problems of adding powders to a tank with a YT in it? OR it doesn't really matter.. OR should I say.. it boils down to pure luck? Will the YT attack the Powders or even if I add in the powders first and THEN the YT.. the YT will still behave aggresively anyway?

Really grateful for some advice..

Cheers,

Desi

hi, i m running a 4ft tank with 6 tangs inside, 1 black, 1 yellow, 1 brown, 1 blue, 1 powder blue, n 1 hybrid powder....my brown,yellow and black tang leave the powder tangs alone....powder blue sometimes chase the blue tang. n the hybrid is afraid of the powder blue, so he will avoid him when swimming in the open. but so far the powder blue is leaving the hybrid alone....how i add in my tangs? hybrid was added first since he is the smallest. followed by the blue tang...after 1 wk, the other 4 tangs were added...

[desideria]

hi, i m running a 4ft tank with 6 tangs inside, 1 black, 1 yellow, 1 brown, 1 blue, 1 powder blue, n 1 hybrid powder....my brown,yellow and black tang leave the powder tangs alone....powder blue sometimes chase the blue tang. n the hybrid is afraid of the powder blue, so he will avoid him when swimming in the open. but so far the powder blue is leaving the hybrid alone....how i add in my tangs? hybrid was added first since he is the smallest. followed by the blue tang...after 1 wk, the other 4 tangs were added...

Thanks all the input.... We will reconsider adding powders for the moment. Yes, BEst to wait for a while more. Keeping fingers crossed that the desire does not overcome logic ALTHOUGH we will quarantine ... but still... .. as you all know the sight of a beautiful fish sometimes causes logical override and before you know it, you walk out of the shop with the bag of fish.

Desi

[desideria]

Hey all,

need some advice here. The scenario is this.

Right now, I have a small RBTA on a small rock hosting my little tomato clown in our refrigum with the lights on during the day and off at night of course. And they have been in there for the past 3 days.. hand feeding the anamonea with brine/mysis. And throwing in pellet food for my tomato... I don't know whether he eats or not cause I dun see him eating as the pellets land on the sand of my refrigum but when I check an hour later, the pellets are gone.. whether covered by sand or he cheongz after mommy leaves... god knows!

AND then yesterday, we finally added our 2 black osci clown fish into the main display which has been on reserve for us for about 2 weeks @ reborn. They are really small .. about 2-2.5cm in length at most. but very cute. WE couldn't find a small hadonni carpet to host them so the poor things are just swimming around our big tank. Observed the whole of sunday and the tangs, yellow wrasse and firefish never bothered them at all.

I am hoping to get a host for them soon but because i"m afraid my tomato would whack them.. I am holding back putting in the RBTA and tomato into the main tank until the black osci has been in the main tank for at least a week. Is this the right way? Since the tomato is in last, by RIGHT it should not whack the already "resident" fish right? I assume even if I can't find a little hadonni carpet for my 2 black osci, they should be alright swimming around?

Last night, when lights out, they were still swimming around and not picking a small corner to "sleep"... I'm worried that they would "swim themselves to death".. since there is no host.... hahhah.. I know it sounds wierd but hey... we all need a place to sleep!

Desi.

HEre's a pic of my 2 babies before collection.

fish.bmp

[straydum]

i believe all or at least most clowns would be territorial or aggressive especially around its host. personally i wouldn't risk losing the black clowns to the tomato.

maybe you could qt the tomato and let the black clowns host the rbta and then releasing back the tomato and see how it goes? and yes i would say your clowns are fine not having a anemone host. my clowns are currently 'hosting' my frogspawn and octo, and sometimes my hairy mushrooms

[serravorte]

I have a black oci swimming in my tank for 1 year and did not have any host...

they can slp anywhere they like in the tank and they do not need a host to survive...

so adding a host is just like upgrading for them only...

its up to ur personally chioce in the end..

hope this helps..

cheers chris..

[digibee]

Hi, I have a couple of clown fish without any anemone.

After swimming for about 1 week +, now 1 of them is resting and playing on my torch coral .

Recently, I bought a baby anemone; but nothing is happening to it yet.

Cheers!

[Solo77]

i suggest you release your blackie first. Let them settle down first and find themselve a home. Then release your tomato and RBTA away from them. However, for your RBTA, sad to say, they move and will settle down at their ideal spot. Any change in lighting or current will likely to make them shift again. Tomato is considered more agressive, similar to maroon. I have not kept a tomato clown(but see them in action) but for maroon clown, i find that they like to swim low. For my blackie and true pers, they tend to swim mid to high. However, when i got 3 pairs together, the blackie is the one going round disturbing others. My blackie when saw my maroon, will attempt(acting) to challenge them but later swim off. The maroon clown just hold their ground. I got 3 true pers, 2 being smaller size and were of no threat to them were being ignored. The big one was being chased after and later sold off.

I also wont risk blackie as i find them very nice. If only can keep one, i vote will go to blackie.

Keep us posted.