Milch's Reef Learning Journey

[yikai]

2) Whipfin Fairy Wrasse added on 14/08/2010

Got this chap from Ah beng, had seen it swimming actively in the blue tub when it first arrived, went back 2 days later surprise to find that the same fish is still for sale in the display tank, so fate was smiling at me to get it, so fat it's the lao da of the tank, doing its thing, here and there.

Surprised to find it flaring, and the tail fin is seriously electric blue! lousy camera, can't capture the full colors.

Cirrhilabrus filamentosus aka the Whip-fin fairy wrasses are one of the most aggressive of them all. so keep an eye out for your guy and put a hood if you have not already done so.

3) Fork Tail-like Wrasse added on 20/08/2010

got this at CF, at the back rows, seemed very hardy and active, and would still flare around.

Paracheilinus filamentosus, aka the filamented flasher wrasse. peaceful, cheap and common and a great aquarium specimen!

4) Hanae Goby Added on 20/08/2010

Got this chap at reborn on the day of the Japan/Philippines shipment day, arrived at 9am, got it at 3pm, but hmm it's been hiding under the rocks, hope it'll come out soon!

The colors on this fish is truly remarkable, pity my lousy camera cannot capture the full spectrum of shimmering bright blue and pink all over its body, and those tail fins are jus hypnotic! Any bros with experience with this fish? pls pls pls share your tips on making it feed and caring for it, seem hard to find much keeping info bout it.

Ptereleotris hanae is an extremely extremely shy and timid dartfish. Very difficult to see unless your tank is very peaceful. I often see a bunch of them during philippine shipments at pasir ris and when dumped into the tanks, they will all huddle at the corner and seem to scare themself silly.

but beautiful fish nonetheless and the tail filaments are very long and nice.

In the wild, they are often seen in groups or pairs hovering above the sand bed. they occasionally "steal" the burrows of shrimp gobies and the pistol shrimps, and live together with them. but the shrimp goby and shrimp does not benefit from the hanae dartfish's visit. the dartfish however, gets shelter.

here's a picture in the wild, and the second, emerging from the burrow of S. yasha and S. nematodes.

[Milch_Tan]

hey lemon, thanks for your expert inputs, sort of complemented the stuff i read off the internet, definitely helped me a great deal!

Yeap the tank is has a full height hood. can't agree more with you on the hanae goby, it's really sorta like scaring the daylight out of itself all the time! ma chiam some heart attack gonna happen

[yikai]

hey lemon, thanks for your expert inputs, sort of complemented the stuff i read off the internet, definitely helped me a great deal!

Yeap the tank is has a full height hood. can't agree more with you on the hanae goby, it's really sorta like scaring the daylight out of itself all the time! ma chiam some heart attack gonna happen

No problem, glad to help!

some dither fish may help it become more outgoing.

dither fishes are an arbitrary group of small, peaceful active fishes that will help to draw out timid fishes into the open environment. good dither fishes include firefishes, cardinals and chromises. best dither fishes are those that form small groups like cardinals.

bear in mind that most dither fishes are common and personally for me, don't interest me at all. so if you do not like all these comon firefish, cardinals etc, then don't add them in. becuse it's going to be difficult getting all of them out in future.

[Milch_Tan]

hi lemon, thanks for the advise.. hmm not too sure if i wan a school of fish, as they do take up a lot of bio load volume.. lol.. hmm jus maybe remotely might consider red spot cardinal, but read form the internet it's turnover rate is very very high.

hmm anyway updates.. been wanting to take a picture of this fish for the longest time.. aussie red hooded wrasse added on the 20/08/2010.. but always kana bully by tt stupid whip fin fairy wrasse! pictures speaks a thousand words.. u'll c y..

[Milch_Tan]

and was given this piece of branch type baked dead rock, and decided to try to give it a suspended in mid air look.. took quite a bit of time to get this right. absolutely love this piece of rock thanks bro Akinass!!might have plans to grow chio zoas on it, hopefully it'll work out

[yikai]

told you whipfins are a PITA.

nice hooded. but if the aggression is too much for the hooded to handle, remove the whipfin. not worth it for a cheap fish to potentially harass the bathyphilus which cost almost 200.

[Milch_Tan]

and next up.. the corals, as this tank's emphasis is coral than fishes.. here are some of the frags that i've owe big thanks to all the kind bro whom had help me to keep them

Bro HW33, LaW, Akinass, Cedric! big big big thanks! n Em!

here they are.. starting off with some zoa

[Milch_Tan]

stupid M1 broad band, the worst kinda broadband u guys wanna have! any how.. here's some more

[Milch_Tan]

next up some sps

[Milch_Tan]

and some shots of sps/zoa that i didn't capture on a single frame..

[Milch_Tan]

and here's the before and after stocking FTS.

[Milch_Tan]

told you whipfins are a PITA.

nice hooded. but if the aggression is too much for the hooded to handle, remove the whipfin. not worth it for a cheap fish to potentially harass the bathyphilus which cost almost 200.

yeap, i remembered what u said, and i've been trying to trap that damn whipfin for ages.. infact.. will gladly give tt stupid fish away to whoever can trap it! or pay some 1 ten bucks! fortunate thing is that there's still room for them to swim around.

hope to get a good camera soon! just can't capture the nicer colors i'm seeing with this lousy samsung ST550

[yikai]

yeap, i remembered what u said, and i've been trying to trap that damn whipfin for ages.. infact.. will gladly give tt stupid fish away to whoever can trap it! or pay some 1 ten bucks! fortunate thing is that there's still room for them to swim around.

hope to get a good camera soon! just can't capture the nicer colors i'm seeing with this lousy samsung ST550

i had one before. took me ages to remove it and swore never to buy one again.

hmm, yes the hooded is beautiful. get one from vanuatu! then you will have two extraordinary geographical variants of hooded in your tank.

[cedricang]

and next up.. the corals, as this tank's emphasis is coral than fishes.. here are some of the frags that i've owe big thanks to all the kind bro whom had help me to keep them

Bro HW33, LaW, Akinass, Cedric! big big big thanks! n Em!

here they are.. starting off with some zoa

Not at all Milch, glad to be assistance to your reef garden

Btw, from your scaping can tell your tank is full of potential as a great reef tank ! Jia yu !

[wilsontantw]

Wow. So fun to have a huge tank! Lotsa potential bro.

Good corals collection. I'm sure there'll be more coming soon.

[LaW]

get rid of the red fin please~~ itchy backside Milch.

nvm, i rub your backside for you with my torny LR. or you want tongo stick LR up....

[akinass]

nice scaping milch, hope 1 day when i visit ur place, ur tank is totally covered by sps, no rocks could be seen.

[Milch_Tan]

Not at all Milch, glad to be assistance to your reef garden

Btw, from your scaping can tell your tank is full of potential as a great reef tank ! Jia yu !

Thanks Cedric! thanks for your encouragement! hope to be able to get more nice stuff from you too in the future your Golden Colve Petal starting to grow out new 1s, and so is that Blue Rim PPE

Wow. So fun to have a huge tank! Lotsa potential bro.

Good corals collection. I'm sure there'll be more coming soon.

Hey Wilson! thanks man, hope to see your new tank materialize soon!, and collection still far from yours

get rid of the red fin please~~ itchy backside Milch.

nvm, i rub your backside for you with my torny LR. or you want tongo stick LR up....

Masseur Law, maybe u might wanna reconsider using that torny/tonga LR to pierce thru tt evil whipfin! it's more productive

[Milch_Tan]

nice scaping milch, hope 1 day when i visit ur place, ur tank is totally covered by sps, no rocks could be seen.

yo Bro!!! thanks for your tonga nest-like LR man! absolutely stunning center piece.

Don't worry bout the green patch, it's just a very thin layer of green algae, no hair etc on it, hopefully coraline will grow over them soon! or better still the zoas grow on them! still waiting for your tank thread!

[Milch_Tan]

haven't updated for a while, some random shots

new addition: feather dusters, interesting bi-color scheme of red and yellow

and thanks to law for his recommendation, for the 3rd duster from left, it's HUGE.

[Milch_Tan]

this was a problematic blue zoa that had threatened to melt away crazily when it was with its mother colony, but thank God it now became better and started to grow a bit, albeit a bit slow but i'm happy

[Milch_Tan]

diff in 1 mth, not too much, but at least looks healthier

[Milch_Tan]

hmm for some odd reasons which I don't quite know, this wrasse's green is slowing turning pale yellowish around its fins and body, but still an nice splash of colors. Hope it's not turning female or fading its color

[Milch_Tan]

and the newest member to the tank standing in at 3" weighing next to nothing and a fear no nothing AT~~~~~~

and akinASS, u're suppose to have this fish as well!!!! go appeal ur summom pls!

[Milch_Tan]

and here's the battle between the 2 Goliaths in my tank currently , interesting to watch how the other wrasse reacted to this new comer.. all 4 wrasse just siam when they first saw it, and only the Lineatus stood up, but end up also being harassed by AT, fortunately, they all blended in well and all minded their own business. this AT made sure there's more movement in my otherwise barren tank.