Paul B's thread

[serwobow]

Tank looks really great. I really like how the flow is everywhere and random.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks.
I can never get even most of the fish out at the same time and many of them just never come out. The Gecko gobies I have never seen an entire fish so I may have 1 or 2, I can't tell. The same with the possum wrasses. I had 2 of them but they are so secretive that I have never seen both of them and they look exactly the same. 6 line wrasses also. There is a matting pair of watchman gobies but they are usually both at the entrance of their cave.

I designed this tank so that almost the entire reef structure is raised off the bottom an inch or two and in there is all interconnecting caves/tunnels so fish can and do hide for months.

It's not so good for me, but great for the fish because I know they don't want to see my ugly mug every day.
I also only buy the more odd, unusual fish and they tend to be secretive.

This new guy is at the very beginning at the right in the back, you can hardly see him but he is behind that black fish that I forget what it is.


This guy is hard to photograph but stays in the front in the montipora.


The Hippo was still sleeping and doesn't get up until about 9:00.



I am not sure where this guy is.


I forgot about the big decorator crab. He only comes out at night.


Hiding



Hiding.


The female is hiding, she hunts on the back glass


I could probably go on.

 

[FishieBusiness]

Wow! Amazing tank tour! Thanks for sharing.

 

[FishieBusiness]

Love the pipefish. Such an interesting looking fish.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, those pipefish are always pregnant and you can see the male with the eggs here

 

[jdeb101]

...

I took this to show a natural tank. You can see tufts of hair algae, cyano, aiptasia, asternia stars, dead corals and Godzilla larvae.
The 29 year old fire clowns are tending their eggs as they lay them every few days.

Tank now is all NSW taken right from the surf with nothing added and nothing has ever been quarantined, medicated, dipped, de-wormed or anything else.

I think this post says quite a lot Paul. It really shows how much you ENJOY your reef, whereas I think most of us (including myself) sometimes forget to do that.

 

[Paul B]

New Lamp


This one only took a couple of hours.

 

[Paul B]

My tank is doing great but I have about 2,372 aiptasia. I guess my copperband was eating them, who knew?

I have been tying to get a new copperband and they are normally very common but for the last couple of weeks I have not been able to get one.

3 LFSs promised me last week that they will have them today, so tomorrow I am going on a quest.
I am getting my taxes done tomorrow and that is about 40 miles west of here so I will try some stores there.

I hate it when I can't even get a common fish. If I find some I may get two of them.

I gave up trying to get the types of fish I really want as all stores only stock silly common fish like tangs and some wrasses.

I have one Mother of all aiptasia about 4" tall and If I can find a spare tank I would like to keep that one for study as I never seen one that big. Nice looking animal.

 

[Chris A.]

They are kinda pretty when they get large

 

[CAPSLOCK]

You could do an aiptasia species only tank (plus fish). Low maintenance. Lighting and flow are not important. Overstocked / poor water quality? Not important.

 

[Chris A.]

Aptasia should be a good clean up crew. They’ll eat everything they can

 

[Paul B]

I finally got my replacement copperband. I had to bring my wife for a procedure and she isn't taking it to well so I had to run in and run out of the LFS. He had 2 copperbands but one was a little larger than a quarter and one was about 2 1/2"

I was going to take both of them, but I opted for only the larger one because sometimes they don't get along and tear each other up.

I acclimated him for about 5 minutes and he is in my tank seeming fine.
I didn't even have time to look at him so I just told the guy to bag him.

They came in last night so I knew he wouldn't eat anyway but if I had time, I would have looked at him better.
He didn't have any other fish I wanted and I had to get my wife right home anyway.

I will take a picture when I get time.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Glad you found your new copperband! What made you choose the larger of the two?

 

[Paul B]

The small one was a little to small and I wasn't sure how well he would fare. But if he only had the small one, I would have taken her.

 

[Paul B]

I am very happy with my tank now. I have quite a lot of the fish I prefer to keep which are all smaller, odder and a little more difficult to get like the Janss Pipefish.
I am going to try to list the fish but I am not near the tank.

Copperband
Hippo Tang
2 Rainsford Gobies
2 Possum Wrasses
2 Sunburst Anthius
2 Fireclowns
Perchlet
Fang Tooth Blenny
2 stripped cardinals
Black cardinal?
Janss Pipefish
Bluestripe Pipefish
Mandarin
Scooter Dragonette
Purple Psudo
2- 6 line wrasses
Yellow wrasse
some kind of stripped wrasse
2 Gecko Gobies

Red something and 5 or 6 other fish that I can't remember.

 

[charged45]

Do copperbands nip at your corals? SPS or LPS?

 

[Paul B]

No, I have never seen any of them do that.

 

[Paul B]

Now we live out east on Long Island and it is not very populated out here. No one is worried about Lyme Disease any more from ticks so I am sure the ticks feel bad.

I baked some muffins this morning and put coffee in a thermos and we took it down to the beach to have breakfast. We stayed in the car because it is 32 degrees and very windy. But it was nice to watch the waves crashing on the rocks while we ate.

Then we took a ride out east and discovered some roads that led to the sea and a park we never knew was here.
I also found a lagoon where I may be able to collect amphipods but I am not sure if a road goes there. I can go by boat but my boat is on the other side of the north fork of Long Island and I can't really get there from here but I can put my inflatable boat back there and find the place.

My fish eating some live white worms.

 

[Joe Rice]

I'm working on getting my white worm culture going. When I feed it dry cat food, I notice that many of the pellets are covered with white dots the next day that look like eggs. Do you think these are worm eggs or fly eggs?

 

[Paul B]

Do they move? If so they are tiny bugs. Mine are also covered in dots but I never gave it much thought. Could be eggs as that makes sense. Maybe I will do an experiment to see if I could hatch them.
Cat food makes them grow very fast and I have so many worms I was thinking of eating them myself.