Lister's Paradise

[Zante]

The anthias' eye is now much better. Still not well, but much better.
 
As a consequence of that now two falcula butterflies and a tomini tang now live in my tank.
The lights are off to help with settling in. I can't wait to see them properly tomorrow when the lights go on again.
 
I will be lent a camera tomorrow, so I will be able to make another video entry. It's a bit crappy (or so I'm told) but it works.

 

[Zante]

The tomini tang was constantly hiding at the LFS, now, in my tank he's always out and about, even if he has a lot more hiding spots. Maybe he was intimidated by the shoal of yellow tangs.It's a real pleasure to have him.
 
The butterflies, have settled in and are cruising the tank mostly together. They are still young, but I'm kinda hoping against hope I actually end up having a pair.
They have already attacked one of the aiptasia and are pecking at the feather disters. Happy about the aiptasia, less about the feather disters, but that was expected. I'll have to salvage some in the sump for when I set up the clam tank and restart a population in there.
 
They have been cruising around my corals (SPS and one LPS) and they have been pecking at the rock but leaving the corals well alone. The polyps are nicely extended. I've even seen the orange polyps on my orange plating monty for the first time they are so extended!
 
I will film a video later today when the lights reach their peak.

 

[Zante]

  NEW VIDEO

 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiZHfTHYdus

 

[Zante]

A bit of chemistry

Ph: 8.6
Kh: 8 - I think I'll add a wee bit of buffer, just to pull it up a little.

NO3: Undetectable
PO4: Undetectable

Ca: 400 - maybe make a bit of kalwasser and pull both calcium and Kh up
Mg: 1280 - More magnesium supplement too


A little update on the butterflies.
They have been behaving brilliantly in the last few days. The corals are fine and untouched and the polyps nicely extended, but the aiptasia... I cannot see anymore around. I have seen them once or twice peck at one of the corals, but the polyps remained extended, and I cannot spot any missing polyps in the pecked area. My guess is that they picked something crawling over the coral.

They have been no problem whatsoever in feeding, they will dive for anything that is put in the tank: frozen, flake, granules, etc... and they have no problem competing with the clowns and the anthias.

 

[Zante]

Lost one of the butterflies.

It was being bullied by the other one, so I was setting up an isolation tank for the bully, to see if they could be made to coexist. The LFS had already said they'd take it back for full credit.

Yesterday I found it having difficulty swimming and with a big gash on a side, it looked very much like it had been slammed against the rocks by a powerhead.

The bully was swimming around it and next to it, all aggression gone. It was obviously no longer a threat.

The gash looked big, but was fairly superficial, I'm thinking it died mostly of shock, having this happen after a few days of being confined to a corner of the tank by the other butterfly.

On a more positive note the sick anthias is a lot better, the eye is almost back to normal.

Also the coral banded shrimps are starting to come out more, and they have started behaving as the cleaners they are. The male had put his claws on the injured butterfly and had started cleaning it on the opposite side of the gash as any of the skunk shrimps would have done.

So... Any suggestions for a white/bright yellow fish?

I was thinking of a pair do herald's angels, but I'm already going to stock a pair of coral beauties, so I don't know if four dwarf angels are going to be a problem.

Not a yellow tang, my tomini tang was bullied by yellow tangs in the previous owner's tank and at the shop he was put with a shoal of yellow tangs. The ones in the shop didn't bother him, but I'm sure he didn't enjoy the experience as he was overly nervous and always hiding (it took a week to net him)

 

[Zante]

Two small coral beauties are waiting for me at the LFS. At approz 2 inches they are both female. They'll be sitting at the LFS until they source me two similarly sized herald's angels to introduce all four at the same time.
 
They should be ready to go next thursday.

 

[bonzo]

Aint been around for a while but started reading this journal yesterday and its brilliant a real credit to you, keep it coming.

 

[Zante]

Video coming up to showcase new additions.
 
a pair of scissortail dartfish (Ptereleotris evides)
a lawnmower blenny (Salarias fasciatus)
a sixline wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia)
a diamond watchman goby (Valenciennea puellaris)
 
They are now settling in and the lights are off.

 

[Zante]

Hang on for the video. The sixline wrasse and the lawnmower blenny are still a bit intimidated. They are quite small, both of them, and both were briefly targeted by the tomini tang. Now they are in the left reef where the other fish seem reluctant to go.

I have been wondering about that, the fish seem to prefer the right reef by a long shot. They are not afraid of something in the left reef, as they will swim about it and sometimes in it, but they have a remarkable preference for the right one. Must be because it's where I drop the food, I want to start dropping it on the other side and see what happens.

As for the diamond watchman, all of the gobies I've had in this tank seem determined to dig their burrow against the tank glass, I wonder why...

In the meantime, here's some chemistry:

Ph: 8.6
Kh: 7
Ca: 400
Mg: 1340
PO4: Undetectable
NO3: Undetectable

Ca and Kh are ok, but I'd like them a bit higher, I'll tune the calcium reactor.
Mg is also ok, but borderline. I'll add some magnesium chloride

 

[Zante]

I think I might have found out who killed the previous lawmmower blenny and possibly the diamond watchman which I haven't seen in just over two days. Also I wonder if it is the cause of the fatal injury of my dead butterfly.

Lights off I was having a look at the reef and there's this strange thing moving over the sand. I point a torch at it (real powerful torch) and it freezes. It's a black crab of some kind, about as big as a 10p coin.

Since I didn't add any crabs to the tank (not even hermits) it must have been a hitchhiker. In any case, without much ado, I retrieved my trusty tweezers and picked it up before it had a chance to scurry back in the rocks.

It is now in the sump where it will be useful in clearing the muck that falls from the display tank.

I'll be picking up the angels from the LFS tomorrow, I wonder if it's worth getting another Valenciennea, or if it's better to wait and see if the lawmmower blenny falls prey to something else. Considering that since June I have lost two fish for unknown causes I'd imagine that was the only one. Also because I regularly observe the tank at night for that very reason (that's why I got the powerful torch) and this is the first nasty hitchhiker I've spotted.

 

[Ch4rlie]

That good spotting. Just as well you had that handy torch around and manage to get that little crab, good thinking to put it in the sump.
 
Best place for the crab in there and may even be of some benefit.
 
Hate when theres hitchhikers of any sort, especially the bad kind!
 
Wonder if its a Mithrax Crab? But without a pic pretty hard to know and these are pretty common.

 

[Zante]

No, it couldn't be a mithrax, mithrax are caribbean and the rocks are from Fiji.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Are they? did not know that, hmm, intriguing.
 
Wonder what it is then just out of interest, gonna google it now and see if any other potential culprits.

 

[Zante]

... and the four angels go in: two herald's angels (Centropyge heraldi) and two coral beauties (Centropyge bispinosa). The herald's angels are bigger than the coral beauties, and to be honest a bit bigger than I would have wanted.
 
All seems ok for the moment with the lights off except for the tomini tang greeting the new additions with the usual short-lived dose of aggression.
 
Now I'm only missing the pair of mandarins, if I do decide to get them, and the carpet anemone, if I decide to get it. If I do It'll be next year anyway.
 
I'll shoot a recap video this weekend.

 

[Zante]

I come back from work, glance at the reef and see whitish water, and I think
"<string of imprecations>! What the <string of imprecations> has happened NOW?"

Turns out the diamond watchman has jumped out of whatever hiding hole it had been sulking in for the last two days and has claimed the sand bed from the tang.
He must have sifted so much sand today! It's all so clean! Pity it's sugar fine aragonite and it's very easy to lift into the water column.

I'll see how it goes for a couple of days. If it turns out to be a permanent issue I'll return the goby to the shop.


In the meantime, let's see how tuning up the calcium reactor has changed the water chemistry.
Ph: 8.6
Kh: 9
Ca: 380
Mg: 1350

NO3: undetectable
PO4: undetectable

I think the increased flow has more than offset the increased CO2 in the reactor and lowered the calcium flow. I'll have to reduce the flow just a tad or increase CO2.
Magnesium is a little low yet. I'll have to add more chloride.