Yesterday was pretty eventful, my pair of pink streaked wrasse spawned for the first time. I guess that means that I was fortunate enough to choose a male and female after all. The female had been looking fat all week but yesterday she looked like she'd swallowed a marble, so round was her tummy. The pair seemed to be displaying/interacting a lot and this intensified a couple of hours before lights out so I sat down to watch them. The male would display to the female by swimming on his side next to her and his colouration changed too (I'm not exactly sure to what because the lighting was really, really blue at that time plus I was sitting too far away so not to spook them). The rear of her belly next to the vent went very pale/white. The romancing/courtship went on for about an hour, they would come together, rise to the top of the tank and swim back down again. Finally, about 50 minutes before the lights go out, they did the deed. I downloaded the footage from my webcam but the quality is bad, I mean really, really bad but I'm still pretty excited to have captured it anyway. Maybe when/if it happens again I can try to record it on my phone but the lights will still be blue so it might not be that much better. I have cropped the footage a bit and tried colour correcting some of the blue (also the glass needs a wipe). It's a blink and you'll miss it kind of moment, so if that happens check out time stamp 1:20 (top left of the screen).
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I decided a few weeks ago that it was finally time to add a few more fish to my tank. My son complained that when he looked at the tank he couldn't see any fish in there. I have to admit this was kind of true as I have a fair number of fish not on display for most of the time. The Whitecap goby lives underground with his pistol shrimp buddy, the Black barred goby lives in a cave (which he never, ever leaves) and the Possum wrasse is quite secretive too. The ghost cardinals are, well, ghosts! That just leaves the Yellow wrasse as the only visible swimmy one (I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the yellow wrasse but more about that later). Anyway off I go to the fish shop with the sole purpose of getting one or two largish in your face swimmy kind of fish. After 45 minutes of serious deliberation and I found myself driving home with 4 really tiny fish. I lost my beloved pink streaked wrasse at the beginning of the year after 4 years and I really missed him so when I saw a tank filled with 6 or 7 really tiny pink streak wrasse I immediately thought ooh I could try a pair of these enchanting fish. Apparently males of the species have more pronounced yellow lines down the body and blue-grey markings on the gill cover. I studied the tiny fish for ages trying to spot any differences between individuals. After consultation with the assistant and some more studying we chose what we considered were two likely candidates. I have named them Pinky and Perky (from the TV show), I hope that doesn't prove to be a premonition because Pinky and Perky were actually twin boys, gulp! This is Pinky who I hope might be male: And this is Perky who I hope is female: They are totally adorable and interact with each other peacefully. So far so good, I hope it stays that way. I also picked up a Royal Gramma (Kelsey) because in all my years keeping reef tanks I've never ever had one and clearly I needed to tick that box. Last but not least I was going to add another Spotted Mandarin to replace the one I lost in May. There's something about their 'nothing fazes me attitude' that I really love. I had beefed up the copepod numbers ready to add another but decided to go with a teeny tiny Flame scooter instead (Scoot). It's another fish I've never kept plus it's really lovely looking fish. Check the vermatid snails (grrr!) for size reference, this guy is tiny. I wish I'd been able to pick up a pair of these guys too but they only had one available. Also I'd rather err on the side of caution in case frozen food was not accepted. Fortunately he's not fussy, it's non stop eating all day for this guy.
It was a couple of weeks after adding these new fish that I decided for about the 100th time that the Yellow wrasse really had to go. I'd kept him for a long time but he's so greedy and high strung that he just drove me crazy. Trying to feed the corals was always a bit of a battle of wits with him watching all the time. I used to feed them after he'd gone to bed but once I (foolishly) added some Peppermint shrimp that was becoming impossible too. Arghhh Peppermints don't get me started!! I've tried many times over the course of the last year to catch this wrasse. He was just too fast and clever for me, the number of times he's escaped the trap squeezing through the smallest gap as the door was falling. It was like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible style escapes every time. Anyway I made one last concerted effort to catch him and to my extreme surprise I did. Once he was in the bucket I found myself totally unprepared for what to do next and chaos ensued. I quickly posted on a local FB group whilst also calling the LFS. To avoid keeping him in the sump for an unknown amount of time I needed to make a decision on the spot, take him to the shop before it closed for the day or wait and hope someone was prepared to offer him a new home. I decided to go with the shop option rather than risk having no interest. As it happened there were plenty of offers for new homes from local reefers but I was already well on the way to the shop by then. Duh! I do feel bad about moving the Yellow wrasse on but the tank is so much more peaceful now and the remaining fish so much more relaxed. It's been a while since I posted a fish update. I've been putting it off because it doesn't make for good reading. I lost my Helfrichs firefish in September last year, I'd kept him for just over a year. There was no obvious cause, he just ate less and less until he eventually passed away. At the time I put it down to just one of those things. All was well for the next 4 months but then my Rainfords goby started to go downhill in the same manner, he began eating less and less till he too died at the end of January. I'd kept him for just under 2.5 years. He was a big fish, almost certainly fully grown and perhaps it was just his time, but still I did wonder if the bullying by Yellow wrasse was somehow related. There wasn't any actual fighting just a bit of posturing every now and again but it might have been extra stress that he could have done without. Then three weeks later I also lost my beloved Pink Streaked wrasse. I'd kept her for just over 4 years, according to information found on the internet the average lifespan of these small wrasse is 4-5 years so it's quite likely that she did just die from old age. The following month I lost one of the pair of Blackbarred gobies, it too stopped eating and died. Just 6 months with me for that fish. Then in April I lost the Fathead anthias (after 13 months) and in May my beautiful Spotted Mandarin also died (just under 2 years with me). When I removed the Mandarin's body it looked perfect in every way, nice and fat with no torn fins.
Now I don't really know what to think, maybe the deaths are totally unrelated but I am beginning to wonder if there is something in the tank silently killing fish in my tank. I sent off for an ICP analysis at the beginning of May and everything seems fine except for Cobalt which is still elevated. 15 months and the TMC Ecoreef rock is still leeching cobalt!! I hate this rock so much, it's hands down the worst decision I have ever made in all my years of reefing. Looking at all the test results, it's going to be many more months, maybe even another year before the cobalt is finally gone. I have scoured the web for information about chronic cobalt poisoning but haven't really turned up anything useful. Most research involves short term exposure of fish to much higher levels. lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/7132f6e0d9425dd6e201 It goes without saying that I am hesitant to introduce any new fish to this tank now. At least the corals appear OK, if they were slowly dying too then I'd be ripping out the rock and starting afresh. My current fish list is: 1 x Tanaka Possum wrasse (4.5 years) 1 x Yellow wrasse (3 years 9 months) 1 x Whitecap goby (1 year 7 months) 1 x Blackbarred goby (9 months) 5 x Ghost cardinals (6 months) I received the results of my second ICP analysis yesterday. Cobalt and Aluminium are still elevated but there is a little less than before so maybe the TMC eco rock has stopped leeching or is a least leeching less now, time will tell. The nutrient levels are still low despite my feeding a ton of food and dosing extra nitrate. I have been seeing a little bit of green cyano on the rocks and the sand is looking a bit greener too. I'm still debating whether I should do anything about it or just wait and see. I'll probably just wait and see. Oh and I have been plucking out tiny bits of Ulva from the sand (mainly) whenever I see them, grrr! I'm resigned to have to keep doing this from now on. The sun coral has christened the new rock, the first baby is coming along nicely. The baby Trochus snails are doing really well. I've been moving any that I find in the sump over to the refugium. The refugium needs cleaning and they are better off in there, I want to avoid the scenario where they get crushed by an impeller or jam up my X-filter. I have discovered some in the DT too which I'm surprised about, I thought that they would all have been wrasse food but I guess they are able to hide well enough to avoid such a fate. They do blend in with the rockwork extremely well. The Coco worm continues to do surprisingly well, it has extended its tube even more now. Kylie the Pink Streaked wrasse is keeping a beady eye on it for me. I'm also pleased to report that the Menella gorgonian appears to be doing great now. It's finally decided to pop out another branch at the base, woo hoo! Unfortunately I can't get it to completely recover the sections that lost some flesh earlier on because hair algae has taken a hold. It's only possible to see the algae when the polyps are fully retracted but it does annoy me no end. When the algae grows long enough a hermit comes along and gives it a trim which I appreciate. Unfortunately the Rei Yellow wrasse seems to have taken a bit of a disliking to Jessie the Rainford's goby, I have no idea as to why; a dominance thing maybe. There is no chasing or actual fighting but a fair amount of posturing goes on between the two. When they meet they both fully flare their fins and engage in some sort of a staring contest, Jessie may be the smaller fish but he stands his ground. Rei had better watch his step because if it comes to a choice he'll be the one to go. Catching him would be the issue... A quick pic of Sunny the Sunburst Anthias.
I have now reached the point in my updates where Coronavirus takes hold and the UK along with pretty much everywhere else in the world goes into lockdown.
I allowed Sunny (the Anthias) three weeks to settle, making sure that he was eating well and healthy looking. During that time I noted the nitrates/phosphates levels were continuing to fall so I thought I should get some more fish in there pronto. Since there was no way I could source any new stock from the LFS due to the lockdown I decided to move some over from the Reefer. I had purchased a fish trap ages ago but never got the chance to put it to good use, it was the smallest trap that I could find (the Little ocean small fish trap) but even so there was no way it was going to fit into the tank as it was, some coral need to be removed. I cut out a significant branch of the Pinnigorgia gorgonian and gently (as far as I could) snapped off the yellow Dendrophyllia and Balanophyllia from the rockwork. I took the time to scrape off every single head of Utter Chaos zoanthids that had grown onto the Balano rock as I'm not going to be transferring these 'pests' over to the the new tank. Once the yellow Dendro was out of the way I carefully slid the fish trap into the front left side of the tank. Unfortunately the magnets are on the other side of the trap in this orientation so I wasn't able attach it to the glass, I had to simply lay it on the sand. I expected it to take a while for the fish to get used to the trap but within a few minutes Jessie the Rainford's goby and Kandy the Spotted Mandarin had popped inside to check it out. The fish I really wanted to catch first though were Rei the Yellow wrasse and Spike the Firefish but they were not impressed with the new state of affairs at all. Rei immediately vanished into the sand and Spike just kept well away at the back of the tank. I waited for 2 days but it became clear that neither Rei nor Spike were going to venture anywhere near it any time soon, in fact Rei actually decided that sleeping in the sand was far more preferable to eating. On the third day I decided my plan of catching specific fish was a non starter so I opted to try to catch any fish that I could. Jessie the Rainford's goby was first in and the trap worked perfectly, a quick tug of the cord and the door dropped down with the fish safely inside. Two days later it was Edna the Possum wrasse, the day after that it was Kylie the Pink Streaked wrasse and the next day it was Kandy the Spotted Mandarin (actually Kandy loved the trap so much that he spent more time inside of it than out). The newly transferred fish seem to like their new home and it's a pleasure to watch them weave in and out of the caves in the rockwork. Unfortunately it seems I am currently person non grata, whenever I approach the tank they all vanish at breakneck speed and it breaks my heart just a little bit every time. Hopefully they will forgive me in a few weeks. Feeding has been a bit hit and miss in the new tank and I have been worried about the Kandy especially. He used to feed extremely well on frozen food in the Reefer but in the new tank all prepared foods were refused. I decided to set up a second Tisbe pod culture since it seems lots more might be needed. Fortunately after two weeks he's back on the frozen again (PE mysis rocks!) so I'm a little less worried about slow starvation now. I have also transferred over the Orange Dendrophyllia and both of the Tubastrea corals so now I have a little NPS garden going on in the new tank. It's such a pleasure to be able to easily feed them at the moment, there's no fish trying to steal the food or corals overgrowing/around them and I don't have to bash SPS corals with a pipette trying to reach them. I wonder how long that's gonna last for. Time for a proper tank update starting with the fish. Sadly Rocket the Red Spotted goby vanished on the 29th December 2019. In the few days prior to his disappearance he hadn't been eating as vigorously as normal, did he die from old age or was there some other reason (perhaps refugium related)? I had him for just over a 18 months. This means I'm down to just one nano goby now in the form of Hop the Nudus goby. Hop was one of the first fish to be added to this tank in December 2016, he was introduced along with a female Nudus goby and a Red Striped goby. His mate passed on after 15 months and the Red Striped goby after 22 months. Hop has been with me for 27 months at this point so I'm worried how long he has left. The clock is ticking, I really wish nano gobies had a longer lifespan. I can't always locate him every day as he spends a lot of time hidden in his sandy burrow but he usually pops out for food whenever he feels like an extra snack. Even when he's not been target fed his belly always looks rounded so he must be finding plenty of pods to munch on when underground. Edna the Possum wrasse (Wetmorella tanakai) has been with me for just over 2 years and 2 months now. She's quite secretive but much bolder now that the corals are a bit bigger. She flits from rock to rock when the light is at its peak but can be found swimming out in the open when the lights are dimmer. She loves PE mysis above all other frozen food and will home in on the bigger pieces even if they do take several 'chews' before she is able to swallow them. Kylie the Pink Streaked wrasse (Pseudocheilinops ataenia) was added next so she has been a resident for 2 years and 1 month. Another model reef tank inhabitant, slightly more active than Edna, loves to hunt for 'pods'. Her favourite food is fish eggs which she will take straight from a pipette. I wish I could find her (him?) a mate but whenever I see another Pink Streaked wrasse in a shop I wimp out in case it's the wrong sex. Rei the Yellow wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus) has been with me for a year and a half and has grown enormously. I still think of her as female but she has transitioned into a male now. If I'm totally honest this fish is too big for the tank and really needs to be moved on. I'm just not sure if he could be caught that easily, sometimes I just have to sneeze near the tank and he vanishes with a puff of sand. Tinker and Belle the Pintail wrasse pair have been with me for 16 months and they are still going strong. I did fear that I might be asking for trouble introducing two of these fish as females of this family have a reputation for changing into male in captivity and this almost always results in all out war with another male. So far, I am relieved to say this has not happened. Will it happen in the future? I do not know. Tinker regularly displays to Belle and occasionally chases her around the tank when he's feeling moody, most of the time however they co-exist quite peacefully together. These fish love to eat and will try to consume as much of the food as they possibly can before the rest of the fish can reach it. Jessie, the Rainford goby is the most recent introduction, I've had him for just over 6 months now and he is the most enchanting fish, totally peaceful and not at all shy. He naturally gives way to the larger wrasse when they come barreling past or at feeding time but he is always waiting at the top of the tank (along with the male Pintail wrasse) to try and grab as much food as he can. He can often be found sifting sand, pecking copepods off the back wall and to a lesser degree, eating hair algae. That's the lot, every now and again I toy with the idea of adding one more fish but I am hesitant to upset the status quo. All of the fish get along and are healthy so I should be content with that, right?!
My next update will be corals. Just prior to the skimmer failure I sent off water samples for yet another ICP analysis. The results of which are shown in the link below: 100%! Apparently I have a full house, everything is in balance although to be honest the salinity is a bit higher than I would like. I must try harder. The conductivity probe had drifted out of calibration. The tin contamination is gone at last but I seem to have a reading for iron this time round. The only change between now and the last test is that I have begun to soak the fish food in a vitamin supplement, I wonder if that’s the source? Something (else) to keep an eye on. I still can’t get much of a nitrate reading despite adding a couple more fish and feeding loads. I wonder if running the tank for 5 days without a skimmer has raised it at all? Moving on to the corals, the warfare continues. The Favia continues to batter the Cyphastrea relentlessly. I thought it might stop once the leading edge was dead but no, the dead area seems to get larger every day. I would move the Cyphastrea if I could but firstly, it's well encrusted, and secondly I have nowhere else to put it. Two of the Montipora sp. (#2 & 3) are now clashing with Acropora loripes and both are losing. Montipora #2 is also being hammered at the back by the Stylopora. Despite religious feeding the Balanophyllia has still not been doing so well, It was only after I made the decision to move it that I discovered that it was receding very badly at the back where I couldn’t see. There was a white band of what I assume to be a bacterial infection at the receding edge. I relocated it to the rear of the tank but in hindsight I should probably have placed it in the sump because as soon as the Pintail wrasse were added, feeding it became nigh on impossible. They just kept stealing its food. Fortunately the Sun coral continues to do well and has grown multiple new heads. Feeding it can be a battle with the wrasse but it can be done with a little perseverance. Moving on to the red bug problem, with no plan of attack they are obviously still present but the Acros seem to be coping with them for the time being. I fully expected the afflicted corals to be failing by now but they still have reasonable polyp extension and colour. I'm sure that they could look better as could their growth rate but at least they are not dead. The watching and waiting continues. I've indicated some of the red bugs present on the Acropora below with red arrows there are more shown in the shot but you get the general idea. As for the fish, Edna the Possum wrasse passed her first anniversary in the tank on December 18th and Kylie the Pink-streaked wrasse will have her first anniversary on the 28th January 2018. A few more photos of the Pintails (Tinker and Belle) and Rei the Yellow wrasse too. A few other random coral photos. I had hoped to have more shots to share but Christmas preparations got in the way. Thanks for following my blog, I hope you all have a great Christmas! Hopefully I have more photos to share next week.
Just a couple of fish shots that I took yesterday following the blog update, if only they could all sit still for the camera like Candy the Red Striped goby does (now!).
A new month and a new FTS. Besides a few new corals not that much has changed really. The Stylophora is showing some nice growth, the Lobophyllia and Acanthastrea look good, the zoanthids are, err, surviving. I think that all the nudibranchs have gone now and the remaining heads are opening up once again, I did lose a few of the orange ones that were on top of the rock, they simply melted away. Too much light/too little light/too much flow/too little flow? Who knows?? To be honest I've never really been that successful with zoas, perhaps the water is too clean? I'm considering feeding some coral foods to see if it helps them at all.
Acro #1 looks the same, it was knocked off the rockwork by a naughty hermit crab and when I stuck it back down it was in a slightly different orientation so it's difficult to tell if there has been any growth or not. Acro #2 has shown a tiny bit of growth and the damaged tips on the lower left-hand branches have regrown. I do think that they have lost a little colour though, another reason to try feeding perhaps, plus the nitrates and phosphates are still undetectable which according to current thinking is not ideal for SPS these days. Since the Pink Streaked wrasse was added the Nudus gobies and Red Striped goby have moved to the front right of the tank. I get to see a lot more of them now which is really great. The tank has settled down nicely again. I need to relocate the Lobophyllia as Lurch the conch keeps knocking it to the left in his quest to clean the lower rocks. I am also thinking of adding a plating coral to the rock that sits above the pistol shrimp and Whitecap's home (I've seen them again today btw, two days on the trot I think that's a record, lol!) in order to give the entrance to the burrow a bit of shade, I think that will help them to feel more comfortable and hopefully they will become more visible. At the moment the lighting is really too bright for them. I've been trying to get some shots of the Possum and Pink Streaked wrasse but it's proving difficult as they don't sit still like the gobies do. I will keep trying. Oh and last but not least Crystal the Bruun's cleaner shrimp shed her exoskeleton again last night so she seems fine too. Finally I can confirm that the Whitecap goby and pistol shrimp partner are still alive. Yesterday the hole at the front of the tank reopened a tiny amount and an antenna popped out and waved around, additionally there were several shots heard throughout the day. Phew! There was no sign of the goby however as the hole was too small and awkward to see in to. Can a tiny fish like that survive sealed up underground for 6 days without food? I honestly thought not, I am so pleased to say I was wrong about that. I guess there could be small critters such as copepods to snack on but it's hard to imagine being confined in the dark with no route in or out for days on end, fine for the shrimp perhaps but what about the goby??
Anyway today at the first feed of the day the front hole opened up a little again, at the second feed it got a bit wider and lo and behold a white head appeared below. Whoop whoop! I got to see the shrimp and fish at the third AND last feed of the day too. Three sightings in one day, crikey I'm not sure I can cope, lol! Now I just need to see the whole body of the fish to know if it's skinny or not and to take a photograph of the pair together of course. I can dream can't !! Needless to say the Whitecap has now been named Gordon (from the film Flash Gordon, gotta love Brian Blessed's catchphrase). :o) My other good news is that Kylie the Pink Streaked wrasse has also begun to feed and is now starting to hang out with her new best buddy Edna the Possum wrasse. She still looks a bit unsettled but we are heading in the right direction so all is good hopefully. I need to clean the glass now ready for a new FTS tomorrow, wow January passed by really fast. |
AuthorHi, my name is Lisa and I live in Derby, UK. I am a self-confessed reefaholic! Archives
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