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gonzo's 29g angler habitat


ssgtgonzo

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Well i am now starting my build for jabba, my painted angler. He's currently in a regular 29g with a dsb. I got a oceanic biocube for him. I have a rather large heater, an aqueon pro with 150w. The lighting is provided with a 70w 20000k mh sunpod. Flow is going to be provided by 2 tunze 6025s on the back wall pointing in opposite directions. They will be alternating on and off, providing a gyre like flow.

 

For substrate, I'm using reef grade sand...4" deep. I currently have maybe 5 lbs of Florida rock, made live by the sump in my larger tank. I also have about half a dozen cerith snails, botryocladia and gracilaria along with a hanful of baby mollies that i threw in for cycling purposes. Jabba will take care of them when he moves in.

 

I am thinking of making this like a plateau with some lagoon like features. I want to design it so that the rockwork is in one corner, macro is in another, with some bare sand in between i also have a large orange sponge i wanted to put next to the rocky outcrop.

 

I have seen lots of your nanos and they are incredible. If you guys have any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm still trying to decide what corals to put in there and whether to move the crocea in, high on the rockwork of course.

 

I rinsed the sand twice but i can't seem to get the cloudiness out wheb i move he substrate. I'll be conducting a water change.and hopefully siphon most of it out.

 

2012-01-24210715.jpg

 

2012-01-24210801.jpg

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Thanks! I put my dead shelf rock in. Caused another sandstorm...i ended up putting poly filter in the overflow to help collect it. Here is he latest picture.

 

2012-01-25191951.jpg

 

And I'll do you one better regarding Jabba. Fasr forward to 2 minutes in...that's when all the action happens.

 

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altolamprologus

I LOVE your rock! The angler too! I don't think I've ever seen an all white painted before. How big is he? He looks huge compared to my little 1 inch angler.

 

Your plan for the tank sounds good, but I was thinking you could try some NPS corals like dendros or something to fill in the shaded caves.

 

BTW to remove the cloudiness, you can put paper towels or coffee filters on top of your filter floss. It takes out small particulates well. Just be careful not to let any of it get back into the water when you remove it.

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I LOVE your rock! The angler too! I don't think I've ever seen an all white painted before. How big is he? He looks huge compared to my little 1 inch angler.

 

Your plan for the tank sounds good, but I was thinking you could try some NPS corals like dendros or something to fill in the shaded caves.

 

BTW to remove the cloudiness, you can put paper towels or coffee filters on top of your filter floss. It takes out small particulates well. Just be careful not to let any of it get back into the water when you remove it.

 

Thanks! Jabba has gotten big since i got him, my wife was shocked when she looked in there...says he has doubled in size. He has a pot belly and everything. He looks like he swallowed a ping pong ball...so you can have a frame of reference.

 

Thats a great idea on the azoox coral...in my 125, i have a dendro sprouting 2 heads, and black sun corals putting out heads like its cool. I was thinking zoanthids too...i have some great color morphs i'd like to put in.

 

I'm going to change 20% water this weekend...if i still get a dust storm, I'll try coffee filters, really like the idea of using what i have at home versus buying something at the lfs.

 

And for those of you who haven't seen an angler change color...behold Jabba circa august...when he was a wee little froggy... He has gotten used to his twice a week feedings of silversides. (sw mollies are just for treats and exercise...so he can get some hunting in)

 

WP_000927.jpg

 

I LOVE your rock! The angler too! I don't think I've ever seen an all white painted before. How big is he? He looks huge compared to my little 1 inch angler.

 

Your plan for the tank sounds good, but I was thinking you could try some NPS corals like dendros or something to fill in the shaded caves.

 

BTW to remove the cloudiness, you can put paper towels or coffee filters on top of your filter floss. It takes out small particulates well. Just be careful not to let any of it get back into the water when you remove it.

 

 

By the way, i saw your angler thread last night...that has to be the cutest thing ever. What kind is he? If i recall he's all black right? Is there any chance he's a commerson? I know the majority of them are black. Love these fish!

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altolamprologus
By the way, i saw your angler thread last night...that has to be the cutest thing ever. What kind is he? If i recall he's all black right? Is there any chance he's a commerson? I know the majority of them are black. Love these fish!

Yes I believe he's a commerson's. He was so tiny when I got him that his lure looked like that of a painted. Now he's getting spots typical of a commerson's and his lure has grown worms. Oh well, it gives me an excuse to get a bigger tank :D

 

 

Does your angler swim by taking a mouthful of water and shooting it out his gills like Kirby?

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Yes I believe he's a commerson's. He was so tiny when I got him that his lure looked like that of a painted. Now he's getting spots typical of a commerson's and his lure has grown worms. Oh well, it gives me an excuse to get a bigger tank :D

 

 

Does your angler swim by taking a mouthful of water and shooting it out his gills like Kirby?

 

No, I've read that they swim more when they are young, then become more sedentary as they get older. He literally crawls everywhere, i haven't seen him swim since i got him. It is cool to see his little jets at the back of his "legs".

 

Commersons huh? More angler to love!

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Here's what it looks like without all the cloudiness

 

P1260021.jpg

 

And here's a recent picture of Jabba, you can really see the difference in color versus the picture in my previous post.

 

IMG_2776.jpg

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And I'll do you one better regarding Jabba. Fasr forward to 2 minutes in...that's when all the action happens.

 

 

Does your angler swim by taking a mouthful of water and shooting it out his gills like Kirby?

 

:o So freaking cool. I need one. *commences research on their care*

 

I always played Kirby in Super Smash Bros. :lol:

 

Rock work looks cool. I second the NPS idea!

 

Any particular reason for such a deep sand bed?

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:o So freaking cool. I need one. *commences research on their care*

 

I always played Kirby in Super Smash Bros. :lol:

 

Rock work looks cool. I second the NPS idea!

 

Any particular reason for such a deep sand bed?

 

Well i don't have any other filtration besides the rock, macro, and water movement. I've had dsbs in my larger aquariums, and i know the amount of waste a frog and its food creates. I plan on putting a couple of scarlet hermits in there to help the ceriths stir the sand.

 

I have a frag of sun coral that would be perfect. It's only one head right now, it will be cool to see it grow.

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Well i don't have any other filtration besides the rock, macro, and water movement. I've had dsbs in my larger aquariums, and i know the amount of waste a frog and its food creates. I plan on putting a couple of scarlet hermits in there to help the ceriths stir the sand.

 

I have a frag of sun coral that would be perfect. It's only one head right now, it will be cool to see it grow.

 

As for care, anglers are pretty tough cookies. They can handle changes in salinity, temperature, etc. Websites may say moderate care, that is because of specialized feedings. Many times you have to start them on ghost shrimp and transition them to SW feeder fish (i choose mollies...they aren't technically saltwater...but they lack thiaminase and are disease resistant in SW) theb eventually to frozen silversides which are the best foods for them. They only need to be fed once a week...though i feed Jabba twice a week. And I'll throw in some mollies to exercise him...I've read that if they are fed 100% of the time they get lazy and lose their will to hunt, therefore will remain even more motionless and develop fatty livers...which doesn't sound like a good thing for them.

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altolamprologus
As for care, anglers are pretty tough cookies. They can handle changes in salinity, temperature, etc. Websites may say moderate care, that is because of specialized feedings. Many times you have to start them on ghost shrimp and transition them to SW feeder fish (i choose mollies...they aren't technically saltwater...but they lack thiaminase and are disease resistant in SW) theb eventually to frozen silversides which are the best foods for them. They only need to be fed once a week...though i feed Jabba twice a week. And I'll throw in some mollies to exercise him...I've read that if they are fed 100% of the time they get lazy and lose their will to hunt, therefore will remain even more motionless and develop fatty livers...which doesn't sound like a good thing for them.

Interesting. I never thought about them getting lazy from not needing to hunt. Good thing I prefer live food! I love watching anglers go into beast mode when they see live food :D

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Interesting. I never thought about them getting lazy from not needing to hunt. Good thing I prefer live food! I love watching anglers go into beast mode when they see live food :D

 

That's half the fun of having an angler! Where in the bay area are you? I used to live in SSF about 10 years ago. I grew up in Daly City till I was 5.

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altolamprologus
That's half the fun of having an angler! Where in the bay area are you? I used to live in SSF about 10 years ago. I grew up in Daly City till I was 5.

I'm in Fremont. There seems to be a lot of people on here that either live in the bay or used to live here.

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Well I watched as my ammonia spiked and then my nitrites, now there are at 0...it's been one week. So I'm adding some corals that are fairly hardy and that I have lots of, just in case they don't make it, as well as some dragon's breath to add to the color.

 

I want to monitor this tank carefully, because I'm really attached to Jabba.

 

Corals added:

 

Orange monti cap

Monti confusa (tan/green with purple growing edge)

German blue monti digitata

Green digitata

Mint chocolate zoas

AOG zoas

Eagle eye zoas

GSP

Black sun coral

 

Only two of the mollies remain. I added some hermits yesterday...I haven't seen any dead mollies laying around, they probably helped with feeding the nitrogen cycle as well as provide hermit food.

 

2012-01-28203847.jpg

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woot woot! Looking good. I'm excited.

 

 

Thanks...I'm going to give it another week to make sure it's suitable for Jabba. I am also going to be adding an orange sponge. I can't wait to see what color Jabba turns

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altolamprologus
Is that his little fishing pole I see? Are these anglers similar to the ones from the abyss I've read about?

Not even close. Just a really cool case of convergent evolution.

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Is that his little fishing pole I see? Are these anglers similar to the ones from the abyss I've read about?

 

Well i dont know which ones you have read about...these ones arent free swimming, nor are the sexually dimorphic (the male isnt parasitic) and yes! That is his fishing pole! (illicium and esca)

 

Also, snuck in after dark and snapped a picture of this. One of my scarlet hermits cleaning off the black sun coral.

 

2012-01-29235912.jpg

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Well my dwarf BTA must have got fed up with the neighood in my pico and started moving around, so I moved him to the angler tank a couple of days ago. I know to watch out for him getting too big, Jabba could get stung. But this is probably the 4th generation I've had of this BTA, and it doesn't get any bigger than a quarter.

 

I know some of you will say "hey that's a majano," well no sir it isn't. They are dwarves, they don't split nearly as often as a majano. When they do, they tend to congregate in the same area...and yes, clowns will host them. That's the big telltale. Though some clowns will host condy's too...but I'm rambling. This one actually lived adjacent to my BIG RBTA in my 125, but when it split, I just took the rock out and sold the daughter RBTA, and this one has lived in the pico ever since.

 

P1310037.jpg

 

ALL the mollies have died. I don't know if it was the lack of food or the tank parameters. They were quite young, I'm not a mollie expert, but I do know in the week and a half that they have been in there, I fed them twice. I tested and there is no noticeable Ammonia or Nitrites, and Nitrates are at 20. I'm going to do a water change tomorrow to bring that down and test again. It may push back Jabba's move in date...I want the water to be even better than what he's currently in.

 

Lastly I put in another Tunze 6025. They run opposite each other in 30 minute increments. So one runs clockwise for 30 minutes, and then shuts off when the other comes on going counterclockwise for 30 minutes.

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