Rehype Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Thanks Eugene. He's an awesome fish, can't believe how unpopular they are in the hobby cause he's easily my favorite fish. He's been hilarious lately with the smaller fish. I feed them pellets once a day and frozen later in the day and during the pellet feeding, he can't figure out WTF they are eating. He just swims at the surface and can't seem to see the 1mm pellets. It's pretty funny to watch. Melanurus is getting more and more brave every day. Even trying to steal food from the snooty. She's easily the fastest fish in the tank so she's first to the food most of the time. I agree man...every tank should have a wrasse if possible. I had a yellow melanarus that was just the best.Perfect temperament,always actively swimming and best of all took care of every nuisance hitchhiker. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted November 4, 2014 Author Share Posted November 4, 2014 Without a doubt. Wrasses are awesome fish and just make a tank come to life. I'm trying to figure out how to get a few more - I'd love a male Melanurus & possibly a Twospot Maori wrasse. Even toyed with the idea of a hogfish too like a coral hog or a lyretail hog. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted November 13, 2014 Author Share Posted November 13, 2014 Thumbs up to Eugene for suggesting Krill for weaning scorps over to frozen. Was able to trick my wasp back to frozen with it. Previously she reverted back to live foods. Hopefully she keeps this up and goes back to other foods too. Waspfish Wednesday pics. What? You've never heard of Waspfish Wednesday? Newb. Google fishy animation shot! In other news the Falco Hawkfish goes into the DT this weekend. Just about finished with his TTM/Prazi QT treatment. That should be interesting.... Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted November 18, 2014 Author Share Posted November 18, 2014 Hawk is in the DT. In the snooty-free acclimation box of course. Should have released him into general population last night but I got distracted on my tablet and forgot . Will do it tonight. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted December 1, 2014 Author Share Posted December 1, 2014 Well that didn't take long. Hawk is picking on the big Snooty wrasse. In about a week or so, the hawk has managed to claim the entire rockwork to himself. So he's getting the boot. Need to try to catch him this week so I can trade him to a local reefer for some frags. It's bizzare that a big ole 6" predatory wrasse lets a little 3" hawkfish pick on him but it is what it is. edit: Caught the little jerk. Had to tear out the left side of the tank to do it but I was able to re-arrange that side a little to make it a little better on the eyes so it was worth it. He's now resting peacefully in my sump. The Hawkfish Experiment is over! Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 Been a while but finally got to taking some better pictures with my ole Canon Digital Rebel XT DSLR. It's a dinosaur compared to today's DSLR's but it takes a decent pic. Only have the 18-55 kit lens but after I get better with it, I'll look at upgrading the lens. Ignore the algae and cyano. I have no tank cleaners because I have wrasses. No Melanurus pics cause the fish NEVER stops moving enough for the camera to focus on it. I have 50 blurry pics of it. Biggest problem I have is focus - I can never get a 100% clear shot of the fish. Need to keep playing around with the camera and improve. Any tips would be appreciated. From last week (12/27/14): New Octospawn I got for trading the hawk. Butterfly photowhore Caught in the act Easy photo subject cause she doesn't really move ghost eyes Snootyface Almost got all 3 here. New pics from 01/03/15. First time messing around with RAW pics + post editing in Lightroom. (Yes, I've had a DSLR for many years and only shot in JPG ) Thanks for looking. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 For fish pics, use shutter priority mode and set it to 1/125, and use manual focus instead of auto. It will take some time to get used to it, but when you do, you won't want to use autofocus For taking pics of corals and such, you will typically want only part of it in frame, so use aperture priority mode and set it to as low as your lens will allow. The 18-55 lens will usually do 4.5-5.6 I think (with 5.6 being at full length of the lens) so it will need a lot of light. I usually leave ISO on 800, but you can bump it up to 1600 if you need to, you will unfortunately add some grain to the pics this way. Link to comment
Rehype Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Thumbs up to Eugene for suggesting Krill for weaning scorps over to frozen. Was able to trick my wasp back to frozen with it. Previously she reverted back to live foods. Hopefully she keeps this up and goes back to other foods too. Waspfish Wednesday pics. What? You've never heard of Waspfish Wednesday? Newb. In other news the Falco Hawkfish goes into the DT this weekend. Just about finished with his TTM/Prazi QT treatment. That should be interesting.... Really glad to hear you got her eating frozen again! Like the pics too check out jeremai's thread for taking aquarium photos. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted January 6, 2015 Author Share Posted January 6, 2015 For fish pics, use shutter priority mode and set it to 1/125, and use manual focus instead of auto. It will take some time to get used to it, but when you do, you won't want to use autofocus For taking pics of corals and such, you will typically want only part of it in frame, so use aperture priority mode and set it to as low as your lens will allow. The 18-55 lens will usually do 4.5-5.6 I think (with 5.6 being at full length of the lens) so it will need a lot of light. I usually leave ISO on 800, but you can bump it up to 1600 if you need to, you will unfortunately add some grain to the pics this way. Ah ya, I guess it's time to man up and go manual focus. Thanks for the tips Ben, I'll give it a shot and see what I can come up with. I think these were shot at 400 ISO. I'll try at 800 and see how they turn out. I think I was on full manual for the fish pics and aperture priority for the coral. I think I just was trying to focus on too much of the coral - if I keep only a portion in the frame, I should have better luck focusing on that portion I would think. I'll bust out the tripod tonight if I have time and try to snap some new pics. Need to take pics of the new Gyre anyway! Really glad to hear you got her eating frozen again! Like the pics too check out jeremai's thread for taking aquarium photos. Me too, I thought she was a goner man. She's eating krill and silverside chunks pretty regularly now. Still picky about food size though. Oh good link, definitely will give it a read through. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Ah, so you got a Gyre, eh? Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted January 6, 2015 Author Share Posted January 6, 2015 Yep, just came in last night. And a new skimmer but that's not in yet, still breaking it in. Merry Christmas indeed. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 I had that itch. The itch to get some new fish. And then a particular rare wrasse dropped on DD and I snagged it! Not kidding I pulled over on my drive home from work to order the fish. I'm a fish addict. Look at this pretty fish Twospot Maori Wrasse Terminal Phase Male (Oxycheilinus bimaculatus) Cousin to the Snooty. Smaller than the Snooty (& the Melanurus) so hopefully there will be no dominance battles there. Also got a nice little tang too. Little in that the fish is less than 2" long. Need to grow her up and fatten her up before she goes to live in Chez Snooty. African Squaretail Bristletooth Tang Juvenile (Ctenochaetus truncatus) Both arrived safe and sound on Saturday and are hanging out in QT currently. Eating well & all that too. Love DD fish. And of course now that my QT is full, DD just gets a Bluespotted Angelfish in last night. Trollin' me lol Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 Sculpin? Really cool fish, hear they have big mouths though. Finally got around to taking better pics this weekend. Tried my hand at manual focus, not the best but better than AF. Waspy Melanurus Wrasse -- turned male BFFY New Bimac Maori Wrasse -- aka Bigmac Blurry but look at dem teef! Forevergrumpy She's ready for her closeup Gave Ultralife Cyano Remover a try and it actually works. Took 2 treatments for me but it knocked the cyano way back. Check it out below. Made my skimmer go nuts but was worth the skimmer hassle. Current FTS (with all 4 swimmers in it, score!) vs 1 month ago (Phone pic but you can see all the cyano on the rocks & sand) Hopefully now with the cyano gone, I can start to beat out the HA. And if not, secret weapon: Baby Tang goes in to eat it all. I hope. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Sculpin? Really cool fish, hear they have big mouths though. No, they're sea robins. Not sure what species, but I've caught them in the Indian River Lagoon before even smaller, around 1.5" long. Link to comment
farkwar Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Ralph, Do you use a list of which predators are reef safe? I've never owned marine predators, but am very interested, especially with the large tank incoming. In my case "reef safe" means does not eat corals. Ps, I've noticed bite marks on one of my black finger sponges. Most probably my blue tang, she tries to eat everything, including bryopsis. She will be going into the big tank. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 No, they're sea robins. Not sure what species, but I've caught them in the Indian River Lagoon before even smaller, around 1.5" long. Oh ya, that was my other guess. Both are Scorpaeniformes. We have some of them up here too in the summer. Junk fish but crazy looking. They get decently big though, like over a foot I think. Ralph, Do you use a list of which predators are reef safe? I've never owned marine predators, but am very interested, especially with the large tank incoming. In my case "reef safe" means does not eat corals. Ps, I've noticed bite marks on one of my black finger sponges. Most probably my blue tang, she tries to eat everything, including bryopsis. She will be going into the big tank. Coral Safe? Plenty of options. Lionfish/Scorpionfish/Waspfish (Watch the mouth size here, larger lions and scorps can and will eat their smaller cousins) Anglerfish (best kept in species tanks though) Eels Maori Wrasses Halichoeres Wrasses (typically deemed not reef safe for their love for inverts) Tusks Thalassoma wrasses (aggressive but just an invert eater) Groupers/Comets Hawkfish Squirrels & Soldierfish Pretty much all above is not invert safe & some are not safe with smaller fish but as long as they are around the same size, you are generally ok. As long as everyone eats in my tank, no one gets defensive or anything like that and I have 3 hungry wrasses and a wasp. When you get into butterflies, triggers & angels you get into the not coral safe category. Be ready to have 0 clean up crew though. I only have a few snails left and that's cause they are just too big to mess with. Everything else gets eaten. What size tank are you getting? She even tries to eat Bryopsis? Dang, teach my little tang that. She hasn't touched any of the algae in her grow out tank - just wants the actual nori & other foods I feed. Link to comment
farkwar Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 126 gallon. Just landed about an hour ago. Thanks for the infos. I'll feed them inverts, if I have to. I cant remember if this a dream or not, but I'm pretty sure I had a horseshoe crab back when I had the big tank. I bet those guys are relatively save. Ive always wanted a puffer, like the porcupine puffer. Will that be safe with coral. If so, I could get a dozen. Harvest the tetrodotoxin, and make me some zombies. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 Nice! Sounds like it will be a sweet tank. Jealous, I wish I had bigger than the 90. Welcome. Happy to help. As for puffers, I'm not entirely sure about how coral safe they are. I honestly don't know a ton about them cause they don't mix well with lions/scorps. I know they are definitely not invert safe but IIRC they have the potential to nip or eat coral. You could do it but have a plan B if it starts to misbehave. Sorry to rain on the puffer-zombie parade Feeding inverts is the best part of the predator tank. I regularly pick up crayfish or fresh mussels & clams to feed to my guys. Used to feed ghost shrimp but that's not even a challenge anymore. Snooty sucks them down and keeps on coming back for more. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 Sold my old 40B a while back so had some extra cash lying around - made it rain on some Avast Marine goodies. Swabbie skimmer neck cleaner & Davy Jones Skimmate Locker. Ordered yesterday, comes in today. Now that's SERVICE! (It helps that they are only a few states away but shhh) Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 Nothing since February, huh? Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted April 16, 2015 Author Share Posted April 16, 2015 You wouldn't want to see pics of my tank right now. Most of my rock is covered in hair algae sadly. Working on getting a gfo reactor going to get rid of excess PO4. I did introduce my baby squaretail tang to the tank and she's getting along just fine. Holding her own with the wrasses & crew. Of course, she doesn't eat hair algae though. Munching away on the film algae on the glass though. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 GHA, you say? I'm sure my rabbitfish's got excited when I read that, you need one. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted April 16, 2015 Author Share Posted April 16, 2015 Yep GHA. I'll pull some out and send it your way Yea I do need one. This whole no clean up crew thing kind of sucks. My wrasses have taken out everything in my tank minus 1 turbo & 1 astrea. There may be 1 nassarius lurking around too. You can get an idea on the amount of GHA here in this crap phone pic of baby tang. Maybe I'll get a fox next month, have to wait til I'm in town for a 2 week span so I can properly TTM the new fish. Maybe a DD one-spot fox & coral beauty I need to switch salts too, been using Oceanic and it's super low alk and no coraline has been growing lately so that probably doesnt help things out. Actually thinking of switching to good ole IO since I don't have much SPS or LPS left. Link to comment
wrassegauche17 Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 my porc, hummingbird, is safe with coral, so far. Link to comment
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