Anthrax & Gangs! 50G SCA

[thecoralbeauty]

I did a thing, and have a captive bred coral beauty on it's way to me.

I'm also on the hunt for a "mandarin" crocea clam that has a gorgeous tear-drop swirling pattern. Biota in Palau has them, but not for sale, apparently, and not WYSIWYG. I saw Jake posted a website in Japan selling them- and I'm in love, but I don't think they export. 

Any ideas??

https://item.rakuten.co.jp/aquagift/010-1414069924/

 

[billygoat]

17 minutes ago, mwhitelock said:

I did a thing, and have a captive bred coral beauty on it's way to me.

I'm also on the hunt for a "mandarin" crocea clam that has a gorgeous tear-drop swirling pattern. Biota in Palau has them, but not for sale, apparently, and not WYSIWYG. I saw Jake posted a website in Japan selling them- and I'm in love, but I don't think they export. 

Any ideas??

https://item.rakuten.co.jp/aquagift/010-1414069924/

 

I just checked out that website but couldn't find any information about international shipping on their shipping rates page. Rakuten is actually a big e-commerce site in Japan (similar to Amazon), so they may ship certain things overseas, but this sub-section of it ("rakuten aqua gift") looks like they just ship to the various parts of Japan, and also to Okinawa. So that's unfortunate! Lovely clam though. I'm sure it would look splendid in your tank.

 

Also grats on the coral beauty angel! I can't wait to see it! 😄 

[thecoralbeauty]

6 hours ago, billygoat said:

I just checked out that website but couldn't find any information about international shipping on their shipping rates page. Rakuten is actually a big e-commerce site in Japan (similar to Amazon), so they may ship certain things overseas, but this sub-section of it ("rakuten aqua gift") looks like they just ship to the various parts of Japan, and also to Okinawa. So that's unfortunate! Lovely clam though. I'm sure it would look splendid in your tank.

 

Also grats on the coral beauty angel! I can't wait to see it! 😄 

Thank you! I asked a LFS who wholesales with Biota Palau to see if they can get any clams like that in stock and hold one for me. They said they would try...  fingers crossed! 

Im very excited for it to arrive as well! I don't know how my tang is going to react.

[billygoat]

1 hour ago, mwhitelock said:

Thank you! I asked a LFS who wholesales with Biota Palau to see if they can get any clams like that in stock and hold one for me. They said they would try...  fingers crossed! 

Im very excited for it to arrive as well! I don't know how my tang is going to react.

That sounds like a pretty sweet LFS! Hopefully they will give you a good deal. I am not familiar with the prices of most popular corals and clams (since my own tank mostly features species that other reefers would be eager to throw away 😄 ), but that mandarin Tridacna crocea on Rakuten is up for 5500 yen, which is about $50. This struck me as pretty cheap for such a beautiful animal.

[thecoralbeauty]

12 minutes ago, billygoat said:

That sounds like a pretty sweet LFS! Hopefully they will give you a good deal. I am not familiar with the prices of most popular corals and clams (since my own tank mostly features species that other reefers would be eager to throw away 😄 ), but that mandarin Tridacna crocea on Rakuten is up for 5500 yen, which is about $50. This struck me as pretty cheap for such a beautiful animal.

that's insanely cheap- from the biota's old listings, they were going for 250-300 US dollars. Clams i've seen fluctuate between 75-200 for size and coloring. 

 

such a bummer they don't ship. i'd love to have a clam like that. 

[billygoat]

3 hours ago, mwhitelock said:

that's insanely cheap- from the biota's old listings, they were going for 250-300 US dollars. Clams i've seen fluctuate between 75-200 for size and coloring.

My Japanese is not what it used to be, but I am pretty sure that the website says those clams actually come from Okinawa, which is technically part of Japan. That means the seller can just ship them domestically, which likely drops the price on them considerably.

 

What sort of food do you offer your clams? They show excellent expansion, and very attractive colors.

 

Edit: also, do you have any recent photos of them? I would love to get a closer look 😄

[thecoralbeauty]

10 hours ago, billygoat said:

My Japanese is not what it used to be, but I am pretty sure that the website says those clams actually come from Okinawa, which is technically part of Japan. That means the seller can just ship them domestically, which likely drops the price on them considerably.

 

What sort of food do you offer your clams? They show excellent expansion, and very attractive colors.

 

Edit: also, do you have any recent photos of them? I would love to get a closer look 😄

There are some pretty recent photos on my instagram feed- i can try to remember to update this afternoon once my lights come back on. 

I haven't offered them any food specifically. I am feeding phytoplankton, but that was more intended for the pods. I suppose the clams may enjoy it too. I also reed reef roids when i remember to, and a mix between pellets, flake, and frozen. Clams are pretty highly dependent on light, so i suspect that's why they are happy 🙂 

[thecoralbeauty]

 

 

 

[billygoat]

Thank you so much for the pics! Those clams are super gorgeous. I love the way they are wedged right into the rocks; it reminds me of a real coral reef, where every inch of rock surface is teeming with life. The one in the second picture with the very dark blue-violet mantle is especially beautiful.

[thecoralbeauty]

11 hours ago, billygoat said:

Thank you so much for the pics! Those clams are super gorgeous. I love the way they are wedged right into the rocks; it reminds me of a real coral reef, where every inch of rock surface is teeming with life. The one in the second picture with the very dark blue-violet mantle is especially beautiful.

Thank you! That one is a maxima 🙂 he has grown so much in the last two years. 

 

Id love to see any research done on their use as cleanup crew in a tank- I suspect they’re great filter feeders, but I don’t think I’ve seen any studies supporting this. 

[thecoralbeauty]

 

 

[billygoat]

Oh my goodness, the clams! 😍

 

Absolutely gorgeous top-down shots. The clams are definitely my favorite, but that Goniopora is also totally stunning.

When's the coral beauty angel scheduled to arrive?

[thecoralbeauty]

11 hours ago, billygoat said:

Oh my goodness, the clams! 😍

 

Absolutely gorgeous top-down shots. The clams are definitely my favorite, but that Goniopora is also totally stunning.

When's the coral beauty angel scheduled to arrive?

Thank you! I can’t wait until that red Goni is 100% happy again.

coral beauty should be here Tuesday or Wednesday. We had a blizzard here this week that kind of delayed their shipments. 

[thecoralbeauty]

Params this morning, just out of curiosity. I fed pretty heavily this week, but things seem pretty happy regardless.

 

Mg: 1290

Alk: 9.9

Ca: 430

No3: 50

Po4: 1

 

 

[thecoralbeauty]

So, the coral beauty has arrived. about 1 inch long and very shy. 🙂 Currently the royal gramma is trying to figure out how to coax him out of his hole, because he wants his hiding spot back. I'll update with a photo when he decides it's alright to swim in the open. Generally, though, I'm encouraged. Shyness is way better than aggression in my book. 

 

Going to need to do some re-arranging here soon. Corals stinging each other. 

[billygoat]

2 hours ago, mwhitelock said:

So, the coral beauty has arrived. about 1 inch long and very shy. 🙂 Currently the royal gramma is trying to figure out how to coax him out of his hole, because he wants his hiding spot back. I'll update with a photo when he decides it's alright to swim in the open. Generally, though, I'm encouraged. Shyness is way better than aggression in my book. 

 

Going to need to do some re-arranging here soon. Corals stinging each other. 

That's great to hear! I can't wait to see the new arrival. 😊 

Not so great to hear about your corals stinging each other though! I have to imagine that it's super hard to re-arrange your livestock in such a densely-populated tank.

[thecoralbeauty]

Came home to the coral beauty out and about- and missing a chunk of his tail and a scale off his side.

In fact, since I got home, I've seen the cardinals go after my orange back wrasse, who is missing some of his dorsal fin, the damsel go after the coral beauty, and the royal gramma go after the lawnmower blenny. It's mutiny! 

 

I hope things calm down nicely and that the coral beauty makes it past his hazing. he's gorgeous and really cute at his size!  i love his swimming pattern too. he's eating, so so far so good.

 

As far as a re-arrangement, I think I may move my smaller island back into the pink tube anemone cave, and find a different place for my elegance. He's gotten so huge he's blocking my view.

 

I may also need to start keeping a frag rack again. 

[thecoralbeauty]

 

[thecoralbeauty]

so unfortunately, since he has gotten comfortable, he's made himself a little TOO at home and has been pecking at my crocea clams. 

I've gotten out the trusty old bottle trap and have ordered an actual fish trap if the bottle doesn't do the trick. hopefully the clams won't be too upset by tuesday. sheesh.

 

I knew this would be a risk, so while i'm disappointed, i'm not surprised. 

[billygoat]

59 minutes ago, mwhitelock said:

so unfortunately, since he has gotten comfortable, he's made himself a little TOO at home and has been pecking at my crocea clams. 

I've gotten out the trusty old bottle trap and have ordered an actual fish trap if the bottle doesn't do the trick. hopefully the clams won't be too upset by tuesday. sheesh.

 

I knew this would be a risk, so while i'm disappointed, i'm not surprised. 

Very unfortunate that the coral beauty ended up misbehaving, but your clams are certainly priority one! Do you have a plan to rehome the angel, or are you just going to move it to a different system?

[thecoralbeauty]

3 hours ago, billygoat said:

Very unfortunate that the coral beauty ended up misbehaving, but your clams are certainly priority one! Do you have a plan to rehome the angel, or are you just going to move it to a different system?

I have a friend that has asked to adopt the angel- I just have to trap him and hand him over. He’s beautiful, so it’s a sad day, but he will be in good hands. I only have this tank right now and no plans to get another one going. One is enough! 

 

Interestingly, he only pecks at my croceas. The maximas and the hybrid have been ignored. 

[thecoralbeauty]

New update- still haven't trapped the CB, but in my intense scrutiny of the clams, and thus, my tank.... My cardinals have spawned and the male is carrying a mouth full of eggs. 

I have no idea what I'm doing but i think I'm going to try to save them! 

[billygoat]

27 minutes ago, mwhitelock said:

New update- still haven't trapped the CB, but in my intense scrutiny of the clams, and thus, my tank.... My cardinals have spawned and the male is carrying a mouth full of eggs. 

I have no idea what I'm doing but i think I'm going to try to save them! 

That's amazing! Could there be a better sign that your system is doing well? 😁

I wouldn't even know where to begin, but it would be incredible if you could actually breed them.

[thecoralbeauty]

11 hours ago, billygoat said:

That's amazing! Could there be a better sign that your system is doing well? 😁

I wouldn't even know where to begin, but it would be incredible if you could actually breed them.

I think the first step, in the next 20 days before he spits the eggs out, is to figure out how to get a steady supply of baby brine shrimp going. and isolate them from this tank. so i guess i have a second tank in my future after all.

 

Coral beauty has been pecking at other things- and less on my crocea clams. he doesn't seem to be doing any damage, it seems to be curiosity pecking.... 

but, not that i can do anything about it one way or another until i actually catch him. 

It would be nice if maybe he settled into better behavior in the next few days after all though. maybe that's wishful thinking!

 

 

[StinkyBunny]

On 4/9/2019 at 9:01 AM, mwhitelock said:

I did a thing, and have a captive bred coral beauty on it's way to me.

I'm also on the hunt for a "mandarin" crocea clam that has a gorgeous tear-drop swirling pattern. Biota in Palau has them, but not for sale, apparently, and not WYSIWYG. I saw Jake posted a website in Japan selling them- and I'm in love, but I don't think they export. 

Any ideas??

https://item.rakuten.co.jp/aquagift/010-1414069924/

 

Please be VERY careful with ordering fish/inverts/corals from overseas. There are MANY scammers out there that are all too happy to fleece you out of your hard earned money. That's coming from an importer of 20+ years in the business. There are a lot of unscrupulous individuals and companies overseas. NOTHING marine is allowed out of Japan whether it came from there or not without a blizzard of paperwork. I don't know what they can do to you for it here in the USA, but I know if it gets intercepted, you will at the very least, lose all of your money and the shipper would face some serious fines.

 

 On to the Coral Beauty. Do you know the country it came from? It looks like an Indo/Bali area or Fiji, both of those areas are not good to get angels from to add to a reef system. CB angels out of The Philippines are a MUCH better choice. They are typically a darker angel and pick a lot less at corals. Same thing with angels out of Sri Lanka. I don't have an issue throwing any angel out of that area into a reef tank from an Emporer to a Yellowtail angel. Angels pick when they're bored or hungry. I feed mine twice a day and rarely have an issue. I've kept Emporers out of Sri Lanka in several reef tanks with no picking other than sponges.