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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Dawn's 56 gallon natural nutrient reef.


vlangel

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5 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Looks great Dawn! I love the dart fish :wub:

Thanks teeny.  I am really loving this tank and am anxious for the dart fish to start swimming more out in the open.

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Snow_Phoenix
40 minutes ago, Newstead said:

I live how natural this tank looks. How are the clown gobies? Thinking about one in our new 10 gallon cube.

Get oneeeee...! 😉

 

(Seriously though, you won't regret it. They're cute, funny and have very tiny bioloads.)

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5 hours ago, Newstead said:

I live how natural this tank looks. How are the clown gobies? Thinking about one in our new 10 gallon cube.

Thank you, the natural look is what I was going for. 

 

The clown gobies are still pretty shy although I will occasionally see 1 out and about perusing the whole tank.  They are a nice hardy fish once you get them eating and are perfect for a 10 gallon tank.

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I am seeing the green clown gobies regularly now.  Today I saw both of them at the same time which was reassuring.  When they want to hide it is impossible for me to see them but they come out several Xs a day. 

 

I have yet to see either blue dart fish however.  I am still feeding heavy in hopes of at least spotting movement from them when food is in the tank.  I am feeling a bit concerned but I knew they were super shy.  Hopefully there is a sighting soon!

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2 minutes ago, seabass said:

I thought those dartfish want something like a 3" sand bed. :unsure:

My tank has a lot of places that are 3"+ deep.  Some places where the retaining wall holds back sand it is probably 7"

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I finally had a sighting of 1 of the dart fish eating.  What gorgeous color.  Also both clown gobies were eating.  I am encouraged even though I have not seen 1 of the dart fish that it will be out soon too.

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Fish can do the most surprising things some times.  Today I did a WC and thorough cleaning of the A,B,C tank and figured there was no way that the dart fish would come out for another week.  To my surprise I walked into the livingroom to find both of them swimming around in the water column.  Their color is so pleasing in this tank and I am really happy with them.  So I guess I need to give them names since the other 10 fish have names.  I will have to ponder it a while to pick names that are fitting.

 

I also syphoned out some bubble algae and fragged a large portion of the purple synthetic sponge.

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16 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Fish can do the most surprising things some times.  Today I did a WC and thorough cleaning of the A,B,C tank and figured there was no way that the dart fish would come out for another week.  To my surprise I walked into the livingroom to find both of them swimming around in the water column.  Their color is so pleasing in this tank and I am really happy with them.  So I guess I need to give them names since the other 10 fish have names.  I will have to ponder it a while to pick names that are fitting.

 

I also syphoned out some bubble algae and fragged a large portion of the purple synthetic sponge.

Yay!  Glad they decided to come out for you!

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I have come up with names for the blue dart fish, Spirit and Spectre.  They are graceful and secretive...now you see them, now you don't!

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2 hours ago, tanacharison said:

Makes me want clown gobys bad... wonder if they would fight with my tremmas?

Clown gobies are adorable and I love them.  I don't actually know what a tremma is so I can't help whether they and gobies will get along. 😕

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tanacharison
13 hours ago, vlangel said:

Clown gobies are adorable and I love them.  I don't actually know what a tremma is so I can't help whether they and gobies will get along. 😕

Tiny red stripe gobies. 

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2 hours ago, tanacharison said:

Yes! I need a auto correct for fish species. 

No wonder I was confused...actually tbh I still wouldn't have known what they were.  Now I do remember considering them on Live Aquaria.

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My sand is totally clean on the right side of the tank.  I am guessing it's the Ice Cap gyre that I can thank.  I wonder if I have it in forwards and backwards mode if both sides of the tank would stay clean?  I am kinda learning to program it, ha ha!

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I took a new video tonight that is being uploaded as I type.  I finally captured one of the blue dart fish.  They hide in the barnacle but are getting braver each day.  I can not tell them apart so they are just Spectre and Spirit collectively.

 

You can see the flow from the gyre directing the flow 1 direction and then the other.  I am hoping it will combat cyano/diatoms or whatever I have.  At the moment the right side of the tank is clean but the left side has lots of rust colored sand.  That is why I switched the mode to both directions.

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I generally say if I can keep new fish a live for 2 weeks I will have them for years.  This time I am not so sure even though all 5 new fish are still a live and eating pretty well.  I am concerned however because they are not fattening up.  The green clown gobies (Piper and Jet) are really thin.  Marmalade, the orange spot blenny is kind of emaciated looking too.  Only Spirit and Spectre look normal and they were the last to come out and eat.

 

I am feeding this tank 3Xs a day and 2 of the meals are meaty foods like mysis, fish frenzy and such.  The other meal always has algae for the blennies like emerald entree or formula 2.  My other blennies and cardinal fish are chubs so I know there is nothing wrong with their diet.  If its internal parasites, hopefully they fight it off.  I have also heard that fish caught by cyanide poisoning can eat but still wither away.  These were wild caught so maybe I should have resisted since my lfs also carries captive bred.  Anyway I sure hope the newcomers fatten up soon.

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31 minutes ago, vlangel said:

I generally say if I can keep new fish a live for 2 weeks I will have them for years.  This time I am not so sure even though all 5 new fish are still a live and eating pretty well.  I am concerned however because they are not fattening up.  The green clown gobies (Piper and Jet) are really thin.  Marmalade, the orange spot blenny is kind of emaciated looking too.  Only Spirit and Spectre look normal and they were the last to come out and eat.

 

I am feeding this tank 3Xs a day and 2 of the meals are meaty foods like mysis, fish frenzy and such.  The other meal always has algae for the blennies like emerald entree or formula 2.  My other blennies and cardinal fish are chubs so I know there is nothing wrong with their diet.  If its internal parasites, hopefully they fight it off.  I have also heard that fish caught by cyanide poisoning can eat but still wither away.  These were wild caught so maybe I should have resisted since my lfs also carries captive bred.  Anyway I sure hope the newcomers fatten up soon.

I have a similar issue with my GCG. He eats, but he isn't fat or rounded-out like my Starry, for example. In fact, he doubled in size during the past 8 weeks in QT, but he is longer and still 'slender', but not chubby or rounded-out. My guess is that they generally aren't chunky by nature, but I've had YCGs in the past that are pretty chubby. My GCG loves NLS pellets though (the tiny ones at 1mm), so maybe try target-feeding your GCGs some pellets three times a day and see if it helps? I find clown gobies quite tricky to get onto prepared at times; they can be very finicky eaters if they want to be (especially the wild-caught ones). But once established, they can last long and tend to be very active. 

 

You can also try small-particle-sized meaty foods like prawn roe or crab roe, if you can get a hold of them. My GCG likes frozen crab roe. He rejects frozen mysis (and sometimes even brine) because they're too large to fit into his mouth. 

 

Add-On: Try Nori for Marmalade the blenny. I'm reading online that they're primarily herbivorous and nori should do the trick. They can also accept mysis and chopped squid/shrimp over time. If he's still thinning out/wasting away, it could be an internal parasite. Prazi in a QT should help if that's the case.

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