The lavenders are exquisite in a subtle sort of way. At first glance many think of them as drab but if you stop to think, they wouldn't call them lavender if there wasn't some purple in them. And the more you look at them, the more you see different colours flash out from them. They're definitely one of my favourites, and at 8" max size they are a nice small tang too (especially for Acanthurus sp.).

Here's an interesting article about them: http://www.hawaiisfishes.com/fish_of.../fom_05_03.htm

I find the same thing with my eel and my pink tail trigger. Only my silly eel is always hungry (for silversides) and he will come way out from where ever he's hiding in order to try to grab the food from the tongs. Problem is my trigger is a lot faster then my eel and loves silversides too. So I came up with a solution......I take my large net and I hold the food on the tongs on the one side of the net while moving the net (in order to scare away the trigger, which doesn't always work, sometimes he can get under the net and a few times he actually swam into the net and almost seemed to try to eat through the net to get to the food :surprise: but anyways 9 times out of ten it keeps the trigger away) which allows my eel the time he needs to grab the food.

Laurie that calls for a video I'd say...come on! :razz:

I'll try to get my boyfriend to film it tonight, it happens that way everytime I feed my eel, so I'm sure my trigger and eel will put on a show. It's quite tricky trying to move a net with one hand and hold food on tongs with the other.

I find it unusual that you would not to be able to keep cleaner shrimp with that kind of trigger. I have 4 year old cleaner shrimp in with my Black Blotch trigger. I didn't put in those tiny ones however.

I was trying to get some photos which capture the lavender's colours. Long story short it's hopeless to try get a good photo which captures the details, he's just far too fast. I have deleted dozens upon dozens of photos of indistinguishable blurs.

So I thought I'd try baiting him with some nori and filming him instead. The camera I had in hand isn't great for detailed videos so I apologize in advance for the quality, but it's 100 times better than any of the stills I got. I think I'm going to give up on trying to get photos and instead focus on videos. I'll use a different camera next time and see how things turn out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajwKGbs5OA0

LOL Tony that rabbitfish has double chins, maybe you should cut back on the feeding? :razz:

The lavender tang is pretty, still darker than I expected though. I wonder if they're only light colored when they're stressed? I've only ever seen the one at our LFS and it was really pale in color (you could see the coloration in the fins much better).

I'm really liking that angel (?) you have in there. It sails onto the top part of the screen at the beginning of the vid. Is that a lamarckii? Ooh a pair(I see another one about 1/4 way through the video)??

A slightly better video. My first attempt at editing, so please be kind!! :lol: The video is about 3 minutes long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77VzJheJIOc

Great video Tony! I loved it!
Glad to see the little X-Hatch looks no worse for wear. :biggrin: If I might ask, where did you get those tongs from and how long are they?

You know, I'm not sure anymore? One of the LFS's. I've seen them all over. They're about 24" long and came with plant pruning attachments as well, but I only use the gripper attachment. The tank is 30" deep and the stand is 30" so the top of the tank is at eye level so even standing on a stepladder I can barely reach the bottom without extending my reach somehow.

I'll see if I can find a link for them. :)