400 gallon project

[untamed]

Originally Posted by robzilla

there was an article in one of last year's Coral mags about rearing clown fish. not sure if these mags are on line but it looked do-able if you had the tanks and the time.

let me know if you want me to dig up the month.

Originally Posted by groan

...

With the size of the rocks this is probably not possible, but what about a large fry box, the kind of thing you would hang on the side fo a 'normal' tank and put babies, or a new fish into. could you not fasion something at least to keep the larger critters away from the babies and keep mommy and daddy in?

No need to supply info on breeding of clowns, thanks. I've read enough to know that I'm not prepared to do it right now. While the fry could possibly be protected from predation in the main tank, they would certainly starve. I've not found anyone successful at raising clownfish in a mixed reef tank. They have to be separated and I'm not ready for additional tanks at this time.

BTW...I was correct. All the eggs hatched sometime after lights-out last night. No trace of fry that I can see. It is possible they are all hiding somewhere under the anemone...or they have all been swept away in the current.

[Delphinus]

I'd say swept away. I've never seen a fry the next morning. If you think about it, if you think about how many potential offspring a pair can produce over a lifetime; and yet, for the population to remain stable, theoretically/on-average only 2 need to survive into adulthood and reproduce (to replace their parents) - that's a lot of mortality.

In the many years I've had a breeding pair or another of clowns - I haven't actually witnessed a hatching yet. However, I have witnessed on a couple of occasions a shrimp hatching (peppermints and cleaners) - and - I can tell you the tank inhabitants go into a berserk feeding frenzy once they realize what's going on. I imagine it's a similar thing here. I know it's sad but I suspect the fry really don't last much longer than a few minutes or a few hours tops.

[SeaSerpant]

Thats really sad. i hope the next time they have babies you can save a few so you can have more fish.

[untamed]

Today, I built a surface viewing box. This is my first attempt at building something that has to be water tight. I suppose it went OK...but I won't be building an aquarium or sump any time soon.



This box floats perfectly in any of the three openings on top of the tank and enables me to see better when I'm working up there. It also enables some top-down photography. Here are some samples.

[Jason McK]

WOW looks great!!!!. How did you elliminate all the MH reflections?

J

[untamed]

Originally Posted by Jason McK

WOW looks great!!!!. How did you eliminate all the MH reflections?

J

I never thought about it. I think my body (working the camera) is probably blocking the halides. That was the first challenge that I noticed with the top down photography..I'm blocking all the light.

[untamed]

This is exactly 7 hours worth of skimmate from the G6. 1 cup worth of really foul smelling stuff. While this is the part that I can easily drain out, there is considerably more gooey stuff in the neck and collection cup.

Skimmer needs to be completely cleaned 2x per week.

[untamed]

Here's what you get when you adjust white balance under actinic only lighting....

[kookie_guy]

wow, that's all I can say, just wow.

I hope in the future I can have the guts and know how to build a system like this. Great job.

[untamed]

A Few days ago, I added a couple of new fish. A cleaner wrasse, and a White Face Tang (sold to me as a Powder Brown, but it is a White Face or Japanese Tang)

If you are a fan of the aquarium camera, you know that the new Tang has had a pretty rough time. The Achillies Tang really dislikes the new guy and is more than twice his size. He's spent the past few days hiding in the Xenia.

Here is the White Face Tang.


The cleaner wrasse is...well...I'm not sure I like having him in the tank. He is a very active cleaner. It is interesting to watch the cleaning behaviour, but he is so relentless that it is driving the fish to distraction! Moe (Blonde Naso) seems to get the most attention mostly because he doesn't move around very fast. There's clearly a point where the fish says.."ENOUGH!!!", but can't easily get away from the cleaner.


The wrasse is leaving small "bite marks" that are visible on the Naso Tang. These heal within a day, but new bites are added all the time. Here I was all worried that the wrasse would starve...now I find out that it eats pellets, shrimp and harrasses my fish leaving bite marks all over them! He may become the first fish that I evict...we'll see. He does clean my arm whenever I reach into the tank, which is kind of funny.

If you look at the photo below, you can see the dark bite marks on Moe's grey areas on his nose, behind his gills and on his back.