abcha0s' 300G Ultimate Reef

lastlight · #1 04-07-2011, 08:59 PM

My diamond watchman goby is a model citizen for what it's worth. Doesn't even leave the sandbed while spitting it out and he also eats everything else I feed the tank. One of the best livestock choices I've made as my sand did a 180 since the addition.

abcha0s · #2 04-15-2011, 05:22 AM

So I've been busy working on the tank. I think I have some interesting updates.

I have really been struggling with the never ending bacteria bloom that has been plaguing my tank. Today I did what I promised myself I wouldn't do and took both biopellet reactors offline . New tanks are all about finding a bacterial balance and I believe that the bacteria that had colonized the biopellets were somehow preventing the tank from reaching an equilibrium. I also think that having started with Dry Rock for most of the tank was detrimental to the overall success of bringing the tank online with the biopellets running. If I had started off with a healthy and diverse bacteria colony from good live rock, it might have played out differently. I do plan to try again with the biopellets, but I will wait until the tank matures a bit.
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I took Brett's advice and picked up a pair of Diamond Watchman Gobies. To be fair, this was not the first time I had considered these fish. I had one in my 90G before I added the screen top and he jumped out (I'm still mad at the Calgary LFS for assuring me it was a good beginner fish). This pair is doing great in the 300G.
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I took Albert's advice and I started looking into Zeovit. I talked to Dave at Concept Aquariums about this and he had the product in stock! - Dave used it on his home tank with similar results to the thread posted by Albert. I bought a bottle of Bio-Mate from Dave and will be testing this on my tank.
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The BIG news - Jeff and Renee at J&L Aquatics hooked me up big time! I don't know if they were doing me a personal favor or if they do this for all of their customers (my guess is the later), but they really came through on this one.

I picked up a harem of 12 Bartlett's Anthias. 1 Male and 11 Females - and they are awesome! Getting that many females in a single order is basically unheard of and no one else (probably in north america) could have done this for me. All but one were eating on the first day. I've had them a little over a week now and they all love pellets.

My next post will have lots of pictures of these fish.

Pictures in my next post...

fishytime · #3 04-15-2011, 05:31 AM

sweet!......a harem!.......I wish I had a harem.............of anthias.....ya, anthias

abcha0s · #4 04-15-2011, 06:26 AM

I picked up the fish at the Air Canada Cargo depot at around 9:30am on Saturday. After a quick inspection I could see that the fish were swimming in their bags and the water was warm. J&L packed them perfectly.

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Acclimating 12 fish at once is not an easy task.

I setup a containment tank for the Anthias. I would have liked to do a full QT, but logistically this would have been difficult. With the intent of getting these Anthias to eat (4 or 5 times a day), it would have been difficult to keep the water stable in an isolated system. At least in the containment tank I could observe the fish and clean up any leftover food after each feeding.

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After releasing the fish into the containment tank, they schooled as a tight group in one corner. This was encouraging as no single fish went off on it's own. After about half an hour, they started exploring the tank.

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For the past week, I've been feeding a variety of food including Frozen Cyclop-eeze, Reef Nutrition Arcti-Pods and New Life Spectrum Pellets. My focus has been on the pellets as that is how I plan to keep them feed in the main tank.

Today they were moved to the main tank. There were a number of considerations here, but Anthias really need more space than a 30G holding tank. In order for them to feel at home, they need the rocks and the current.

You can see the two gobies on the left.

There are some interesting threads on RC that talk about female Batlett's changing into males (more frequently than in some other Anthia species). In the wild, there seems to be more males than females which is unusual for an Anthia species. In captivity, many people observe some or all of their females changing into males after which they occasionally fight until there is only one left. These considerations were not lost on me when making this purchase. I am hopeful that the ratio of males to females in my tank will remain in favor of the females. Having said that, I do expect at least one or two of the now females to change into males. It is entirely possible that this process started before introducing the fish to my tank and that it is now irreversible.

I do believe that my tank is big enough to support at least 2 or 3 males. Assuming no losses, this would result in a 1 - 3 ratio of males to females.

There are reasons why I believe I can achieve long term success with this group of fish, but I can really only hope I am right. No question they are a delicate species. Time will tell.

The other concern I have right now is in regards to flukes. There is absolutely no sign of any disease or stress, but I'm not sure that I could identify flukes if I were looking right at them? - I am considering treating the tank with PraziPro as a preventative measure. This would be the one advantage of starting with Dry Rock - there is nothing to kill. I haven't made this decision yet, but once the tank starts to mature, it will become difficult if not impossible to treat for flukes. While it would be purely preventative, I do have a rare window of opportunity. My research suggests that there is no residual effects from PraziPro that would impact the reef long term.

lastlight · #5 04-15-2011, 07:07 AM

Ohhh those look purdy! Next month when I've got time to breath I'll need to swing by again not to mention have you over. You'll love the watchmen gobies and you have a net on the tank this time as well.

Just noticed the clamp for each bag! You really do have every supply imaginable tucked away down there!

bryceschutte · #6 05-11-2011, 02:12 AM

Your tank is coming along very well. WHen are you getting the rest of the fish and corals in there? That Cheato I got from you is growing like crazy! Thank you!!

abcha0s · #7 06-08-2011, 08:03 PM

Slowly but surely...

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<< My Favorite

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Anthia Update: I started with 11 female and 1 male. After a week or two, one of the females became the second male. I suspect that the transition may have begun before I even received these fish. I now have 2 males and 10 females. I have seen the males fighting, but only very rarely. For the most part, they seem to get along just fine. I will occasionally see the two males swimming side by side. The Anthias don't really school as a group anymore, but I didn't expect them to. They do school in smaller groups which is still pretty spectacular.