New Fish

[BlueAbyss]

Originally Posted by WuHT

Corals look the same to me.

I suppose this is the difference between a pet owner and a gardener.

One can be both a pet owner and gardener... most reef tank owners seem to tend toward the gardener side, with beautiful aquascaping, colorful corals, etc. Those that don't have FOWLR tanks, where the fish involved would simply devour any and all invertebrates, and the aquascaping is lower-key but since the focus is the fish anyhow, this is rarely an issue.

All aquarists are both to some extent however... we want the best for the creatures in our glass boxes, but also want the tank to be attractive. The difference is in the pets... Chihuahua that eats plankton or German Shepard that eats chihuahuas? The chihuahua will do little damage to your garden, but a german shepard can destroy said garden in minutes.

Originally Posted by my2rotties

I am not at this same level of experience to even be able to make much comment aside of the tank and fish are beautiful. As an observation from gardening though, we pick back buds, stems and stalks to enocourage more growth from our plants. We divide plants to allow them space to grow or they snuff themselves out. If we pick back one bud, two will grow back in its place. If we divide one plant we can make two or more, since it is not fighting for space and food.

Could it be possible that adding this fish to his tank will be beneficial to the corals growing in it, since the fish is essentially doing what a gardener does to promote growth? I dunno, it's just a newbie observation and I have no proof or knowledge that it might happen, but it could.

I noticed the parallels between the two hobbies in the first 5 seconds of having a freshwater tank years ago... corals and many other marine organisms are just too similar to plants in many ways to not see other parallels. That's why I'll be mixing corals and plants in my reef

[Skimmerking]

welll looking at this picture the fish looks healthy and well done Steve , love your fish. i think that this fish due to its color loves the yellow, orange, blue milli's that is why he is that color LOL

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

welll looking at this picture the fish looks healthy and well done Steve , love your fish. i think that this fish due to its color loves the yellow, orange, blue milli's that is why he is that color LOL

You're probably right. The fish poops a fluorescent green slime that I swear would even glow in the dark.

[justinl]

huh this fish seems to have done a lot less damage than i had expected. since you mention the really bright poop... have you ever tried putting the poop under actinic only lighting and see if it fluoresces? im actually half serious I don't see it having any use for the coral's fluorescent pigments so maybe they pass largely undigested (although i would be greatly surprised if they haven't been denatured and are nonfunctional)?

[Snaz]

I was curious how this guy is doing. Any updates?

[sphelps]

Death by Tunze, sorry folks.

[naesco]

Are you planning on trying this again.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by naesco

Are you planning on trying this again.

Yes, but not right now with the current setup. I've never lost a fish to a tunze before so I don't want to get another one unless I can be sure it won't happen again. I also want to make sure I have a few more colonies of millepora as it was definitely a favorite and since I only had the one it did take a good beating.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Death by Tunze, sorry folks.

That sucks, sorry to hear that.

[lastlight]

There have been some threads on RC that speculated that systematically fragging small pieces off corals actually speeds growth. I can't wait to see how this goes...it may even help you!