Lance's 225 gal tank

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by Lance

Hehe. Brett, I swear you could find smut in a nursery rhyme!

Lance that better be a compliment because I've taken it as such!

[Lance]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Lance that better be a compliment because I've taken it as such!

Absolutely! You're the word-a-magician! And a very punny guy!

[Lance]

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE!

I purchased 12 Bluegreen Chromis two years ago and now they are down to three. I'll never keep them again. Nasty little fish; always picking on each other. I read somewhere that if they are fed small amounts at least five times per day the aggression may lessen. I tried this for two weeks and never saw any difference in their behaviour. I've always fed my fish well anyway so i think they're just plain nasty. Either that or the spawning male is screwing them to death. They spawn every week without fail and with a surprisingly large amount of eggs. For anybody who's thinking of getting some I'd advise against it.

Here's all twelve together taken back in February '09



And here is a typical spawn with the male guarding the eggs.

[marie]

I have bought a total of 18 over the years (i'm a slow learner ) and I am down to 1 healthy, happy chromis .....who is over 6yrs old now come to think of it

[lastlight]

I only started with 3 but have two. My percentage isn't bad lol. They get along great too and no spawning.

[Mrfish55]

Tank has come a long way (one of the nicest FOWLR out there) I can't remember how many chromis I have purchased but they always thin out to just a pair.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by marie

I have bought a total of 18 over the years (i'm a slow learner ) and I am down to 1 healthy, happy chromis .....who is over 6yrs old now come to think of it

Maybe that's the way to do it. I'm down to three and have three tanks. One per tank = happy Chromis!

[Lance]

Got back today from vacation and after 17 days away from the tanks I was a little bit worried as I have a new tank-sitter. He did a good job but there are a few issues, (none of which are his doing).
The 225g is in pretty good shape, other than the skimmer needed a good cleaning and the GBTA decided to move and sting the hell out of a large Pocci colony. Damn thing! The Pocci is salvageable though.
The 90g didn't fair so well.
Firstly, the timer for one of the dosing pumps packed it in at some time while I was away and alk is at 4. Stupid POS timer! Dosing manually for now until I get another timer.
More worrisome though, my large pink Monti Cap is in bad shape. About half of it, from the center out, has no flesh and the edges of the bleached areas are sloughing off when blown with a turkey baster. All other corals look fine, including Acros. Monti-eating Nudis? The Cap is in the center of the tank so I can't get a close enough look at it. Tomorrow after work I'm going to break off the entire 12" colony, have a good look-see, frag the good parts, dip them, and put them in the frag tank for observation.

As for the vacation, we had a great time except for the fact that I ended up in a Mexican hospital for a brief stay. We took some snorkling/diving pics and will post them in a few days when I have time. (a few were taken specially for you Tony)

Oh yeah. I had an interesting incident with a large Barracuda. I swam around a large rock structure and came face to face with a large mouth full of teeth. I'm guessing he was about 5' long and as big around as my thigh. It wasn't the least bit afraid of me. As I swam around him he turned with me so as to always face me. I turned and swam slowly away; looking back I saw it following me, staying about 15 feet behind. That was pretty unnerving so I headed for shallow water. I'm guessing it followed me for about 5 minutes. I didn't hit the beach running and screaming like a little girl but I do admit to thinking the beach wasn't getting closer fast enough for my liking. I went back to the same area several times later (just to prove to myself I could) but never saw it again......... (thank Christ for that!)

[lastlight]

Glad to hear you still got in the water after your ordeal over there! Too bad about the monti but hopefully you can salvage anything. After that it's only time =)

That is freaky about the cuda...brings me back to my last trip to mexico and I stumbled upon a school of large tarpons. Not being an ID whiz I just saw a bunch of 5 - 6 foot fish maybe 20 feet away and I seriously almost shat myself.

[muck]

Welcome back Lance!
Hows your ear doing? Hope the plane ride didn't aggravate it too much.

Those barracudas are scared of nothing. I had a similar experience while snorkeling one trip out there. I was definitely not too thrilled when the cuda gave me the stare down without flinching. Lucky for me he didn't feel like following though..