+Hydro Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I was worried about this guy because after getting him last Friday he hadn't made many appearances, at least it did eat every time I fed the tank. When it was out he was at the end of the tank at the surface of the water, not a good sign at all. I'm pretty sure my tangs were picking on it some, mainly the powder blue. Today he came out and made several laps around the tank and no one really bothered him. I'm optimistic at this point and had some marginal cell phone pics to share, hard to take pics of a moving fish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Glad to hear he's doing better. What a stunning fish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 By far my favorite reef fish. Wish I could accommodate one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bannerfish Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 He's beautiful, they look so exotic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaarrrggg Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Gorgeous! With those markings they almost don't look real! Is that a reef tank I see in the background? How do you get around him munching in the CUC? Big turbos? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 Gorgeous! With those markings they almost don't look real! Is that a reef tank I see in the background? How do you get around him munching in the CUC? Big turbos? Thanks everyone, I've always wanted on of these. Arg....I had an epiphany one day about my tank. There are all these cool fish that are "coral safe" but not "reef safe". I always liked my shrimp and crabs so I never considered them, but then I realized that shrimps and crabs aren't that cool. So I decided to put my my crustys at risk for some cool new livestock. So I bought a 2' long zebra eel....which so far lives in the cave with my lobster and lets the cleaner shrimp take food from its mouth. Eels are super cool, feeding that big girl is exciting. The crosshatch triggers which are in my qt tank with a tiny dragon wrasse, 5 emerald crabs, and a tiny pipefish....so they seems safe too. The tusk falls in to the same category and we will just have to see how he acts. All of these are waaaaay cooler than a couple of shrimp and hermit crabs. My theory is that most of the crustys are safe as long as I feed the tank. I only have one cleaner shrimp, some emerald crabs, and a lobster, not risking much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuxx Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Always liked those... maybe in the 240 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaarrrggg Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Iiiiiiinteresting! Hmm you've given me a lot to think about. I do love shrimp and crabs, but my husband always likes the not reef-safe fish. I'd love to be able to actually say "Yes! We can get that!" for once... instead of always having to say "No, that will eat x, y and z." It's become such a frequent occurance that he doesn't even ask if we can get certain fish anymore. He just points at something and says; "That's cool! So why can't we get it?" I feel like such a meanie! I do have a bunch of little hermies in there now, but I guess could yank them out and trade them in. What snails do you have? Just big ones? I'm going to have another look through LAs care guides and see what possiblities there are... Exciting! Thx for the idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 I'm not sure that most fish, besides wrasses, wouldn't even bother eating a hermit crab, not really worth the trouble. Snails I could see a problem with, plenty of meat in there. My mystery wrasse at all my snails a long time ago. I have a lots if limpets in my tank and they only come out at night, they are good algae eaters and don't seem to be getting eaten. There is "coral safe" and "reef safe", I even try fish that aren't coral safe and pull them out if they are breaking the rules. Once I get the crosshatch out of QT I think I'm going to try a goldflake angel which is "coral safe with caution" which means it can go either way. That same diver that I bought the crosshatch from catches them too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobR Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 That is a great looking fish, and good advice too about keeping some of the beautiful fish that are reef safe with caution. Hmmm fish or shrimp and crabs? After seeing this guy gonna have to say fish wins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Here are a couple of new pics, Don D told me that I can take pictures from videos on my iphone, very cool. Much easier to get a clear shot this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggedfire Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Seeing your recent posts Hydro of such beautiful fish is quite inspiring. Thank you and good luck with the acclimations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbnj Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 My Purple Tang (does it get more reef safe?) has eaten more corals than all the other fish I've ever had (combined). That's including my 4" Townsend Angel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bannerfish Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Man he's awesome, you're making me want to buy one. I kept my bigger tank without corals for a long time cause heni. Acuminatus is supposed to pick at corals, supposedly the ones with small polyps. Mine hasn't touched anything...yet. Next I'll try the nepthia and Kenya trees.....So far he has left my toadstool and mushrooms alone. I'm slowly putting more corals in there to see what he will pick at and what he leaves alone. He does like to pick at my hermits and my fire shrimp occasionally, but having him in my tank is SO worth it. He's by far my favorite fish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherita Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Just curious. I know he eats shrimp and crabs, do you think he would try to eat a 2" deer cowrie? I really want a tusk, but there is a deer cowrie in the tank I want to put him in. I don't care much about shrimp or crabs, but I love my cowries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 Man he's awesome, you're making me want to buy one. I kept my bigger tank without corals for a long time cause heni. Acuminatus is supposed to pick at corals, supposedly the ones with small polyps. Mine hasn't touched anything...yet. Next I'll try the nepthia and Kenya trees.....So far he has left my toadstool and mushrooms alone. I'm slowly putting more corals in there to see what he will pick at and what he leaves alone. He does like to pick at my hermits and my fire shrimp occasionally, but having him in my tank is SO worth it. He's by far my favorite fish! I had a morish idol for about 24hrs, although it came from a tank that it hadn't picked at corals he thought my chalices were a buffet and started eating them within hours of being in the tank. Sucked because it looked amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 Just curious. I know he eats shrimp and crabs, do you think he would try to eat a 2" deer cowrie? I really want a tusk, but there is a deer cowrie in the tank I want to put him in. I don't care much about shrimp or crabs, but I love my cowries. It would be hard to say for sure, I would consider it risky with any crustys though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherita Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Just curious. I know he eats shrimp and crabs, do you think he would try to eat a 2" deer cowrie? I really want a tusk, but there is a deer cowrie in the tank I want to put him in. I don't care much about shrimp or crabs, but I love my cowries. It would be hard to say for sure, I would consider it risky with any crustys though Well, crud. This particular cowrie can't go in one of my reef tanks, because he thinks sps are yummy. Drat. I guess it will have to wait until I get my 110's set up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bannerfish Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 That sucks, idols are one of my favorite fish. Originally i got my bannerfish because they are similar in appearance and hardier than the idol and i didn't wanna kill an idol. But the bannerfish is awesome, i had to beg my husband to let me buy him, he didn't really like him at first but he's been won over by him lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michae52 Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 How's the Harlequin doing. Fine I hope. Such a beautiful fish. I had one back in the early 90's. It liked to eat little crabs which I picked up at a Asian food mart on 19th ave, in PHX. That place was good source of food for the fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted January 22, 2012 Author Share Posted January 22, 2012 He is doing well besides part of his tail being bitten off by my powder blue. They seem to have got their differences settled and the powder blue is ignoring him now. The tusk decided to live underneath the wave box where he spent 99% of the time until recently, now its out most of the day. Its eating well and has settled in nicely. Were they live crabs? Frozen? I need to find a source for some different foods for it and my eel, hadn't thought of the asian market. Did you have to break the shells for the tusk to eat it? Its got some mean looking teeth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michae52 Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Every once in a while actually pretty often they would get very small crabs in. Small about the size of a quarter to half dollar. They would charge very little for them and often would give me some. What made me even think about it was that back then fish stores would feed tangs romaine lettuce which had been frozen. That was supposed to break down the celluar structure of the leaf so the fish could eat and digest it. I never had a tang eat lettuce. If you were lucky you could have then eat flake food. I had a Naso tand for 4 years in college and that sucker loved flake. Grew from abou 3-4 inches to over a foot counting the streamers. Anyway if finally dawned on me to go to an asian market they had all kinds of off the wall foods. So I bought some I think its called Nori or something like that. Unprocess and had just been dried. Rehydrated the stuff and no more yellow tangs with thin bodies. Look I was lucky in college, I made very good money as a Geologist while still in school and had made connection with Quality Marine out of LA. Things were cheap and I could afford then. Yellow Tangs $4-6 each. Harlington Tusk $25, Damsels .40, Achelles Tang $18 so I was able to get alot of things. Drawback was that alot of fish at been cynaide in the Phillipines to be caught, so that made it harder. They would just die for no reason. Protein skinner just a wooden airstone hooked up to a water pump. Ro water what was that. Hair algae was just part of the game. Tried to grow Maco-Algae to complete with hair. I mention Vortex,Ozone,this and that. That's all we had. Lights try some shop lights with some GE Chroma 50 and some actinic, or even mix some Chroma 75's in the mix. Alot of the things that we tried are no longer around. Chemipure is Polypads, and a few other things. So, I have been around this hobby for awhile. The only reason that it has made any progress is because of observation, experimenting,new technology and people willing to try new things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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