My 200gl

[MatroxD]

Today I added a Melanurus wrasse to the 75. 1st fish it is maybe 2 inches max. I didn't get a good look at him once he was in the tank. He looked around for about 2 seconds and disappeared in a puff of sand. Ok dude I'll see ya tomorrow , maybe!

They are awesome specimens! I love mine! Though, he did sore another side, that I have to warn you about(and of course there's a short story)..

When I purchased my current tank, the guy had a few fish.. Another male Mel wrasse, so I thought to myself "hey, this tank is big enough to keep both comfortable".. No!!! My boy literally beat the insides out of the other in a matter of ten minutes that I walked away, smoked and came back.. My gf told she caught the tail end, and I just saw mine still beating, flashing and snapping at the dead body.. And as much as I love wrasse,I will not put another of that body style in, ever with him.. I have only witnessed this behavior once before when I had a lunar wrasse go rogue.. I tell anyone, if you've never seen a wrasse beat another fish, you haven't seen anything.. They are horrible if they flip that switch...

I have the tusk, but for the most part, they stay out of each other's way..

But they have the most awesome mature color pattern to me.. Most wrasse do.. But this is striking because of the blue, yellow, red, green and orange.. Awesome fish! And he will be out fairly soon, they don't hide too long as they are greedy and goofy fish.. Lol... They will come out just to eat, and then go right back in.. Typical wrasse.. And they are very much attention seekers.. Awesome, awesome fish!

Great buy on your part!

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[cracker]

OK, The wrasse came out today, He was pretty hungry and was looking a little skinny. I'll take care of that in short order! Real pretty fish by the way. I can't truly tell the difference between the Christmas and the Melanurus wrasses? I don't those think those who put up pics of fish on the net know either! In the past I had a very cool wrasse I thought was a Christmas. Now I think it was a Melanurus ????
Ya Know I don't really care. It's a very nice fish. Very colorful , always out swimming around and never messed with the neighbors .
Thanks Matrox, just caught Your post. Thanks for sharing Your story! Iv'e seen some serious fish kicking in the past as well.

 

[cracker]

here is the best pic I could get of the Wrasse. He surely doesn't like the flash and wouldn't stay in one spot ! It's not a good pic he looks a lot better !

 

[cracker]

I saw a recent pic of PaulB's fat Copper Band. His fish surely eats well. Now my CB will eat from the water column but looks down right skinny compared to Paul's ! So today I put together a simple feeder with some acrylic,gutter guard and a chip bag clip from the local super Market. I put a whole oyster in the gutter guard pouch. The Copper worked it all afternoon. As You can see there isn't a lot left. she was able to take her time. Something I can't believe I missed that was so simple to meet her eating habits ! I'll try a shrimp head to see how she likes that.

 

[Paul B]

The clam is a much better food

 

[cracker]

Hey Paul, Thanks for dropping in. I tried a shrimp head today. peeld of course. she didn't seem to like that as well. I will try a clam tomorrow. I'm concerned the delicale mouth isn't strong enough to tear off bits of the tough clam flesh.

 

[cracker]

Well The Copper band loved the clam. I did have to remove a good portion after a while.
Another cool off subject point. recently I was given two type of very pretty red algae. One was called dragon's breath , the other, I don't know. So I put them in the newly bare bottom refugium on the 200. I changed the lighting to a eco smart flood 5k bulb. anyway both red algae began to fade at the edges. I put one in the new 75. with in days in colored right back. I added them other 3 days ago. It is already coloring up. This 75 has a simple40 watt 2 bulb shop light over it. Go figure.

 

[Paul B]

Freeze the clams and shave off paper thin slices. Copperbands don't have much in the way of teeth

 

[cracker]

Agreed, How ever I will need to come up with a finer mesh pouch. OH, OH just hit me ! I can try some of the screen they use for algae scrubbers ! I just happen to have some !

 

[cracker]

The size of the smaller mesh screen worked perfect. It held the clam bits for a good while slowly releasing a bit or two which was quickly eaten.

 

[DaveR11]

Great idea guys.

I tried experimenting with a feeder for my copperband but my cleaner shrimps were quicker and greedier than the CBB. Any chance of some more photos of your feeder @cracker. Do your other fish go for the food as well. I was looking for some sort of feeder that only a fish with a long pointy mouth like the CBB would be able to get at.

 

[cracker]

here is a pic for You Dave, Now thje pic has the larger gutter guard It is a narrow piece of acrylic that hangs over the tank's edge. I used a heat gun to bend a u in the top. Give me a while and i'll get a pic of the bend/ U and the smaller mesh I used. now the sailfin can get at it as well but not enough where he eats it all. It's very simple and not pretty but works well.

 

[cracker]

Ok sorry for the double pic, here is a pic that may give you a better idea. The white mesh came from Joannes or a Micheal's. The Lady's use it for needle point stiching I think. there are differing sizes of mesh. OH I just saw You are in the UK ! I was wanting to send You one ! The shipping would be 10 times the worth ! LOL

the all plastic bag clips are kinda hard to find. most use metal springs.

 

[cracker]

Check out my my new wrasse ! Of course the sailfin decided(again) he didn't like another fish in his tank fish so he was promptly trapped and will chill in the sump for a while . (again)

I don't know the name of this beautiful fish

 

[Oxylebius]

Its a Cirrhilabrus lyukyuensis. Goes by several common names including the Yellow flanked fairy wrasse. https://reefbuilders.com/2015/06/22/fairy-wrasses-cyanopleura-group/

 

[cracker]

Thank You for the link ! After more than several attempts to pronounce the scientific name I gave it up. I learned they are jumpers, I witnessed this behavior today. After a couple of attacks by the sailfin tang the wrasse broke the water surface. That's when I had enough and the tang was trapped . Also they don't sleep in the sand preferring a crevice in the rock. A lot of other cool info as well.
There are many differing coloration types depending on what area they come from or In other words. what tiny little island group they grew up mostly around indonesia.
I won't get into the differing squiggles on the median fins or differing rhomboidal shapes of the caudel fins . I'll leave that to the fish experts!

 

[Oxylebius]

I'm glad the link was useful. It is a beautiful fish.

 

[cracker]

Look at what I finally found today . Some big chowder clams 6 bucks for a dozen ! No more 50 cent a piece for little cherry stone.

Thanks Paul . My fish love them !

 

[Paul B]

So do I.

Be careful if you feed clams often because your fish will start to spawn and live for 20+ years with no diseases and no one wants that. If we all fed correctly there would be no reason for disease and "getting out of the hobby" threads. If that were to happen it would be very boreing and these forums will revert to stamp collecting. I get so tired of looking at my 25 year old fish, especially when they are spawning which is every couple of weeks. It drives me crazy because I really want to post on a disease forum but they just won't get sick.
I may have to start to quarantine for 72 days so their immune system turns to mush so they will get a sickness. Maybe even a social disease or the heartbreak of Psorisis

 

[cracker]

Well said Paul ! These larger clams have some meat on um ! I expertly shucked one of these moss backs by whacking/shattering the shell with a hammer. My main intent was to fatten up my Copper band. Who by the way has No prob pickin away at it as well as all the neighbors . If I gain other benefits, sounds good to me ! I will get a pic tomorrow of my aquatic denizens working the high tech feeder .
Tonight I want to show a pic of my OverFlow algae scrubber. I experimented with a scrubber for a year , with no results. However My overflows grew HA just fine. So I took the screen from the scrubber and hung it in one of the overflows. This pic is less then 2 weeks.

I will see how this experiment goes !