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cyychan

cyychan

New Member
I have never joined any internet forum!
I have kept a marine tank for nearly 2 years, although I have kept fancy goldfish for many years since being a teenager. 2 years ago, a dear friend of mine felt she needed to have a rest from her marine tank, so I inherited her few fish. I started with her yellow tang, pair of clowns, a small goby and a blue chromis in my D&D 24 gallon tank. I quickly added a valentini puffer and a white chalk goby. With the help of an honest LFS, I have a lot of fun out of this new hobby, despite spending a fortune! It has now become my means to wind down after work. About a year into the hobby, I became bewitched by seahorses! I converted an existing tropical fish tank to saltwater and now I have in total 2 nano marine tanks, one for the fast fish and corals, and the other for the slow guys including a yellow male H. reidi seahorse, a banded pipefish and a mandarin. I can't wait to upgrade my seahorse tank and have more of them!
Thank you for reading.
 
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PghFishNerd

Member
Welcome to Reef Sanctuary! I saw your Valentini Puffer pic. He is so cute, you're making me want one! I've been thinking about it for so long but never knew if they were interested in people like other puffers. That's what I love about them so much. But my question is, do you have a clean up crew with him, or does he always eat snails and shrimps and crabs every time you put them in?
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
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to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members
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Checkout this post :) 10kFriendsArt.
 
cyychan

cyychan

New Member
PghFishNerd said:
Welcome to Reef Sanctuary! I saw your Valentini Puffer pic. He is so cute, you're making me want one! I've been thinking about it for so long but never knew if they were interested in people like other puffers. That's what I love about them so much. But my question is, do you have a clean up crew with him, or does he always eat snails and shrimps and crabs every time you put them in?
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Hi! No he has never done any great harm to any clean up crew. The thing is, when I first had him, he was the size of 2cm from snout to tip of tail, so he was not big enough to attack my hermit crab or the cleaner shrimp at the time. The hermit crab did die after a year. While I am sure he would have helped demolish him in the end, I don't think he had any part in the crab's demise. He has once or twice snipped half of the cleaner shrimp's whiskers off though, but caused no detrimental effect. Growing up at least 3 times in size as he did over 2 years(in mass rather than length), with the same lot of tank mates, he has not ever shown any aggression towards any fish. He did show dire interest when I first popped in some turbosnails but they were too tough for him and he quickly lost interest. He has only ever eaten up a Xenia when he learnt after 6 months it was quite palatable. The elder of the tribe the Yellow Tang bullies everyone, but he is always able to hold his own. Anyway, he is my "doggy in the tank" as I tell my children. He is always at the front of the tank watching us play games on the floor, the first to come to feed when the lid was open, and the sweetest is the way he sleeps at night. He would stick his belly onto a surface, whether it is a rock surface or on top of some mushroom sometimes almost upside down, and then he would go so pale you can barely see him. Sometimes I get up very early to go to work it would still be dark when I put a little breakfast in for them, he would not even stir for it. He does not have eyelids to shut his eyes, but he certainly can be reluctant to get up at those ungodly hours. The other fish would always be on the ready to eat when food appears, anywhere, anytime. I have been told these Valentinis are the gentlest of puffers, and my little Tini has been living proof of that. You will enjoy it if you do decide to keep one.
 
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PghFishNerd

Member
cyychan said:
Hi! No he has never done any great harm to any clean up crew. The thing is, when I first had him, he was the size of 2cm from snout to tip of tail, so he was not big enough to attack my hermit crab or the cleaner shrimp at the time. The hermit crab did die after a year. While I am sure he would have helped demolish him in the end, I don't think he had any part in the crab's demise. He has once or twice snipped half of the cleaner shrimp's whiskers off though, but caused no detrimental effect. Growing up at least 3 times in size as he did over 2 years(in mass rather than length), with the same lot of tank mates, he has not ever shown any aggression towards any fish. He did show dire interest when I first popped in some turbosnails but they were too tough for him and he quickly lost interest. He has only ever eaten up a Xenia when he learnt after 6 months it was quite palatable. The elder of the tribe the Yellow Tang bullies everyone, but he is always able to hold his own. Anyway, he is my "doggy in the tank" as I tell my children. He is always at the front of the tank watching us play games on the floor, the first to come to feed when the lid was open, and the sweetest is the way he sleeps at night. He would stick his belly onto a surface, whether it is a rock surface or on top of some mushroom sometimes almost upside down, and then he would go so pale you can barely see him. Sometimes I get up very early to go to work it would still be dark when I put a little breakfast in for them, he would not even stir for it. He does not have eyelids to shut his eyes, but he certainly can be reluctant to get up at those ungodly hours. The other fish would always be on the ready to eat when food appears, anywhere, anytime. I have been told these Valentinis are the gentlest of puffers, and my little Tini has been living proof of that. You will enjoy it if you do decide to keep one.
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Thanks so much! I've been stressing over the decision to get one for a very long time. Now I'm almost definitely going to get one, and if he doesn't seem to be getting along with everyone, I'll take him back to the LFS, and maybe try again another time. You're brand new to the forum and already helping out tremendously! Once again, welcome!
PS- I too, am in love with seahorses! They're also like (very high maintenance) little aquatic puppies.
 
cyychan

cyychan

New Member
PghFishNerd said:
Thanks so much! I've been stressing over the decision to get one for a very long time. Now I'm almost definitely going to get one, and if he doesn't seem to be getting along with everyone, I'll take him back to the LFS, and maybe try again another time. You're brand new to the forum and already helping out tremendously! Once again, welcome!
PS- I too, am in love with seahorses! They're also like (very high maintenance) little aquatic puppies.
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You are welcome. I think may be you'll have better chance with a smaller valentini. I have just looked at your seahorse. Would you say it is a deep blue colour? Is there just the single one? Wouldn't you find feeding a bit difficult with a mix of fast fish and the very slow feeding seahorse? The first time I had a pair of kuda seahorses I did manage target feeding but still was not good enough they did not last long. That's why I now have a separate tank for the seahorse along with all other slow feeders. I am moving these slow guys to a larger D&D 24G tank over the next 2 weeks to give them more room and a better chance to survive well. How old is your seahorse now?
 
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PghFishNerd

Member
cyychan said:
You are welcome. I think may be you'll have better chance with a smaller valentini. I have just looked at your seahorse. Would you say it is a deep blue colour? Is there just the single one? Wouldn't you find feeding a bit difficult with a mix of fast fish and the very slow feeding seahorse? The first time I had a pair of kuda seahorses I did manage target feeding but still was not good enough they did not last long. That's why I now have a separate tank for the seahorse along with all other slow feeders. I am moving these slow guys to a larger D&D 24G tank over the next 2 weeks to give them more room and a better chance to survive well. How old is your seahorse now?
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Well the one in the photo contest was actually black, if that's who you're referring to. He passed away a while ago :( I was new to saltwater but did a lot of research on seahorses. I bought a pair on eBay and they told me they were captive bred, but when I got them, it was clear to me that they were wild caught. I had the two in my 30 gallon semi-reef for a good while because all that was in there was an Ocellaris Clown and a Firefish, both very docile. When my clown started getting bigger, I figured I would start to see some aggression so I got a 25 hex for my ponies. Shortly after, my female came down with Vibrio while I was on vacation and died a few weeks later. The male refused to eat after that, even when I got him a new tankmate, so he starved himself to death no matter what tasty treat I dangled in front of his face. So what I have left is the little guy I got to keep him company, who I love dearly. He's alone in the hexagon (soon to have a GF hopefully), so no need to worry about a puffer harassing him.
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cyychan

cyychan

New Member
No I have 2 separate saltwater tanks. I have the D&D 24G tank as tropical freshwater before for a pair of green spotted puffer, and since I wanted to keep my friend's fish otherwise they were to go back to her local LFS, I moved the freshwater puffers to another tank and converted the D&D tank to saltwater. The original fish gang included a yellow tang, 2 clowns and a chromis. I do know the tang is not suitable for my tank, but he has always seemed happy, and been for 2 years with me. I created the rock formation in such a way that he goes around in loops in different directions. The pair of clown was sold on not long after as they made me feel so scared of cleaning the tank. One was biting me and the other chasing other fish away. The chromis jumped to the back and got minced by the pump. So I added the valentini puffer and a white chalk goby. Other than the goby which is my third one now, the others have all been well. The valentini has grown well. I have just bought another one of the same D&D tank, aiming to transfer my seahorse and pipefish, one of each into it, having had them for a month temporarily in a 50 L tank where a mandarin has lived on her own for 3 months. All 3 are going to move together.
 
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