jupiter's reef diary

[jupiter]

Well I think they are afraid of the light. I saw them pretty happy this morning before the MH went on but they are not very visible at mid-day. Since I am losing my corals already I might cut the light and see if they are more active. This means losing the MH and just using VHO. I'm okay with that. I can probably get better colours with the VHO (more blues and violets). MH is too expensive to just swap colours back and forth. If I ever get SPS I can always pop the MH back in again (considering I don't even have a hood right now, anyway). Or I might not even bother with SPS (which I still don't like, btw) and keep colourful mushrooms or something.

[Craig Manoukian]

Sounds like a decent plan Jup!

[jupiter]

I pulled my bristleworm from the old sand and put it in the main tank because I decided I wanted to keep it rather than risking it being killed when I gave the sand away. To my horror I just found it torn to pieces! Maybe the powerhead killed it, maybe the fishes.

On a lighter note, I added a new truncated anthias to the tank. It is quite a bit larger than the current one so all I see is the little one with its fins up in display and the big one looking at it as if to say, "Whatever."

[jupiter]

Originally posted by jupiter
Last night when I went to collect the remaining two anthias and put them in the tank I only found one. I think I may have thrown one of the anthias into the bucket with the anemone thinking it was a pink clown. I doubt it and more than likely the anthias sought shelter near the carpet and GULP! Anyway, I won't have that problem again.

Well I went to top off the tank. I dumped about 5 gallons of fresh water down the overflow (to mix in the sump before it goes back to the tank) and who do I see in the sump? The "dead" anthias. But he wasn't dead! In my sump I have 2 inlets for the circulatory pumps. Only one is being used so the other is capped on the outside. But there is about 5 inches of "tube" outside of the sump that a fish could swim in. I thought this might be possible but thought it wasn't likely. Well, it is likely and it is possible and this is where the anthias lives. Now I have to cap this and pull the fish out of the sump. I hope he will be okay with the others.

BTW, the queens are even more active now. I see them about 50% of the time.

[Woodstock]

Good news!!!

[Craig Manoukian]

Great luck!

[jupiter]

The "new found" anthias is not doing well. He was a dominant male before he was lost. Now he is no longer dominant and since he became a male, he is getting beat up - not just chased, but beat up. I'mnot sure how to resolve this short of dismantling the tank.

Some good news, I added 5 green chromis to the tank. Within seconds they began schooling with the anthias. Anthias go left, chromis follow - anthias go right, the chromis follow. It was beautiful to see all of the fishes (both groups of anthias + chromis) schooled together for a brief moment. There was blue-green, orange and purple all together and I couldn't stop smiling. Not too long ago the manager at the LFS told me that chromis help other fishes to school (it makes them feel more comfortable). Well today I got to see how powerful they are.