Brew's 187g slice of the ocean

[Brew12]

You got a nipper?!

Nope! At least not that I am aware of. Well, other than my Hippo Engineer Tang.. but he is more of a chomper and carry around the tanker than a nipper.
Let's just say I may be trying to catch my 6-line wrasse for some near future fish stocking changes.

 

[UWC]

Nope! At least not that I am aware of. Well, other than my Hippo Engineer Tang.. but he is more of a chomper and carry around the tanker than a nipper.
Let's just say I may be trying to catch my 6-line wrasse for some near future fish stocking changes.

Lol, gotcha. I thought you were actually trying to catch your rabbit

 

[Brew12]

Lol, gotcha. I thought you were actually trying to catch your rabbit

I would need a much larger bottle! He's a good 7" long. I'm thinking 2 liter worthy!

I may have a few changes in the next 2 weeks. If I can catch the 6-line some new fish may be appearing. Regardless, I have a pack of stag corals coming from Battlecorals next week. ;Woot;Woot;Woot

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Been sleeping on me... that or I lost your thread again. Let's see what did I miss...
Congrats to the kid! I tried cutting grass this past weekend. Lets just say 2 belts, a battery, a front tire and only the front yard got cut. That BBQ sounds amazing, the tank is looking good and I knew you'd catch that six line eventually. Time for some fairy wrasse!!!

 

[4FordFamily]

Goodbye sixline! Good choice!

 

[Brew12]

Time for some fairy wrasse!!!

This "could" be part of the plan!

 

[Scurvy]

Any luck? The opening to the bottle may be a little small even for the smaller wrasse. My thought being he’s more likely to be tentative to enter a confined space. The magnet trick is great though. NI used the smaller mag float in a 2 liter bottle. Once the fish enters I twist the magnet so the bottle is face up.

You know we love Fairy Wrasse and so many would love that bachelor pad you’ve got setup for them

 

[Brew12]

Any luck? The opening to the bottle may be a little small even for the smaller wrasse. My thought being he’s more likely to be tentative to enter a confined space. The magnet trick is great though. NI used the smaller mag float in a 2 liter bottle. Once the fish enters I twist the magnet so the bottle is face up.

You know we love Fairy Wrasse and so many would love that bachelor pad you’ve got setup for them

Yeah, I might need a bigger bottle but I didn't even try to catch it last night. Just wanted to get the bottle in the tank for the fish to get used to.

 

[Brew12]

This is going to be a challenge! I caught my Starry Blenny last night but the 6-line never even came close to the bottle. I do have a 2 liter Mountain Dew bottle ready to use as a trap. Saturday will be when I make a serious attempt at catching that little guy.

 

[UWC]

Another option that works well is to start feeding your fish in a fish net. Obviously the first week or so they won’t go near the net but eventually one will go in and start eating and slowly one by one they’ll all be going into the net to eat and whoosh, out he comes

 

[Brew12]

Another option that works well is to start feeding your fish in a fish net. Obviously the first week or so they won’t go near the net but eventually one will go in and start eating and slowly one by one they’ll all be going into the net to eat and whoosh, out he comes

Thanks! I may give that a try instead... that would let me control which fish I do catch better.

 

[Brew12]

Caught the Starry Blenny 4 times last night. The 6-line never got close.

That is one dumb fish. If you get stuck in a trap why would you go back in it 20 minutes later? After the third time he went in I left him there for around 15 minutes. Dumb thing got right back in around an hour later.

So, trying to condition them for net feeding. This morning, one of the yt damsels got in the net to eat so hopefully this will work.

 

[ksfulk]

Caught the Starry Blenny 4 times last night. The 6-line never got close.

That is one dumb fish. If you get stuck in a trap why would you go back in it 20 minutes later? After the third time he went in I left him there for around 15 minutes. Dumb thing got right back in around an hour later.

So, trying to condition them for net feeding. This morning, one of the yt damsels got in the net to eat so hopefully this will work.

Ive had luck thus far with watching the tank after lights out to see where the fish curl up for the night. After a few hours of darkness, I then can get a net "in front" of the fish and get them to swim into it, either by moving my hand in front the opposite angle and 'scaring' the fish out, or often times, Im able to just simply net the fish. A six line might be more difficult, and depending on where in the rockwork it beds down - but its worked well for me with a variety or wrassses, tangs, angels and anthias. Might be worth a shot if the net doesnt pan out.

 

[Brew12]

Ive had luck thus far with watching the tank after lights out to see where the fish curl up for the night. After a few hours of darkness, I then can get a net "in front" of the fish and get them to swim into it, either by moving my hand in front the opposite angle and 'scaring' the fish out, or often times, Im able to just simply net the fish. A six line might be more difficult, and depending on where in the rockwork it beds down - but its worked well for me with a variety or wrassses, tangs, angels and anthias. Might be worth a shot if the net doesnt pan out.

I've had some luck doing this before too. Unfortunately, I have no idea where the wrasse sleeps at night.

If I get really desperate I can chase him to the open side of the tank and block it off with screen material. Only the left side of my tank is tough to catch fish in.

 

[Scurvy]

Caught the Starry Blenny 4 times last night. The 6-line never got close.

That is one dumb fish. If you get stuck in a trap why would you go back in it 20 minutes later? After the third time he went in I left him there for around 15 minutes. Dumb thing got right back in around an hour later.

I had a Long Nose Hawk that did this same thing and eventually decided the trap was HIS! I stopped letting him out until he figured out how to get out on his own but he would then chase away the target fish from entering and guarding his stash of easy mysis. Still my only failure with the bottle trap. Oddly my Long Nose is quite a bully, fears no one and enjoys chasing wrasse 3 and 4 times his size.

 

[Brew12]

I had a Long Nose Hawk that did this same thing and eventually decided the trap was HIS! I stopped letting him out until he figured out how to get out on his own but he would then chase away the target fish from entering and guarding his stash of easy mysis. Still my only failure with the bottle trap. Oddly my Long Nose is quite a bully, fears no one and enjoys chasing wrasse 3 and 4 times his size.

I think I left out a critical piece of information about my trap. I only put mysis in it twice. The next 2 times he went in was after I had stopped trying for the night. I finally left the trap pulled apart so he wouldn't get stuck overnight.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Full tank shots, from most recent to oldest.

5/31/18

4/30/18

3/29/18

2/28/18
​

1/20/18

12/27/17

Holy coraline growth between 1/20 and 2/28!!! Looks awesome!

 

[Brew12]

Holy coraline growth between 1/20 and 2/28!!! Looks awesome!

Thanks!

I finally got a long spine urchin who has absolutely destroyed my coralline. I also don't think it is growing as fast anymore but the urchin is sure growing!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Thanks!

I finally got a long spine urchin who has absolutely destroyed my coralline. I also don't think it is growing as fast anymore but the urchin is sure growing!

I have some asterina starfish in mine that I think are nibbling away at my coraline, so i've been trying to pull them out as I see them, because I want that awesome coraline back wall like you've achieved

 

[Brew12]

The wife and son are gone for the weekend so I am bacheloring it. I do have a full agenda for the day, some of which is done and some started.

Finished doing all my chemistry samples. Those trace element ones are a pain. But, everything looks good.

Working on building a new screen top. The sides are cut but I picked up the wrong size spline. Going to have to make a Lowe's run to finish that one up.

Smoking beef back ribs. Never done it before and wanted to give it a try. Was hoping for beef short ribs, but this was as close as Publix had. They are on the smoker at 250F.

Cleaning the aquarium. Haven't touched the sand or done a water change in around a month. Its past time although the tank doesn't look bad. Probably why my trace elements tested a little low. I have 35g of fresh seawater mixed up and ready so going to start that soon.

Catching the 6-line. That will be a priority today. I've been working on feeding the fish in the net for the last two days. Only the Foxface and one of the damsels have gone in the net. But... training them, so this is the backup plan. Not starting this until after the tank is clean.

Having a beer or 3 while watching the Cubs game this afternoon. Hoping the ribs will be done during the game, but I have no idea how long they will take to cook.

Changing my lighting schedule. I've received some advice from Dana and Lasse who think I will benefit by reducing my white lights and upping my blues. It's not horribly difficult with the Mitras, but I do need to connect via USB to each fixture to change some settings in them to hit my new numbers. I am going to use the freed up power from the whites to overdrive the blues so I can keep my PAR over 400.

Fixing the drip in my sons bathroom. His shower drips and I haven't been able to get it apart to fix it. Now that he is gone for a bit, I should have time to let an oil penetrant loosing the set screw so I can get this thing apart.

And, if everything goes according to plan, I may even take some pics once the tank clears. I think that is a full enough agenda!