Jsanchez036
New Member
Hello!
1. Coral ID:: (adding pics from my phone in a second)
I got this first frag for 5$ and it was advertised as a potential encrusting montipora, it's done pretty well in the tank all things considered, it's definitely a SPS and it recently started to branch off into fingers. Could it be a digitata or some sort of stylo-like coral? It likes medium light and flow (I think? It's moved around ALOT within the 10 months I've been gone).
I recently added some new rocks to the tank and took all the corals that weren't attached to the rock out so they wouldn't get crushed and rearranged some of the rocks. I found this small guy on the sandbed under a coral encrusting on some small live rock. I put it in an empty shell and set it aside so I wouldn't lose it and then moved it to a low flow, high light area of my tank. I don't see any polyps but it's one of my favorite corals due to it's unique orange and purple coloring. The purple literally bleeds from the center into the bright orange, it's super cool and reminds me of halloween. I want to keep it alive and it's inflated some since moving it to brighter light. I have 0 idea what it could be.
2. Clown behavior and pairing:: Summary - Will my clown become more aggressive towards other tank mates if I pair him/her with another clown? He's randomly aggressive towards random fish and hard to predict.
Last summer I converted my 14 gallon mixed reef into a 55 gallon mixed reef and now that I'm back for summer I'm updating it and fixing problems it had while I was at college. My dad decided he prefers fish over corals so I'm focusing on restocking the tank however I don't want to upset the current "balance". There's currently one filefish, one clownfish (named Mojito), and one YWG. The YWG minds his business and the filefish does whatever he wants and is extremely peaceful. My clownfish is an *******. "He's" about 3 years old and 2.5 inches, he became really dark, he draws blood when he bites and he guards one corner of the tank. I'm assuming "he" is now "she." Unfortunately he's also a complete wild card when it comes to interacting with other fish. I originally bought Mojito as part of a "Maitai Pair" from a LFS when I was new to the hobby. Not only were they not bonded and the same size but I'm pretty sure one was a maroon clown and I have no idea what Mojito is, (i'm assuming he actually is a hybrid due to his coloring) who unfortunately killed the other clown when my back was turned. After that incident he became the only fish for a while but fell into 'depression' and stopped eating/swimming
. So I gave him a diamond back goby and he followed that fish everywhere, never bit him, and would literally dance for the goby. He would actually dig tunnels and sit in caves with the goby. Unfortunately the goby refused any prepared/frozen foods and it took too long to grow a food source and he didn't last long. After the goby's passing Mojito became very depressed and stopped eating again so I got a firefish who he chased and never let leave one certain rock. Unfortunately the LFS doesn't accept returns and the firefish was stressed to death, I didn't get anymore fish for 2-3 months and of course, Mojito stopped eating and moving...again...so I got him a baby YWG that I watched eat flake food. Mojito immediately fell in LOVE with the YWG who absolutely despised Mojito. Mojito would follow him around, dance on him, share food, dig caves, etc but the goby was quite intimidated so I had to separate them and grew out the goby in a nano until he became more confident. Then we converted into a 55 gal. I added the goby back in and Mojito doesn't even know the goby exists. Then the tank became infested with anemones. As in not an inch of rock or sand wasn't covered and it did not respond to anything, not even bleach. So we caved and got an aipstasia eating filefish who obliterated the anemone population and has been amazing. Mojito became obsessed with the filefish and will swim perpendicular with him, dance for him, and just peacefully follows the filefish around. Sometimes he nips at the filefish and twitches but it's never that hard and the filefish doesn't even move away when it happens (I've seen Mojito bite him hard once and he bolted into a cave). Mojito has even guarded the filefish from me and bit me when I got too close to the filefish from across the tank. Ever since he's gotten in between me and the filefish. I really hate when Mojito does this because I can never tell how hard he's biting the filefish. I want to divert his attention from the filefish onto a more assertive fish. Mojito underwent a personality change, he used to be very active and would follow you around / approach the glass, now he's nippy, only leaves his heater for food or to swim with the filefish, and cleans off the heater + surrounding area as best as he can. I'm pretty sure he's matured into a female and it's some sort of brooding behavior but the only other fish he interacts with is the filefish. I want to pair him with a smaller clown but I'm not sure if he'd A. kill the clown, and B. I'm scared he'll stop being even remotely friendly to my filefish and potentially harm him. I know there won't be a definitive answer until I add another clown but I want some feedback before I pull the trigger on anything since returning any fish is not an option. Maybe since he's in a much larger tank things will be fine? He's either a funky colored ocellaris or a maroon x ocellaris hybrid so I'm not sure if he'd even pair with a smaller ocellaris but I'm worried about him becoming extremely obsessed with the filefish and keep trying to do some sort of mating ritual and harm the filefish.
1. Coral ID:: (adding pics from my phone in a second)
I got this first frag for 5$ and it was advertised as a potential encrusting montipora, it's done pretty well in the tank all things considered, it's definitely a SPS and it recently started to branch off into fingers. Could it be a digitata or some sort of stylo-like coral? It likes medium light and flow (I think? It's moved around ALOT within the 10 months I've been gone).
I recently added some new rocks to the tank and took all the corals that weren't attached to the rock out so they wouldn't get crushed and rearranged some of the rocks. I found this small guy on the sandbed under a coral encrusting on some small live rock. I put it in an empty shell and set it aside so I wouldn't lose it and then moved it to a low flow, high light area of my tank. I don't see any polyps but it's one of my favorite corals due to it's unique orange and purple coloring. The purple literally bleeds from the center into the bright orange, it's super cool and reminds me of halloween. I want to keep it alive and it's inflated some since moving it to brighter light. I have 0 idea what it could be.
2. Clown behavior and pairing:: Summary - Will my clown become more aggressive towards other tank mates if I pair him/her with another clown? He's randomly aggressive towards random fish and hard to predict.
Last summer I converted my 14 gallon mixed reef into a 55 gallon mixed reef and now that I'm back for summer I'm updating it and fixing problems it had while I was at college. My dad decided he prefers fish over corals so I'm focusing on restocking the tank however I don't want to upset the current "balance". There's currently one filefish, one clownfish (named Mojito), and one YWG. The YWG minds his business and the filefish does whatever he wants and is extremely peaceful. My clownfish is an *******. "He's" about 3 years old and 2.5 inches, he became really dark, he draws blood when he bites and he guards one corner of the tank. I'm assuming "he" is now "she." Unfortunately he's also a complete wild card when it comes to interacting with other fish. I originally bought Mojito as part of a "Maitai Pair" from a LFS when I was new to the hobby. Not only were they not bonded and the same size but I'm pretty sure one was a maroon clown and I have no idea what Mojito is, (i'm assuming he actually is a hybrid due to his coloring) who unfortunately killed the other clown when my back was turned. After that incident he became the only fish for a while but fell into 'depression' and stopped eating/swimming
. So I gave him a diamond back goby and he followed that fish everywhere, never bit him, and would literally dance for the goby. He would actually dig tunnels and sit in caves with the goby. Unfortunately the goby refused any prepared/frozen foods and it took too long to grow a food source and he didn't last long. After the goby's passing Mojito became very depressed and stopped eating again so I got a firefish who he chased and never let leave one certain rock. Unfortunately the LFS doesn't accept returns and the firefish was stressed to death, I didn't get anymore fish for 2-3 months and of course, Mojito stopped eating and moving...again...so I got him a baby YWG that I watched eat flake food. Mojito immediately fell in LOVE with the YWG who absolutely despised Mojito. Mojito would follow him around, dance on him, share food, dig caves, etc but the goby was quite intimidated so I had to separate them and grew out the goby in a nano until he became more confident. Then we converted into a 55 gal. I added the goby back in and Mojito doesn't even know the goby exists. Then the tank became infested with anemones. As in not an inch of rock or sand wasn't covered and it did not respond to anything, not even bleach. So we caved and got an aipstasia eating filefish who obliterated the anemone population and has been amazing. Mojito became obsessed with the filefish and will swim perpendicular with him, dance for him, and just peacefully follows the filefish around. Sometimes he nips at the filefish and twitches but it's never that hard and the filefish doesn't even move away when it happens (I've seen Mojito bite him hard once and he bolted into a cave). Mojito has even guarded the filefish from me and bit me when I got too close to the filefish from across the tank. Ever since he's gotten in between me and the filefish. I really hate when Mojito does this because I can never tell how hard he's biting the filefish. I want to divert his attention from the filefish onto a more assertive fish. Mojito underwent a personality change, he used to be very active and would follow you around / approach the glass, now he's nippy, only leaves his heater for food or to swim with the filefish, and cleans off the heater + surrounding area as best as he can. I'm pretty sure he's matured into a female and it's some sort of brooding behavior but the only other fish he interacts with is the filefish. I want to pair him with a smaller clown but I'm not sure if he'd A. kill the clown, and B. I'm scared he'll stop being even remotely friendly to my filefish and potentially harm him. I know there won't be a definitive answer until I add another clown but I want some feedback before I pull the trigger on anything since returning any fish is not an option. Maybe since he's in a much larger tank things will be fine? He's either a funky colored ocellaris or a maroon x ocellaris hybrid so I'm not sure if he'd even pair with a smaller ocellaris but I'm worried about him becoming extremely obsessed with the filefish and keep trying to do some sort of mating ritual and harm the filefish.
